Comments for hybridclassroom.com

Comment on iPad: What’s it to you? by rwhite

rwhite — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:10:14 +0000

@ jyen: Ben Long is a rock star! That article is hilarious, and over the top, even for me.

The good news is that were some pretty critical things said of the iPhone rev 1 as well, and… well, we all know what happened there. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be critical, but this is obviously the first generation of a device that, in all likelihood, is going to have a very long lifespan.

Buckle up for the ride…!

Comment on iPad: What’s it to you? by jyen

jyen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:38:45 +0000

Another take…

http://www.macworld.com/article/150474/2010/04/ipad_not_for_everyone.html

Comment on iPad by aglimme

aglimme — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:43:57 +0000

My question is if this is, and I think it is, an amazing content delivery device. What does that mean for us? Our whole job is basically content delivery, what is the best way to do that and where does the iPad fit in. Clearly there is a LOT of experimenting to do. My main questions is does this challenge the fundamental way we deliver content? I think it might.

Comment on “Give it away, give it away, give it away now!” by aglimme

aglimme — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:06:10 +0000

Here, here! Excellently said Richard, the point of the network is to connect people to content and other people. If the students have better more open access on their phones what are we protecting them from? Except getting their work done.

Comment on Here comes Linux, part 1 by rwhite

rwhite — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:01:48 +0000

Yeah, I *do* remember those little machines, and didn’t like them much. There were stability problems, and OpenOffice was destroying people’s files (including mine that I used to test them out!)

I’ve been running LinuxMint on my desktop machine after learning about it from Patrick, and am really, really happy with it. I still have usability doubts about a netbook-scale machine, at least for daily use, but I was mightily impressed by a guy at the SciPy conference who was running his entire presentation off one of these guys.

Stay tuned!

Comment on Here comes Linux, part 1 by jyen

jyen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:16:26 +0000

You’re going to have fun with this one. I’ve worked a little bit with Linux myself, and am far from an expert, but I’ve found the the various flavors of the OS to be generally very fast and efficient. The biggest obstacles lie in the compatibility with file types generated by Windows and Mac OS software. While the basics of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are certainly achievable, anything more sophisticated tends to yield inconsistent results.

As you may remember, we experimented with a Linux OS in our library and found it to be just a hair too limiting given the needs of the program. Other than these relatively small, but significant compatibility issues, the systems were very stable and the hardware it ran on used minimal power.

To cite a Runner’s World reference to penguins (also a Linux mascot)… “Waddle on!”

Comment on Gedanken Me This: Why not open up your classroom content? by hybridclassroom.com » Playing Well with Others… and Charging for It

hybridclassroom.com » Playing Well with Others… and Charging for It — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:13:22 +0000

[...] already discussed opening up your classroom content to the world, and what the advantages and risks might be there. There were three events in the last [...]

Comment on Workflow – Emailing Groups by rwhite

rwhite — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:44:24 +0000

That's absolutely true: an integrated Course Management System has many advantages. Moodle is an relatively easy CMS to begin with, and Joomla is popular also. And if you want to see a true, high-powered CMS-based website, check out WhiteHouse.gov, whose new website is running on the CMS Drupal. If you're running your own server on which you can install one of these packages--or if your domain host provides support for one of these packages--you can have a great looking website up and running in a semi-reasonable amount of time. Installing, configuring, and managing a CMS is not a weekend project for most people, however. Entire books have been written on these CMSes, so... unless you're looking to launch a full website and are willing to devote the time required to get it up and running, installing a CMS just to be able to email your students is probably overkill.

Comment on Workflow – Emailing Groups by jyen

jyen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:00:21 +0000

A CMS is definitely the way to go. Our website attempts to do this on some level, but the lack of auto notification is what stops me from calling a full blown CMS. They are developing it to this end, but in a market where this has been around for some years now, it seems a little behind the times. Social networking takes a cue from this as well (or was it the other way around) with auto notifications of content updates, chat and email messaging all built-in.

Comment on Workflow – Emailing Groups by aglimme

aglimme — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:19:52 +0000

One thing I really like about using a CMS(Course Management System) is that much of this is handled automatically. When my students join the course they must give a valid email and are automatically added to the course email list. Anything I post to the “News discussion” is emailed to all students. Once you’ve got a CMS running it takes care of a lot of the details.