What does Pedagogy Mean in IT?

Way back in January of 2002 I wrote a rationale for this blog. It’s been linked to and quoted a few times, most recently by Shelly McCauley Jugovich and Bruce Reeves in an Educause Quarterly article entitled “IT and Educational Technology: What’s Pedagogy Got to Do with IT?“. They quoted this bit (without the links):

This […]

The Influence of Individuals

I’ve been watching an interesting saga unfold; bear with me while I expound.
I’m a member of a community for writers called “Absolute Write.” It’s a combination of a resource site and an online community, with a particular emphasis on outreach and advocacy for writers. There are a lot of scams that target naive writers, including […]

On “Serious” Blogging

New Kid on the Hallway drew my attention to this article in Inside Higher Ed by Jeff Rice.

Rice has two central points, I think, in his initial article. I say “I think” because the argument is less than coherent. Rice begins by referring to the “Ivan Tribble” articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education, asserting […]

On Apple, Wiley, and the Spurning of Books

In retaliation for John Wiley and Sons’ forthcoming publication of an unauthorized biography of Steve Jobs, Apple has instructed that all Wiley books be removed from the shelves of all Apple retail stores. The story first broke publicly Tuesday in Mercury News’ Silicon Valley Report. Later the story was picked up by Associated Press. Bloggers […]

Sometimes, it is the User’s Responsibility

I’m generally a user advocate, but there are limits to even my patience and understanding. For instance, users who knowingly use beta software pretty much are out on a limb. Users who use Beta software as part of an active, primary production system are, well clueless. Dori Smith linked to this post from Mary […]

Rant: Appropriate Instructional Technology

This is shaping up to be a solid, rather lengthy rant about the nature of instructional technology, though I will endeavor to avoid foaming at the mouth. Feel free to go elsewhere.

I’ve been percolating, so to speak, this particular rant for a long time. You can see my early eruptions in Thomas Wortham’s 1998 […]

Argghhhhh Mac OS X: Virus-Free

The Chronicle of Higher Education has, once a week or so, a “Colloquy,” or live discussions about a set topic. Readers submit questions in advance, which are answered by an “expert.”
This week the topic was “The High Cost of Computer Worms,” and the expert was one Gregory A. Jackson, vice president and chief information […]

Flash Woes

Bear with me while I engage in a controlled rant.
One of the more trying aspects of shopping this past holiday season was that, for one reason or another, I had to do most of it via the web. That’s not a problem, I shop a lot on the web anyway. But I kept being […]