Velocity of Media Consumption: TV vs. the Web Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox
Summary:
The granularity of user decisions is much finer on the Web, which is dominated by the instant gratification of the user’s needs in any given instant. Content must cater to this rapid pace.
I enjoy reading Jakob Nielsen’s website so I thought I’d pass this link along. In comparing television to the web, Nielsen posits that television is “easy” as the programming is all presented to us whereas on the web we are constantly making decisions about what to do–read, click, watch, etc.
I’d be curious as to how this might apply to gaming, too.
Tags: nielsen, tv, web
It’s been awhile since I posted anything here and the reason is simple: I have a new job and we moved across the country. I am now working at the University of Oregon as a Research and Instructional Technologist, in beautiful Eugene, Oregon. We’ve been here a little over three weeks now and are settling in–me into my job and my family into this place. I think we’re going to like it here quite a bit.
Over the coming days I hope to update this with some of the work projects that I have going on and try to explain my understanding of the world of higher education, as brief as my time has been here. I have been a little reluctant to try and do that as I have just really gotten started with all of this. I might change my mind, too, but I do think this is a good place to start. So, bear with me.
I want to say thanks to all of my friends in Virginia who I will miss greatly at the VSTE Conference and at other events, but I also know that we’ll see each other in this online world, which is a very nice thing. It makes the leaving and the change not-quite-so-hard as it might have been.
Cheers!
Tags: changes, life, moving
How to beat Amazon’s Kindle. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine
This article caught my attention today. I wonder if/when there will be competition with Amazon’s Kindle? The ideas in this article aren’t bad I think and at the same time, the Kindle really is its own reading “ecosystem,” which will be a tough act to change.
It’s here that Kindle’s rivals will find it hard to compete. Amazon is the Internet’s master retailer, and the Kindle’s killer feature is its convenience. When you buy a Kindle, it comes pre-loaded with your Amazon account info; you don’t even need to enter your credit card number to buy any books. And then there are all those customer reviews and the amazing recommendations—not to mention the huge selection of popular, cheap titles.
How could anyone compete with that? Here’s one idea: Pull down the restrictions. The Kindle’s biggest problem is its “Hotel California”-content model: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Because Amazon uses its own proprietary eBook format, every book you buy is tied to the Kindle and other devices Amazon deigns to approve, like iPhones and iPod touches. Sony recently embraced the ePub document format, which—though it’s still copy-protected—works on multiple devices. This lets you buy a book for your Reader but be assured that your library won’t get deleted if you get some other gadget in the future. The ePub format also lets you hook into other sources for books—for instance, the Reader lets you borrow eBooks from your local library. Google just put 1 million public-domain books online—these will work on all devices that read ePub, which means everything but the Kindle.
My presentation on ITRT Resources and Web 2.0 in the state of Virginia is now online. Thanks to those who showed up! Enjoy the rest of the NECC 2009 Conference!
Cheers!
NECC 2009 is just around the corner, this year in Washington D.C. starting on June 28th. I’ll be there and am very excited to be going this year
In addition, I’m involved in helping to create a “pavilion” that showcases Virginia’s ITRT Program. This pavilion is being created by the Virginia Society for Technology in Education and will be part presentation area and part relaxation station.
People can come here to learn exactly what an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher does in their job in the state of Virginia. It turns out that Virginia is the only state that mandates that schools have technology support personnel for every 1000 students. In my case, working in a small school division with roughly 2000 students, we have 2 ITRTs.
For more infor on the ITRT Pavilion, there’s the NECC 2009 Program page on “lounges and playgrounds,” and also on the VSTE Ning social networking site. Finally, John Hendron did created a nice podcast with two of the people on the pavilion committee, Laura Briggs and Sharon McGlone. Have a listen and please come by the pavilion if you’re attending NECC this year.
Hope to see you there!
Tags: NECC09
FLYP
Normally I don’t click on ads on sites that I visit, but this one caught my attention. I clicked and went to this new kind of online magazine that combines print with video in a compelling way. I read an article on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and found the experience quite enjoyable. Subscription is free, and there’s also an RSS feed if that works for your taste, too. The site does require the latest version of Flash though.
~ Share and Enjoy~
Tags: online reads
Google Web Elements
A new item from the Google today: Web Elements. I can say that the name is decent with this one 
Basically you can take small snippets of Google tools and embed them into your webpage. For example, you can embed a presentation that you’ve got in Google Docs, or a Google Map. Perhaps one of the coolest of the Elements is the Conversation one, as people can add comments to your site when they’re visiting.
I think I’m finding these interesting because part of me is reading RSS just a tad bit less and I’m going to the actual sites and checking them out. There are a lot of great designs out there and I like what I’m seeing. One of the sites that I’ve been enjoying lately is the Rapid eLearning Blog. This is a blog about designing eLearning instructional situations, mostly aimed at corporate life, but it all applies to what I do as an ITRT offering Professional Development. One of the keys to offering quality PD is simply planning it well. Having objectives and developing some kind of assessment that tells you if the people that you are teaching “got it.” It’s a good site and worth some time spent there.
~ Share and Enjoy~
Tags: Rapid eLearning
Hi, I'm Sean Sharp and I'd like to welcome you to my Ed Tech Blog. Here you'll find my thoughts and musings on educational technology, instructional design, and new technology tools. Drop me a line using the "Contact Me" page. For more info, check my 