EduGlu Sandbox

Caged Gorilla, originally uploaded by bprimrose.

So late last night I'm walking the dog, listening to Radiolab's show on Zoos... I'll paraphrase below, but I recommend you listen to the segment I'm describing for yourself:

The clip describes the traditional and frankly shocking state of zoos 30 or 40 years ago. To focus on one example, gorillas were invariably kept in featureless concrete enclosures, devoid of anything to interact with. The effects on the animals were predictable enough, with nothing to do except eat and spread their feces around that's all they did. Radiolab interviews zookeeper David Hancocks, architect Grant Jones, and gorilla keeper Violet Sunde, who were convinced they could do better. They brought in Dian Fossey as a consultant, who convinced them to try the then-radical approach of attempting to make the gorilla's space simulate the wild. What I found most striking about this account was the observation that they were only able to try this approach because they were not being supervised. Had an authoritative zookeeper been around, they never would have been allowed to create such a "dangerous" environment, it would be seen as compromising the safety of the animals. My favorite line notes how having all-concrete enclosures was considered the only responsible technique, as it was easy to clean and could be kept sterile.

If you want to draw an analogy to how we as educators create an unnatural, borderline inhumane online environment in the name of safety, I won't stop you...

Which brings me to my putative point, a most groovy ELI Session entitled "Who's Afraid of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the Big Bad CMS? A Digi-Drama About Fear 2.0" delivered by Laura Blankenship, Barbara Ganley, Barbara Sawhill, Leslie Madsen-Brooks, and Martha Burtis. I've been struggling with how to frame this session in a blog post, as I doubt I can express my full appreciation without descending into full-blown sycophantic hyperbole.

Thankfully, the presenters have collected their materials in a nifty package, and you can experience their diverse set of short films for yourself. Can I even begin to express how much more compelling these sharable web-friendly materials are than a set of PowerPoint slides? Allow me to add how impressed I was with their creative and conversational approach to the session, generating some very provocative discussion. A subject like "fear" lurks beneath so many of our interactions in this field, and it was clear that people were grateful for the chance to address it directly. I was also privileged to interact with this dynamic and witty crew over meals and relentless Twitter-banter, enriching my stay in San Antonio immeasurably.

Related reading: Gardner Campbell is rendered speechless(!) by a student's flash of recognition that "our schools are set up all wrong."

The title of this post is drawn from Ross Johnson's version of "Theme from a Summer Place":





I'm special ordering Johnson's Make It Stop!. You might be interested in reading Johnson (who is a librarian at the University of Memphis!) relate his mostly disastrous experiences working with Alex Chilton and other indie-rock luminaries.

As we discussed, we are modifying the focus of this course based on your needs. Rather than approach it from a pedagogical approach, we will be looking more deeply at the technical aspects of the development and management of web-based services. There are no required readings for this course however there are two books that I would highly recommend for your bookshelf. The first is Will Richardson’s “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” This is a great read on the pedagogical implementation of web technologies in the classroom. The other is Elisabeth and Eric Freeman’s “Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML” which I’ve found to be a wonderfully practical introduction to programming in HTML and is a great reference for those who need to know more about the inner workings of the code.

So for us, the first step is to find a home. As our explorations will require us to have deeper access to the dark and dirty recesses of the web, we will need to have two things to start:

• A domain name and
• A hosting service

First of all you will need an identity, a web address where folks can find you. This may be perhaps the most challenging of tasks as you will likely find that many of the names that you would hope to use are already taken, whether they are in active use or are simply being “squatted” on my domain name speculators. In the past I have used a number of different domain name registrar services but have recently used GoDaddy.com with great success. You can shop around and find domains available at a number of pricing levels but it seems that if you are paying more than $10 annually, you’re paying too much.

The first thing that you will likely notice is the wide range of choices in TLDs or Top Level Domains. If you follow the last link to the Wikipedia entry and click show next to the box entitled Generic top-level domains, you will see a list of common TLDs such as .com, .net, .org, etc. When you search on GoDaddy, you can select from a wide range of TLDs in the drop down but the results page is much more useful as it displays not only the TLD you selected, but the availability of other TLDs as well. For example, searching on my domain, whitemountaintech, shows that both the .com and .net are not available but that the .us, .info, .org are.

Take care in selecting your domain name, particularly if this site is going to have a life beyond this course. You want to ensure that it is memorable to your prospective audience.

Don’t buy the domain name yet though. Check out your hosting options next as you will need to know the IP addresses in order to point your new domain name to your hosting service. There are a number of hosting services out there. Some domain name registrars such as GoDaddy provide the option to have your site hosted by them. But as with any big purchase, make sure that you shop around. While many hosts offer the same basic array of services such as email, web space, etc. There are add-on features such as CPanel, Fantastico, email lists, streaming media services, etc. that you will want to investigate. The bottom line is that although it is possible to move your domain from one host to another, it is not without a level of complexity that makes it a rather unpleasant process for even the most hard-core of system administrators!

When I first launched my sites, I used a service called Hasweb.com primarily because it had the features I was looking for at a price that was just right for me - US$48 per year. Now this only let me host one domain name but that was ok because I wanted to use this as a springboard to learn the nuances of site management. I now use Dreamhost and a number of my fellow edutechies use Bluehost. Both of these run a bit more, closer to US$100-120 annually, although they also provide the ability to host multiple domains and have commensurately higher storage and bandwidth allowances.

So here is your homework.

1. Select and purchase a domain name.
2. Select and subscribe to a hosting service.
3. Connect your domain name to your hosting service.
4. Using the information provided by your host, explore the features available to you and learn more about what each does.
5. Once you’ve done this, please respond via comment to this post.

[tags]ce5560, ce5560-summer2007, course, grad-course[/tags]

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Amazon.com: Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication, and Community Online: Books: Meredith G. Farkas

Amazon.com: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms: Books: Will Richardson