Star Gazing

Posted on August 12, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

Last Christmas one of the kids got a telescope.  Since then we have been watching the sky and learning about astronomy. 

With the Perseid meteor shower peaking this weekend, we decided to go out tonight for a look.  We live in a housing development and it is not completely dark.  There are street lights and a few houses with outside lights.  Everyone was still able to see a few spectacular traces of light before we came in for the night.

At this point we are debating getting up at 4am to see the shower at its peak.  That might be a little too early for me.

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Research Says: Copyright should be 14 years

Posted on August 11, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

I have been doing some research on copyright and how things should be.  I came across this paper by Rufus Pollock.  He is a graduate student studying economics and intellectual property rights. 

According to Pollock, as the cost of producing a creative work goes down, the length of copyright should follow the same trend.  Copyright for a creative work created today should last only fourteen years.

In actuality, copyright law has done the opposite and increased from 14 years in 1790 to about 100 years (life of the author plus 70 years) today.  Giving the author control of the copyright for a long duration ensures that any income produced by the work goes to the author.  Pollock’s calculations show this isn’t true and that we are stifling innovation with longer and longer copyright restrictions.

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Mazza Art Camp 2007

Posted on August 10, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

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Today was “signature” day at the 2007 Mazza Art Camp. During the week young artists from five to ten years old create a picture book. They put the whole thing together: 3D-color-cover, swirling inside cover, pictures and text.  The artists write the story and illustrate the book.  Above you can see some of the self portraits of the artists.

Below is the book of my daughter – The Missing Color’s.  The book is opened to the pages that show the entrance of the evil octopus, Medalia.  As she enters the right page notice how she steals all the color from the ocean leaving only black and white.  Not bad for a second grader.

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On Friday afternoon the artists gathered in the Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion for a book signing session.  A good time was had by all.

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21st Century Skills

Posted on August 9, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

The Moving Forward wiki caught my attention today.  As I looked through the list of 21st century skills, I noticed several absent items as compared to lists from just one or two years ago.

There is no mention of productivity tools.  There is usually an emphasis on learning to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint in most sets of 21st century skills.  There is a bullet for computerized presentation skills, but I think the lists is referring more to the skill of presenting effectively and not the skill of using PowerPoint.  This is a great step forward.  It shows we are moving from an emphasis on learning to use specific programs to an environment where programs are viewed as tools to accomplish grander things.

The new ISTE NETS for Students has a similar ring.

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

This is an exciting list if you are a teacher.  Look at that first item!  Our students must be creative and innovation.  This sounds like the post I had a couple of days ago.  The ISTE set looks a lot like the original 21st century skills I linked to.

The Ohio Academic Content Standards for Technology will have to be updated to reflect these new ISTE standards, but that may take years.  As educators we need to focus on how we can begin to implement these standards now.  Each year our young students lose is much more than a year in the life of a life-long-learning adult.

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Oui, Wii

Posted on August 8, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

Yes, we got one.  I waited until the Christmas/Valentines/St Patrick’s/Memorial Day/Fourth of July rush was over.  And then I still couldn’t find one.

Finally, the stars aligned and my local GameStop had one.  They had a dozen.  I was there a few hours after they were delivered.  I got the last one.

If you haven’t seen the latest console from Nintendo, it is a technological marvel.  It’s not much bigger than an external DVD burner.  The remote is wireless so you can play from anywhere in the room.  It comes with Wii Sports which includes: Bowling, Tennis, Baseball, Golf and Boxing.  Best of all, at $250 it is about half the price of a PS3 or XBox 360.

The Wii Remote (Wiimote) creates the additive play.  You literally have to stand up to use it.  This is because the Wiimote has sensors that detect how you move it.  It can tell if you are swinging, twisting or poking.  This means Wii Bowling is pretty much like real bowling.  You want to hook it?  Do a little wrist snap when you release.  If you want to throw the ball harder then speed up your delivery.  Just don’t release the ball too late or you’ll loft it.  A wrist strap prevents you from launching the Wiimote into your TV.

I have never seen a console that is this natural to understand.  All the games play just as you think they would play.

The Wii comes with a wireless NIC that handles WPA.  I connected it to my network and started up the Weather program.  I typed in my zip code and got the local time and temperature with a five day forecast. I can easily do the same on my computer, but then I zoomed out a little so I could see the whole Earth. The pointer looks like a hand. I grabbed the Earth and gave it a spin. As it went around I could see the weather reports from every continent. It was fun to see the weather like this.

There is a web browser (Opera) for the Wii.  I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I’m sure I will.  This might be the easiest way to get YouTube videos onto my TV.

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