Streamlining

They streamlined the "turn on my video" button right out of the last version of Skype. They streamlined the "File" menu out of Microsoft Office. Things are much slicker and less usable all the time.

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.