Vista? Geef mij maar Ubuntu...


Skunkworks schrijft:

I am a proficient Windows XP user and more, but after seeing what’s Vista going to be with all the issues in relation to implementing security and the way Microsoft wants to license it, I decided that it is time for me to try to find an alternative. This was happening around a month ago after I attended a Microsoft Techday dedicated to Vista. So in the past month I used exclusively Ubuntu Linux 6.10 on my laptop. Below is the journal of what happened.
(lees verder...)

p.s. onze netwerkbeheerder zou zeggen: "geef mij maar centos linux"

One Laptop per Child

Hey, wat een mooi initiatief! Voor vijf straaljagers en 1.000 clusterbommen koop je die dingetjes toch?

Bron: OLPC


Introducing the children's laptop from One Laptop per Child—a potent learning tool created expressly for the world's poorest children living in its most remote environments. The laptop was designed collaboratively by experts from both academia and industry, bringing to bear both extraordinary talent and many decades of collective field experience in every aspect of this non-profit humanitarian project. The result is a unique harmony of form and function; a flexible, ultra low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable machine with which nations of the emerging world can leapfrog decades of development—immediately transforming the content and quality of their children's learning.

Be active. Be involved.

Thanks, Dangerously irrelevant, voor dit mooie citaat!

Although this quote from Worldchanging doesn't pertain directly to education or educational technology, I thought it was pretty relevant to what we're trying to make happen in the next few years...

Check out the WorldChanging web site. It's pretty nifty.

Technorati Tags: adventure, worldchanging

Youtube films downloaden

Thanks, Mguhlin-wiki, voor deze tips bij Youtube:

#3: How do I get copies of those videos on YouTube and Google to save to my computer so that I can share them at work?

After viewing this video "The Audience is Up to Something" from the Long Tail blog , I hoped to get a copy I could show at a workshop I was conducting. Unfortunately, YouTube is almost universally blocked in K-12 school districts. I had to laugh at the hypocrisy of one education reformer asking for the Internet administrator to disable the content filter—an act few teachers can accomplish in their own districts—so they could share proscribed content.
While I could run the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Tor to bypass it—certainly NOT something to do if you work in a District since it immediately violates your commitment to uphold the Acceptable Use Policy--it would slow things down...and everyone knows 20 seconds is an eternity in front of an audience. However, there are several tools you can use to accomplish capturing of forbidden fruit. These tools are listed below:

1. YouTube FLV Grabba! - http://teemus.livejournal.com/219351.html
2. YouTubeX – http://www.youtubex.com
3. YouTubia- http://www.youtubia.com
4. KeepVid – http://www.keepvid.com
5. Video Downloader - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2390/
6. YouTube to Me -http://www.joshkinberg.com/blog/archives/2005/11/greased_google.php
7. Ripzor- http://www.ripzor.com/
8. YouTubeGetter -http://www.exploseek.com/FlvGetter/
9. VideoDL.org - http://www.videodl.org/
10. Tech Crunch YouTube Video Download Tool - http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie/
    

Of the tools listed above, I found KeepVid to be the easiest to use and is the solution I use the most. You can visit the KeepVid.com site, select “YouTube” and paste the web address (URL) of the YouTube video you want to get. Click DOWNLOAD and you'll be offered a link to save the video file to your computer.

Unfortunately, KeepVid itself may be banned in K-12 environments, so you will want to use it at home to save videos, then bring the videos on a USB drive or CD-ROM. Some of the other solutions should work in education environments.
A related question for iPod users—Windows or Mac—is how they can put YouTube videos on their iPod. You can take advantage of two free programs to accomplish that. Windows folks can use iTube, while Mac folks can use PodTube.

iTube (Windows) describes itself in this way:
''iTube automatically locates a YouTube video, downloads the video file to your hard drive, coverts the video from Flash to MPEG-4 and adds the converted video to your iTunes library. No more hassling with multiple step processes to convert an YouTube video. Paste in the URL of the page on YouTube, hit Go and you're done.''

With PodTube, you can view a YouTube video in the Mac Safari browser and PodTube will allow you to download it.
Download these programs:

1. iTube for Windows - http://www.topdrawerdownloads.com/download/104839
2. PodTube for Macintosh - http://djodjodesign.free.fr/rightEN.html

...overigens een onderdeel van zijn hele wiki-tippagina met als thema:

• Download a la Mode v6 – Apps that Simplify Your Life

P.S.: deze tips worden nuttig als je ziet hoe Youtube nu, na de overname door Google, zich meer en meer begint te gedragen als een (...vul zelf in), zie Techcrunch

• video sharing sites vergeleken bij dv guru
• videofilmpjes opslaan staat ook beschreven op deze digitale revolutie
  

Virtual tattoo

Thanks, coolcatteacher, voor deze nieuwe term:

Virtual Tattoo - What students are unknowingly making. Colleges are beginning to search myspace and screen applicants based upon their online profiles.

We kenden al tijden de term "she googled him", maar het wordt hallucinant hoe we traceerbare sporen nalaten op het internet. Vrienden noemen mij al tijden 'paranoia'' omdat ik minstens 10 mailadressen en 3 virtuele namen voer, maar...
En bij sollicitaties wordt het hoe langer hoe meer standard practice om iemands internetgedrag te 'googlen' (gelukkig zijn de meeste werkgevers nog niet vertrouwd met web 2.0).
Ik stel voor dat we met z'n allen virtuele persoonlijkheden gaan ontwikkelen, maar... worden we dan niet schizofreen?

Virtuele werelden: Second life...

Het geroep wordt hoe langer hoe luider... we gaan naar virtuele werelden in het onderwijs. Zelfs CNN schrijft nu al over Second life:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The classroom of the future isn't on a college campus. It's in the virtual world of "Second Life."
In "Second Life," virtual residents -- cartoonish-looking characters controlled via keyboard and mouse -- create anything their hearts desire.
Also known as avatars, the residents start up businesses, stage their own concerts, sell real estate and design fashion lines. Reuters news agency even has a correspondent based in the cyber community.
A growing number of educators are getting caught up in the wave. More than 60 schools and educational organizations have set up shop in the virtual world and are exploring ways it can be used to promote learning.

Second life werkt momenteel nog alleen op Windows PC, maar als we de evolutie bij Skype en zelfs bij, godbetert, smartboard, mogen vertrouwen, dan komt er over niet al te lange tijd een Linux en Apple-versie.
Er zullen weer heel wat geleerde edublogs over volgeschreven worden. Virtuele werelden liggen in de lijn der dingen, denk ik. Oosterse mystici zouden zeggen dat de mens eerst in de techniek creëert, wat hij nadien in de werkelijke gedachtenwereld wil gerealiseerd zien. Van gsm naar telepathie, van virtuele wereld naar uittreding?
Maar meer down to earth, een eerste intro zag je al in dit filmpje over Court of public opinion.

Een een waarschuwing, alweer van coolcatteacher:

Notes on Second Life
I also learned that if you go into Second Life, that you should never go alone. My sister went in alone and was virtually accosted online. We are discussing the possibility of a big group "being born" into second life together and taking a tour. We are looking for a group who would like to usher us into Second life at a certain time and perhaps give us a tour. I'm still floored by the whole thought of it.

Edit 26Nov2006: zie hieronder de bijdrage van maarten cannaerts' fuifje in Second life...