johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

You, as a techie, might have heard of Microsoft’s so-called Mojave Experiment, a new marketing campaign devised to increase adoption of Vista by Windows users.

Okay, so I watched some of the videos. For the record, I’m in no mood nor frame of mind to purchase Vista, so I watched these simply for curiosity.

One person seems amazed that you can search via some “fast search” technology. The example is pathetic: “You can type C.A.L.C. for calculator, and look, it launches… no need to know where it is on the computer.”

This is akin to going to the command line (in UNIX, not DOS) and typing:

open Calculator.app

after switching to the /Applications directory (again, my frame of reference is Mac OS X). I mean, the whole point of the GUI is to know where things are by representing them through icons.

While I use Quicksilver on the Mac this way, and I know others have used Spotlight to launch apps on the Mac, the very suggestion that this is an improvement by using this particular example is… lame. In other words, a better example would have been to find a misplaced file.

In quite a few examples, people tell us they had “no idea Vista could do this, or that.” What does this prove to us, now? Microsoft really missed the boat in communicating why folks should upgrade. Or was it just all that interference of bad press because no one could use their printers and other peripherals?

I mean, do new features matter when basic ones no longer work?

And lastly, this is marketing here, so, we cannot read too deeply into any of the “reactions” or “conversions” made on “hidden cameras.” But the suggestion is a powerful one. “Look ma, this Vista rocks. People can’t believe how fast and powerful it is.” Many of the videos still don’t do a good job at articulating “improvements.” All I heard were references to the look and the speed.

First, speed is unfair. Microsoft was likely using new hardware.

Second, by looks alone, yes, Vista is a triumph over XP, I agree. But a proper “experiment” would pit these folks with Vista, on their own machines, for a period of time. Some real… “usability” testing, if you would.

My guess is, folks would grow tired of the new look in the face of a poor user experience, just like the bloggers and reviewers did when they had their shot at communicating what was right and wrong with Vista.

As John Gruber points out, I bet the campaign will be successful. Maybe we’ll see some copy-cats comparing the Microsoft products with… Linux and/or Mac OS X.

Floyd County ITRT Sean Sharp attended the 2008 VSTE ITRT conference this year, and like me, presented to our colleagues who came from across the commonwealth.

For the VSTE Podcast Edge, our regular VSTE podcast, I talked to Sean about the conference and about some of the topics we both covered in our presentations. The VSTE Edge website is currently under construction, so I’ve decided to share this podcast here for listeners until we can re-publish the interview at VSTE.

This is a post I automatically imported from my blog at work. I’m trying a plugin that will pull-in the posts from that blog into this blog. We’ll see if I like it…

Today I worked with our leadership team (principals, directors, and superintendents) with an all-day professional development session on Digital Culture in their schools. I think it went well. 

We combined a number of things in the training, including use of the Promethean board, various online tools, while we explored a number of educational theories, including the building information on “21st Century Skills.” 

Taking leadership into the twenty-first century includes using some of the latest tools. We supplied principals with iPod Touch handheld devices for performing classroom observations looking at technology and twenty-first century skills. These and other assessment instruments will be used on the devices for the collection of data used in teacher evaluations.

In addition, these devices can be used with our PowerSchool student information system and Google Docs and Spreadsheets (Apps). It was a full, yet exciting day.

N.B.: the Wiki we used for this session is private, but I did throw some of the slides online to give folks an idea of what we covered

During our Blogging 2.0 class today, I plan on spending a few minutes talking/practicing RSS with the participants. Some of my favorite RSS readers are:

• NewsFire for Mac OS X
• NetNews Wire for Mac OS X
• Google Reader

Via Karen Richardson, I came across this list via the newly-redesigned del.icio.us website today.

50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers. Yes, I was disappointed none of our teachers appeared among those in the list. Which, of course, is okay, really, because… well, let me explain.

First, there’s a lot of blogs there, but many of them are by folks who are passionate writers and communicators. A blogger doesn’t automatically have passion. I mean, many do, sure, but when you impose blogging onto someone, well, it’s not always going to naturally flow.

Second, you have to set your sights higher. Who is the intended audience? We set the bar low. Our blogs, in the largest possible way, were intended for parents. Some write for their students. But so many in the list are intended for a bigger, wider audience.

