Earth Day 2014

In honor of Earth day, I'm evaluating how I faired regarding last year's resolutions to reduce my eco-foot print... I have reduced the number of global acres of the earth's productive area that I use from 23 to 17.

Unfortunately, it would still take four planet earth's to sustain us if everyone lived like me--discouraging indeed.  I looks like I've got more work to do in the coming year to live a greener lifestyle.

Here's a great infographic snapshot of the environment in 2014:

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Change your passwords to avoid heartache from heartbleed

If you’ve been under a rock the past week, you might not be aware that many of your online accounts may have been compromised by the heartbleed bug.  The security breach is with the servers you have been logging into (e.g. Gmail, instant messaging, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Dropbox, etc.), so the only thing that you can do is change your passwords sooner rather than later.  

Mashable has compiled a great list of accounts that may have been affected including social networks, email providers, online shopping sites, financial institutions and more.

Bottom line, change your passwords ASAP!

Where do we stand with MOOCs?

A small multidisciplinary group from across campus came together today for a conversation about MOOC’s and what they mean for higher ed.  The anticipatory set from the discussion moderator  included a memorable analogy: A year and a half ago, MOOCs were to higher ed as Godzilla was to puny NYC inhabitants.  Now, most folks seem less enthusiastic about their ability to replace the traditional college education [our moderator used an image of a dead mouse which brought quickly to my mind thoughts of the San Jose MOOC catastrophy]… 

Yet, the reality of where MOOCs fit into higher ed surely lies somewhere in between the two extremes and requires a closer look at more successful programs like Georgia Tech’s MOOC Master’s degree in computer science now available through Udacity.  So where are we headed? I don’t see MOOCs crushing traditional higher education beneath its heel like Godzilla crushed taxi cabs any time soon. The cost to develop and deliver a MOOC ($50K-250) means most MOOCs will be low cost, but not free.  Given the challenges of assessment, low completion rates and problems ensuring or certifying the quality of learning, MOOCs could coexist (and/or be utilized as resources in more traditional higher ed courses), be used outside higher ed for public relations (i.e. NGO PR, ed programs or social engagement) or be used within higher ed for student recruitment for higher ed organizations (i.e. showcasing what a college has to offer).

New report sheds light on how K-12 students use digital tools & resources

Project Tomorrow released the report The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students’ Activities and Aspirations at a Congressional Briefing held in Washington, DC this week.  This report provides some insight into the profile of students entering college in the next few years.  The sad news is that the widening digital divide and getting girls interested in STEM related disciplines are still problematic.  Check out this infographic for some of the highlights in the report.

Digital Playbook: Mobile Learning Infograph

Detailed infographic of the missing Malaysia flight MH370

This highly detailed infographic contains data from flight MH370 news as well as info about just what those little black boxes look like and how they operate.  The question upermost in the minds of most of the world... Is that plane and its 239 passengers in Khazakhstan, elsewhere in the Middle East or South Asia, or somewhere in the Indian Ocean?

by newsillustrator.
Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

From unported to international in the 4.0 Creative Commons License

photo credit: Wikimedia Commons 

Shiny new 4.0 Creative Commons licenses were released last month and I noticed that unported had been replaced with the word international. So it made me want to investigate just what unported really meant and discover what changes come of using international in it’s stead.

According to the FAQ section of the CC Wiki, unported licenses are/were basically a general international CC license meant to be used and recognized worldwide. However, ported licenses came about when tweaks to the general license were added to clarify issues surrounding local copyright legislation in different jurisdictions. In fact, a whole jurisdiction database was created to compare the different iterations (ports) created for different locales.

So, does the new 4.0 creative license finally bring an end to ported CC licenses?  Not necessarily, though there are currently no ports of the 4.0 license (it is brand spankin' new after all) and the intention was to write it in such a way that ports would not be necessary, the CC wiki leaves the door open a crack as it goes on to say that “few, if any, will be created.” With that being said, the 4.0 license does appear to bring us that much closer to a truly worldwide common standard for open licensing. And that is a very good thing…

This latest infographic will be used in a workshop I'll proved next semester to introduce students to basic design elements for information visualization and free tools for the less tech savvy.

Based on how the class goes, I'm hoping to publish the lesson plan. So stay posted!