Multilitteratus Incognitus

I was reading this blog post earlier this month about the collapse of the TR-DEV community of practice on an eLearning blog. Now Communities of Practice (or CoP) is something of an interest to me. In the MBA program I viewed it from the lens of enabling employees to share knowledge within the company. In the Instructional Design program I've created a CoP of faculty, students and alumni as a space to meet outside of class to share ideas, comment on each others work for feedback purposes and share any good jobs that come along. In my personal life I am a member of several boards to keep up with advances in different technologies. Now, what happens when the board owner or owner of a CoP decides to call it quits? Who owns this data? Can someone in good conscience just delete the CoP like the TR-DEV list did? For example, I am a member of the NewtonTalk community which deals with all issues Newton ( apple newton that is). The list has been active for a decade now and there is lots of...

Just as I've started taking a course called "structure of the English Language", which deals with English Grammar, here comes a blog post called " there is no grammar ". OK, now that the other blog got your attention, I think that I agree with the original blogger. Grammar is a construct made up to understand the language we speak. From a language learner's perspective though is it useful to start learning grammar from the get go? Whether you agree or disagree, the article is interesting to read. I think that we shouldn't be so grammar heavy in intro courses to language, however we should learn the rules eventually. Verbal communication only gets you so far, and not knowing the intrinsic, abstracted, rules of grammar will only hurt language learners in the long run if they wish to gain proficiency in a language - IMHO.

Do you know what cloud computing is? If not, Check this out (even if you do, check it out anyway. Common Craft make awesome videos):

Back when I started the MBA program (in 2004) I had to take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. At the time I was an INTJ. I was told that people change over a period of time, so since it's been 5 years since I last took the MBTI (give or take a few weeks), I decided to take it again. This time I am an ISTJ I am: * moderately expressed introvert * slightly expressed sensing personality * moderately expressed thinking personality * slightly expressed judging personality Here is a more detailed description of ISTJs from Keirsey.com Guardian™ Portrait of the Inspector (ISTJ) The one word that best describes Inspectors is superdependable. Whether at home or at work, Inspectors are extraordinarily persevering and dutiful, particularly when it comes to keeping an eye on the people and products they are responsible for. In their quiet way, Inspectors see to it that rules are followed, laws are respected, and standards are upheld. Inspectors (as much as ten percent of the general populatio...

I came across this easy to use guide regarding which chart type to use depending on your data type and amount. It's in Spanish, but it's not that difficult to decipher (or shouldn't be anyway). Download the PDF here

Recently I came across and article called the right to read It's not long, and it's a short sci-fi story. With all the talk about ebooks this year being the in thing for 2009, and my own experiences with ebooks, I think that it's worth while to read. Now while this story is rather bleak and it points to a possibility, an unintended consequence of DRM on our media and its effects on education. Excerpt: For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college—when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan. This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her—but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong—so...

A little beginning-of-semester humor from PhD

I recently came across a blog post on engaged learning dot net called convincing others to blog . I read it and I found it quite interesting. As someone how's got four blogs already, I know that there is value to speaking about things you like and topics where you may be a subject matter expert. The time commitment to blog is not very taxing. If you know what you are talking about you can write a blog post in less than 15 minutes. This could be your coffee break for instance. If it helps your company, event better! I know that people realize that there is something valuable for the company if the higher-ups blog about the product. After all, how can you work for a company if you are not jazzed about what they offer. It doesn't matter if this is Apple's new widget or a University's MBA program. I tend to talk about blogging to classmates and friends (and sometimes coworkers), but I never pressure them to open a blog. I prefer to lead by example. Writing does not come nat...

I came across this Educause North Atlantic conference presentation file relatively recently. As someone who has created a Ning social Network for one program (and helped develop a Ning network for another), I thought this presentation was interesting. I really wish there were an associated podcast with this powerpoint file because the powerpoint alone does this presentation little justice One of the common reasons people (IT folk) don't like Ning, at least on my campus, is that it's not something they control, and they claim that they subscribe to similar functions in blackboard. As someone who's working on his third and fourth Master's degree, I have never seen this implemented for any of my studies, and it's something that is useful to the student and the alumni population! So what is wrong with portals (asks the slide?) Portals = enterprise technology; central control Web 2.0 = open source; distributed management A dirty secret – portals are supposed to offer mo...

OK, now that I've got your attention, I decided to create a complimentary post to this blog entry called instructional design is dead Much discussion has been had on publib recently about the downgrading of librarianship as a profession. One comment says: I certainly wouldn't suggest that we should make our cataloging systems deliberately arcane or complex simply to justify our existence(s). But there are libraries and library systems who are working hard to downgrade the profession and thinking about making libraries increasingly bookstore-like makes me wonder who, in this new model, will be at the Information Desk? Things change in life. So do libraries. If you do the same old thing decade after decade, your position will be downgraded as newer customer service models evolve, newer technologies come into the limelight and people expect more and different kinds of services. It's up to the library folk to provide a value added for their communities and maintain ...