I am lame at Google docs

Sooooo -- tried to follow the instructions to post a Google doc (which I have figured out how to create) on my blog here. No such luck. For some reason the drop-down menu under "share" includes "publish to web", but that menu does not include "post to blog". So, after much repetitive frustration, I opted for "get the link to share" and did just that, adding the link "West Ride 1990" to the "Links of Interest" over there to your right.

So I fail at executing the exact instructions, but I win at creating my own little work-around/kludge.

Anybody know any other way to get that document posted on this blog?

Facebook is the devil

Facebook is the devil.

1. Find someone you know with a profile and explore it with him or her. Ask him or her about his or her experiences with the tool. Did your conversation change your thinking about the application?

My wife uses it. There is a running joke in our house about my disdain for it, so, no, nothing has changed about my thinking regarding the application.

2. Explain why you have chosen not to create a Facebook profile. How did you reach this decision? What implications does it have for your ability to learn about this application as both a traveler and an educator?

My experiences with Facebook have been wholly negative. If somebody could show me some examples where students have used it in a positive manner rather than to degrade, harrass and annoy one another it would be a first.

Creating a profile and learning about the application are not the same thing. I am not concerned about the implications for myself as an educator until such time as having a profile is necessary in some professional capacity. I am not holding my breath.

3. Reflect on the following questions:

• If you are either an avid or a first time user, what surprised or continues to surprise you about the experience?

What surprises me is how foolish people are about sharing details of their personal lives in an application riddled with privacy land-mines. I am astonished in particular at the pictures people will post. The prospect of some e-pervert trolling through family photos of my children is less than thrilling.

• What potential can you see in social networks for education?

It might have limited use as a means of communication among students involved in particular projects or co-curricular clubs/activities, though frankly a wiki provides a much better platform for this purpose.

Mostly it is used as a place for students to post compromising photos of one another and indulge their penchant for the tiresome "you suck; no, you suck" adolescent dialogue.

I will pass over in silence the hazard it poses to young teaching staff who are not careful about its use in their personal lives (particularly with respect to boundary-setting with students).

• What are some of the potential concerns?

See above -- students mostly use it for interactions that are inappropriate in a school setting.

• Did/does using the application alleviate those concerns or exacerbate them?

Ten thousand times NO!

• Will you continue to use Facebook after our tour is over? Why or why not?

Didn't use it before; won't use it after. Do I really need to belabour the point? I am fortunate that it does not have any currency in my social circle.

• Would you answer these questions differently if you were discussing your child's or parent's profile? Why or why not?

There is exactly zero chance that either of my parents would ever have a Facebook profile. Right now my kids are too young for one, but you can bet that the hazards of Facebook and its progeny will be drummed into them.

Look, if you really need to use social networking, use one with a professional purpose like LinkedIn.

Facebook is, and remains, the devil.

Wiki-worlds

I just edited the travelsineducation wiki to add what I will bring to the party (Coke Zero -- cannot stand the metallic taste of Diet Coke) and to add a page titled "costumes" so people can add what they will be wearing.

PBWorks was pretty straightforward. I have used wikispaces.com before for a basketball related wiki: http://titanhoops.wikispaces.com/

Frankly, that wiki has not been used very much. I guess I haven't found a good use for one yet, or the right group of people who are comfortable using one.

Another Embedded Video

Heh -- looks like I got a little ahead of the tour there in that last post.

So, when you are a Georgia Tech basketball fan, one constant is a loathing of the Duke Blue Devils, hereafter referred to with derision as "dook". When all else fails, and if you cannot watch the Yellowjackets win, you can always enjoy watching dook lose, though that does not happen anywhere near often enough. Any ACC fan knows only too well that dook gets ridiculous calls in their favour, viz this video of traveling, dook style:




I like youtube, primarily as a diversion, but you can occasionally find something thoughtful in the great swamp of nonsense. I intend to continue using it, if for no other reason than to find mockery of dook.

Saturday!

OK, looking over these posts I see where I've been a bit of a negative-nancy, so here's something cheerful from Youtube from Fall Saturdays in the ACC ...

Picasa and all that

The picture that I sent to the tour guides had no tags -- figures.

Frankly, I did not think much of Picasa. I don't anticipate using it. I like ideas, and this thing is bereft of them.

As for online web albums, I do have one at Photobucket, but there aren't very many pictures on it.

A Picture from my computer

Don't Believe The Hype

Hype-rlink?

No thanks -- I generally have to read the main text before I will go "down the rabbit hole" to embedded links. The most irritating kind of link of all are the ones that don't open in a new browser window, so you have to keep clicking on the "back" button to return to the original (are you listening, Google?).

As for students, well, I imagine they might be less concerned about the main text than an old codger like me. Either way, there's a price to be paid -- I am probably too linear in my thinking, and they are probably too scattered in theirs.

For teaching and learning links may have value in highlighting connections for the reader -- mind you, then the reader may not be learning to do this for him/herself.

Writing with hyperlinks is six kinds of irritating. Much like my reading, I have to finish the draft and then go back and insert the links.

Oh, and if, like me, you weren't inclined to click on the first hyperlink in this blog, I have embedded the old-school audio below ...

Not-So-Fellow Traveller

First stop on my travels in E-ducation finds me writing about something I can hardly stand. I find travel generally distasteful, and avoid it whenever and wherever possible. When I am forced to travel (now solely for family purposes) I find that I need a vacation to recover from my so-called "vacation".

So, my favourite trip is the one I don't have to take -- like when my wife took our daughter to Greece, or our son to Scotland. In both cases she went with her older sister while I enjoyed a rare respite from the usual domestic roar ...

My dream travel destination? That's easy: right out my back door, poolside in our cedar-lined back-yard, under the awning with a glass of wine and a good book.

I wasn't always so dull. In 1990 I rode out to Vancouver and then down the Pacific Coast Highway to Mexico on my motorcycle. A couple of years later I rode it to Atlanta, Georgia. I have been to New Orleans three times, and Ireland once. But increasing age, responsibilities and general exhaustion have taken their toll. My travelling days are over, and that's fine by me.

So why did I join the "Travels in E-ducation"? Simple -- I can explore an increasingly wide world without setting foot beyond my own front door.