Before I forget everything from this summer....let me record for history's sake the failures and successes of the great tomato adventure. About half the plants died -- the Yellow Pear, the Golden Jubilee (after giving us a couple of lovely yellow tomatoes), the Big Boy.
The grape tomato in the upside down container produced well and all summer. Tasty, too. The Better Boy, out front where there was more sun, produced a lot of tomatoes but their flavor and texture were less than ideal. The Celebrity in the self watering container produced a lot of tomatoes and they were very juicy and flavorful. The Celebrity in the ground didn't get enough sun and produced just one fruit, late in the season. The heirlooms (Brandywine and Cherokee Purple) didn't produce much but got to be 15' tall -- they were in the back, just reaching for the sun. The Mr Stripey produced a little but not much.
One other plant whose name I forget lived but never fruited.
Next year, more Celebrity plants!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
It is such a beautiful time of year and we're having especially beautiful foliage this year. Lots of yellows and reds--the dogwoods turn this deep ruby that is quite beautiful. Last weekend, Thomas and I took a hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park, which is just a short ride west of Atlanta. I hadn't been there in about five years and Thomas had never been there. We did a hike along the creek that I have done before. It looks like there have been a couple of other trails added, and a new education center, since I was there before so I'll have to go back.
Today, Alan and I took a walk through our neighborhood, doing a big loop that took us south on Briarcliff (no sidewalk -- boo!), west on East Rock Springs Rd, north on Beech Valley Rd, through Johnson Park, north on Johnson Rd, cut through some streets back to Briarcliff (no sidewalks -- boo!) and then home. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes, has a good deal of terrain change, and definitely stretched the legs. Now onto split pea soup for dinner!
Today, Alan and I took a walk through our neighborhood, doing a big loop that took us south on Briarcliff (no sidewalk -- boo!), west on East Rock Springs Rd, north on Beech Valley Rd, through Johnson Park, north on Johnson Rd, cut through some streets back to Briarcliff (no sidewalks -- boo!) and then home. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes, has a good deal of terrain change, and definitely stretched the legs. Now onto split pea soup for dinner!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Interesting presentation
Well, we're back in Atlanta safe and sound, looking forward to a weekend in our own house. LB celebrated our time away by shredding an entire roll of paper towels, in several rooms. A very determined effort, to be sure.
I wanted to post a link to this slideshow which we found very interesting.
I wanted to post a link to this slideshow which we found very interesting.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Educause 2002: Digging Deep with P2P
Understanding Students' Media Habits
# Warren S. Arbogast, Founder & President, Boulder Management Group, LLC
# David Greenfield, Director, Student Technology, Illinois State University
# Alexandre M. Mateus, PhD Candidate, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
# Mark S. Walbert, Associate Vice President, Academic Information Technology, Illinois State University
Illinois state
20,265 students
How different today than 2005? Bigger problem today
What hasn't changed is that industry doesn't understand higher ed and vice versa
Digital Citizen Project
Mark: Not much literature, especially with data on what students are doing with p2p with numbers
--started a dialogue with RIAA, both sides learned
--worked with IRB since analyzing click stream, plus legal, provost, president
Surveyed incoming students -- what were their digital media habits; now they have 3 years of data
2008:
--97% of students watch movies/TV/video on computer
--93% mp3 player; 82% ipod
--where get music: iTunes, CDs, Limewire, downloading (iTunes growth over time)
--movies: DVD, YouTube, iTunes, internet, download
--P2P sware: limewire, facebook, myspace, aim (confusion over p2p)
Confusion over what is legal, what is p2p, how is p2p related to social network sites
--they don't want to purchase by subscription
Studied using packeteer and audible magic april 2007:
51% on campus detected p2p users
42% detected DATCoM users
each student transferred 6 copyrighted files per week
more than half of the students doing p2p transferred more than 5 titles per week
10% transferred more than 35 titles per week
--spread out across all demographics (gender, age, class year)
Audible Magic doesn't detect as much as Packeteer
--if traffic encrypted, can't detect if its p2p
--after a few weeks, it detected most people that transferred copyrighted content
DPI effective in detecting users over time -- useful for a tool to warn users
DPI is less effective if coupled with punishment
--misses encrypted traffic
--encryption available in most p2p clients -- don't motivate them to do it
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~peha/dimensions_of_piracy.pdf
What they did:
Pilot this spring with Audible Magic and a response system -- warning students if they were identified as exchanging p2p
Met with students, academic senate, legal counsel, president, provost -- in June, had four constraints (gen counsel raised questions about peering into pipe, president did not want students getting notices/subpoenas, concern over $$ -- spend it on wireless, classrooms, hiring freeze)
Accidentally left of packeteer for a period -- 7fold increase in outbound and 3fold increase in inbound
Aug 08 -- created a p2p permission form for resnet -- permission granted no questions asked
--targeting residence halls, wireless,
--not using packeteer b/c it was on the WAN (?)
