Designing Learning Technology

Fri, 31 May 2002

Radio post #76
NECC 2002 is just around in corner -- June 17-19 in San Antonio. Lots going on at this showcase for educational technologies. I won't be going, but Intel is running a workshop on Seeing Reason, a causal mapping tool based on my work with CILT.

@22.06 #

Wed, 29 May 2002

Radio post #75
Time to close up this spinoff weblog. Tidepool.org does a great job of covering environmental news for the Pacific Northwest, and it makes more sense for me to weave specific sustainability items into my general blog.

@20.40 #

Radio post #74
The proposed Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) is certainly not in the interests of consumers. Check here for more information about the restrictions this proposed legislation would place on consumer fair use rights.

@20.37 #

Fri, 24 May 2002

Radio post #73
John Markoff on the ongoing video game boom. "As game software and hardware become more elaborate and the profit potential grows, the development budgets of hit software titles are swelling as well. Costs now routinely fall from $3 million to $6 million, and $10 million is no longer unusual. The development team for the latest Laura Croft game, which is being produced in England, has jumped to 50 from 15." This just underlines the growing divide between educational technology, often produced at a tenth to a hundreth of these budgets, and entertainment titles. I don't see the market for educational titles changing fast enough to close this divide, and I worry that the expectations for educational technology -- in the eyes of students, teachers, and designers -- will become more and more driven by the state of the art in entertainment. Where's the middle way?

@21.21 #

Radio post #72
Sorry for the extended break -- travel and some personal business kept me from posting recently. I think it's interesting how inherently fragile weblogs are, subject as they are to the time and energy of one, or maybe two, people. The energy and insight of those individuals is what makes weblogs so interesting to me, but the other side of the coin is that a variety of events, good and bad, can throw a weblog off its stride. (Am I just making excuses? Maybe -- but there are plenty of weblogs I follow that go on hiatus for various reasons.)

@21.15 #

Tue, 07 May 2002

Radio post #71
Here's a good piece in the Times that discusses the challenges states face in creating tests that accurately align with their own standards.

@19.46 #

Radio post #70
Bob Cringley finds meaning in SIDS. Is this the moment of truth for wearable computing?

@18.55 #

Fri, 03 May 2002

Radio post #69
Cool beans! Intel has rolled out Seeing Reason, their version of the Causal Mapping Tool I developed while a postdoc at CILT. It's available for teachers to use for free on Intel's Education web site.

@21.38 #