Exorcising Caution

Worrying news - it seems that at least a quarter of all Internet connected computers could be used by cybercrims in massive botnets - those suffering such as affliction should seek help as soon as possible. No. It's no laughing matter, as such 'possessed computers' - known as 'zombies' are operating without their owners' knowledge or consent, being used for spam, denial of service attacks, spam, online fraud activities, and did I mention ... spam.

The article, posted today on the BBC News website, also claims that pirated copies of Vista are only adding to the problem, with around half infected with Trojans. Where will it all end? How can we stop from being attacked like this? I think we should be trolled...

Altered Vista?

It seems that Microsoft's new Vista operating system is under fire even as it is birthed... In one of today's news articles about the new operating system BBC News reports that Microsoft is vigorously defending Vista against the criticism that it deliberately 'downgrades' the quality of audio and video. Well who'd 'a thought it....?

(Pictured Above: Bill Gates indicates the life expectancy of Vista)

Dr Peter Gutman, a lecturer at the University of Auckland, down under in New Zealand is one of the leaders of the attack. He is quoted as saying that Vista's content protection spec is "the longest suicide note in history", and claims that "The sheer obnoxiousness of Vista's content protection may end up being the biggest incentive to piracy yet created." Hmmm .... we will soon see (or maybe not).

Something Wiki this way comes...

We've been experimenting with wikis recently in the University of Plymouth down here in the South West of England. We've been using them since the start of the new term. Only a few weeks in, and already wikis appear to be paying dividends. The students who use them are undergrads and postgrads, and it will be interesting to see if they interact and/or transgress into each other's spaces during editing.

I'm most interested in the dynamics that go on between students when they are creating content and editing each other's work. Ownership seems to be a real issue for some - they quickly realise that once the 'send' button has been pressed, the content is no longer their own, but belongs to the entire learning community, to alter, extend, mix, mashup or delete as they see fit. Its a problem for some, but I guess they will get used to it.... I hope to present a paper (or two) on our findings later in the year, probably at the EDEN conference, aptly entitled 'New Learning 2.0?' in Naples in June.

In the meantime, we are using two wikis: epedagogy and IMPOnline.

Check out a really useful (but slightly dated) commentary on wikis at Using Wiki in Education - it also offers some useful links to previous work and good tips about ways to use wikis in education.

The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle

Check out the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle which provides neat commentary on a number of recent and relevant issues impacting upon the use of technology in education and training (I may be wrong, but from what I've seen, I think this 'blog leans more toward corporate training). Included in recent posts is a link to a very useful paper on combating online learner isolation by Susan Nash Smith. Includes a good dose of social learning theory.

Told you so...

Won't say I told you so, but.... In my blog on 3rd January 'Living in a post-modem world', I predicted that due to better broadband connections in the UK, and the subsequent increase in music downloads, highstreet shops such as HMV Records would be hard pressed to sell CDs.

Well lo and behold, yesterday HMV announced they will no longer be stocking CD singles, as 'it is no longer relevant to the way it sells music.' (BBC News Online) Didn't take them long, did it?

To be fair, it's not just about broadband and the web but these are influential factors. As a result, last week there were changes in the way the singles charts in the UK will be compiled. The charts will now take into consideration all the web downloads as well as high street sales. So HMV are the first... will Virgin and the others follow?

Publish and be jammed

I might be wrong, but I think the days of the paper based academic journal could be numbered....

At the EARLI 2004 conference in Cyprus delegates were invited to a 'meet the editors' session, where we could quiz 15 or so editors about their journals. I was first on my hind legs to ask a question which was later echoed by several other delegates. How could editors justify the long lead in times between acceptance of papers to publication - as academics, we want our ideas to be in the public domain as quickly as possible, before they grow hairs on their chins. Satisfactory answer came there none.

One of the worst culprits is Computers and Education. A long long time ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth (alright, 26 November 2004), my colleagues Sue Waite, Carolyn Bromfield and I received confirmation that our article 'Our Flexible Friend' had been accepted for publication in the journal. More than two years later, our article still isn't in print, but we can expect it to be published around summer 2007!

Last year my colleagues Maged Boulos, Cito Maramba and I submitted our paper 'Wikis Blogs and Podcasts' to the online medical journal BMC Medical Education. When our manuscript was accepted, we were pleasantly surprised that it was published online the same day! Since then, in only four months, it has recorded over 5,500 viewings on the BMC site alone. It is mirrored on other sites around the globe including Pub Med Central, so this figure can be at least doubled. Our ideas and theories have been disseminated well and in a timely manner, to the extent that other articles and blogs have already appeared online reviewing, commenting and challenging us. Here are a few notable ones:

• British Medical Journal Online (BMJ.com)
• Drugscope Blog
• Clinical Evidence Blog
• Informaticopia (Rod Space)
• Stuart Glendinning Hall
• a-brest.net (France)
• Medinfo.net
• e-Learning at UWC (South Africa)
• Cases Blog
• OLDaily (Canada)

I know where a lot of my work will be published in the future... what do you think?

Liquid Learning runs hot

Star blog of the week award has to go to Liquid Learning: Blogging the Future - a blog by Dr Steve Warburton who is IT and e-Learning Manager at Kings College London. Steve's take on Second Life has just been posted on his blog today. This very minute. Go there.

Steve writes: "If, as it seems to me, the authenticity of the SL experience constantly needs to be defended by 'fans' (not just here but in many quarters) then the crude collapsing of SL and RL (Real Life) to justify this authenticity is a bizarre way to accomplish this. The most glaring disjuncture for me is simply is the naming of avatars, the lack of [RL] profiles and the almost obsessive desire of most SL citizens to avoid any link to their real world selves".

