July 2010 – Page 3

Oklahoma State University and the iPad pilot

Oklahoma State University’s School of Media and Strategic Communication and Spears School of Business will provide approximately 125 students across five courses with Apple’s iPad. (Source – Macsimumnews.com) Original Press Release: OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY TO LAUNCH APPLE IPAD STUDENT PILOT INITIATIVE Written by Oklahoma State University Saturday, 19 June 2010 14:39 Oklahoma State University will … Continue reading “Oklahoma State University and the iPad pilot”

Original Press Release:

OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY TO LAUNCH APPLE IPAD STUDENT PILOT INITIATIVE
Written by Oklahoma State University
Saturday, 19 June 2010 14:39
Oklahoma State University will pilot an Apple iPad initiative during the Fall 2010 semester with select courses in the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business at both the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, announced OSU President Burns Hargis.

“This pilot initiative will provide valuable insight into the research benefits of the Apple iPad in the classroom,” said Hargis. “The iPad has had an amazing impact since it was introduced last April and we are excited to be able to put this powerful and creative tool in the hands of students and faculty and see what happens.”

Bill Handy, visiting assistant professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communications, and Tracy Suter, associate professor of marketing in the Spears School of Business, will lead the initiative. Each class will integrate the iPad differently but will focus on specific measurable outcomes.

The iPad pilot will be launched this fall with approximately 125 students in five different courses.

“This limited pilot will be focused on fields of study where we believe we can best determine the higher education value of the iPad,” said Handy. “We will evaluate the academic enhancement to the courses, how the iPad and its specific apps and web-based tools can be integrated in this capacity, and perhaps most importantly, how the integration of these mobile tools can expand the tactical abilities of students as they enter the workforce.”

The iPad and other mobile tools are already integrated into daily business use. In both schools, the iPad will be used for academic purposes and to explore innovative uses and tactical uses specific to each school’s industry needs.

“In addition to mobility, the iPad will allow us to work in real-time,” said Suter. “For example, data collection and analysis in a research context can be a multi-day to multi-week process. By using the iPad, we can replace paper-and-pencil research with the immediate process of data collection, review and summary over a Web interface.

“I certainly have ideas of how I would like to use an iPad.” Suter said. “But collectively we will discover new uses a single individual might not have conceived independently. Putting the newest technology in the hands of students allows them to stretch the limits of how it can be used.”

Cost savings for students will also be evaluated. In one case, students using the iPad in a single course will save more than $100 on a single textbook, which can be downloaded in an ePub format.

OSU is leading the way in the integration of technology in the classroom. It is already using a variety of tools such as iTunesU and YouTube, along with other collaborative tools. OSU is also exploring the development of mobile applications to integrate current publications into an online and app platform, offering expense savings and enhanced distribution.

One of the conversations had at WWDC this year talked about the will to put together a similar pilot at the University of Ulster.

What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?

Steve Jobs on US Education system (via 37Signals) Most of the stuff they study in school is completely useless. But some incredibly valuable things you don’t learn until you’re older – yet you could learn them when you’re younger. And you start to think, What would I do if I set a curriculum for a … Continue reading “What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?”

Steve Jobs on US Education system (via 37Signals)

Most of the stuff they study in school is completely useless. But some incredibly valuable things you don’t learn until you’re older – yet you could learn them when you’re younger. And you start to think, What would I do if I set a curriculum for a school?
God, how exciting that could be! But you can’t do it today. You’d be crazy to work in a school today. You don’t get to do what you want. You don’t get to pick your books, your curriculum. You get to teach one narrow specialization. Who would ever want to do that?

This makes me think of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland “Tech Camp” which is usually covered by AlanInBelfast but I can’t find out much info about the 2010 delivery as the PCIYouth web server seems to be down. Bing has this:

Alan himself writes:

For all its wires and wizardry, PCI’s Tech Camp forces me (and probably the other leaders too) to annually re-evaluate what it is I’d like the campers to go home having experienced, learnt and understood.
…
What if fourteen campers all ended up voxpopping, making videoing, animating, blogging and ringing out their PA systems to eliminate feedback in each of their congregations?

This brings out a sense of envy in me. PCI Tech Camp (religious connotations aside) is a model for something that could easily be replicated as an addition to school – either during the summer months or in the evenings. But is this not what the Digital Circle community already does with Refresh, XCake, Code4Pizza and even OpenCoffee and BarCamp? Is this not what the clever folk over at the Trans Urban Arts Academy manage each year?

