It is now official, we’re planning a WordCamp educational edition as a NERCOMP SIG. At the moment it looks like it will be Feburary 2, 2009 in Worcester, MA, but stay tuned for more details. If you have ideas for speakers, or would like to get involved in the planning, please let me know. Here is some background:
We can’t pretend new media doesn’t exist. But at the same time it is changing so quickly it is hard to figure out what and how to teach the subject. Students come into school having used some new media, but without really understanding how it works, especially in any context outside of a limited social circle. This article from the always information ReadWrite blog has some excellent thoughts on the subject:
Here is a recent article on the whole textbook industry vs. student peer-to-peer sharing mess. The Pirate Bay, which has proved pretty untouchable with music sharing, is now being used for text book sharing. The article offers the example of an Organic Chemistry text book that can cost $110 used, up to $210 at full retail value. In digital form, wrapped in digital rights management, with a one semester subscription, it runs $110.
I’ve taken two excellent PHP classes offerred by New York PHP. They just announced a partnership with CUNY to offer a 4 day intensive course on programming with PHP. If you are looking for a quick-start with PHP this may be your chance.
I have been working my way through a study released earlier this year by the British Library and JISC: Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future . It does a great job at assessing current research and studies on the impact of technology on young people. The bottom line is that while much is changing, much is still staying the same. Students still need to learn how to do research: how to look for information, how to evaluate its relevance, how to re-use that in their own work, etc.
What is the future of the text book? Prices are rising and there is backlash from the buyers. Books are increasingly being uploaded and illegally being made available on line for free. Authors rarely see any significant revenue. It all feels like the music industry 10 years ago.
Content provided by Randall Rode, a professional technologist based in Clinton, Connecticut, USA
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