06.30.09
Posted in Media at 7:33 pm by Travis
Posner: Expand Copyright Law, Save Newspapers - Law Blog - WSJ.
I love the law just as much as any American, but someone needs to tell the Masters of the 20th Century that attacking technology with the law doe not work. Just ask the record industry. They have sued everybody and their grandmother, literally, and the sales have still fallen and the industry as a whole is in state of flux.
Technology often acts as a tsunami. Once it has passed you, few rarely survive without having to become something else. The wave has passed the newspaper industry which was their own fault. They dumbed down their content to a level that allowed technology to facilitate it better that millions of dollars of presses, staff and other equipment. The next step is to reinvent themselves, not use the law to make up for their ineptness. I think conservatives call that personal responsibility. You see when the rest of push back because companies take the jobs over seas and bankrupt whole towns, the corporate interest says that it is “market forces”, capitalism at work, survival of the fittest. When they fail to make the necessary changes to keep themselves viable in the market, they want a bail out, legal and/or financial. Technology is just as much as a market force as your competition hitting the market with a product that blows you out of the water. Either way, you man up and deal with it instead of wanting to take your ball and go home because you actually have to “use” that MBA you got.
If you bring copyright law into the mix, people will stop acquiring the news from the reliable sources period. Since a lot of it is skewed and corporatized anyway, will we really miss it? We may end of having to let journalist investigate and actually report the news in a clear, concise and honest way then newspapers can go back to making money the old fashion way, earning it. Thank you John Housman.
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06.12.09
Posted in personal tech at 5:15 pm by Travis
I had a tip that a Best Buy in my area would have some Palm Pre’s today. In their system, they were supposed to get some today, but when I went to check today the order had disappeared. I don’t know if Palm understands what is going on. All of the Pre fan boys have been on the net talking and tweeting about 50,000 Pre’s and now it’s up to 100,000, but many like myself don’t have one because there are none to have. It’s not about how many features at this point.
Everybody and their grandmother knows what the features are. We have seen them for the last freakin’ month on YouTube, MyTube, SheTube and HeTube, but they’re not enough phones. Who cares that you sold 100,00 when you only made 100,001? You don’t have any now, and come next Friday if you don’t have enough, you are going to have to give away a new car with every purchase to sell ‘em.
Next week Apple will release it’s iPhone 3Gs on the 19th, and I’ll bet there will be enough. You have to give it to Apple. They announce one week, and release the product the next week, not announce one month, release months later with hype out of this world and then don’t have enough and act like you meant it that way.
What good are all of the features if you can’t get one? What good is having a product if only a few customers and reviewers have them? There are those who will be more apt to buy a $99 iPhone without all the bells and whistles because its available. Here is another side to the issue. Those of us on Sprint who are upgrading to purchase a Pre have to upgrade our plan to accomodate the Pre. This means we have to time buying the unit at the end of the billing cycle, or we get hit up to twice our monthly bill. As it stands, if a truck load of Pre’s come in next week, I won’t be getting one because I am not going to pay that pro-rated fee along with my monthly bill. So attention Best Buy and Radio Shack just give mine to someone else. I’ll get one next month if Palm is still in business.
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05.28.09
Posted in personal tech at 7:26 am by Travis
Earlier this year, Sprint introduced its ‘Premiere’ designation for its most loyal customers. Now, I fall into that category. I have been with Sprint now for over 3 years with multiple lines, but what I am not feeling is anymore special by Sprint on the eve of the launch of the Pre’. I have called and written to Sprint many times before about the lack of true appreciation for customers who have been around for a while. One of perks of being a premiere customer was to be notified first of the release of the Pre. I got the email the same time as anyone else.
What is the advantage of being a Premiere customer? What is the advantage of staying with a company when people left by the truck loads to AT&T to get an iPhone? I have put up with a lot of things with Sprint. I stayed because I liked the network. The customer service agents, for the most part, were friendly enough and helped me when they could. It’s the overall structure and culture of how you really treat long standing customers is the problem I have.
In the words of your rival Apple, “Think Different.” As a friend of mine has so put it, Apple could release the iSack next week and the Apple fanboys would hype it to the ends of the earth, and if Steve Jobs shows up at the conference, you won’t hear much about the Pre for a while.