Third, where’s the incentive to help your peers? Yes, blogging has reached such a saturation point now that we have a subset of bloggers that are teachers. This is good. But some paradigm shift must happen, a so-called “tipping point” if you will, to encourage more educators to find a really solid reason to blog.

That would be, of course, to help others. And “why should I spend my time helping others by writing about my profession?” Well, as I shared with ITRTs recently, nothing in life is free. You take some out, i.e., get help online with lessons, tools, etc., but you also have to put some in. It’s only fair.

I believe when the value produced by a small number of educator-bloggers is seen/perceived as helpful and useful, then, and only then, will we see reciprocity by other educators to do the same.

Fourth, as leaders big or small, we should be pointing out some of the great examples found within a list like this one. While I think blogging with students has much untapped potential as a personal learning tool for any student as an ultimate productivity tool, I stand behind my own decision to start with teacher blogging in my district. I think the act of blogging is required to really understand its potential. Alongside that is an awareness and understanding that everyone isn’t naturally creative and profuse in their thoughts and words.

Nevertheless, we can all learn by reading. Here’s to the love of some new newsfeeds!

I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to this summer at NECC. Today, ISTE released a number of video screencasts and audio podcasts (with slides) on their website.

• NECC Podcasts
• NECC Video Casts

This week was a long one; after 45 hours at work, I spent my Friday at the VSTE ITRT Retreat/Mini-Conference. In case you’re reading from outside Virginia, VSTE is our ISTE affiliate group, and their mini-conference is a one day event for Virginia’s instructional technology resource teachers (ITRTs).

142 folks attended, and the day went quickly. It was organized like so:

1. Keynote
2. Presentation 1
3. Lunch
4. Presentation 2
5. Presentation 3
6. Presentation 4
7. Closing Session - Door Prizes

The vibe I got from a lot of folks were that they enjoyed the day. I saw a lot of familiar faces; some were new. I had a lot of fun delivering my presentation (slot 3), but it was too bad folks were turned away because of a lack of adequate space.

Having gone to the other sessions, I’d like to proffer some advice for other presenters.

If you say that research supports a position, cite the research. Just don’t have us believe you because you say it’s true. Some of us could use that magic research to convince minds back in our schools.

Don’t talk over your media. Can you believe someone played a podcast for us to listen to, then talked over the entire length of the clip? What was the point?

Don’t apologize when things don’t work. First, try to ensure things will work. You don’t look credible when your technology flops. I mean, these are techie teachers, and you ought to know how to make things work. But secondly, if something does go sour, don’t keep apologizing for it. Clean up, and move on.

Don’t pretend you know about something then try and fake it, proving to us you don’t. You never want to reveal your weaknesses like this. Don’t tell us you know all about software you don’t even know much about, when you later show us you don’t know how to spell it correctly on your slides, or know how much it costs. After all, people paid money to come see you.

Don’t show examples that demonstrate poor educational practice when you intend for it to be a positive example. Case in point, don’t share examples where kids are so obviously violating copyright law. In this particular case, the presenter said things that indicated she likely had no clue how the law worked herself.

Rehearse your ideas so they are automatic. When you don’t, you can sound like a buffoon in front of the crowd. Case in point: “Nowadays, students learn in many different ways now.” I subscribe to ideas such as visual/kinesthetic/auditory, not to mention the concept of multiple intelligences. But statements such as these beg us to task, “Umm… did kids not learn ‘in different ways’ in years past?”

Don’t make statements that contradict widely-held beliefs without backing them up. It would be like telling me the sky is red. You might convince me with the right evidence, but me and everyone else is thinking… “Nope, it’s blue.”

Build credibility by knowing what you’re talking about. When you say things that indicate you don’t, the rest of your presentation really takes a nose-dive. Case in point: I know kids in the halls with headphones on are either talking on their cell phones or they’re podcasting with their iPods. If it needs pointing out, iPods rarely are used to create or publish podcasts. So no, the kids aren’t “podcasting” in the halls.

Maximize your media. I saw this one a lot. Folks put videos and such on their PowerPoint slides at small sizes. Let’s assume the screen is 1024×768, they’ve shoved anywhere between 1 to 5 videos on one slide. Why? Videos should at least be 800×600, but these are tiny. Mabye 240×180 or something. In one case, so many of the examples included text which of course couldn’t be seen 20-60 feet away from the screen.

PowerPoint slides are free. Don’t be afraid to use more. Also, don’t write a book on each slide. It kills me to see people still doing this!