students responded positively -- glad not to be turned over to riaa
faculty okay b/c not on academic network
http://www.digitalcitizen.ilstu.edu/
# Warren S. Arbogast, Founder & President, Boulder Management Group, LLC
# David Greenfield, Director, Student Technology, Illinois State University
# Alexandre M. Mateus, PhD Candidate, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
# Mark S. Walbert, Associate Vice President, Academic Information Technology, Illinois State University
Illinois state
20,265 students
How different today than 2005? Bigger problem today
What hasn't changed is that industry doesn't understand higher ed and vice versa
Digital Citizen Project
Mark: Not much literature, especially with data on what students are doing with p2p with numbers
--started a dialogue with RIAA, both sides learned
--worked with IRB since analyzing click stream, plus legal, provost, president
Surveyed incoming students -- what were their digital media habits; now they have 3 years of data
2008:
--97% of students watch movies/TV/video on computer
--93% mp3 player; 82% ipod
--where get music: iTunes, CDs, Limewire, downloading (iTunes growth over time)
--movies: DVD, YouTube, iTunes, internet, download
--P2P sware: limewire, facebook, myspace, aim (confusion over p2p)
Confusion over what is legal, what is p2p, how is p2p related to social network sites
--they don't want to purchase by subscription
Studied using packeteer and audible magic april 2007:
51% on campus detected p2p users
42% detected DATCoM users
each student transferred 6 copyrighted files per week
more than half of the students doing p2p transferred more than 5 titles per week
10% transferred more than 35 titles per week
--spread out across all demographics (gender, age, class year)
Audible Magic doesn't detect as much as Packeteer
--if traffic encrypted, can't detect if its p2p
--after a few weeks, it detected most people that transferred copyrighted content
DPI effective in detecting users over time -- useful for a tool to warn users
DPI is less effective if coupled with punishment
--misses encrypted traffic
--encryption available in most p2p clients -- don't motivate them to do it
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~peha/dimensions_of_piracy.pdf
What they did:
Pilot this spring with Audible Magic and a response system -- warning students if they were identified as exchanging p2p
Met with students, academic senate, legal counsel, president, provost -- in June, had four constraints (gen counsel raised questions about peering into pipe, president did not want students getting notices/subpoenas, concern over $$ -- spend it on wireless, classrooms, hiring freeze)
Accidentally left of packeteer for a period -- 7fold increase in outbound and 3fold increase in inbound
Aug 08 -- created a p2p permission form for resnet -- permission granted no questions asked
--targeting residence halls, wireless,
--not using packeteer b/c it was on the WAN (?)
students responded positively -- glad not to be turned over to riaa
faculty okay b/c not on academic network
http://www.digitalcitizen.ilstu.edu/
Educause 2008: Optimizing IT for Optimal Value
Optimizing IT for Optimal Value
* Fred Brittain, U Maine, Farmington
* Nicole Broyles, Director, IT Business Services, University of Houston
* Diane M. Dagefoerde, Director of Technology, Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University
* Veronica Longenecker, Director of Computing and Support Services, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
* MaryBeth Stuenkel, Manager of Groupware Services, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
We already do IT governance.