Now didn't I just ....?

Second Life and no brain?

Been into Second Life yet? For the uninitiated, it's a web world where you can be whoever you want to be, choose an avatar and fly, teleport or otherwise transport yourself around a virtual world. You can buy and sell property or services using what equates to 'real' money - known as the 'Linden' and make your fortune. You can converse with wizards and lizards, superheroes, superzeroes and exotic animals, and even the odd politician. (They are all odd if you ask me)

Watch out though, because everywhere is the 'hard sell'. From the start, at the registration stage, you are 'given opportunities' to purchase Lindens in exchange for real Dollars or Pounds, or any other dosh you have in your pockets (read 'credit card'). Yet one and a half million people can't be wrong can they? That's the official headcount of people who regularly use Second Life (BBC News - Click Programme).

Makes you wonder. If this is a 'second life' for some people - is it more happy than their first life, and are they more fulfilled flying around as a blue fairy with golden wings? Will Second Life replace real life for real people, becoming as real if not more real for them than Real Life? Really?

Will there be a need for hospitals and rehab clinics in SL? When will the first prisons open up in Second Life, and what will you have to do to earn parole? Crimes have already been committed in SL, including breach of copyright on other people's property and ideas, and an attack of the worms. (I hate it when that happens).

For teachers, what will be the implications for education? Will there be schools? Is SL something that can be used to teach kids the dangers of becoming too immersed in a virtual world. Can the SL type concept be used productively for learning? Or is it a no brainer?

Alive and clicking

I got bored the other day and Googled myself. It sounds painful but instead turned out to be just a little bit disconcerting. It seems there is more than one of me. OK, my homepage came out as number one on the Google listings, which was gratifying, but there were 39,400 other hits, and not all of them were me (Look, I didn’t go through them all – I wasn’t that bored). So there are other Steve Wheelers in the world, probably hundreds of them, and they have some interesting, and sometimes bizarre occupations….

Some other Steve Wheelers ….

• a student at North Georgia Technical College (Who, where, what, eh?)
• an Associate Professor of Accounting in the Eberhardt School of Business, University of the Pacific, California (I wish)
• the bass guitarist for the JJ Kasner Band (I actually can play the bass but will not lower myself)
• an Environmental Health and Housing Consultant (nope, far too boring)
• an Astro-photographer (sounds like a paparrazi)
• an Ice skating illusionist! (I’m speechless….. but just to prove I’m not making it up there are pictures of him in action at: http://www.genting.com.my/en/live_ent/2000/magiconice/index.htm)
• a Sculptor, Swordsmith and Cutler (nice combination mate)
• a Proctologist (No, seriously, straight up!)

The most famous Steve Wheeler (Number two on the Google listing) is an American abstract painter/artist who was born in 1912 and died in 1992 (Dead? And I had so much to offer….). This is not so funny, because on the electronic library system at the University of Plymouth, I noticed that they had me (the living one) confused with dead Steve. So all my publications were listed as Steve Wheeler 1912-1992. Some of my students, I thought, might be disconcerted to be taught by a deceased person. Maybe that explains why some were not turning up for my lectures.

So I e-mailed the library and explained that I wasn’t dead, it was mistaken identity, 'I’m alive and clicking' I said, and could they resurrect me please. They told me they would dig up somebody who could change the records. It took more than three days. I’m now restored to full corporeal presence on the library records, and my students have one excuse less to miss my lectures. Yahoo!

A wizard in Oz

Stumbled across a very interesting blog by David Jones a few days ago. He's a lecturer based down under in Central Queensland University Australia, and has some interesting things to say about e-learning. One of David's main research interests is the use of e-learning in tertiary education.

Check it out, but don't mention the cricket....

Living in a post-modem world

Blimey. Talk about digital divides... yesterday the BBC [BBC News 24, 2 January 2007] reported that by the end of this month 13 million households in the UK will be connected to broadband. That's half the households in Britain for Tim's sake. It's all because there are over 200 broadband providers in the UK, all fighting for an ever dwindling population of customers, and all being so competitive that by the end of 2007 half of them will be dead in the water.

Got me thinking... if half of all UK households can now access high speed Internet what can we expect?

• Firstly, more people will be watching video and other megabyte hungry media on their pcs - does this mean the death of terrestrial broadcasting? Will YouTube replace Channel 4?
• Secondly, more people will pay to download music from the Internet and less will be going into town to buy CDs. Is the end of HMV and Virgin Records in sight?
• Thirdly, more people will be shopping on Amazon, E-Bay and other online retailers than before. Get your food delivered direct to your doorstep by Tesco or Sainsbury! (It's a shame we can't get our rubbish collected from our doorstep by the local council. They haven't been around for almost 2 weeks over the Christmas break and the wheelie bins are disgusting).

Yesterday Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet UK was interviewed by BBC News. He remarked that 'the Internet is non-geographical' (as he sat firmly on a seat in the Edinburgh studio). I think I know what he means, but then he went too far with 'everyone is now online'. I don't think so. My Mum and Dad are steadfastly non-Internet and so is my rabbit Charlie (although I am thinking of breaching privacy rules and placing a webcam in his hutch), and I reckon there are one or two others in the UK who are just not interested :-P. So we still have a digital divide and it's not just those who have and don't have broadband. It's also those who couldn't care less about the Web.