I still vacillate greatly on the issue of eBooks. My concern has less (and less) to do with the experience of reading. I greatly enjoy reading on my Kindle DX or iPad or iPhone or my netbook or most anything. I'm much more concerned about the long-term ramifications of DRM and content-lock-down (or editing) by corporations looking to monetize the reading experience even further. Great post on the LibraryThing blog hashing out the same concerns...

Ebooks get better, print not. | Off-topic | LibraryThing: "But I question how publishers and authors will respond when piracy assumes music-industry levels, and then worse. One solution would be a return to the physical. Another would be the imposition of ever harsher DRM. But the most likely result is that the book industry can't solve the problem, and we will gradually lose the 'middle' of the author community--the majority of authors who who aren't Steven King (who could live on non-book revenue), but aren't doing it just for the fun either."

I feel that we're at a major fork in the road. Of course eBooks will continue to gain popularity and adoption in this decade and will shortly outpace "real" books as the preferred mode of reading by the public (and in American schools). However, I hope we don't trade in rights for ease.

So this year, I'm getting the magnetic/cermaic surface Eno Board in my classroom... I'm no Miss Bailey, but I wonder how well this will work for my 8th Grade Physical Science group...especially since we study magnetism :) I've honestly never been a huge fan of the "smart board" movement (unlike smart phones). I miss my chalkboards at Hammond every day. However, I hope to use the board for more than just a projector screen. Since we do a good deal of chemical balancing, compound drawings, force vectors, etc I'm sure I'll put it to good use. Plus, when I saw the bit on electrical circuits in the demo, that made my day. We spend a good amount of time on circuit diagrams and programming breadboards. Of course it is better to actually have to install capacitors and insulators, but this should be a good aid in approaching such material. Should be fun to find out!

Balanced and insightful views from a source I deeply trust:

A Review of Verizon and Google's Net Neutrality Proposal | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Oddly enough, I'm back on a couple of Google apps like Calendar because Anna wanted to re-establish our calendar sharing there (and my iCal import wasn't working well enough for her). Marriage > Principles, I reckon. Plus the new GMail interface is pretty and my students all use my Google Voice number and it works so well and Google Reader is so much better than anything else and I can edit Google Docs on my iPad... ah, stupid entrapment.

Socrates famously rejected the supposed importance of the written word(1) in the Phaedrus. I wonder what he would have had to say about blogs and twitter? David Weinberger has a post on a book which I've just put on my Wish List, The Coming of the Book. Looks fascinating from the quotes he's published:

Joho the Blog » [2b2k] Books: The early years: "I’m reading The Coming of the Book, by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (1958), who explain arrival of printed books with an impressive attention to fact-based detail. Amazing scholarship."

Maybe Socrates was right, after all. In any case, one of the main reasons I'm not using a textbook this year is because of the "institutionalization" of science-as-a-method that results from a rigidly composed amalgamation of information (2). Instead, I want my students to realize that science is not institutionalized or something done by professionals with post-docs. Instead, it's sometimes messy and often times can be done in our garages or backyards or bedrooms. I only have a few months of proper class-time with these 13 and 14 year olds(3). I don't want to spend precious moments of 43 minute class times having them memorize bold words in the name of standards. As Socrates observed in the Phaedrus: "And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” Regardless, I still love my books (even the digital ones). -- 1 via Plato, of course 2 especially since I teach the wide ranging topic of physical science... basic chemistry and physics wrapped in one course like yin-yang. 3 Yet another reason I love the availability factor of email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc as I've actually done more quality "teaching" via text messages and FB wall posts compared to class lectures!

Huh?

Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered « OOO: "Digg.com is the powerhouse of social media websites. It is ranked 50th among US websites by Alexa (117th in the world), by far the most influential social media site."

"Maybe not so much" as my daughter would say. Just had to share that gleaming nugget from a post full of misguided righteous indignation over a common occurrence on the "social" web. I've never gotten much into the crazy world of online politickin' despite my activity in our precinct (currently serving as Vice-Chair, former Chair). Seems to me that instead of politics and religion, we should be uncomfortable when "social media" and politics start getting intertwined. /rant

Still kicking off the cobwebs at Thining.FM but getting there:

Thinking Baptists 11: Jesus and Religion « Thinking.FM

Should be up and going full steam (with a live stream) within the week. It's incredibly fun to relaunch this "thing" as I can think of no other way to quantify this enterprise. Stay tuned :)

We Can Haz YouTube:

YouTube - SpartanburgDaySchool's Channel

Many bits have been spilled explaining why the new OmniFocus for iPad app is amazing. I won't go into a full product review, but it is a great piece of software to help you organize:

OmniFocus for iPad - Products - The Omni Group

I've been a longtime user of OmniFocus on the Mac desktop (since the beta days... Dec 2007) and then OmniFocus for the iPhone. I've used both heavily over the years and couldn't wait to see what the Omni folks did with their iPad iteration. One of the aspects of having OmniFocus move from my Mac to my iPhone was the syncing capability via Apple's MobileMe service. I've never had a problem with the syncing of info, so I'm also intrigued by the new (still in beta) OmniSync that ships with the iPad app and ties together all the OmniFocus versions (which the MobileMe sync can still do as well). I've switched to using OmniSync, so hopefully all goes well there. Fascinating to see a company like Omni develop an app-centric cloud instead of relying on Apple. So, two thumbs up. Thanks for keeping me organized (or attempting to) over the years, Omni Group.

I'm finally getting our "Harrelson Family Site" up and going. What else/all should I include?

Harrelson Family | Anna, Sam, Mary Hudson, Laura, Schaefer, Macy and the Fish

Should I go the SweetCron route (here's looking at you, Jangro)? I'd like to do something that's self-hosted and self-sufficient. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks to Tim Maly for this pointer on Twitter (always enjoy his tweets): Amazing historical piece on what we would come to know as the "open web" indeed. Here's the beginning:

2.10: The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun: "If this sounds wrong, consider Mosaic. Mosaic is the celebrated graphical 'browser' that allows users to travel through the world of electronic information using a point-and-click interface. Mosaic's charming appearance encourages users to load their own documents onto the Net, including color photos, sound bites, video clips, and hypertext 'links' to other documents. By following the links - click, and the linked document appears - you can travel through the online world along paths of whim and intuition."

In the age of increased suburbanization of the web via Facebook, mobile platform apps and video sites, it's time to ponder what the third phase of the revolution will look like. I'm pulling for the open web based on whimsical hyperlinks to once again rise to drive the same type of innovation and sharing that occurred in those silo'd days of CompuServe and Prodigy. Oh, and a federated twitter built on RSS and real time pinging. Here's to the (non-silo'd) future.