Desires -- cut costs; more, better, faster; unfunded mandate
Governance: process; roles, responsibilities, inputs and outputs
--outputs: a.) what IT should work on; b.) how IT should do it
-- budget the thing that links them
3 ITG Models:
Locally (decentralized)
Local/Central Collaboration (hybrid or federated)
Centrally (centralized)
V: Talking about a cycle where IT needs were met in a decentralized level, then taken back to central, and now the faculty are taking it back themselves (using google docs, etc.)
MB: in central IT--itself decentralized--schools work in their own interest, distributed decision making; Novell and AD; units ran Exchange -- didn't need to do so, asked central IT to take over
--centralized provision but collaborative governance
--now looking at shared desktop image
ITG Maturity Model
Nonexistent
Initial
Repeatable
Defined
Managed
Optimized
There is a relationship btw the innovation life cycle and the ITG maturity model.
D: Ohio State governance grew out of PS governance; picked desktop standards and bundled with vendor (computer hardware strategic plan)
{might be interesting to speak with her}
{it would be so helpful if they would depict their org charts while they were talking -- I guess those are the slides that they skipped over, but it is still annoying}
There was cultural resistance to rolling out governance for all projects and then all executive leadership left. But with new leadership, efforts to try again.
{ok, I'm outta here}
* Fred Brittain, U Maine, Farmington
* Nicole Broyles, Director, IT Business Services, University of Houston
* Diane M. Dagefoerde, Director of Technology, Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University
* Veronica Longenecker, Director of Computing and Support Services, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
* MaryBeth Stuenkel, Manager of Groupware Services, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
We already do IT governance.
Desires -- cut costs; more, better, faster; unfunded mandate
Governance: process; roles, responsibilities, inputs and outputs
--outputs: a.) what IT should work on; b.) how IT should do it
-- budget the thing that links them
3 ITG Models:
Locally (decentralized)
Local/Central Collaboration (hybrid or federated)
Centrally (centralized)
V: Talking about a cycle where IT needs were met in a decentralized level, then taken back to central, and now the faculty are taking it back themselves (using google docs, etc.)
MB: in central IT--itself decentralized--schools work in their own interest, distributed decision making; Novell and AD; units ran Exchange -- didn't need to do so, asked central IT to take over
--centralized provision but collaborative governance
--now looking at shared desktop image
ITG Maturity Model
Nonexistent
Initial
Repeatable
Defined
Managed
Optimized
There is a relationship btw the innovation life cycle and the ITG maturity model.
D: Ohio State governance grew out of PS governance; picked desktop standards and bundled with vendor (computer hardware strategic plan)
{might be interesting to speak with her}
{it would be so helpful if they would depict their org charts while they were talking -- I guess those are the slides that they skipped over, but it is still annoying}
There was cultural resistance to rolling out governance for all projects and then all executive leadership left. But with new leadership, efforts to try again.
{ok, I'm outta here}
Educause 2008: BB and open source
Panel discussion on BB and open source.
# Michael L. Chasen, President & CEO, Blackboard, Inc.
# Serge J. Goldstein, Associate CIO and Director of Academic Services, Princeton University
# Charles Severance, Developer Network Coordinator, IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc.
Calls for open APIs more than source code access.
Question asked by panelists about whether you could unpack a BB export and use APIs to move into Moodle or Sakai.
BB: We can't put forward a universal statement that addressed all circumstances.
We would never do anything to prevent faculty and schools from extending elearning.
Sakai: People dismayed about the patent environment.
{This is turning into a put BB on the spot session}
BB defending their intellectual investment. Need to have some legal structures to be able to work against nefarious sorts (against best interest of education community).
How to balance need for resources for development (BB gets paid) and desire for openness.
There's nothing automatically good about releasing source code in the open. Distinguish btw open source and getting what you need to get done
--flow btw apache fdn and public is so open
Q: Problem of publishers with proprietary LMS's -- how can these LMS's be more open?
Chuck: this is a chicken/egg thing
Michael (not chasen): he's been pretty consistently advocating one place to go, systems interoperable, incl publishers; sakai connector just the beginning
Mchasen: BB wanting to dev facebook API, bb for iphone, bb for igoogle; we heard very strong views on both sides
{wonder why there isn't a history function on tweets}
Serge: the difficulty of localized problem solving introducing balkanization of data
Mchasen: moving from open APIs to web services approach to be more live and free flowing
Chuck: IMS learner information services, this standard undergone mjr rework, led by oracle, open philosophy (v open src). LIS designed to solve the fundamental problems; lite version purely rest based working with small company (School???)