Do something that has never been done before. Truly make customer loyalty the hallmark of your business model especially for those who stayed with you when they had every reason in the world to leave with everyone else. I guess I can’t condemn people who stay in bad relationships anymore. I have done it for over 3 years now. The only reason I have stayed is because I don’t care for AT&T that much either.
What’s most disturbing to me is the fact that I have called twice to see what special incentives will be extended to the ‘Premiere’ Customers and so far, none. I will have to get in line like everybody else and hope to get a phone, that now, even the CEO says will be in short supply. I am not understanding the logic of companies that seem to have much to lose, but act like they don’t. When I did some grad work years ago, I had to take a general business course. One of the things we studied in marketing was the fact that you don’t build a business primarily on trying to get new customers. You invest in customer loyalty, but I guess that’s what they do with their 2 year agreements and $200 penalties for leaving early.
You would think that if businesses really cared about customers they would not try to burn the bridge that brought the customer over. I was told that at some point cell companies would start prorating the disconnect fee. The longer you stay in the contract the less the fee will be if you leave before the contract ends. This would open the door for people to want to come back if they leave, not some new phone they may or may not do what it promises.
Everybody keeps trying to make an iPhone killer, but this is the wrong approach. Just make a good phone and take care of your customer and reward their loyalty. I work with technology everyday. I like Apple and really prefer their technology, but I won’t even consider an iPhone because of who they are connected with. I had a terrible customer service fallout with AT&T and for that reason, I won’t even consider getting another phone with them right now.
I don’t care if the phone had a built-in transporter function and replicator.
I am concerned about the logic behind this whole issue. They raised the expectation and hype for months, finally announce the release date two days before their strongest competitor and reveal that they won’t have enough phones. I went into my local Best Buy and Radio Shack stores and asked about availability on June 6th. In one of these two stores, I won’t name which one, the employee asked me what was a Pre. The other store would not tell me if they will have the phone or not. They said they have not been notified. Sprint hits you with the rebate, but the other stores eat the cost. What gives?
Here is what I want. I want to be able to go to the store of my choice the day before and buy the phone for $199 without the rebate and get the Touchstone at a decent discount as a “Premiere Customer”. Is that too much to ask? If somebody at the top doesn’t get their mind right, this could be a Pre’-lude to a disaster.
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05.01.09
Posted in black history at 8:09 am by Travis
Rear Adm. Michelle Howard took command of the Navy’s counterpiracy task force with incredible timing: Within three days of her April 5 turnover with outgoing Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, Somali pirates attacked the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama and took its captain hostage.
via Task force commander has busy first week - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times.
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04.29.09
Posted in General at 11:44 pm by Travis
I have taken as much as I can about the Marzano study. The renowned researcher, and education guru, Robert Marzano recently released the details of his study on the effectiveness of Promethean Activclassroom and student achievement. His study has shown significant improvement in student achievement by using this product, and this is where I have a problem. Dr. Marzano is pushing a product and not the technology. I don’t have a problem with the good doctor gettin’ his grind on. I don’t have a problem with Promethean gettin’ their marketing on, but let’s call it what it is, an endorsement wrapped up in research.
Administrators and tech directors around the country now feel justified to spend that stimulus money just because Dr. Marzano said… They won’t ask those probing questions such as:
Is it the Promethean brand or is it the interactive white board technology that makes the difference? What does it matter? Dr. Marzano said…
The study mentions “Promethean technology” 111 times, but never tells you what Promethean technology is or what it does or how it makes the difference. I have been cruising the different message boards and blogs and the discussions on the study are interchanging interactive white boards with Prometheans which is what I think is exactly what Promethean marketing wanted, branding. The study does not say “white board technology”. It specifically says Promethean.
The key to the study focuses on what we in educational technology have been saying for years. If you have a teacher this if proficient and confident with the use of technology and put technology in the center of the learning, students will become engaged and achievement will be substantially affected, and Promethean didn’t even have to sponsor our research. I am disappointed that many more in the Ed Tech community did not speak out more on this issue because I think that it tends to undermine what we are trying to accomplish in Ed Tech, competent and sound decisions made based on a thorough examination of the data. Isn’t this what data driven decision making is about? What about the other white board technologies? Will they conduct studies on others?
