Are Lectures Becoming Irrelevant?

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When moving from the physical classroom to the online classroom, one of the first questions that usually comes up is “How do I deliver my lectures online?” There are a number of standard answers: narrated Powerpoint slides, movies using software like Camtasia, live synchronous lectures using tools like Wimba.

But there is a more interesting question to ask here. Is it worth the time spent imitating traditional lectures, or should we use the opportunity provided by the online realm to transform how we teach? Online learning has long been relegated to a supplementary form of teaching. As the perception changes with the popular acceptance of new technologies, and as schools realize the unique revenue that can be generated from the medium, questions like these are quickly becoming more relevant.

A recent NPR article explores the idea that the traditional lecture doesn’t really always work.

[Arizona State's David Hestenes] says that listening to someone talk is not an effective way to learn any subject.

“Students have to be active in developing their knowledge,” he says. “They can’t passively assimilate it.”

[…]

[University of Maryland's Joe] Redish says when he lays out the case against lecturing, colleagues often nod their heads, but insist their lectures work just fine. Redish tells them — lecturing isn’t enough anymore.

“With modern technology, if all there is is lectures, we don’t need faculty to do it,” Redish says. “Get ‘em to do it once, put it on the Web, and fire the faculty.”

Some faculty are threatened by this, but [Harvard's Eric] Mazur says they don’t have to be. Instead, they need to realize that their role has changed.

“It used to be just be the ‘sage on the stage,’ the source of knowledge and information,” he says. “We now know that it’s not good enough to have a source of information.”

Mazur sees himself now as the “guide on the side” – a kind of coach, working to help students understand all the knowledge and information that they have at their fingertips. Mazur says this new role is a more important one.

What if the paradigm shift in teaching necessitated by online learning creates something more valuable than the traditional lecture? It is possible that we have the opportunity to learn something new about teaching, and to pull it back into the classroom as well.

Not only might the shift provide more value to students, but professors become even more indispensable. In online learning, for example, students are usually expected to assimilate textbook knowledge on their own. The professor then, instead of delivering that same information, is free to deliver interpretations, connections, and applications of that information.

The creation of knowledge becomes the focus, rather than information transfer.

Failure is an Option

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Jeff Stibel, writing for the Harvard Business Review:

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: success by failure is not an oxymoron. When you make a mistake, you’re forced to look back and find out exactly where you went wrong, and formulate a new plan for your next attempt. By contrast, when you succeed, you don’t always know exactly what you did right that made you successful (often, it’s luck).

[...]

The best way to shape culture is of course to focus on hiring the people who will ultimately make up that culture. Yet this is often overlooked, replaced with corporate values, slogans, and mission statements. It took billions of years to create and define all of the world’s great cultures — through failure after failure — so it is with arrogance alone that we executives think we can create and define one for our company. To be blunt, cultures are not created or defined by executives; they evolve around the people who make up a company.

You’re Holding it Wrong

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TUAW: How Do I Silence My iPhone?:

That means if you take your phone into a quiet event — a meeting, concert, or other — you should probably power off the device completely for the duration. Press the sleep/wake button for about 5 seconds, and then slide to power down.

If this is not possible, you’ll want to set the ringer to mute, set the system audio to zero, launch Siri and lower the volume to zero, disable all alarms, and review the Settings > Notifications items in the Notification Center to switch off audio.

I never thought about this before, but is this seriously what you have to do to make absolutely sure your iPhone doesn’t make any noise? Shouldn’t there be a system-wide silencer somewhere in the settings?

iPod shuffle is Five Years Old and I Can’t Get a Grip

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The iPod shuffle turned 5 on January 11; I’m on my third one. I bought my first one, a second generation model, for working out, lost it a year later, and got a new second generation one as a replacement gift. That would have been my last one, but when I got married a few years ago, I loaded it up with a romantic playlist and had it delivered to my wife the morning of our wedding. I haven’t been allowed to touch it since.

Recently, she bought me a fourth generation one as a replacement. I still love it for the gym and for running, although now I only use it for running when it’s raining or snowing and I’m afraid my iPhone will get too wet while I’m out.