Serge: web svcs terrific; let's you write php code rather than heavy weight java code; web services allows us to treat BB as a academic infrastructure system; we can build tools in PHP to add onto the LMS
Chuck: web services: moddle embarking on dev of web services (moodle hard to add modules now); LMS becoming a SOA that's becoming enterprise information, not a place to put your syllabus
In 2 years:
mchasen: opening up your LMS to where students are; trend around cloud computing (safe assign leverages cloud computing (everyone using safeassign); but admits that it probably violates FERPA to put all data up in the cloud; envision a day when a school will pick and choose some bb modules, some others
chuck: echoing chasen
good session
# Michael L. Chasen, President & CEO, Blackboard, Inc.
# Serge J. Goldstein, Associate CIO and Director of Academic Services, Princeton University
# Charles Severance, Developer Network Coordinator, IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc.
Calls for open APIs more than source code access.
Question asked by panelists about whether you could unpack a BB export and use APIs to move into Moodle or Sakai.
BB: We can't put forward a universal statement that addressed all circumstances.
We would never do anything to prevent faculty and schools from extending elearning.
Sakai: People dismayed about the patent environment.
{This is turning into a put BB on the spot session}
BB defending their intellectual investment. Need to have some legal structures to be able to work against nefarious sorts (against best interest of education community).
How to balance need for resources for development (BB gets paid) and desire for openness.
There's nothing automatically good about releasing source code in the open. Distinguish btw open source and getting what you need to get done
--flow btw apache fdn and public is so open
Q: Problem of publishers with proprietary LMS's -- how can these LMS's be more open?
Chuck: this is a chicken/egg thing
Michael (not chasen): he's been pretty consistently advocating one place to go, systems interoperable, incl publishers; sakai connector just the beginning
Mchasen: BB wanting to dev facebook API, bb for iphone, bb for igoogle; we heard very strong views on both sides
{wonder why there isn't a history function on tweets}
Serge: the difficulty of localized problem solving introducing balkanization of data
Mchasen: moving from open APIs to web services approach to be more live and free flowing
Chuck: IMS learner information services, this standard undergone mjr rework, led by oracle, open philosophy (v open src). LIS designed to solve the fundamental problems; lite version purely rest based working with small company (School???)
Serge: web svcs terrific; let's you write php code rather than heavy weight java code; web services allows us to treat BB as a academic infrastructure system; we can build tools in PHP to add onto the LMS
Chuck: web services: moddle embarking on dev of web services (moodle hard to add modules now); LMS becoming a SOA that's becoming enterprise information, not a place to put your syllabus
In 2 years:
mchasen: opening up your LMS to where students are; trend around cloud computing (safe assign leverages cloud computing (everyone using safeassign); but admits that it probably violates FERPA to put all data up in the cloud; envision a day when a school will pick and choose some bb modules, some others
chuck: echoing chasen
good session
Educause 2008: Social Media and Education
Social Media and Education: The Conflict Between Technology and Institutional Education, and the Future
Sarah Intellagirl Robbins
Intellagirl's claim: Many of the benefits of institutional learning can be accomplished via social media, she fears for future of high ed
High ed offers:
--membership in social affinity or intellectual groups (online or rl)
-- engage in intellectual discourse
--access to resources and experts
--endorsement of completion (credentialing)
--accumulate skills for employment
--association with professional community (esp with things like nursing schools)
--guidance through experiences and thought processes
Role of social media for those who engage?
