I added Google AdSense code to these pages today. I don’t expect to monetize much from this site, but who knows. Is it selling out? Maybe, but only if I get paid. I tried to make them unobtrusive without violating the terms of service. For a few minutes, until I read the service agreement carefully, the ads showed up only if you clicked on right-hand window shade. If you don’t want to see the ads, I recommend that you use any number of RSS readers to browse this site. I don’t plan on putting ads in there.

The Wayback Machine finally archived something I thought was lost forever. We can all stop now.

I moved it here.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

This one from last week really sent me. And quite a few others. It sums up nicely what I tried to teach the students who worked with me at Vassar.

I lost a lot of time before and during college to the Sid Meier game Civilization. I played it extensively in German during my time in Germany. I assumed, based on the creator’s name, that it was a German game. My vocabulary grew as I played. I always cite this as an example of the pedagogical value of games.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on the OpenTTD project. This is an open source port of Transport Tycoon. I don’t yet know if there is any pedagogical value to this game, but Jay and I are going to play it until we find out. If you want to join us, shoot me a smoke signal.

Introducing the book

Brilliant! Having worked in desktop support, this guys manner is perfect. Patience. Its new. Help them relax. I call it “having a good computer-side manner”. In this case, of course, its “having a good book-side manner.”

I heard about “Terror-Free Oil” while listening to the APM Marketplace podcast on the train this morning. Nice idea, but isn’t this similar to the idea of “conflict-free diamonds”? And don’t even get me started on the concept of “organic food”! As opposed to “inorganic”? These are all just sweet marketing campaigns to get people to pay a little more for fundamentally the same product. All food should be farmed using sustainable farming techniques and stored using non-CFC releasing techniques. It turns out that the terror-free oil comes from the oil giant Sinclair, and that while most of its oil comes from US and Canadian oil fields, some of it is purchased on the US Mercantile exchange, which means that its source is essentially unknowable. Confict diamonds get mixed into the open market at various stages. And organic food, well, that is just a label to lure in the suckers.

Last time I blogged with any kind of regularity (for about 25 seconds, or ten posts) ended when I accepted the Media Cloisters curatorship at Vassar College. It was a one year appointment that stretched into 3 years and 8 months of the most productive and engaging work I have ever done. I mentored marvelous students (Sorry, you all deserve links. Send them to me, and I will put them up. Or find them.), worked with faculty (See above.), had great colleagues (See above.), took on unexpected roles, played roller-hockey, and got a puppy, π.

Last week, I started working at Columbia University. I am attached to the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning, and I work out of the Armory at 168th Street, supporting the faculty at the Columbia University Medical Center.

A resolution I have made is to start documenting what I am reading and thinking about educational technology. To date, I have no formal training in this area. I have relied on instinct to get me this far. I don’t think that will cut it, especially if I hope to pursue an advanced degree.