Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)

Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)

August 29th, 2010

Data Visualization and Mining

“Snake Oil” is an incredibly data rich interactive data visualization. Go play with it. You’ll see.
I would love to see some of the stats from the Almanac of Higher Education [@chronicle] reformatted in data visualizations instead of pages of tables. Maybe this is a good project for someone’s classes this fall?
Some blogs on data visualization: Information is Beautiful, Flowing Data, and Vizthink
Some companies are beginning to mine the data of mood swings about their products on the Real-Time Web.
According to Microsoft, the top three new technology majors are Data Mining, Business Intelligence, and Analysis/Statistics. [via @flowingdata and @timoreilly]
Google Earth now shows live weather. This is a pretty cool augmented reality visualization of data. [via @kylepace]
The Geosocial Universe, by Jesse Thomas, shows the relative size of different social networking services as well as how much of the service is provided through mobile devices. [via @gsiemens]
Rapportive is an add-on for Gmail that makes email smarter by trolling for data about the contact you are emailing and then displaying some of their information. [via @mashsocialmedia and @mcleod]

Great Links for STEM

Repeat famous science and math experiments [via @johnfaig]
@sciencemagazine has an article I’d like to read called “What is STEM Education?” Of course, you can’t read it without a subscription. Bummer for us. This means I’m probably not going to take the time to look it up on my library’s system and place the order for Interlibrary loan. Do you ever get the feeling that Academia is trying to keep us from reading their precious articles?
A Futurama writer invented a new math Theorem just to use in the show. [via @edwebb]
Newman’s book, Alchemy Tried in the Fire might be an interesting read for the chemists out there (and their students). [via @rpohancenik]
There are some interesting applications of math modeling in this video about adding an augmented reality layer to Google Earth

Just for Fun

Great video on plagiarism from Norway (a take-off on A Christmas Carol – [via @derekbruff and @timchartier]
Do you suffer from Information Overload Syndrome? is a very funny video from Xerox. ”IOS is highly contagious. In a matter of days, entire companies can fall victim.”
Leadership Lessons from “The Dancing Guy” (3 minutes, an interesting observation about the importance of followers)
Create your own Twitter Parade (and possibly drive your animals nuts). Fun … and it was nice to see the whole crowd of followers a few at a time.
SpatSolver is like Jing for marriages. LOL

Great Links for Everyone

To move all your content out of Blackboard and to the open web quickly and easily, try bFree.
How to find Royalty-free music for YouTube videos (could be helpful for student projects).
Here’s a really nice site on Information Literacy from the University of Idaho.
There are some great statistics in this white paper from Xerox: Cutting the Clutter: Tackling Information Overload at the Source. While we’re on the subject of Information Overload, you might as well read Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime (NYT) [via @noahWG]
As an Android user, I found this story to be a little unsettling. Apparently Oracle (likened to Mordor by a friend of mine) bought Sun (which makes Java) and is suing Google over the Android OS. There is a remote possibility that the lawsuit could force Google to pull the plug on Android. (I said remote, right?)
I keep saying that we’re going to have to shift higher ed away from being content providers. Well, here’s a company hoping that you’ll want to sell your online course to other instructors or colleges. I wonder what something like will do to instructors’ ownership rights to course IP?
I’ve been wondering off and on about whether I will leave Academia one day. This post from Danah Boyd [@zephoria] is a great “food for thought” about why she left and how she likes her position at MS Research.
Still one of the best explanations of Creative Commons License out there: The Mayer & Bettle Animation
If you’re trying to teach with more of an International flavor, try these modules from the Midwest Institute.
What leads someone to leave a following of 10,000 on Twitter? Read: Quitting Twitter. For the record, if you only follow 7 people, you probably don’t get much value from Twitter. A Followers:Following ratio like 10,000:7 just shouts “all about me” to me. [via @gsiemens]
Is professional development for educators moving the wrong direction? [via RT @mcleod]
How Can We Teach Someone If We Do Not Know How They Learn? Another must-read from @simbeckhampson which will lead you to a 182-page report about Learning Styles and Pedagogy.
Westerners vs. the World: WE are the WEIRD ones. This is seriously one of the most interesting articles I have read in a while. Don’t skip it just because it’s last. [via @hrheingold]

Serious Games

Wabash College picks a computer game (Portal) for the reading list in some of its Freshman-year seminar courses. [via @BryanAlexander]
Farmville has more active users than twitter! “If Farmville wanted to take down productivity in the world, they could just change to a 30-min crop cycle and everything would stop.” from Seth Priebatsch’s TED on The Game Layer on Top of the World “School is a game. It’s just not a terribly well-designed game.”
Games designed to help with real-world productivity, like the EpicWin App are intriguing. Of course, they are only intriguing if you can actually try them. Cross-platform please.
Gaming for the Greater Good: How Social Gaming Can Advance Sustainability by Derrek Mains is a MUST-READ about the potential power of social gaming. [via @randyfuj and @ricardolucas]

In other news, our Math ELITEs are ready to be used! Here’s a picture of the new tables. Also, my husband and I spent our 15th Wedding Anniversary sitting in front of a large screen TV (with no reception … not watching it) and watching TED Talks on a 3″ phone screen. It was a great way to celebrate! Also, I booked my trip to Mountain View for September. Can’t wait!

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