And lastly, cut out the cheese. Nothing deflates your message more than cheesy animations and superfluous use of the Comic Sans font (yes, I have a very personal and strong bias here, and I have comrades online). When it (all of the superfluous stuff) all crashes your presentation, we have to sit and wait.

Someone long ago introduced me to a concept which should guide each presenter. It’s called K.I.S.S. You probably know what it means: Keep it Simple (Stupid). The better presentation is always the one where the speaker is at the center, not a slide. The slides should be just a backdrop to what you have to say. I watched one guy speak, and I hardly ever looked at his slides. He was the focus of attention.

Needless to say, I hope I followed all my own advice. Thankfully, I’m in the “no presentation mode” until a few weeks until when we do new teacher training. And there’s no PPT used there!

Thanks for reading.

Just yesterday, a colleague of mine shared a video with me, the so-called Last Lecture of Dr. Randy Pausch. It took place in Pittsburgh last September, and who knows why I hadn’t heard about before now.

You likely have heard of it; at almost 2-hours in length, I watched a portion before and after dinner. I became very interested for two reasons.

• This is the guy that started Alice, the 3D programming outfit that’s free for schools and universities to use and that I want to get running at our own high school this year,
• This really was his “last lecture,” as he’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

As one obituary mentioned this morning, we have a different perspective of advice from someone that’s dying.

In reading his obituary in the New York Times, I couldn’t help but focus on the last paragraph which deserves mention. It is trivial in light of the profound advice Professor Pausch gave in his lecture, but, its placement in an article reporting his death today commands us to tap into our sense of humor, something Pausch did repeatedly in his own talks.

Dr. Pausch gave practical advice in his lecture, avoiding spiritual and religious matters. He did, however, mention that he experienced a near-deathbed conversion: he switched and bought a Macintosh computer.

Today during a professional development session with our school administrators, I shared this video called Epic 2015, and we had a discussion that followed. I asked what the technology depicted felt like to them, and then questions about what today’s children who would be living during that time (and perhaps graduating) should be prepared for.

One of the things depicted in the video that “forecasts” what’s happening in the future (some of it funny, some of it true) is something called “The Google GRID.” Among other things, it offers a space to share your knowledge.

Today (for real), Google releases what some are calling a competitor to the Wikipedia: Knol. What’s different is, authorship of an article is maintained. The article is by someone.

I thought it funny, since the make believe “GRID” was so much like today’s real “Knol.” And worse yet, many of the “2015″ technologies are already here today (albeit in some less mature forms). Combine Twittervision with iPhone 3G with an online aggregator service like NetVibes, and you have all the movie’s predictions… 7 years early (save for the court cases and the fall of the NY Times).

About Knol specifically, I like the model at Wikipedia better; I like the concept of crowdsourcing and the crunchy-granola flavor of the wiki. While Knol promises collaboration, it is more traditional in its approach.

And that’s why Google likely did it: it’s not just “another” place to dump content. They’re going for the more “trusted,” traditional route as a competitor. Who wants to write some Knol articles?

Today I found a new site that is poised towards chronicling what costs five U.S. dollars.

I haven’t looked through all the examples yet, but it seems like a neat project schools could do or participate in, or use… to better understand the economy, other cultures, etc.

I’ve been thinking a lot about school websites. This summer I began an ambitious project to “overhaul” our school division website. The look won’t dramatically change, but hopefully the end-user experience will. I know in sweating now, I’ll be sitting “pretty” later.

Why? I’m building a content management system for our website. This means instead of editing HTML or PHP documents by hand like I do now, a wide variety of people will be able to log-in, enter their information, and see it instantly appear online in some good-looking pages.

I’m not building it from scratch, but instead I’m custom-engineering the system using ExpressionEngine (website). The product isn’t perfect, but it is good, and as I continue to learn about all it can do, I’m more and more amazed.

So, my project is concerned with providing more and better access for our folks to be able to publish online. It’s about keeping “track” of news over time. And with features like self-sign-up mailing lists, it should be more interactive, too.

But this obsession of mine over school websites is not new. It was approaching five years now since I began my work on “Operation Desconstruction,” where I did some research on Virginia school division websites and how they faired.

My ultimate conclusion was that schools were ill-prepared for making great websites. Today, that climate has hopefully improved, and hopefully more research should be done.

