The Centre is OPEN today: WELCOME BACK!

The Centre is OPEN today!

Welcome back from what we hope was a refreshing & rejuvenating Winter Break. The Centre is OPEN as usual today. Please arrive on time & be prepared to learn and have fun!

We look forward to seeing your smiling faces!

An Infographic, Some Content Ideas, and Some Beans

"Bean Worries" is actually an acronym for my maiden name.

Having content woes? Feelin’ fresh out of beans? I came across this infographic from the fabulous and amazing Copyblogger.

It came just at the right time, as I was woeing the content strategy for this site, which will be relaunching in a new and cosmic glory within the next week or so. I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of the same stuff lately, and my goal is to infuse the SpaceRace universe with some interesting new thinking, thoughtful guest bloggers who think interestingly, and edutaining posts that veer from the usual social media malarky.
So without further ado, here’s what floated my boat today. I hope it will help float yours as well, Skipper.

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Education Technology Predictions and Wishlist for 2012

Photo courtesy of flickr.com/courosa

Without further ado – a little of what we’d really like to see in schools for 2012. And kudos to the teachers who’ve experimented and grown in their savviness this year!

1. Getting connected – networked schools need wireless access so that teachers can effectively use the technologies available to them, engage in professional development “on the fly”, and access digital content beyond the confines of the library lab. Then they can test all the work-arounds that beat the firewalls still in place in many schools and use HDMI to share the world within the classroom environment.

2. Classroom management applications in a one to one environment. Several companies (SMART Sync, LanSchool) have launched products enabling a teacher to control student devices from an application, push content, and enable collaborative groups. They can block certain sites, and reduce distraction by steering students toward content and applications relevant to coursework and learning objectives.

3. Bring Your Own Device. Although concerns about equity and access persist, BYOD can allow teachers to work with the tools kids are already bringing to school. Typically seen in High Schools (who’ve realized that if you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em), expect this trend to trickle down to the middle and intermediate level as cash-strapped schools and boards offset the cost of major hardware purchases to parents.

4. VoiceThread type collaborative applications that incorporate multimedia and encourage participation. Students can respond to any type of content, like a photo, a video, or a text using their mobile devices. Apps like this encourage critical thinking, sharing, and let kids practice using a number of formats to build their digital profiles.

5. Use of cameras on devices for capturing student work, thought processes etc, particularly as Full Day Kindergarten takes hold in provinces like Ontario. Teachers looking for enhanced assessment can video students in action as they engage in early learning activities, providing a visual running record of progress.

3 Questions That Will Put the Funk Back in Your Hammer Pants

Usually I like October. I enjoy cramming my ham hocks back into jeans. I enjoy the plethora of boot styles to gawk at behind storefronts. And I love Hallowe’en and great costumes and candy  and Dachshunds dressed up like hot dogs.

Not this kind of funk.

This year, I’m in a bit of a funk. Not a funky, James Brown funk, but a negative headspace that seems to be fuelling itself through social media and the internet. Now, when I say “fuelling itself”, I of course mean that I am fuelling it by allowing myself to dwell on the nasty behaviour, lying, and misrepresentation I see, from Twitter bullyin……(see, I almost allowed myself to dwell on something there, but pulled the nose of the plane up just in time).
Enough!
Over the last few days, I’ve actively sought out some strategies to help quell those negative voices. Meditation helps (and it’s damn good for your brain). Exercise, too (and it’s damn good for your ham hocks). And surrounding yourself with trusted family and friends also does wonders.
From a professional standpoint, it’s very important to prevent the murk from entering the workflow. I could build another analogy here, but won’t because not everyone loves toilet humour as much as I do.

The 21st Century Started 11 Years Ago, Or Did It?

And like that, the SpaceRace blog is back. The act of not updating it was starting to weigh heavily on my mind as we’ve become really, really busy during our third year of bizness. We’ve grown. We have people. Yay! And yet the art of balance seems to be the hardest thing to nail down. The longer I’m a grown up, the less I seem to be able to strike that sweet spot of synergy between all the goings on and things that need to be done, and things that need to be read, and plans that need to be created, and lunches that need to be packed, and appointments/meetings/tuckings in at bedtime/sleep. But the great thing about the busy-ness of this kind of small business is the opportunity to write as an outlet, and to document my thinking for myself (in case I’m struck by lightning and can’t remember what I do or who I am) and my awesome readers. I kinda forgot to do that for a few jam-packed months. The editorial calendar of blog topics that I maintain got longer and longer….some expired like 7-11 cheese, and some are there just blinking like a Las Vegas wedding chapel sign. (not sure where that image came from)

So here’s one that’s been stuck in my craw (not sure where that came from either) for a while, but has bubbled up with my recent election to our local school’s Parent Council, Curriculum Night, and some inspiring client research.

