e-wot?

Technology empowers us to do things which make us unique. In this TED talk, Neil Gershenfeld from MIT talks about “the killer app of personal fabrication”. He sprints through some breath-takingly brilliant visions of the future. But the point which hit me hardest is that we need to give students, teachers… everybody, more opportunities to move from consumers of technology to fabricators of technology. Watch the video here:

You might be prompted to choose ‘player 7′ or ‘player 8′ (Flash). Pick either one, both worked for me.

It’s a brilliant talk, but hard to follow. Quite complex, compared to other TED talks. I had to watch this one a few times to get the whole picture. But it’s awesome.

All the TED talks are amazing. Check them out at TED.

In the spirit of making stuff, check out Makezine too. It rocks.

Compiled from contributions from over 200 learning professionals who shared their top 10 tools for learning here are Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

The top 3 are Delicious, Firefox and Google Reader. Huzzah!

ZDNet cites a Forester analyst who predicts a drop in the cost of web 2.0 tools for work. Click for Enterprise web 2.0 costs set to plunge

Quoting from the report cited:

“Specialized tools that focus on alumni networks, new employee orientation, and cross-department collaboration may continue to command price premiums, but generally - without significant functional advances in these tools - Forrester is not optimistic: we expect average deployment spend to fall by more than half to $15,300 per customer over the next five years,”

Good news if true. I’ll start touting at work because it suits what I’m trying to do, and then hope it pans out.

So here’s maybe how to persuade more investment in your intranet during the coming recession. Click for ‘Cut costs by expanding your intranet’ - eGov AU

Craig Thomler’s first point is about quantifying and promoting satisfaction with an intranet. This makes sense to me because we don’t do this enough with ours.

I like the way he’s pointing out an opportunity within a potential obstacle. I hadn’t considered this at all. Very relevant and timely I reckon.

Quote:

I often advocate increasing intranet funding during cost cutting exercises as a lower cost channel for engaging staff and sharing information.

Seems like good advice.

Ok, a bit of fun-punditry… Rizzn from Mashable suggests 5 types of web business that might survive the coming financial splat. And Rafe Needleman from Webware suggests 11 companies they think might not make it through the recession. Ooooh.

Mashable’s 5 potential winners are:

1. Co-Working Spaces
2. Bootstrapping and Growth Based Businesses
3. Collaborative Tools
4. Idea Marketplaces
5. Workforce Marketplaces

Click for Mashable - 5 Web 2.0 Businesses That Will Thrive in a Down Economy

Webware’s 11 potential losers are:

1. Twitter
2. Meebo
3. TripIt
4. Zillow
5. Pandora
6. Second Life
7. Skype
8. Ask
9. DailyMotion
10. Netvibes
11. MySpace

Click for Webware - 11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos?

Meh, not so entirely sure about the loser list. Skype? RU sure? Apparently it’s owner, eBay, might drag it down. MySpace, hmm. Twitter, well OK so how does Twitter make money? Second Life, never clicked with me.

Low-income students are in many ways just as technologically savvy as their counterparts
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. click for article

“What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practising the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,” said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university’s College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study. Read More…

I’m a bit disappointed. Jotspot was great. Google’s replacement for it, Google Sites, is not so hot. Here’s why I think so.

Jotspot was more than a wiki. It was a platform on which developers could build applications. For example, the Jotspot site we use has a blog, an app called a ‘bug reporter’, a discussion forum, a ‘knowledge base’ app and a project management tool. There were many other apps you could choose to add. I was hoping that Google Sites would continue to deliver this great functionality. Sadly, it does not. Read More…

Here are my notes from Keith Kruger’s excellent and thought provoking workshop.

Keith is the CEO of CoSN, the US’s premier voice in education tech leadership. click for CoSN site

Outline of the workshop:

1. what has been the impact of technology on education around the world?
2. What are the skills that ict leaders need?
3. Self assessment

Three major conclusions:

• Competitiveness is a global concern/Developing 21st century skills is necessary
• Leadership & vision matters
• Rethinking pedagogy is essential

Read More…

Interesting to see what Canberra Primary School teachers are doing with audio recordings with their learners. Some good stuff.

They’re using an application called profcast

They make two kinds of audio recording:

1. Teacher created podcasts - they call these enhanced podcasts. Teachers make them to help teach key concepts in maths or to model language. They see this as a form of communication for the parents to use with their kids. The benefit is that it’s easy to use and provides a consistent message about what’s been taught in class.
2. Learner created podcasts - Learners record what they read aloud, record interviews and record their oral reflections about a topic. The presenters gave one example of an interview recorded by two learners saying that their teacher use the recording to reflect on and evaluate their learners’ speaking skills.

Why podcasts? Read More…

CET chair Prof Phillip Wong kicked off the conference with a nice analogy, comparing technology with antibiotics. Cavemen are given antibiotics and told the little pills will save their lives. Some of these cavemen will put the pills on a pedestal and worship them, others will try one pill and leave the rest, others will mix the pills with water and rub the mixture all over their bodies, and others will take the whole lot in one go. If the pills don’t work they’ll dismiss the claim that they’ll save their lives. If the pills make them sick they’ll say they’re dangerous. The challenge is to help them understand how and when to use the pills. The same is true for technology. Prof Wong said he’d borrowed that analogy from Chris Dede (see below).

RAdm Ronnie Tay the new CEO of IDA gave us some interesting figures about IT use in Singapore, focusing on IT use among the digitally literate and those in education. Up-to-date stuff with a clear vision. Read More…