What I see a lot are districts who are buying services to control their websites, and you likely know some of the names, such as School Center, Whipple Hill, etc. The idea is a great one, from a business stand point. But it’s also bad for a number of reasons, all specific to the vendor you buy from.

What I’ve found, in general, is this:

• You’re buying a cookie-cutter design,
• It’s easy (like I hope my system will be) to log in and add content,
• The web URLs are notoriously unfriendly and long
• Despite buying the product to “solve” the web “problem,” so many sites are unkept.

The one that gets me is this: the web portals/sites you buy are no better in terms of XHTML compliance or usability or accessibility than many that folks have made themselves. Instead, they’re offering content management (good) and a prettier front end. But in the end, does that constitute a better website?

I’ve long held that a better website does not stand upon proprietary technologies, is current and up-to-date, and visually well-represents the stakeholders. Back in the article I wrote, I quoted Jeff Johnson from his 2003 book, Web Bloopers.

“Developing and maintaining a website canbe expensive. Individuals and small organizations don’t have much money to spend on Web development, so it isn’t surprising when their sites contain bloopers”

Yet, the solution when buying a canned service is not fully resolved. The schools still need to provide content. And I think its unforgivable that their templated designs still contain bloopers. Some of these same ones appear in the examples I cite. I wrote back in 2003:

The results of research on Virginia school division websites revealed that a majority of sites fail to follow the advice of usability experts and are inaccessible to users with disabilities and those using non-traditional browsers (and not simply because they use Flash or PDF).

I think a follow up should examine whether or not the sites are done “in house,” with a management system (free or paid), or with a contracted service. It would be nice to see if the cost of a system (if used) improved usability and accessibility. Another thing to examine would be the timeliness and accuracy of the data shared on the division’s website.

Google Docs now has expanded choices for templates. This takes a great idea and makes it better.

Yes, I won’t use most of the templates, but that’s okay. What is cool is that you can easily find “templates you’ve used” (that’s a no-brainer), and you can also see popular templates. In other words, see what others are impressed by… or choose something more obscure.

Their online, collaborative productivity suite keeps getting better.

I can’t wait to play with this (and some kids) on a Promethean board!

This is Sand! And if you think it gets boring, look what someone came up with! (via Happy Notes)

Just for the record, I think the Internet is amazing.

I mean, you can watch a video of someone being struck by lightening, and read about all the reactions to the experience.

Or to find visualizations of the spread of the Wal-Marts across the country from the late 1960s to the current day. Wow.

Yes, this InterWeb stuff is great. (Links via Kottke).

On July 25 I will be presenting at the VSTE ITRT Summer Camp at the Virginia Crossings Resort. This opportunity for Virginia’s instructional technology resource teachers should be a good event.

I’m cross-posting this, but I’ve run through the ideas I am going to present on in the following video. The presentation is entitled Sharing Resources: It’s a 2-Way Street.

Sharing: It’s a 2-Way Street from John Hendron on Vimeo.

Merlin Mann’s e-mail organization scheme (used in a positive way, not a slimy, user-car salesman way) is based on GTD (getting things done) and recently another website is inviting folks to celebrate their victory by emptying their inboxes.

While I follow GTD and dabble, I’ve not yet achieved victory. The day awaits.

“Are you an obstacle, or the answer,” my administrator friends?

I hear so many people in districts the country over lament their “administrators” who don’t get it. It’s more rare to hear of administrators who really are leading in the area of educational technology.

The linked blog post is a good one, and I might share it with our folks later this month when we do some administrative professional development on building a school culture that embraces digital fluency.

I was thinking about the importance of language and how so many people come together to make it happen and just think there must be some parallel to the power of social collaboration in education and what you can produce that would be at the same level as what language is and how important it is to us in society. listen

Powered by Jott

Translation: if the formation of a language, a massive collaborative effort that has spanned so many people over such long expanses of time is anything to show for the power of collaboration, I don’t know what else might compare.

Aza Raskin has developed something called Algorithm Ink which lets you code, using JavaScript, “artwork” in a web browser. Think Logo, fractals, and… fun with math!

Ah… looks like the Googlers have brought IM to the iPhone through a webapp!

Look here for new information on Google Talk for iPhone. Or, simply point your iPhone to their URL.

It seems other goodies are in store for all iPhone owners (old and new) on July 11 when the 2.0 software is released, and new Apps will be available for sale.