Social media offers:
--self expression
--sharing enthusiasm for common interests
--access to experts and personalities (pic is of TED talks)
--enhance personal and professional reputation
--build and share skills
All communication is educational
Dialogic communication allows for more community, exchange of ideas (Web 2.0)
Institutions can be replaced by a *self-motivated* investigator
Where does education fit in a world where production & consumption of info has become:
-- wikipedia (v. brittanica)
-- amateur (you tube)
-- distributive (crowdsource)
Strategies for the future:
--we are not the gatekeepers to knowledge
--role of educators changing (edupunk )
--references Henry Jenkins (aca-fan ); teach students how to learn in an information economy
--teach importance of contributing to community (global citizens now); their value in an info economy is the quality of what they share; teaching them to learn and express alone -- not what's needed today
-- teacher as guide (she doesn't say 'sage'); teacher a co-creator (uses ex from elementary school)
--arguing for teacher as expert, the helper when students get in trouble (how many teachers navigate w2.0 with that degree of skill)
Educators more imp than ever in world of social media
We are the last cohort of educators who will remember what the world was like before not only social media but other technologies (hand helds)
intellagirl@gmail.com
SL: IntellagirlTully
slides on slideshare
Q: {accurately points out that the claims at the start of her talk are more alarmist than the conclusions she presents at talk's conclusion}
I: if we don't embrace the shift (teach courses lecture style, large classes without online community accompaniment), then we may have trouble. Will students choose to be controlled by institutions?
Students raised in a world where they have a voice and every system they engage in allows them to do that, except school.
Q: I've taught biochemistry and bioinformatics for many years, and there is a set body of knowledge, and I wouldn't want to drive over a bridge built by someone who studied engineering at wikipedia;
I: We don't need to abandon facts but we can remove individual isolation and allow students to collaborate better while learning concrete information
Output mechanisms of tests and papers may not help the learning outcome.
Q: from Israel -- why do you say "IT" when "ICT" (c=communication) is so important
Q: Inside HighEd this am: FB becoming the campus commons, rather than a physical commons; please comment
I: Don't think that students spending more time in FB than F2F,
Sarah Intellagirl Robbins
Intellagirl's claim: Many of the benefits of institutional learning can be accomplished via social media, she fears for future of high ed
High ed offers:
--membership in social affinity or intellectual groups (online or rl)
-- engage in intellectual discourse
--access to resources and experts
--endorsement of completion (credentialing)
--accumulate skills for employment
--association with professional community (esp with things like nursing schools)
--guidance through experiences and thought processes
Role of social media for those who engage?
Social media offers:
--self expression
--sharing enthusiasm for common interests
--access to experts and personalities (pic is of TED talks)
--enhance personal and professional reputation
--build and share skills
All communication is educational
Dialogic communication allows for more community, exchange of ideas (Web 2.0)
Institutions can be replaced by a *self-motivated* investigator
Where does education fit in a world where production & consumption of info has become:
-- wikipedia (v. brittanica)
-- amateur (you tube)
-- distributive (crowdsource)
Strategies for the future:
--we are not the gatekeepers to knowledge
--role of educators changing (edupunk )
--references Henry Jenkins (aca-fan ); teach students how to learn in an information economy
--teach importance of contributing to community (global citizens now); their value in an info economy is the quality of what they share; teaching them to learn and express alone -- not what's needed today
-- teacher as guide (she doesn't say 'sage'); teacher a co-creator (uses ex from elementary school)
--arguing for teacher as expert, the helper when students get in trouble (how many teachers navigate w2.0 with that degree of skill)
Educators more imp than ever in world of social media
We are the last cohort of educators who will remember what the world was like before not only social media but other technologies (hand helds)
intellagirl@gmail.com
SL: IntellagirlTully
slides on slideshare
Q: {accurately points out that the claims at the start of her talk are more alarmist than the conclusions she presents at talk's conclusion}
I: if we don't embrace the shift (teach courses lecture style, large classes without online community accompaniment), then we may have trouble. Will students choose to be controlled by institutions?
Students raised in a world where they have a voice and every system they engage in allows them to do that, except school.
Q: I've taught biochemistry and bioinformatics for many years, and there is a set body of knowledge, and I wouldn't want to drive over a bridge built by someone who studied engineering at wikipedia;
I: We don't need to abandon facts but we can remove individual isolation and allow students to collaborate better while learning concrete information
Output mechanisms of tests and papers may not help the learning outcome.
Q: from Israel -- why do you say "IT" when "ICT" (c=communication) is so important
Q: Inside HighEd this am: FB becoming the campus commons, rather than a physical commons; please comment
I: Don't think that students spending more time in FB than F2F,
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