ANGEL and Bb Merge... Running Just as Fast as They Can

Yesterday two major players in the Learning Management Systems game merged saying, "Now we have the opportunity to join these strengths together with our Project NG vision for a more flexible and engaging learning platform." Hmmm, I hope they can move much more quickly than they have been, or at least recognize what is REALLY going on and change to take advantage of the intermediaries that are rising from the haze of Moore's Law.

When I see an environment out of them that allows aggregation and flexibility I'll believe they are paying attention. Until then, they are just moving along incrementally giving in to the loudest voices (or largest customers) in education and this may be a bad idea given how much those of us in education are paying attention.

Speed of Assembly - Software

Much is being made of "cloud computing" these days. I've read a number of papers and essays about it (see some references below). What strikes me about this recent meme is that for the first time (that I can remember anyway) software advances are now being talked about in the same way as hardware advances have been. Exponential growth in the tools to develop software, is lowering the cost and time to assemble applications. Because of this, we are starting to see a dramatic rise in the number of applications that are coming out and the applications are becoming more and more numerous and loosely fitting. See widgetbox.com and others. I believe this may give rise to the era of intermediaries and the "end of the middle" so to speak in support. (That's me!!)

References:

Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson, D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I., Zaharia, M., “Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing”, Available from: http://d1smfj0g31qzek.cloudfront.net/abovetheclouds.pdf. Feb. 2009.

Hayes, B., “Cloud Computing”, Communications of the ACM, July 2008, Vol. 51, No. 7, Available from: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1364786

Katz, R., “The Tower and The Cloud. Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing”, EDUCAUSE, Available from: http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandthecloud. Feb. 2009.

Pence, H.E., “The Classroom in the Cloud” Powerpoint presentation, SUNY College at Oneonta, Spring 2009.

Schaffhauser, D., “Free Cloud Computing Environment Launches”, Campus Technology, Available from: http:// campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/04/15/Free-Cloud-Computing-Environment-Launches.aspx. April 2009.

Warner, B., “Building the Enterprise Corporate Cloud”, WaMu/Chase, Available from: http://tinyurl.com/cr9nca, 2009.

Rapture for the Geeks

I recommend Richard Dooling's Rapture for the Geeks as a beach read this summer. He covers the theme of this blog much better than I ever could with a lot more wit too. I laughed out loud time and time again while reading it. You know Richard, you've got a bit of Kurt Vonnegut in you.

Oh BTW (I'm practicing for the Singularity) I put Emily's poem into this post using a text editor, not a word processor.

The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will contain
With ease, and you beside.

The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.

The brain is just the weight of God,
For, heft them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if the do,
As syllable from sound.

- Emily Dickinson

I wonder if the machines of the future will have an Emily Dickinson poem to calm us whenever we get thinking about who is in control?

LOOK back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling sun
In human nature’s west!

- Emily Dickinson

Richard, if you're out there and by chance reading this, I've finished your book. Do I have permission to give it to my friend to read without erasing my mind (although old age is slowly doing that - if this is good enough for you)?

Media Ethics

Each semester I give a lecture to a Media Ethics class about how rapid technological change (Moore's Law) and our technocracy (a Postman idea) may be leading us to places we don't want to be. Having just given this lecture, and having just read Escape from the Zombie Food Court by Joe Bageant I find myself rethinking what today's media, armed with ever advancing technology, using the idea of spectacular "izing" every message, might be doing to us. It is a worrisome idea I have, but not a clear one. I'll keep reading and thinking and hopefully someday I'll have something to say about it that is useful.

The Flickering Mind

The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology by Todd Oppenheimer is an interesting piece of investigative reporting that all educational technologists should read. You might remember Oppenheimer from his The Computer Delusion published back in 97 in the Atlantic.

Whether you think this work is an unfair witch hunt or a well done piece of reporting to me is not the main point. With the pressures on education to "fix what is broken" and the ever present temptations new technologies bring, Oppenheimer revels many of the failed attempts education has had with the latest technology.

Over 30 years I have deployed technology in an educational setting and done a lot of advising local schools districts. I now find myself at a point in life where I am reflecting on my life's work. Page after page of this book echos my experiences and frustrations with spending huge sums of money on the latest gadget and having little or nothing to show for it. Critics of this work need to be held to the same standards they hold Oppenheimer to. Find examples where technology deployment has REALLY improved education and articulate them. Honestly, I can't find many such cases in my career.

Love or hate this book, read it and take it to heart.

Moore's Law Marches On

After reading these two articles:

http://www.physorg.com/news151762245.html

http://www.physorg.com/news151762245.html

I am pushed further to the "Moore's Law is alive and well" side of the argument about whether we are seeing an end to exponential growth or not. If these two techniques (basically creating single atom wide semi-conductors that allow electronics to flow with almost no resistance, thus near the speed of light with little heat generation) reach production quickly, we are on the verge of a new generation of electronics that will be much smaller, much faster, and need a lot less battery or power. Can't wait!!

Poetry Helps as Pace Accelerates

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"
by Richard Brautigans

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

First Published
San Francisco: The Communication Company, 1967.
8.5" x 11" mimeographed broadside with hand-lettered title and imprint (Communication Company). All else type-written.
Reprinted here with permission.