Tech Stoppers

Googling the above title returned interesting but unintended links like:
Adding a few more keywords got me no closer; finally I entered "technology setbacks user willingness computers blogs online education" and the fish started biting. Things like Wesley Fryer's Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog was really what I was looking for. Technology "stoppers" are failures that cause us to quit trying to get the damn thing to work.

We all have a breaking point, a level of tolerance, a 'click ceiling' above which we just say "enough! I have things to do and I didn't become an english teacher to learn how to program C++!" If you are taking an online course in educational technology, your tolerance is higher or you have committed yourself to tolerating it, so you're different than my friend, the english teacher.

I keep nudging her to blog, "it's writing, after all, and it increases your cool factor." She says she will, but just using Blackboard is difficult enough. When she tried to get the YC Plagiarism Tutorial into Blackboard, it worked the first time, then failed, and that was it. Over. Done deal. Stopper. Was it the machine or the human interface that failed? There's always some collusion, but does it matter? She hit her click ceiling and it was over. What's your level of tech tolerance, and how will you shape your's and your student's use of technology to stretch it?

Tech Fatigue Workshop Recording

A recording of the 1 hour session from last May's Yavapai College Summer Institute.
Play session>

Warning: Only 40 Hours of Freedom Left

I just got an email from Pandora online radio, one of the 5 best things to happen to the internet ever. It said my 40 hours of free monthly listening was almost up. Ding-dong! Hello! -Didn't know there was a limit, as everything online is free now.

This is a warning to the free-school generation: look for more limits on our free-culture in the Web 2.0.

Ponder these: When Google has a total monopoly, will it still be free? Is free natural? What do expect from a free service? Is anything free? and...

Will you pay for things that are worthwhile, such as my beloved Pandora?

If You are a Procrastinator, Please Stand Up

If you are a procrastinator, please stand up - some time in the future. The rest of you can get right to work sitting where you are.

It's not easy to get down to work on a Sunday afternoon, at least not computer work. Sunday is a day to be outdoors chopping wood, gardening, fixing up the leaky nozzle or two, and going to the park. It's going to take a behemothic act of will OR something special to entice me to sit once more in front of the glowerectangle.

GOOD NEWS is: the computer also = music, pictures, interesting news and videos - all things I love. These things will tempt me there, and after a few diversions into Facebook, She & Him, and self-indulgent blogging, I will get down to some computer 'work'. And that feeling of accomplishment will make the nap so much sweeter.

"NOVA Science Now is Cool", Say Bohrman Kids

My children loved this show about science! I always was a PBS wonk and hoped, despite our not have television in the home, my offspring would appreciate the erudite emulations of public tv.
They were on verge of tears as this show with a comedic astrophysicist host aired in the place of either a Wii session or the Apple Dumpling Gang. Then, 2 minutes into the first story about the post-911 anthrax investigation, complaints were silenced as the fascination set in, never to be abated.

And now I know the story of the Capcha, the inventor of which, a 30-yr-old genius, was profiled on the program. More fascination. Not only does this now common convention help stop spam, but whenever you complete one of the new 2-word ReCapchas, you take part in digitally archiving words from older texts that computers cannot recognize through OCR.