I never bought the first generation one or the third, mostly because I thought they weren’t that great. I loved the second generation one, and am happy that they’ve returned to that form factor. The only gripe I have is that they’ve made it square now, which removes the area where you could grip it to open the clip. Every time I clip it to something I skip to the beginning of the song or the last song.

It’s a little niggle that’s not like Apple. I wish they’d “rectangularize” it again so I could get a grip.

(iPod shuffle news via TUAW)

The Quest for a Modern Baby Monitor

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The Setup

Ah, the trials and tribulations of a geek dad. We have a newborn in the house, and my wife and I wanted to get a video monitor so we could both hear and see our new little one to make sure she’s safe. We both also wanted to have a system that worked with our iPhones and iPad (well, to be honest, I usually think of these things and she goes along with me because she loves me – luckily, she usually ends up thinking the results are pretty cool).

Video Monitor – Part 1

I started my search with a few products labeled specifically for parents with iPhones and iPads. The first product we tried was the iZon video monitor, priced at $129.95. It came out in October, and we pre-ordered so we had it as soon as our baby got here. The setup was dead simple, and the video is pretty good. Unfortunately, I went through three cameras from the manufacturer, each with at least one stuck pixel, before I gave up. The customer service representative told me that stuck pixels were extremely rare, but I didn’t want to chance it after the third one (not to mention that, at the time of my testing in October 2011, the product’s iPhone app was pretty convoluted for anything beyond just watching the feed). I also wasn’t completely comfortable with all the video stream being channeled through Stem’s servers before they got back to the iPhone app – that’s how their system works, and it did allow for automatic uploading to youTube and some other neat features. But we’re just pretty protective of our little one and didn’t like the idea of the video funneling through someone else’s tubes. For a much more thorough review of the iZon, and some pretty fair critiques and praises that I mostly agree with, see David Pogue’s article here in the New York Times.

Audio Monitor

Once the (third) iZon was returned, I decided to go with an audio-only monitor as an interim solution. That’s when I found the Evoz iPhone app (iTunes link). What a great product. You set up one iPhone or iPad as the monitor, and any of your other iDevices can listen to the audio stream from that monitor. Each iDevice can also be switched back and forth between monitor and speaker, so if you want to change your setup over and over it’s dead simple to do. The software also can differentiate between crying and other loud noises, and send you a push notification when it senses crying for an amount of time you determine.

We’ve been using the Evoz system as our only monitor for about 3 months now, and it works very well. The only quirk we’ve found so far is a bug in the software that cuts off the audio feed after about 35 minutes. A quick stop and start of the feed kicks it in again, and an Evoz customer service rep told me via e-mail that a fix has been submitted to the App Store and is awaiting Apple’s approval. (She also extended our subscription an extra month without any prompting – that’s how you get a product off the ground). There are some other minor quibbles such as how the audio streaming is handled (it uses http streaming rather than the newer built in iOS developer tools so, for example, you can’t control the audio from the multitasking bar), but no deal-breaking issues. The app is free to try for a few weeks, so you can see for yourself. After that, there’s a tiered subscription plan, although you can still use it quite a bit at the “Free” level. We’ve subscribed to the middle level so we can have unlimited listening, and the top level allows you access to your baby’s behavior data and push notifications (which we realized we don’t really have a need for). We love the Evoz system, and will be even happier when they fix the little glitches.

Video Monitor – Part 2

That would be where our tale ends, but my wife was going back to work this January, and I wanted to give her that piece of mind we were originally in search of, so I restarted my quest for a video solution to complement the Evoz audio. There are some video solutions like the iZon that are specifically branded as baby monitors that work with the Apple ecosystem pretty well. The iBaby Monitor and Wifi Baby Monitor are two. I considered them, but they’re $199.95 and $279 respectively. That was just too expensive.