The Other Study
Now here is something interesting. Most administrators and tech directors won’t dig deeper to investigate this issue. BECTA, The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, published a study in 2007 titled “Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project“. Notice the they used Whiteboard and not a brand. Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. What’s interesting about this study is that the organization funded the acquisition of the technology and put it in 21 local authorities to study it’s effectiveness. Now before you go and say that this is the same thing as Promethean and Marzano, no it’s not and I’ll show you why later. According to the Interactive Technology in Education Symposium 2007 Blog,
This major study into the the impact of interactive technologies on student performance standards, involved 20 Local Authorities and 7272 learners in 97 schools. Variables considered in this detailed research included; length of exposure to interactive whiteboard technology, the age of pupils (down to individual birthdays), gender, special needs, entitlement to free schools meals and other socio-economic groupings.
Dr. Vanessa Pittard from BECTA had the following to offer after her presentation:
“The findings are stunning. They clearly show that when teachers fully integrate interactive whiteboards, and they make best use of their functionality, pupils really do benefit.”
The BECTA objective were very clear.To:
- Assess the extent to which the use of interactive whiteboards affect standards in literacy and mathematics.
- Identify the effects of using interactive whiteboards on a range of other outcomes.
- Investigate the contribution made by the introduction of interactive whiteboards to the development of pedagogies and to a more general embedding of ICT across the curriculum.
- Evaluate the impact of the project on continuing professional development among teachers.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation and operation of the first phase of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Project initiative. (Bridget Somekh, 2007)
Notice, again, the use of the words, interactive whiteboards. Another interesting issue from all of this is what the BECTA study said about the use of interactive whiteboards in the classroom.
When teachers have used an interactive whiteboard for a considerable period of time (by the autumn of 2006 for at least two years) its use becomes embedded in their pedagogy as a mediating artIfact for their interactions with their pupils, and pupils’ interactions with one another. The concept of ‘mediating interactivity’ is robust. It offers a sound theoretical explanation for the way in which the multi-level modeling (MLM) analysis link the length of time pupils have been taught with interactive whiteboards to greater progress in national test scores year on year. (Bridget Somekh, 2007)
Sound familiar? I think the most interesting comparison of studies is the fact that BECTA tells you the number and brand of whiteboards that were used in the study.
Sixty-three percent of installations were Smartboards and 28 percent were Promethean. The remainder included Clevertouch, RM, Cleverboard, TDS, ACTIVboard and Interactive Education. (Bridget Somekh, 2007)
63% to 28%. There were over twice as many SMART boards used in the study as there were Promethean. SMART took the information in stride. They could have shoved it down our throats about the number of their products that were available in the study, but they didn’t, they took it in stride. This is the media release from SMART’s website about the study.
SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards
Sixty-three percent of the interactive whiteboards in the study were SMART Board interactive whiteboards. The report did not suggest that the brand of interactive whiteboard had any bearing on the results. (SMART, October)
I am not the only one who questions this issue. Micheal Scott on his blog brings up some interesting points-”Promethean buys what it needs to be credible…”
Now, if you want to buy Promethean, buy as many as your stimulus money can afford, but buy it because you really believe that interactive whiteboard technology will benefit student achievement. I just believe that you should do your homework when buying educational technology. As educational leaders, we have to be responsible stewards over the public’s money. We owe it to them to research, attend demonstrations, reading, discuss, and research again to make sure that what we buy aligns with the overall vision and mission of our educational institutions. If you buy a product just because certain researchers say so at least make sure that they explain to you why “this” product makes a difference. Ask yourself is it the brand or the technology?
Sources
Bridget Somekh, M. H. (2007). Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project- Report to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Manchester: BECTA.
Education, I. T. (2007, October 9th). The Symposium gets a sneak preview of latest BECTA report into the impact of Interactive Whiteboards. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from The ITie Symposium 07 Interacitve Technology in Education: http://thesymposium07.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/the-symposium-gets-a-sneak-preview-of-latest-becta-report-into-the-impact-of-interactive-whiteboards/
Laboratory, M. R. (2009). Evaluation Study of the Effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on Student Achievement. Centennial: Promethean, Ltd.
