Tweet away the sadness

I was listening to what? NPR as usual, because that is my favorite thing in the car or at a desk to mildly distract my from what I'm supposed to be doing. If they had stock I would buy some, instead I just give them my credit card number to keep my conscience clean.

Anyway there was an interesting story about how a journalist whose mother was dying, he's an NPR regular on the network. He tweeted in real time about the experience of being by her side, basically waiting for her to pass.

I know I text as a nervous twitch when real life is a bit uncomfortable, know I text my boyfriend and sister a lot more when I am under stress or in a stressful situation. "At a job interview. Argh hate waiting." "Boss just yelled at me OMG" Those texts are private however, well I hope they are ;) because I've been hearing a good deal about the gvt monitoring our phones lol

In any event I was thinking how twitter or a blog can feel cathartic like writing a journal. You don't see the people who are, you don't ever have to look them in the eye. They do however leave comments which is kind of like your journal answering back to you, but its not because they are real people. I knew an undergrad a few years ago who posted a play by play or an affair she had with a married man. She was offended that his wife found the blog, and claimed it was an intrusion of her privacy for the wife to read it. There were assumed nicknames, but it was a public blog for all to see. It is not a journal and it is NOT private. Are some people confused about that?

I just wonder about the role of privacy and how our views of it are changing the more our every thought can be published. It would not seem strange to read about that man's dying mother in a memoir, but somehow the play by play on Twitter feels intrusive to me. It seems to have helped him cope with a sad event, I don't mean to be judgmental, there is nothing necessarily wrong with it. Its just that I wonder where the personal line is and how t is being redefined by these tools?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/30/206987575/Scott-Simon-On-Sharing-His-Mothers-Final-Moments-On-Twitter 

Personal is personal

http://www.today.com/news/tv-reporter-fired-over-blog-didnt-think-it-would-come-6C10791942

Here is a story about a woman who was fired from her reporting job over her personal blog. I really think there will be more clearly deined laws about this in the future. It is freedom of speech to have an opinion and be  ahuman outside of one's job. Unless you are saying something a la Paula Deen about longing for the good old slave days, people should just be allowed to be themselves.

It is an odd intersection of the personal and private on the web. If half the silly jokes I make with my friends were published I am sure no one would hire me ;)
FYI this is why my real FB and other personal web personas have my puppy as my profile pic and an assumed name! lol

Discount Degree

Here is the link to a segment I saw on the news.

 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50151769n

It talks about the fact that Georgia Tech is offering an online Master Degree in Computer Science for only $7,000. Wow and its about time. This service and this price point could open up the opportunity advanced degrees to a huge new audience.

Affordability of higher education is a huge issue for many people in our country (undergrad and grad)  As a teacher I know that I had to wait for years to get tuition reimbursement and at one class at a time I would be 40 before I got my Masters, if it were not for loans. 
Older teachers tell me how cheap their Masters (and undergrad) was years ago and that it almost is not worth it from a financial standpoint today. Though I think it is absolutely necessary from a pedagogical point of view.
I think that more education is necessary for many of us in a changing world, we need to keep up and if we are going to well in our professions advanced degrees are often a necessity.

Yeah Georia tech and I hope others will follow suit- good schools that are not in it for the profit ;)

Graphics overload?

Normally I avoid websites, web tools with over bearing graphics and what seems like too much info.
If it was not for homework purposes I never would have checked out this mash up madness, crazy feeds.

However, after a few days of exploration, I am finding they are not as offensive as I formerly believed. The brain adjusts and I am finding lots of actually useful and interesting info out there :) I think learnist may become part of my regular lesson planning brainstorming process for the year.

Surprised!

Response to post

How do you judge the value of expertise on the Web? Does it differ from your notion of expertise in face-to-face settings? Why or why not?

On the Web the judgement of expertise is often a bit more effort than in a face to face setting. The tools and cues I use to judge are different, but the judgements are based on the same criteria. 

In an online community we do not have the social cues that often tell us subconsciously how educated or intelligent a person is. Whether we admit it or not a person's clothes, accent, the way they carry themselves, physical gestures and a variety of other little things help us create an opinion of whether we can trust them, as people or as sources of information. In one sense it is liberating to not have the potential prejudices and judgements. But these cues have to be replaced by something to tell us if they are trustworthy. 

One thing I do is google the source to see who they are, what their education was and if they are an accepted member of the community of knowledge. If someone is  a professor at Colombia or has run a business in the subject area for years,  then it is safe to say they are trustworthy. I will also google the site to see if it is trustworthy- is it journalism? punditry? a free for all? a part of an established and trustworthy community of knowledge? 

 If there is no information on the person, then one can use context clues to see whether they understand the domain they are speaking about. Often in the communities I notice people prefacing their remarks but stating their qualifications in the area. I have also done this after a lecture/speech, to see if the person speaking had the expertise to be trussed. However googling a real life person is more rare in my own experience. 

Same judgements- different tools :) 

Other tablets

Here is article in the New York times about the google tablet that is comparable to the ipad mini. It is less expensive and apparently is pretty interesting. It has its own app store and there is a textbook feature, which is a great for students.


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/google-debuts-an-updated-nexus-7-tablet/?ref=technology&_r=0 

I think one this my ipad has that tablet doesn't is the fact all my other technology is now Apple. It is great to have the same format, visual tools and habits across my technology. I also think there is something fun and special about the Apple store. When I drop my phone and the front cracks, there is a place to bring it and a person who really knows the products to help. I really think that the i-things have developed the physical culture around them that humans like. I remember when my pc broke, I brought it to Best Buy, they sent it out somewhere- it was all very impersonal and the people on staff seemed pretty clueless about what could be wrong.

When I drop and break my ipod, I go in and get a new one (yeah warranty) then my music is quickly synced again from my lap top.

Much like the online community, it needs a physical connection to be very successful. The personal experience of the store, and ease of use make it an easier choice for a lot of us.

I would like to see the other products and see how they work though.

Its not Tuesday and other things ;)

So I just tried to sign in for the webinar and wondered why the link didn't work. Alas it is Wednesday ;)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/24/204621796/ONLINE-REWARDS 

So this is a link to a news story today about how online marketers ( and tech makers) keep Skinner's theories of unexpected rewards in mind when making products for human use. It seems that my desire for a "like" button in blackboard is not my fault, it can attributed to science that know how much I like to get my likes.

Another reason to incorporate these technologies into teaching, o promote the crack like addiction to learning and the random reinforcement. Makes me want to learn more about educational gaming!