Cloning Solomon's Baby

We're all familiar with the story of King Solomon and the two women who both claimed a baby to be theirs.  His solution was to threaten to kill the child, cutting it in half, because the real mother would give up anything, even her parental rights, to see her child safe.  An interesting solution to the problem, but what if Solomon had been able to clone the child instead?

The reason I ask this is because I was reading the Blue Skunk Blog where Doug Johnson used this story to illustrate the problem - and possible solution - to IP ownership, schools, and teachers.  He claims that teachers are increasingly using Moodle units that they create instead of textbooks.  Supposing that this is true (and I don't see why not - my brief exploration of Moodle.net found some very interesting teaching tools), it raises the question of who owns the Moodle material.

According to Doug's research, at the K-12 level, current policies tend to assign IP ownership to the schools, presuming that the materials were made on school time and with school materials, but at the collegiate level, most policies assign the IP to the teacher.  Now how is either of these situations fair?  The school is paying for the teacher's time, so they should benefit from the products of that time, but the teacher actually made the IP, so they should benefit as well.

A brief tangent: this issue of IP fairness actually hits fairly close to home for me.  Family lore says that one of my great uncles invented several of the things that allow airplanes to fly as high as they do - including the pressurized cabin.  We should be rich, right?  Well no - Uncle Nathan invented these things during work time, so his employer holds the patents - and the courts upheld their claim to the royalties.

Back on topic: What Doug proposes in his Blue Skunk Blog is that, rather than maintain the current, unfair, situation, we should clone the baby.  Why not give both the school and the teacher IP ownership.  I whole heartedly agree with his proposal for how this would work.  If his proposed policy is adopted, teachers can take their work with them when the move on to another school, and the school can make the work available to all of the teachers they employ.  And if we can't tell which baby is the original and which is the clone - or if they grow up to live very different lives (one a Creative Commons piece, while the other becomes part of a subscription service) - then that's fine as well.

Good Night Tech Princess

Earlier this week, my husband practically met me at the door as I came home from working the closing shift at work.  Typically, when he does this, he hands me our toddler who has found new and innovative ways to defeat our feeble attempts at child proofing.  This week, it was different.  "She's just gone to bed.  I know its late, but she wants to read that story on the iPad with you.  If she's already asleep, I promised her 20 minutes tomorrow."

I grabbed my iPad, sprinted up the stairs and crept into her room - and there she was, awake and beaming because we got our story time.  Bridget, who's 6 1/2, loves reading Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio.  Our deal is that she reads all the humans, and I read everything else - but she keeps reading my parts.  Anyway, if you follow the link to our story, you'll discover a couple of things:

1) This is an online comic.  Some people may have issues with a comic or graphic novel being read for reading homework, but I'm not one of them.  She's reading - they're words - she understands what's going on - and most of her other books are heavily illustrated anyway.

2) As far as reading level goes - this should be beyond her.  Funny thing though - is that it isn't.  I read the monsters and the robots (called "clanks") because they sometimes talk strangely or in an odd font, but using the pictures and asking questions, she seems to be following the story quite nicely.

Now, does the fact that we're reading this on the iPad make any difference to her?  I probably would not have shared it with her if I was limited to what I could pull up on my laptop or desktop computer.  I could buy the books, but Bridget didn't appreciate the other graphic novels I've shown her.  Given that she does play with the page zoom, and we race to see who can tap the "next" button when we reach the bottom of each page... I think the digital format does matter.  And after our 10 minutes are up, our alarm goes off (a "Despicable Me" minion saying "hi") and we know it's time to stop.  This time, because it was late, I read an extra page or two as a bedtime story, kissed her goodnight, and crept downstairs.

When I bought the iPad, I never imagined that it would be such an important tool in our mother-daughter bonding.  If we didn't have the tech, we'd be reading something else together - but of all the books and games we've shared, she likes this one best.  And I like it too - the other Girl Genius browser tab is for me.

A Wedding by International Committee - Thank You Facebook

I've been reading chapter 5 of my textbook, Meaningful Learning with Technology by Howland, Jonassen & Marra, which discusses communicating with technologies, and my mind kept wandering back to my brother's wedding.

Stewart and Lena got married this summer.  It was a wonderful event and I love the new branch on our family tree, but that's not why I kept thinking of it.  Stewart and Lena live in Japan, the wedding was to be in Maryland, and the Bride's Maids/Groom's Men came from New England, California, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Maryland.  Stewart and Lena were only to arrive back in the US 1-2 weeks before the big day, so all the planning had to be done across all those time zones.  Thank God for the Internet!  (Think of the phone bills, otherwise!)

Much of our planning was done via Facebook's messages program, where we maintained at least 3 conversation threads.  We discussed decorations, shared pictures of things we either already had or could rent, and eventually got approval from the bridal pair.  Jobs were delegated through these discussions, and almost everything was planned here.  Sometimes the discussions would be real-time, when more than one person happened to be online at once, but other times we'd leave a message, go to bed, and find the response in the morning -- all because Japan's timezone is 11 hours off of Maryland.  We even managed to organize pot-luck refreshments for the reception!

