voyeurism

was (not was)

in this seventy-fourth episode of ventriloquy, i introduce you to someone who represents the first generation of digitally native teachers.

for several years now, we've known from Marc Prensky's seminal article that "today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach".

but today, my eureka moment came when i realised that among the trainee-teachers in my social studies class are a couple of people who are true digital natives themselves (and not, like everyone else among us in education) digital immigrants peering curiously through the windows of a virtual Ellis Island.

i cannot wait to see these teachers in action.

when he's not in the classroom, you can find Billy Tan in the library. it's fitting, then, that i just received an email from the National Library Board (NLB) saying that 'No Place Like Home - a cyberbook on the geography of Singapore' (which was a site which i designed, authored, and tendered between 1995 and 1998) has been selected for inclusion in the NLB's most recent initiative - the Web Archive Singapore (WAS).

in this 4.2 MB download, learn about how the WAS is conceived as an archive of websites which are deemed to be of national and historical significance to Singapore. By archiving information that shapes Singapore's national identity, the NLB's objective is to promote a sense of community, identity and rootedness among Singaporeans.

Show notes:
- David Warlick's 26 October blog entry 'Laptops are not the answer!'
- Debra Gniewek's (1999) 'School library programs and student achievement: a review of the research'
- Billy Tan's 1 January blog entry '52 weeks 52 books'
- Marc Prensky's (2001) 'Digital natives, digital immigrants' Parts One and Two
- Martin Owen's (2004) 'The myth of the digital native'
- Ellis Island Immigration Museum
- the National Library Board's Web Archive Singapore

winds of change - introducing vento

i've made a fairly significant change to voyeurism's search engine.

after trying out a couple of engines - neither of which provided truly satisfactory results - i've decided to take advantage of Google's launch today of its Custom Search Engine service.

the result is vento - a loose reference to the sweeping speed and scope which i hope the search results will be brought to you :-P

vento is - as i bill it in the box over in the column on the right - a 'customsearch powered by Google'. i've configured vento not to return its search results simply from within sites which i've authored (eg, my homepage, my wikis and this blog), but also to include hits from other sites in the wider web as well. however, my sites (and others which i've chosen to give preference to) will receive a slightly heavier weighting than they normally would (which is not to say that they will be at, or even near, the top of the searchpile).

every Tom, Dick and Harry - on, and off, the web - has slightly different cultural baggage and agenda, and Google's Custom Search Engines (vento included) are a tacit acknowledgment of this. on balance, i think this is a good thing, because at least the biases are acknowledged, instead of being swept under the carpet. the assumption of course is that the more experts contribute to these Custom Search Engines, the more authoritative (and therefore, preferable / useful?) their results might be. at any rate, within vento you have the option of running the search a second time, using regular search weightings.

i'm supporting this potentially controversial initiative because i see it as another way to contribute to the semantic web.

this is because i'm also configuring vento to support tags (or, what Google terms 'refinement labels').

for the time being, i've only included a few high-level domains and a handful of tags to vento. some trial searches, however, reveal that it's already picking up other tags from other sites - i'm not sure the extent to which (if at all) these Custom Search Engines are able to pick up existing folksonomic tags (such as those associated with technorati), but that sure would make a lot of sense, i think.

and here's where you come in, if you are so inclined, and have the time. over here, you can sign up as a collaborator on vento, and can thereby suggest sites and tags for inclusion in its search algorithms specifically, and in the algorithms of the wider semantic web more generally :-)

if this is getting you excited, a good place to start is Google's own suggested protocols for these refinement labels.

have fun contributing to the semantic web :-)

Technorati Tags: folksonomy, Web 2.0

this day in history

five years ago to the day, Steve Jobs introduced the iPod.

the seventy-third episode of ventriloquy joins the many other web-based commemorations of this anniversary.

the occasion prompts me to ask just why certain events are remembered, while others aren't; and how, if at all, the factors shaping such retrospectives have evolved over time.

join me in this 4.5 MB download, as i look back to 23 October 2001, and to 23 October 1956.

the story is the story

in this seventy-second episode of ventriloquy, i begin exploring the relationship between playing games and learning.

specifically, i contemplate the role that role-playing might have on shaping ways of knowing and ways of being.

along the way, i draw inspiration from - inter alia - one of my teacher-trainees, a first-century Roman poet, and even an anonymous contributor to CNN.

don't panic!

this 3.8 MB download really isn't as mind-boggling as it sounds...

... or is it?

:-)

Show notes:
- CNN.com 'Singapore's judges sparing the rod'
- Jeffrey Yen's 9 October 2006 post 'Stop the Presses!'
- Loh Chee Kong's 9 October 2006 article 'The life sciences conundrum' and He Yi Hua's rejoinder
- quis custodiet ipsos custodies? - the Satires of Juvenal (wikipedia entry)
- epistemicgames.org
- 'Global Conflicts: Palestine' - the videogame
- 'Darfur is Dying' - the videogame
- 'Bully' (a.k.a Canis Canem Edit) - the videogame

the Grameen Classroom

the seventy-first episode of ventriloquy honours the award of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to the Grameen Bank and its founder - Muhammad Yunus.

in this 3.8 MB download, i try to draw parallels between the principles and characteristics of microcredit, and the design of effective learning environments, after having been inspired by no less than Noam Chomsky and Courtney Cazden.

Show notes:
- The Grameen Bank
- 2006 Nobel Peace Prize citation

[update: not to deliberately mention another Massachusetts resident, but it's interesting to contemplate the characteristics of the Grameen Classroom in the light of Howard Gardner's evolving thoughts on the Five Minds for the Future (specifically the creating mind)]