Category Archives: Technology

Future of higher ed. Will colleges survive

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I attended Social media Week‘s future of higher ed talk.  See my notes on the K-12 version or my notes on the higher ed version in this post.

  • Traditional schools didn’t start online classes because didn’t think could do it as well. Included a shot at University of Phoenix. Social media is the first time the tools are there to support it. [I got my masters at Regis University. I think they did well because they had started with correspondence classes and saw how to enhance that model online.]
  • Anything you learned in college you could have learned from a textbook. It is higher ed done right that makes the impact. Goal was to recreate campus online. Only let in students who could get in on campus and add interactions/networking with students. However, it is also about socialization and a safe environment to learn how to interact with the world. More undergrad interest in a semester online than an entire undergrad degree online.
  • Expects more grad school online because more mature students, less expensive, fits life better. [regis had a work experience requirement to “screen” for maturity].
  • Education outstrips inflation by two to three percent a year because salaries go up and we add technology. Since this compounds, it is approaching infeasible. [it isn’t now?]. Can be less expensive by moving lecture online/interactive/self quiz. The classroom is for discussion. Or the online classroom. [regis did this well]
  • Interesting conflict: onkine students can learn at different pace but need to engage/discuss together.
  • Small programs don’t scale. Need a lot of students to recover investment for good course/program. To build scale, you need funding. At sone point, you can’t add more strong programs.
  • It is much harder to teach online. You have to prepare much more.

the 555 graham cracker (or how to communicate a tech idea clearly)

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We all know that sharing technical information in a clear (and ideally visually appealing way) makes it more memorable and understandable.  I saw a perfect example of it today with the electronics example of making a 555 timer.

What most descriptions do

  1. Tell you what you need so you can start out with supplies.
  2. Provide an overview
  3. Provide a circuit diagram
What good descriptions do
  1. Give you tips
  2. Show clear pictures of the completed breadboard.  Ideally from different angles.

What blows me away

The graham cracker 555 timer.  It has everything that really belongs in the 555 timer:

  • 555 chip – chocolate looking thing in middle
  • 9 volt battery – chocolate looking thing on lower left
  • three resistors – marshmallows with color stripings.
  • 1 microfarad capacitor – candy in top right
  • LED – red jelly thing
  • Wires – blue and red frosting
This is accurate (or at least really close).  It grabs your attention and makes you want to understand the concepts in mapping it back to the real one.  And it’s memorable.  Just what you want in your tech documentation.

How do I use this?

Remember tech documentation doesn’t have to be boring.  The Head First series uses cartoons.   The Developer’s Notebook uses journaling.  Manning usually uses stories and jokes.  All of this serves to keep us engaged in the material as we read.  If our brains are paying attention, we learn more.

What I didn’t tell you was that the wiki page was written by a high school student.  Don’t lose that skill after you graduate.  We need more tech writers who remember being fun fits in!

jeanne’s attempt at pomodoro

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When I work at home on personal computer projects, I have one of two problems:

  1. getting distracted from my main task by other computer things or other items that need doing around the house
  2. getting so absorbed in my task that I forget to look away from the computer causing me to get a headache and need to stop
Neither of these is an issue at work and I can usually get a couple hours of personal project stuff done on a given weekend day before it becomes a big problem.  Which is all the time I usually have anyway.  One weekend was different.  I was technical proofreading a 300-400 page book (The Well Grounded Java Developer) and needed to get a lot done in a short time.  I blocked out my weekend to have 15-20 hours to do it.  Then all I needed was focus.
I’d read about Pomodoro and decided it to try it with this particular project.  (which is evidence of problem #1 – I was experimenting with Pomodoro when I should be reading.)
Installing software
First I installed the GNU pomodairo app.  Including the download of Adobe AIR itself, this took less than ten minutes.  I added my tasks and kicked it off.
How it went
The beginning two Pomodoros were the toughest.
  1. On the first one, I got water 2 minutes before the break. I needed to trust it and wait longer.  The sound was a bit jarring.  I only read 3 pages (and played with an example.)  Not much momentum yet.
  2. On the second one, I worked a whole pomodoro but only read one page (and fiddled with examples).  I did get in the zone although I could have stayed there longer.  I took a break anyway to avoid burnout.  I did successfully wait out the Pomodoro to check my e-mail (which I noticed because gmail automatically pulls mail and I needed to refer to one as part of my task).  I learned the tool shows your pomodoro as interrupted if you don’t click the right button at the end of a Pomodoro.
  3. On the third one I was starting to feel the flow.  That time I did get fully into what I was doing in 25 minutes and got two tiny chores done during the break.
  4. At this point, it started working.  I got absorbed during every Pomodoro.
My stats weren’t correct.  I lost two pomodoros on the second chapter I read. I think it was because I didn’t explicitly select the next task when I finished the first one.  But the stats didn’t matter.  What mattered is that I was able to get focus and momentum going.  And I didn’t have a headache at the end of the day.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if it was the Pomodoros themselves that helped me or the fact that I was doing something different so felt obligated to be responsible.  Hmm.  That sounds like a good question to post on productivity.stackexchange.com.  Did so here.