Via Simon Willison, a fabulous keynote about design from Matt Webb. He pushes on a cultural definition for design, and speaks from the perspective of a principal in a small design firm. Quoting one of his partners:
Some people (they are wrong) say design is about solving problems. Obviously designers do solve problems, but then so do dentists. Design is about cultural invention.
If you read the latest news, it would seem that HTML5 is most notable for killing off XHTML2 (to accompanying sturm und drang) and backing off on codec specifications for use with the new <video> tag. Practically, since HTML5 is now the de facto road map forward for web developers, it may be of more interest to folks to browse the HTML5 spec or scan ALA’s HTML5 preview article from a few months back. There are some nice things in there.
It’s also worth mentioning: Video for Everybody!, a nice two-codec solution to implementing the <video> tag.
I was not aware of all the blogs that EdWeek is running. Some of my favorites:
Note that EdWeek charges for access to most articles, but at the moment everything is accessible if you register (free). Hopefully the blogs continue to live outside the paywall.
There’s an interesting blog set up for CSCL 2009 that provides a way to interact with authors. This looks really promising for those of us not heading to Rhodes next month.
The purpose of the blog is to facilitate the dialogue between the authors and other participants of the conference, before, during and after CSCL 2009 conference. There is a post –containing the abstract along with a link to the full text- for every paper that will be presented at the conference. You can view the abstract of a paper, read the full text, post your comments and/or questions, exchange ideas…
nba.com has a lovely scoreboard, but it’s a bit ambiguous if the score’s tied. I tuned in at halftime. Which team made the big second quarter run?
Welcome to the new InqBlot!
The old InqBlot, with archives from 2005 to 2008, is still available, but all new content will be published here.
We’re pretty excited about the new digs. We’re making about a five-year jump forward in terms of the underlying technology, which is around a century in blogging years.
Dave Seah has a nice post up about Take a Stand, our exhibit in the recently opened Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Dave talks about some of the technical and design decisions behind the exhibit.
Our piece of it consists of a room that combines a motion-tracking system with a high-end PC running our custom software on a giant screen. The design of the system incorporates the lessons of the survivors with learning theory and open game play design; rather than spoon-feed morality, we’ve created a multi-player environment where kids can choose to mind their own business, help others, or be a bully.
Inquirium’s Matt Brown wrote a chapter for a just released book on teachers’ use of classroom curriculum materials. The chapter is titled The Teacher-Tool Relationship: Theorizing the Design and Use of Curriculum Materials. Based on Matt’s dissertation (abstract as pdf), it examines the different ways teachers use curriculum materials in the course of their everyday practice (some rely on them as-is, some adapt them to suit their needs, and some use them as jumping off points for their own improvisations), and how designers can create materials that foster creative, dynamic teaching.
The chapter frames teaching as a process of design, in which teachers use tools in various creative ways to realize their goals. Borrowing the metaphor of jazz, where musicians rely on sheet music but no two performances are alike, the chapter highlights both the common and unique processes by which teachers translate inert curriculum materials into dynamic practice. The chapter’s key contribution is the concept of pedagogical design capacity, which calls attention to the skills by which teachers work with available resources as they craft instruction to suit their local needs.