Luckily for me, I discovered the wonderful world of FOSCAM video cameras. They’re mainly marketed as security cameras, but the price was irresistible ($86.99 on Amazon at the time of publication) and the functionality is perfect for a baby monitor. Unlike the iZon, the feed is private on your network (unless you enable it to be viewed outside your network, and even then the security level is determined by you) and only delivered to your desired destinations. The FOSCAM also allows for remote panning, tilting, and night vision so you can see in the dark (like when your baby’s sleeping – this is really a killer feature!). We have the video stream set up to work from any web browser (with password protection) and our iPhones and iPad.

It’s working great, although you do have to be a bit comfortable with technology to set it up, as the documentation is sparse and it’s a bit fidgety (look for an upcoming post in which I detail my set up process). Once set up though, it’s awesome.

Bottom Line
With Evoz audio monitoring + FOSCAM video monitoring, my wife and I can see and hear the baby’s room from just about anywhere. This solution has allowed us to spend a minimum amount of money for something priceless – peace of mind (and, for me, a whole landslide of geek dad cred – at least with my wife…).

Pricing
Evoz audio monitoring:
Subscription pricing (with a free option). We’re paying $3.99/month currently, but we might change plans or save money by going yearly (you can also go day to day, which is pretty cool for vacations). There are a lot of options. It’s easier to just go look at the plans on their site.
FOSCAM camera:
$86.99 on Amazon. You can use a web browser to see the feed, and we use the excellent free iPhone/iPad app CamViewer for Foscam Webcams (iTunes link).

For Me To Groupon?

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Interesting article here from Shawn Blanc about not being a free user. I totally agree. If you use something that’s free, figure out a way to pay the creator or risk losing the service altogether. Plus, it’s just the right thing to do.

While reading, I also figured something out that’s been nagging at me for a while. I’ve had an uncomfortable relationship with Groupon. I couldn’t figure out why though. Who doesn’t love a great deal? (I obviously do – I’d have to if I think that Kindle Special Offers really are special) And the business owners get business (especially health spas, apparently)!

But the deals are so good sometimes that I feel like I’m getting away with something – like Groupon and I are pulling one over on these businesses. “Hey, look at all the great exposure you’re getting! Don’t worry that you’re losing money on every one of these new customers! They’ll come back for more, promise!” It feels a little icky to me.

Give me some distance and I’m in. A good online deal? Done! Deal at a huge national chain? Done! But, man, I bought one for a little mom and pop bakery one time, and I almost couldn’t bring myself to use it. I did use it (I’m not invincible!), but then I also bought a bunch of other stuff out of pure guilt.

Ever since then I don’t buy Groupons for restaurants or little shops. I respect that they went to Groupon to get some publicity, but I’d rather pay full price and be on my way. That way, if I ever want to go back to one of these great little finds, I feel like I might have helped to keep them around a little longer.

Where there’s [...], there’s Fire

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Amazon’s 7″ Kindle Fire has been out for a few months now and seems to be selling pretty well. The success has sparked rumors that Amazon will come out with a 10″ version of the Fire next year, and possibly enter into the smartphone market.

It makes sense. Amazon is the only company poised to properly take on Apple. Google, Microsoft, Motorola… none of these companies has any digital content catalog, let alone one that could rival Apple’s iTunes ecosystem.

And if Amazon decides to enter the smartphone market, I imagine that they would want to leverage the enormous brand equity that now exists with the Kindle line.

But what would the phone be called? My bold prediction for the name of a phone that is rumored only in one lone analyst’s note to possibly exist at some indefinite point in the future: the Kindle Smoke.

Where there’s Smoke, there’s Fire. The concept is fun; the challenge, of course, would be getting past the initial mockery (anybody got a Smoke?). But heck, Apple came out with the iPad (you might remember a number of media outlets pointing out the similarity of that name to a certain feminine hygiene product). That seemed to work out ok.

“And So Now We All Get to Know That About People and Stuff”

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A few days ago, Louis C.K. announced that he was releasing his latest stand-up video via his website. He produced it with his own money, and got paid from the tickets of the people who came to see the show, along with the $5 (5 bucks!) he charged for the video. No DRM, no intermediation, just a deal between Louis and you.

Yesterday, he let everybody know how his experiment went:

I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn’t many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff.

