Mon 18 Sep 2006
From NPR Morning Editon:
Two new and competing formats of DVD are vying for consumer’s money. The new discs both offer high-definition images. But the discs are incompatible with each other, bringing up memories of the old VHS versus Beta debate. Lynn Neary talks with David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times.
An interesting story for anyone following the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD or the next-gen console war. Go here for a listen.
Fri 15 Sep 2006
IGN has an article about the impact of video games on learning. It’s a pretty good overview of James Gee’s work, and even includes an interview with him. (Just ignore the last sentence in the first paragraph ;)). Some excerpts worth pondering:
Videogames always teach you skills in the order you need them, starting with the most basic. Hardcore gamers may find it redundant when they’re taught how to jump each time they start a new game, but it’s actually a sound educational process. Basic skills are taught and then mastered so that they become second nature when more difficult problems are presented. Not only that, videogames won’t let you move on to the difficult problems requiring the most skills until you have mastered the previous ones and passed the lower levels. How often do students fall hopelessly behind because the class has moved on to higher order problems before the basics were mastered?
Videogames have the ability to provide on-demand and situated learning. That means you’re rarely given extraneous information that isn’t necessary for solving a problem and can quickly find (and understand!) relevant facts through simple searches. Role playing games are especially good at this. In order to solve problems, players are required to ask around for new information and then apply it. Using a book to search for answers is much less directed or focused. Even worse, they don’t have (many) images, video, or sound to help someone understand the definition or function of something. In a game, you’ll rarely be told how to do something without extensive multimedia context.
In the interview, Gee few questions about preparing students for the tech heavy world and how feasible is incorporating games into learning. His answers to IGN “show just how far we have to go and what can be done right now.”
Fri 15 Sep 2006
I haven’t been posting much, mostly due to having several things on my plate at one time. One thing that I did manage to get off my plate this week was our screencast that covers the Basics of Academic Search Premier. The screencast/tutorial teaches users the following:
I probably put about 20 hours into the project, which resulted in a 15 minute screencast. It took me several tries to get the storyboard arranged how I wanted it, and I kept tweaking the examples that I used. I hope the result is something that our students (and others ) will use to understand basic searching in ASP.
The screencast was created with Captivate. The concluding movie was captured with iMovie and then imported into Flash. The screencast can be viewed here, but please note that it is not dialup friendly. Also, Captivate-generated Flash files do not play nicely with Flash 6, so you may need to update your Flash player for the screencast to work properly.
Wed 13 Sep 2006
I’m amazed that even with all of the Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, forums, surveys, feedback forms, discussion lists, MySpace, flickr, Facebook, and more…..
…..some people still choose to share their ideas with a Sharpie marker on the wall of a bathroom stall.
Would it deter people from writing on the walls if we gave them something to read? Oh wait, we’re in a library, so there’s bound to be a book around here somewhere. 
My little rant on a rainy Wednesday morning.
Wed 6 Sep 2006
Mediashift has a post about how the new media is shifting the way we think.
the media shift isn’t just about small vs. big. It’s also about a new way of thinking, or perhaps bringing back an old way of thinking that’s been lost in the era of big media mergers and the bottom-line focus on profits over serving people. The democratization of media is about letting a billion flowers bloom, and turning the power of news analysis, commentary, punditry and spoofery over to the people, now that they have the cheap technology of blogs, digital video cameras and broadband Internet access.
How are technologies shaping the way librarians and patrons think about the library? Are folks still stuck in the old way of thinking about the library? How can we get them to embrace new and fresh thinking? More on this later when time permits.
