Liz,
I very much agree, is that okay at this point in this assignment? As I was saying, I agree both with your points and Jim’s followup.
Major points:
1)Using computers has always been an order of magnitude harder than anyone seems to think it should be. This has been the case since back in the earliest days of mass computers say starting around 1984 or so, and is still the case today. The issues and problems drift around into different areas, and a lot of the problems eventually do get solved. Except the technology changes so fast that it doesn’t matter anymore that the hardware, the peripherals, the software are now “stable” or “secure”, because it’s now obsolete. And the new replacement stuff brings along it’s own problems, and new capabilities creates new difficulties.
Apparently ever thus….unless at some point innovation stops….then we’ll catch up I guess. But innovation probably won’t stop until the conditions which foster it go away, and we probably wouldn’t like that either…
2) Because it’s too hard, people need help. One big assumption I’ve made about the use and value of a hub/portal/community in one kind of place/space such as PKE, is that a necessary function is the handholding enabling support help part. In general, that part is simply overlooked in the whole equation of “how do we make this technology work.” IT part is always understaffed underpaid, and given impossible tasks, if there even is an IT part. And the IT part doesn’t necessarily work well with those who just need the technology to perform a function in a user friendly way. There’s some real inherent communication problems.
Also help, maintenance, upgrading, training etc overlooked because it’s hard to make money off it…and possibly because it’s a bottomless pit. The needs are so overwhelming, such that no one wants to take responsibility or get involved. Here in the class, the model is that the Online Instructor is going to also be a tech support expert. Well, that’s one model, and I wouldn’t disagree that some multiple hatting is going to be part of any online “profession”. But if this is the model, then the number of online instructors available is going to be a tiny fraction of those now employed in the teaching profession.
Bottom line is that I don’t see anyone anywhere who has “solved” the problem of keeping up with computer technology changes and innovations and difficulties of use. Huge corporations have their mission critical networks go down, and if they can’t do it, nobody can. It’s the emporers clothes thing, the exposed underbelly of our beast: we move ever closer to losing control of our technology at the same time that we entrust ever more critical functions to it. Hey, it’s just the paradox of our civilization, which “progresses” and becomes ever more vulnerable to entropy, both at the same time. And to quote one of the great minds of our era, the answer to life the universe and everything, according to our technological tools, is 42.
Which is what fundamentalists intuit. They’re scared, and search for some literal certainties. Maybe we should be scared too, but it’s kind of like the line from HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…where Ford Prefect is asked by the barman whether we should put paper bags over our heads or something because the worlds’ going to end…and Ford says “sure if you like”..and the barman asks “will that help”…and Ford says “no”.
Adams, Douglas HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Del Rey 1995 Milsford
OR much better:
http://tinyurl.com/yp3tyt
1.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Mass Market Paperback – Sep 27, 1995)
2.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story (Deluxe Edition) by Douglas Adams (Hardcover – Nov 1, 2005)
3.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Widescreen Edition) by Bill Bailey (IV), Anna Chancellor, Warwick Davis, and Mos Def (DVD – Sep 13, 2005)
4.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Paperback – April 30, 2002)
Excerpt – page 5: “… book, a book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-not an Earth book, never published …”
› See more references to HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in this book.
5.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Peter Jones, Simon Jones, David Dixon, and Joe Melia (DVD – April 30, 2002)
6.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Audio CD – Jun 20, 2005) – Audiobook
7.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Talbot, Joby (Audio CD – April 26, 2005)
8.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 25th Anniversary Edition by Douglas Adams (Hardcover – Aug 3, 2004)
9.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase by Douglas Adams (Audio CD – April 10, 2005) – Audiobook
10.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase by BBC Radio, Douglas Adams, and BBC Radio Cast (Audio CD – Oct 25, 2005) – Audiobook
11.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide: Complete and Unabridged by DOUGLAS ADAMS (Hardcover – Jul 4, 1999)
12.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Full Screen Edition) by Bill Bailey (IV), Anna Chancellor, Warwick Davis, and Mos Def (DVD – Sep 13, 2005)
13.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Jones and Davey (DVD – Oct 4, 2005)
14.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry (Audio CD – Mar 29, 2005) – Audiobook
15.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray – Jan 23, 2007)
16.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams (Paperback – Jul 1, 2005)
This is my little counterpoint to the belief that having academic referrences in a certain citation form is getting the job done. Books and publications are best referrenced, as Jim does, with a web link or web links, because there’s so much more information online than a single referrence citation is going to provide. Let’s just admit the obvious, times have changed, old methods of citation and referrance are lacking in depth and breadth. Let’s instead take advantage of the tremendous online resources that are available, and learn how to point to those referrences for our colleagues and our students.
The point of the link is that it does the job so much better. And it’s easy to just cut and paste it in. One doesn’t have to actually have the book in one’s hand to try and find out what city it was published in, etc etc.
John
RU Always Eating Chiles
You know that if you don’t have the book, you don’t need the publisher, right? Sometimes a reference may be as simple as:
page title. retrieval date from retrieval site.
An honest attempt to give credit to anyone or anysite that folks access and refer to is what’s being requested. And the only people that there is an actual expectation to really get it right are the grad students and faculty. We (I am doc student and faculty) must know how to do this for our research priorities.
And yes, I eat chiles every day.
~julz
Somebody here in LC told me their mother in ABQ makes green chile pie. IIRC. That sounds pretty good.
You might notice that the pix at the very beginning of this blog are a painting of “roasting chiles” in Hatch. Click on one of those, maybe the one on the right to see a full size version.
I filled my freezer with two bags I got and had roasted at Albertsons back in, would it have been September?
John