We may not be able to easily manipulate the curriculum of the state-run school but we can certainly manage to enrich the extra-curricular. We should make all of our events not only accessible for those less physically able but also restrict our use of bars and locations which are not open to the young. Speaking with Paul McLean (@eightlab) about the educational exclusion that some young people experience – it reminds me of the exclusion we are working to resolve with LiveNet (part of Mencap) and the mentally- and physically-disabled (and therefore excluded).

What couldn’t you do armed with the right people, the right skills, the right passions?

I want him in the Game until he dies playing. End of Line.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain we see an example of Playbor, as through salesmanship, Tom Sawyer convinces others to do his work for him and enjoy it. Playbor Playbor is a term I got from Wired but as you can see, it’s a widely used neologism which covers social participation, self-expression … Continue reading “I want him in the Game until he dies playing. End of Line.”

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain we see an example of Playbor, as through salesmanship, Tom Sawyer convinces others to do his work for him and enjoy it.

Playbor
Playbor is a term I got from Wired but as you can see, it’s a widely used neologism which covers social participation, self-expression and the ideology of play in order to derive value. In truth the social aspect is easily present in events like Code4Pizza where smart developers and designers get together to build something. This is work but it’s enjoyed. There’s a very strong social element both in the cheer and good company but also in the end results which, for the most part, have a public service benefit as well as a possibility of commercialisation by the participants.

Games as Life
I’ve mentioned this before but Jesse Schell’s talk at DICE2010 illustrates the ‘gamification’ of life. Adding gaming elements to everything causes people to participate more and provides a reward mechanism which may only be worthless points but can be integrated into multiple levels of society.

E3 2010

Games for the Greater Good
Jane McGonigal’s TED talk on how we can use the millions of hours spent in playing games to solve tough world problems is another excellent example:

The game industry has spent the last 30 years optimizing two things: how to make people happy and how to inspire collaboration on really complex challenges…
Games support happiness … by giving us more satisfying work or concrete tasks that we can accomplish…. Studies have shown that playing a short game — having something concrete that you can accomplish — actually gives you the motivation, energy and optimism to go back and tackle real work.

Games as Loads
But when you’re asking someone to do this work, you’re putting a load upon them. Writing computer code is a tough mental activity and it’s surprising that some people do it for fun. But then some people do crosswords or Su Do Ku for fun as well as are these also not tough cognitive loads which must be managed? How can they be fun?
UX Magazine touched on this with this article:

A traditional human factors concept is the idea of loads. A load refers to how much work you are requiring. In human factors terminology, we talk about cognitive loads (thinking, memory), visual loads (perceiving, noticing), and motor loads (keyboard, mouse, pointing). When you are designing to make something easier or simpler, you want to lower these loads.
…
If users are trying to get a task done, then lowering the loads is what you want to do. But interestingly, when you lower all the loads you are also lowering engagement and entertainment. Think about gaming—a game is interesting and engaging because it creates loads on the user. Some games require good motor control, so they have a high motor load. Some games require visual acuity, and they have a high visual load. Some games require you to think or remember, and they have a high cognitive load. And some games increase more than one load; they might be both cognitively and visually challenging, for example.
…
So when you design for engagement or entertainment you might not want to lower all the loads.

Funemployment
I think we all should be striving for Funemployment – The condition of a person who takes advantage of being out of a job to have the time of their life. I’m not saying we should all give up the day job and mooch off the state handouts but we should be working towards a time when we are able to use our leisure constructively. To do what we want to do. I’m lucky enough that the work I’m doing now is not a million miles away from the work I was doing before they hired me to do this job. In the future I want to be employed for less hours but work for more hours – if you understand my meaning.

So, for the remainder of 2010, I’m going to be working to find ways where I can increase the amount of high value fun stuff in my life and reduce the amount of low value unfun stuff. And I’m happy to work with others to figure out what this all will turn out to be.

When I hold the Nokia phone, service drops off…

With the release of the iPhone 4, the web is abuzz with people talking about how it’s the phone which “doesn’t work” or the one with the “antenna problems”. At the moment I’ve seen about 8 iPhone 4s (though I do not own one yet) and none of the owners have described the problem as … Continue reading “When I hold the Nokia phone, service drops off…”

With the release of the iPhone 4, the web is abuzz with people talking about how it’s the phone which “doesn’t work” or the one with the “antenna problems”. At the moment I’ve seen about 8 iPhone 4s (though I do not own one yet) and none of the owners have described the problem as a problem. One, yesterday, stated that the new iPhone 4 antenna is sensitive enough to receive a 3G signal at his house where the iPhone 3GS never received that signal.

