Mirandanet has just had a most fullsome discussion about the merits of teaching touch-typing to children.
I've managed to get a "Tag Cloud" on the http://esd.escalate.ac.uk site. I imported it from my Diigo site, where they are called "Tag Rolls".
I've set up a Group on Diigo for "Sustainable Education". Anyone can join.
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/sustainable-education
You are welcome. I've written a little about a possible protocol for tags.
Friday 13 February 2009
Friday 6 February 2009
Diigo made me think about ideas from 1989. 'ere 'tis
PEBBLES (First appeared in “Education 2010” Newman Software 1989)
Information, data, and collections have always accompanied civilisations, but the form, content, context and quantity has developed and expanded. There is already a vast amount of data available to us from a variety of sources. The great library at Alexandria was one such example from long ago. Current libraries in wealthy countries have moved swiftly to microfilm, microfiche, and latterly to computerised databases, often accessed by phone. The fact is that our collections of books, articles, newspapers are now so huge that we can no longer afford to actually keep and handle them first hand for a variety of reasons; space, cost of purchase, cost of storing, cost of cataloguing, cost of maintenance ..... Even our collections of artefacts such as those found in the British Museum are so extensive that they cannot be shown regularly. In fact some exhibits aren't, they never see the light of day. Figures for the rate of growth of the number of articles published in scientific journals each year are quite staggering. Knowledge, facts, and printed material are threatening to engulf us. I dread to think what it might be like by 2010.
There is a great need to personalise large databases.
If you think for a moment about your books, your library or indeed any collection you may own or have access to, and consider how you know your way around it, there is inevitably a personal side to that knowledge. You may use a catalogue and a number system, but also it is highly likely that your own personal experiences before, during and after your various uses of the collection, have coloured your view, mental map and ultimately the way you feel and think about the collection. Most of us know our books by colour, shape, where they go on the shelf, and inside, we pave, mark, underline, make notes, put in paper slips or fold over corners.
Pebbles is an attempt to describe a way of personalising vast amounts of data.
On the Apple Mac in Hypercard, the system assuming the human user to be somewhat simple and easily confused, keeps a record of the last 20 screens visited by the idiot human.
Some years ago Bob Kowalski, talking about developments in Prolog, proposed the very simple but incredibly useful idea of SYMMETRY. He explained that if the Prolog system couldn't answer a query from the user, then the system could ask for more information by querying the user. This whole notion of symmetry between the system and the user seems so obvious, but when we either feel in control of the system or know that it controls us, we don't think of symmetry, only our role and that of the system. Hansel and Gretel stole bread and crumbled it so they could find their way home again, but the trail had a finite length, like the Mac's breadcrumb trail. Moreover, Hansel and Gretel were in control of the distribution of the bread at least, but it was when they used pebbles that they found their way home. I term the objects with which I am going to suggest we personalise databases, PEBBLES. Pebbles are hard and durable, they have been used for thousands of years for counting and playing games, and painted pebbles have been found in prehistoric sites. Pebbles can be re-used, unlike breadcrumbs, which were eaten by the birds, as Hansel and Gretel found to their cost.
Pebbles can come in different shapes, sizes, patterns, colours, surfaces, and densities. In computing terms, they can be described as objects. I propose that these objects can be given various properties, ultimately as part of an object oriented programming environment. But I rush on too far, too fast. The user is in control of the pebbles, not the system with its breadcrumbs.
Some ways of using Pebbles.
The user browsing a vast database with a handful of pebbles can choose to drop a pebble at any point. Any page of interest, any piece of interesting data can be marked using a pebble. Pebbles can be dropped in any order.
At the end of a session, the references marked by the pebbles can be requested, and a second selection made. Pebbles can be taken back if the reference is not deemed worth keeping. References can be reordered and saved as a set of references.
The important concept is that pebbles can have as many or as few properties as required.
In reality pebbles are simply property lists stored on a disc linked to the user or other property lists. Hard copy of the material can be obtained .depending on the system being used; pebbles merely keeps track of where you went and which pages or references etc you wished to mark.
Students could use prepared routes marked out by pebbles. This doesn't preclude them from browsing the system. Students could use their own pebbles like a signet ring to mark pages in which they were interested. The database would appear to show which pages in a text or set of newspaper articles were deemed important by the students. Of course, the teacher could lay down a paper trail, or just leave a few clues lying around.
Pebbles can be collected in with their references, sifted, sorted and ordered into a linear sequence. The pebbles, when drilled, can be strung together, making a bead necklace.
Branching strings of beads can be produced, as can networks. They can be built up over a period of time without actually touching or changing the original data as it exists on a CD ROM or whatever. Networks can be hierarchical, in that large pebbles denote important routes, whilst small! ones denote minor routes. The metaphor could be changed to roads, and travel in general. Remember tracking and scouting; consider the marks made by rich and poor sedentary and mobile peoples. Pebbles is a system, not unlike buttons in Hypercard. Pebbles can build up simple or complex networks, fractals if you prefer, of information based on how we as individuals think and come to that information. Pebbles is a metaphor, which hopefully will allow us to personalise vast amounts of information, making them our own. At its simplest, pebbles should save us from getting lost in the myriad knowledge which threatens to engulf us.
Henry Liebling in thoughtful mood. May 1989 .(ISBN 0948048042)
My friend Paul Spurgeon & I worked on these ideas through the 1990s.