He avoided DRM, priced it aggressively (made possible in part by the former), and people did the right thing. This all sounds familiar.

Steve Jobs on low cost, low price in a 2005 AP article (via The Hollywood Reporter):

We’re trying to compete with piracy. We’re trying to pull people away from piracy and say, ‘You can buy these songs legally for a fair price.’

Steve Jobs’ “Thoughts on DRM”, February 6, 2007 (the letter no longer exists on Apple’s site, but here’s a link to a reproduction of it):

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

And at the All Things D conference, June 1, 2010 (again via The Hollywood Reporter):

Price it aggressively and go for volume … I think people are willing to pay for content. I believed it in music, I believe it in media and I believe it in news content.

The only companies using DRM that are having any success are really good at providing you with your content anywhere. Amazon and eBooks, Netflix and streaming movies, Audible and audiobooks, Spotify and music – they all have apps across device platforms, from anywhere, at any time. These companies spend a lot of money to keep their DRM systems un-cracked, unobtrusive, and to develop and maintain compatible delivery mechanisms across all of these devices.

In the design industry, there’s an enduring adage that for any work you want completed you must pick 2 of the following 3 options: fast delivery, great quality, low price.

A similar quip for the digital age might be that to deliver content online, a company must choose 2 of the following 3: DRM, low cost of delivery, happy customers.

“Pay Your Five Little Dollars”

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Louis C.K., the only comedian I’ve ever actually made the effort to go see in a theater, on offering his newest standup video via his website for 5 bucks with no DRM or any other restrictions:

To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the whole “torrent” thing. I don’t know enough about it to judge either way. But I’d just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without “corporate” restrictions.

Please bear in mind that I am not a company or a corporation. I’m just some guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I would like to be able to post more material to the fans in this way, which makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me keep this being a good idea. I can’t stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way.

Sincerely,
Louis C.K.

Man I love this guy more and more every day.

Special Offers Really Are… Special?

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A few months ago, I received a Kindle for my birthday. Not the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Keyboard or the Kindle Fire. I asked for the base model with the directional keypad – partially because it was available immediately and I would have had to wait for the other versions, but mostly because I already have an iPhone and an iPad, and I wanted something to just read on. (It’s also much easier than the iPad to hold one-handed while balancing a newborn.)

The directional keypad doesn’t bother me at all. If anything, it makes me nostalgic of the devices I used growing up – especially when playing the free games (my favorites, if you’re interested, are Grid Detective and the Pixel Perfect collections). Typing sucks – hunt and peck taken to an extreme – but I hardly ever need to type. I usually buy all my books through the website anyway. The thing doesn’t need to be fancy, just get me to my books and get out of the way. (If you want an excellent in-depth review of the prominent eReaders out there, check out Marco Arment’s. Spoiler alert: he likes the basic Kindle the best too.)

Now I also just happened to get one of the Kindles with Special Offers. That’s the one I asked for; no need to spend an extra $30 to save a little screen real estate, and the ads aren’t there when you’re reading anyway. There have been articles like this one over at Lifehacker that detail how to get rid of the ads, but I don’t get why you’d need to. (I also don’t get why you wouldn’t just pony up the $30 and get rid of them for good – hacking the device can easily be reverted by Amazon down the road anyway, and karma’s a bitch.)

Here’s the kicker – I love the Special Offers. I know that “Special Offers” just means “Ads to Recoup the Cost of Giving You $30 Off Your Kindle”, but Amazon’s done something interesting here. The ads are usually pretty good deals. So far, in under 2 months, I’ve purchased a $30 Disney toy for my niece for $15, Richard Feynman’s “Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman!” for $1 (fun book, if you’re interested in the musings of a hilariously honest, down-to-earth, and prolific physicist), an excellent 49-song collection of classical pieces for $2, a Tom Clancy audiobook for free (hey, it was free), $5 off some of my Amazon Christmas shopping, and another random well-rated easy-read mystery novel for $1.

Amazon’s approach to ads won’t work for every business, but the Amazon folks nailed it for theirs.