Lena also used Pinterest to share pictures of things she and Stewart liked - allowing the rest of us to do the local footwork.  My daughter was the flower girl, and conversations on Facebook combined with Pinterest pictures combined to help me alter a dress to suit Lena's idea of what she wanted.  Sending pictures and questions back and forth meant that I could sew with confidence - they'd see the dress even before they arrived.

One of the people helping organize the wedding has chosen not to be on Facebook - which actually caused some problems as Facebook users had to parrot information back and forth for the non-Facebook users.  That's when Skype came in.  Stewart and Lena were able to hold real time discussions with them, working out the details.  Based upon these conversations, we were able to arrange for the various rentals.

During the wedding itself, the music was piped in via a computer's playlist, which had been carefully selected in advance, and many people were running around taking pictures with their digital cameras.  After the wedding, hundreds of these pictures were posted online - on picture sharing websites or shared on Facebook.  I can now say, with confidence, that I have more pictures of my brother's wedding than I do of my own.  And I love every one.

In the end, we were able to arrange, hold, and recover from an awesome wedding by international committee.  They said it couldn't be done - but thanks to internet based communications technology, it went very well.  Cue the music from "It's a Small World" - because it truly is.

A Whole New World

Ten years ago, I earned my Masters degree at the University of Maryland.  Returning, to become certified in school media, I find that I'm not the only one who's changed in some rather fundamental ways.

Last night, I was reading my textbook using Kindle on my iPad.  I love being able to do that, because my iPad textbook weighs far less than the print text my other class uses.  I can highlight in the app, and leave notes, but I can't leave notes floating in the margin (boo!) and I haven't figured out how to leave bookmarks yet.  Yes, the Kindle will jump straight to the page I last viewed, but I was reading chapters 1 and 10, and now I'm working on a project in chapter 5.  With a print text, I can use just about anything (flat) as a bookmark - with this e-reader, I've a learning curve ahead of me.

So, as I was saying, I was reading along in my lightweight textbook, highlighting and note taking away, quietly listening to music to screen out the distractions of working in a public place, when I came across a word I didn't know.  Ten years ago, I'd've looked for context clues to figure out what the word meant, or looked it up in the dictionary if I happened to be at home or work.  Last night, I highlighted the word and asked the app what it meant.  Kindle checked an online dictionary and I no longer had to guess.  A little while later, a quiet chime and a small box in the middle of my screen told me that it was time to pack up and walk to class.  Ten years ago, I'd've been anxiously checking my watch every minute or so, afraid that I'd be late.

Progressing on to today, when I'm back on campus for my other class - the one with the print text book.  I'm schlepping across campus with my computer bag and stuff bag, wilting under the heat and the weight.  While I'm considering converting over to a backpack, I'm also thinking about whether or not actually need everything I'm hauling with me.  The computer bag is obvious - I need the laptop and iPad to do my homework.  My other bag... what's in it?  I could leave my purse at home if I took the wallet and a few pens (which could all live in my pockets).  The real weight, and reason for the bag, is my text book and notebook.  But do I really need them?

The text book wasn't offered as an e-book, so I do need to carry it with me.  As for the notebook?  That's more complicated.  Back in the '90s, I was taught that notes were taken in notebooks.  This idea is so entrenched in my psyche that I'm having trouble accepting the evidence of my eyes - that most students in my class take their notes directly onto their laptops.  The fact that all the laptops are Macs is probably due to this being the College of Education - I'd expect the Business College to be mostly PC.  Looking at myself, my real notes (the ones that I actually review) are being taken using the Audiolio app on my iPad.  I'm an auditory learner with very little time for reading - but if I import the Audiolio file into iTunes, I can review the lecture while driving or cooking.  And do you know what?  I actually hear more of the lecture the second or third times through - content I'd've missed completely if I was relying on the traditional pen and paper notes.

I don't know when, or if, I'll be able to cut the strings and come to class without my notebook, but at least I recognize it as the crutch that it is.  Who knows, maybe the lure of leaving that second bag at home may help push me the rest of the way into the digital age.  I love technology - it's hard to believe I'm this resistant to migrating away from my (spiral) notebook!

A Beginning

Looking around me, I find that much that was science fiction is now science fact.  Anyone watching "The Prophets of Science Fiction," which I believe airs periodically on the Science Network, can see how a wide variety of technologies were predicted by science fiction authors, but it doesn't end there.  Look around you - in many ways, science fiction is science reality.  To use Star Trek's terms, I have a communicator (a non-smart cell phone) in my pocket, my rudimentary tricorder (an iTouch) went missing last month, and my data pad (an iPad) sits next to me.  I'm also typing on a laptop so thin, I could lose it under a sheet of paper if I'm not careful - but I've never seen one of those on the Enterprise.  Somehow, star ships still use desktop computers, I guess.

My point is, technology is all around us, changing how we accomplish tasks and altering what is possible.  I am beginning a class investigating the use of technology in education, so my first posts will focus on that area of advancement.  After the class, I hope to continue this blog, possibly expanding the scope to discuss other ways technology can enhance (or distract) our lives.

Have fun reading - and I hope you'll contribute your thoughts as well.