SMART. (October, 24th 2007). Researchers conclude interactive whiteboards produce significant results. CALGARY, Alberta, Canada.
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04.10.09
Posted in Media at 8:03 pm by Travis
Stop Big Media » Blog Archive » A Better Road Map of Minority Media Ownership Data.
In the process of conducting these studies, we learned that the commission had collected inaccurate date on minority and female ownership since 1998. Many stations had filled out their ownership forms incorrectly – omitting key diversity data — but the FCC had failed to monitor or verify the accuracy of the submitted information. Instead, the agency released ownership figures that were simply wrong.
The GAO has three reports confirming this and the fact that the main hindrance to minority media ownership is the lack of access to capital. What worse is that when stations were being sold, minority media owners were not privy to the sale of these stations until the deal was about to close. The most disappointing fact is that there was a tax deferment for those who sold their stations to minority companies, but the provision was repealed in 1995. A year before the great FCC giveaway in 1996 where we saw conglomerates such as Clear Channel and Citadel become media powerhouses.
As a prelude to the mortgage crisis, many of the stations were sold far above their value which may be the reason the Citadel is near bankruptcy. I have seen this first hand in Central Arkansas. There is no local progressive radio here. The one station that served the black community and the home for most of the black churches was sold right out of the community.
The funny thing about was that no one who claims to be from the religious right came to assist their brothers in the same way the lead the charge in our neighborhoods for all of the evils of abortion and gay marriage. The main thing on talk radio in Little Rock is a call to arms. Lock and load.
1980 Media Report
2007 Media Report
2008 Media Report
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03.12.09
Posted in Education at 10:52 pm by Travis
Pew Research Center: Writing, Technology and Teens.
If you think that students are not aware of their writing skills and abilities in the classroom, you’re wrong. In the past few days, there has been a lot of discussion concerning what’s wrong with our educational system. The problem is not the teachers directly, but the curriculum. A curriculum that, in most cases, is not differentiated for all learners, addresses diversity and includes technology.
This report shows a disconnected of what we think teens know or think about education. According to the report, teens are more aware than what we give them credit for.
“Even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing.
“Despite the nearly ubiquitous use of these tools by teens, they see an important distinction between the “writing” they do for school and outside of school for personal reasons, and the “communication” they enjoy via instant messaging, phone text messaging, email and social networking sites.
- 85% of teens ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites.
- 60% of teens do not think of these electronic texts as “writing.”
The report goes on to say.
“Teens are motivated to write by relevant topics, high expectations, an interested audience and opportunities to write creatively.
In our focus groups, teens said they are motivated to write when they can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present them with interesting curricula and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well.”
Here is what Carol Ann Tomlinson has to say concerning differentiation in the classroom.
“We learn more enthusiastically those things that connect to our interest, and we learn more efficiently if we have a suitable background of experience. We also lean more efficiently if we can acquire information and express our understanding through a preferred mode.” - Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The Differentiated Classroom- Responding to the Needs of All Learners. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Teens and Technology Integration
“Teens believe that the writing instruction they receive in school could be improved.
Most teens feel that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further. Our survey asked teens whether their writing skills would be improved by two potential changes to their school curricula: teachers having them spend more time writing in class, and teachers using more computer-based tools (such as games, writing help programs or websites, or multimedia) to teach writing.
Overall, 82% of teens feel that additional in-class writing time would improve their writing abilities and 78% feel the same way about their teachers using computer-based writing tools.
What I find most encouraging is that a lot of teens write outside of the classroom especially black teens.
“Non-school writing, while less common than school writing, is still widespread among teens.
Black teens are also more likely to write music or lyrics on their own time.
- 47% of black teens write in a journal, compared with 31% of white teens.
- 37% of black teens write music or lyrics, while 23% of white teens do.
- 49% of girls keep a journal; 20% of boys do.
- 26% of boys say they never write for personal enjoyment outside of school.”
We have a lot of work to do. Let’s put that stimulus money to good use.
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