Apple reckons the issue is software related and I am inclined to agree – a misrepresentation of the signal strength would be misleading as would a software algorithm which would choose a very weak 3G signal over a strong 2G signal.

Anyway – this is immaterial though Nokia, in their wisdom, decided to poke fun at Apple in their official blog with a “How do you hold your Nokia?” posting.

Of course, feel free to ignore all of the above because realistically, you’re free to hold your Nokia device any way you like. And you won’t suffer any signal loss. Cool, huh?

Except that isn’t true.

Nokia don’t have the same excuses as Apple. They’ve been in the mobile business since the start. They hold buckets of patents on antenna design and spout endlessly about their innovation and expertise. But this video shows the truth:

Which is why Nokia needs to shut up and get some class. I could do a much better job at managing the Nokia product and developer strategy than anyone they evidently have working for them and they’re wasting their advantages.

They need to stop pre-announcing stuff which is years away. They need to settle on one strategy rather than stopping and starting. They just killed Maemo and orphaned the 770, the N800, the N810 and the N900 (described as developer devices for technology enthusiasts).

Here’s a hint, Nokia, developers buy your devices with their own money and when you orphan them it means they’re pissed at you.

They need to bring out some decent hardware and a single instance of a consumer-ready device with forward-looking software.

Here’s a hint, Nokia, stop pushing Symbian as a modern OS. Keep it for the low end. And stop talking about absolute mobile market share. No-one cares about the S40 low end. No-one.

They need to stop re-organising and worrying about administrivia and hiring figureheads and start making things that people can love again. With a company this size, you’ve got the resources to remake mobile in your image.

Here’s a hint, Nokia, settle the lawsuits amicably, get them off the table and start making great products. Stop poking fun when you’ve obviously got your own manufacturing issues. It’s making you look weak and stupid.

Me-Too Products

From Geekpreneur …me-too products that differentiate themselves with unique customer benefits and superior value enjoy on average, five times the success rate, four times the market share and four times the profitability of the competitors that lack that key ingredient. Read more. Related posts: Contentment. To be both avoided and strived for. Kirkisms: Funding by … Continue reading “Me-Too Products”

From Geekpreneur

…me-too products that differentiate themselves with unique customer benefits and superior value enjoy on average, five times the success rate, four times the market share and four times the profitability of the competitors that lack that key ingredient.

Google, Microsoft ‘should pay for Ireland’s broadband…

(Catching up on posts I didn’t get a chance to comment on in June). Adrian Weckler, a tech journalist for the Sunday Business Post writes: Last Friday evening, a senior Eircom executive (John McKeon, director of Eircom Wholesale) made an audacious pitch. Speaking at the annual Ibec telecoms ball, he told the crowd of telecoms … Continue reading “Google, Microsoft ‘should pay for Ireland’s broadband…”

(Catching up on posts I didn’t get a chance to comment on in June).

Adrian Weckler, a tech journalist for the Sunday Business Post writes:

Last Friday evening, a senior Eircom executive (John McKeon, director of Eircom Wholesale) made an audacious pitch. Speaking at the annual Ibec telecoms ball, he told the crowd of telecoms bosses that it was time to look again at how Ireland’s broadband roll-out was funded.

His proposal: that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and other large web content providers should co-pay for infrastructure costs.

The pitch is not a new one. For many years, the US telecoms and cable giants have been calling for some form of “contribution” from content-providers toward their costs. The most oft-used rationale is that Google and Yahoo are getting a “free ride” off their infrastructure.

Whether it’s landline providers or wireless providers, these companies are going to need to get it through their thick skulls that no-one wants their services to just maintain an empty pipe. The reason we pay for our landline broadband and mobile broadband is to access the content that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are producing or syndicating. Eircom (and other carriers) want to double-dip – they want the customers to pay for the lines and for content companies to pay for the content to be delivered. Here’s a big fucking clue you morons, if Google et al refuse to pay (as they should), then the customers will not want to pay for your lines and you’re double-fucked.

I can understand a politician not understanding the vagaries here but for the Eircom executive to fail to understand the economics of the world smacks of greed, of stupidity and of outright incompetence. And that goes double for O2, Three, BT, Orange, Virgin and other internet service provisioners.