Now I think Diigo have realised most of this. Feb 6th 2009
PEBBLES (First appeared in “Education 2010” Newman Software 1989)
Information, data, and collections have always accompanied civilisations, but the form, content, context and quantity has developed and expanded. There is already a vast amount of data available to us from a variety of sources. The great library at Alexandria was one such example from long ago. Current libraries in wealthy countries have moved swiftly to microfilm, microfiche, and latterly to computerised databases, often accessed by phone. The fact is that our collections of books, articles, newspapers are now so huge that we can no longer afford to actually keep and handle them first hand for a variety of reasons; space, cost of purchase, cost of storing, cost of cataloguing, cost of maintenance ..... Even our collections of artefacts such as those found in the British Museum are so extensive that they cannot be shown regularly. In fact some exhibits aren't, they never see the light of day. Figures for the rate of growth of the number of articles published in scientific journals each year are quite staggering. Knowledge, facts, and printed material are threatening to engulf us. I dread to think what it might be like by 2010.
There is a great need to personalise large databases.
If you think for a moment about your books, your library or indeed any collection you may own or have access to, and consider how you know your way around it, there is inevitably a personal side to that knowledge. You may use a catalogue and a number system, but also it is highly likely that your own personal experiences before, during and after your various uses of the collection, have coloured your view, mental map and ultimately the way you feel and think about the collection. Most of us know our books by colour, shape, where they go on the shelf, and inside, we pave, mark, underline, make notes, put in paper slips or fold over corners.
Pebbles is an attempt to describe a way of personalising vast amounts of data.
On the Apple Mac in Hypercard, the system assuming the human user to be somewhat simple and easily confused, keeps a record of the last 20 screens visited by the idiot human.
Some years ago Bob Kowalski, talking about developments in Prolog, proposed the very simple but incredibly useful idea of SYMMETRY. He explained that if the Prolog system couldn't answer a query from the user, then the system could ask for more information by querying the user. This whole notion of symmetry between the system and the user seems so obvious, but when we either feel in control of the system or know that it controls us, we don't think of symmetry, only our role and that of the system. Hansel and Gretel stole bread and crumbled it so they could find their way home again, but the trail had a finite length, like the Mac's breadcrumb trail. Moreover, Hansel and Gretel were in control of the distribution of the bread at least, but it was when they used pebbles that they found their way home. I term the objects with which I am going to suggest we personalise databases, PEBBLES. Pebbles are hard and durable, they have been used for thousands of years for counting and playing games, and painted pebbles have been found in prehistoric sites. Pebbles can be re-used, unlike breadcrumbs, which were eaten by the birds, as Hansel and Gretel found to their cost.
Pebbles can come in different shapes, sizes, patterns, colours, surfaces, and densities. In computing terms, they can be described as objects. I propose that these objects can be given various properties, ultimately as part of an object oriented programming environment. But I rush on too far, too fast. The user is in control of the pebbles, not the system with its breadcrumbs.
Some ways of using Pebbles.
The user browsing a vast database with a handful of pebbles can choose to drop a pebble at any point. Any page of interest, any piece of interesting data can be marked using a pebble. Pebbles can be dropped in any order.
At the end of a session, the references marked by the pebbles can be requested, and a second selection made. Pebbles can be taken back if the reference is not deemed worth keeping. References can be reordered and saved as a set of references.
The important concept is that pebbles can have as many or as few properties as required.
In reality pebbles are simply property lists stored on a disc linked to the user or other property lists. Hard copy of the material can be obtained .depending on the system being used; pebbles merely keeps track of where you went and which pages or references etc you wished to mark.
Students could use prepared routes marked out by pebbles. This doesn't preclude them from browsing the system. Students could use their own pebbles like a signet ring to mark pages in which they were interested. The database would appear to show which pages in a text or set of newspaper articles were deemed important by the students. Of course, the teacher could lay down a paper trail, or just leave a few clues lying around.
Pebbles can be collected in with their references, sifted, sorted and ordered into a linear sequence. The pebbles, when drilled, can be strung together, making a bead necklace.
Branching strings of beads can be produced, as can networks. They can be built up over a period of time without actually touching or changing the original data as it exists on a CD ROM or whatever. Networks can be hierarchical, in that large pebbles denote important routes, whilst small! ones denote minor routes. The metaphor could be changed to roads, and travel in general. Remember tracking and scouting; consider the marks made by rich and poor sedentary and mobile peoples. Pebbles is a system, not unlike buttons in Hypercard. Pebbles can build up simple or complex networks, fractals if you prefer, of information based on how we as individuals think and come to that information. Pebbles is a metaphor, which hopefully will allow us to personalise vast amounts of information, making them our own. At its simplest, pebbles should save us from getting lost in the myriad knowledge which threatens to engulf us.
Henry Liebling in thoughtful mood. May 1989 .(ISBN 0948048042)
My friend Paul Spurgeon & I worked on these ideas through the 1990s.
Now I think Diigo have realised most of this. Feb 6th 2009
Thursday 5 February 2009
I've just set up a Sustainable Education Group on Diigo to share and maybe annotate websites, webpages, documents...
I'm sure we can use Diigo to make more sense of and manage the huge amount of information there is out there.
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/sustainable-education
Send me an e-mail if you want to join us
hliebling@gmail.com
best wishes
Henry
I'm sure we can use Diigo to make more sense of and manage the huge amount of information there is out there.
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/sustainable-education
Send me an e-mail if you want to join us
hliebling@gmail.com
best wishes
Henry
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)