As a SpaceRacer, I like to wax about marketing, technology, and digitalisms. Since we work closely with educators and education companies, much of the great content and resources I come across are related to teaching and learning, or what some call 21st Century Learning. Every publisher out there has tried to coin it/own it/co-opt it/market it, but the joke is on them. Because you can’t buy it. It isn’t for sale, and it doesn’t come packaged in an app, an e-book, or (grr) a “digitized” PDF.

What is true about 21st Century Learning is that it is an approach that either lives within the heart of a teacher or a school, or it doesn’t. It took 100 years to get here, and it isn’t supposed to look the same as what passed for education 12 years ago. Beyond that, it’s awfully hard to define. Today I came across what I consider to be one of the most authentic “definitions”, if you want to call it that.

Facing Facebook for Small Business: Workshop Slides

Here are the slides from Facing Facebook for Small Business, delivered to fabulously fun peeps at the Fernie Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, March 24.

And some cool links:

Facebook Demographics 2011

How to Use Facebook Social Plug-Ins on your Website

Going Social with the Fernie Chamber of Commerce

This morning, in the most frigid of weather conditions, members of the Fernie Chamber of Commerce came out to hear me wax strategic on social media, Web 2.0, and the potential of the internet for small businesses.
Despite a weird orange LCD effect on the presentation slides, it was a nice opportunity to share ideas and information with a terrific group of people.

Here are the slides:

And as promised, I will be uploading some handy hand-outs in the next few days.

Thanks for coming out in the cold!

Who’s that lady and what does she have to do with your website?

I am a figment of fantasy.

Ahhhh, stock photography. If done well, stock photos can add a powerful, visual element to the content on your website.  But please (my February resolution is to be more polite), please take the time to do comprehensive photo research when you don’t have a shutterbug on hand. Planning the visual aspects of your website is just as important as honing the writing. People can often tell a stock photo when they see one.  That cute woman with a headset and a haircut like a social studies teacher from 1992? She’s not gonna take my order.

Order now. Our operators are waiting.

(And when you find that stock photo that encapsulates everything you want to say in one glorious, crystal-clear image, buy it for goodness sake. Don’t screenshot it and put it up with the watermark showing. Cheap ass.)

Now back to that lady.  I can understand why you might want a photo of a human on your site. Even if the human is not anyone you’ve ever met, and is likely just a clever composite of pixels and Photoshop and googly eyes. Some people believe that a face on a website attracts people – keeping them on the page longer. If that’s your metric, then great. Hang out all day! But what if you want your visitors to take an action?  Wouldn’t it be better to ask them (nicely) to do that?  Wouldn’t that be preferable to having them stare at the blazing white teeth of the Grecian Man who clearly isn’t really a doctor?

Thumbs up!

Here’s a great post that looks at faces, proportion, and direction of sight/gaze. And there are lots of bad and good comparisons,  which are helpful visuals if you are a visual sort of person like me.  All of these wee factors can really impact the experience of your visitors.

People are great.  People on your website are great. Especially if the people actually work at your business. If they don’t, it’s highly unlikely that you will fool anyone.  And think of how pissed they’ll be when they do show up and are greeted by your current receptionist, who still has a trace of Movember hanging on and a Cinnabon habit. There went my February resolution.

Here are some great sources of images for your website, especially if you have a small budget. If you’re using a Creative Commons image, please make sure that you understand the license and attribute responsibly. Don’t rip photographers off. They’re the ones capturing our lives, eh.

Flickr’s Creative Commons

Creative Commons Search

Compfight: A Flickr Search Tool

Google Advanced Image Search

Got another one? Add ’em, Dano!

It could happen here: South Africa’s Usage-Based Billing hell

Like many concerned and outraged Canadians, I’ve been watching the Usage-Based Billing (UBB) development with great interest. I signed the OpenMedia.ca petition. I shared stories with our uninformed friends and colleagues. I felt embarrassed, and yes, furious, that the CRTC would move in such an incredibly backward direction with regard to online access.

Today I feel a bit less aggravated as I learned that Ottawa would reverse the controversial CRTC billing decision, but I consider myself warned.

UBB would have a number of negative implications for Canadians. Many have spoken of its potential to kill innovation. To stymie web-based collaboration and the development and sharing of content. To create a dangerously tiered structure of access, with the wealthiest having the greatest access. UBB would limit access in the sectors where we are at a critical crossroads and need innovation, such as health care and education, at the expense of the profit and content monopolies that our telecoms so desperately want to preserve.  It ain’t right.

Yesterday’s hectoring, school-marmy National Post editorial in support of UBB reeked of telecom lobbyism and ignorance.

How can we push and advocate for free, open, and transparent use of the internet, when cost issues (as opposed to old thinking and ideologies) are the prohibitive factor?  Yeah, unlimited web access is great, if you can afford it.

Alistair Fairweather

And then a beloved and trusted South African Twitter contact chimed in on my frustrations. You see, UBB is the state of the internet in South Africa. She connected me with Alistair Fairweather, who is the Digital Platforms Manager for South Africa’s Mail and Guardian online. He also writes for Memeburn and News24. I was curious to explore the implications and outcomes of UBB in a place where it is part of the system, and Alistair was gracious enough to answer my questions:

 

How much does the average South African pay for unlimited monthly internet? Is this affordable?

In US Dollar terms, a decent (10Mb/s) “uncapped” connection will cost well over $150 per month. If you want proper broadband speeds (30Mb/s or higher) you’re looking at as much as 5 times that.

Does this constrain the average web user from accessing the media they are interested in?

Very definitely. Many South Africans scrape by on less than 1GB of usage per month. Most billing is done on a “capped” basis – ie you get a certain amount of data per month and are either cut off or pay more to use more. And, of course, you lose any data you don’t use. This means that most internet users are constantly and painfully aware of what they are doing online, and how much bandwidth it will use, for fear that they get cut off and can’t access their email on the 28th of the month.

Does UBB prevent certain types of media (video etc) from being produced and accessed?

It doesn’t prevent it per se – it just makes it much less attractive. What amateur videographer is going to pay $15 per GB to upload her 45 minute, HD wedding video to Facebook? In the States that’s not even a consideration. And of course, an aspiring local film maker can’t use the internet to access a mass audience because barely 5 million South Africans are even online.

Any implications for education? Online learning?

Definitely. Paying by the MB makes schools nervous of providing unlimited internet access, or internet access at all. The same goes for many homes – kids aren’t allowed online for fear of downloading some innocent video and using up their parents cap.

How do South Africans feel about it? Have they tried to change it?

Most of us are very angry about it. We are trying to change it, including lobbying government to open up the market, but when 70% of your country is mired in poverty, it’s quite hard to make them pay attention to something as “luxury” as internet access.

Is there a telecom monopoly?

Yes, and it sucks. Our old state monopoly – Telkom – is now a parastatal but still enjoys an effective monopoly over the “local loop” of our fixed line telephony system. They are inefficient, greedy, corrupt and idiotic. They have single-handedly stunted the growth of our entire internet industry through their stranglehold on both ADSL and our outbound peering links with the world. If I had my way I would have the lot of them horsewhipped and fired, and dissolve the entire company. Our other telecoms companies are also greedy, but at least they are progressive and intelligent.

I’d like to thank Alistair Fairweather for taking the time to share his insights on this issue.

Canadians – be warned.  Let’s hope the decision sticks.

SpaceRace for wee geeks

In the tiny mountain town where the SpaceRacers temporarily reside, it’s easy to get things done. It’s easy to get from one end of town to another. It’s easy to buy groceries without waiting in line for 45 minutes. It’s easy to get an appointment at the bank. It’s easy to find a decent, honest mechanic.  And it’s easy to make a difference.

We were concerned that our wee SpaceRacer wasn’t getting enough access to technology in school. In fact, she’s getting none. The transition to 21st Century Learning is happening v-e-r-y slooooooowwwwly in most places in Canadian schools, and she’s been unlucky thus far to have teachers who’ve been mostly uninterested, unmotivated, and unaware of the potential for digital tools in the classroom. But before I rant on (because this really riles me up), I’d like to share a sliver of silver lining.

Upon expressing my frustrations to the school principal, we devised a plan to incorporate a little technology into the lives of the digitally deprived students.  A weekly one hour session with a new educational technology tool. Project focused, and related to something happening within the school community. And it was as easy as being able to give up an hour of my time (with a few to prep, of course). Within a day or 2 of proposing the idea, the principal had forwarded me a list of 41 keen kiddies. 41!  She’d made arrangements for us to meet in the library, in order to use the school’s smartboards and laptops for the activity. No red tape. No cumbersome permission forms:  if you’re interested, just come and learn.

Today is the first day of SpaceRace Technology Club, and I am so very excited to facilitate a Bitstrips project with 41 Grade 3 and 4 students.  If you haven’t heard of it, Bitstrips is an online comic strip creator.  The educational arm of the service, Bitstrips for Schools, is a teaching tool that “engages students using a medium they love – Comics!”  It’s 100% web-based, and includes tons of curriculum-connected activities designed by a huge network of educators. It’s fun and social – a great way to get students working collaboratively to share stories using technology. Our topic is “Kindness”, and I can hardly wait to see the madness that ensues.

I’m very excited about today. It’s the start of something really cool – I can just feel it!