I am surprised to find that Leon reads widely enough among educational bloggers to have found little old me. I am both surprised and pleased that the Guru of the Obvious acknowledged me for my less than flattering commentary. I obviously did not take him seriously enough before.
He has forced me to use French – and apparently MT does not like French.
I had a thought when I posted Excess Capacity. Now I have seen this story in a few different places and I cannot stay silent on the subject. Basically, the story can be summed up like so:
“Whether building a wireless system, installing fiber directly to homes, or exploring broadband over power lines – or some combination of these options – local communities are finding they can get better service for less money if they do it themselves.
“Big telecom and cable companies have responded by furiously working to slam the door on community wireless. The telephone and cable giants are trying to use their lobbying clout in state capitals to pre-empt local control, preserve higher prices and preclude competition.” (thanks to Matt Barton for quoting this perfect synopsis from Freepress.net)
Everybody should realize that the telecom companies have nothing to gain when municipalities prove that broadband can be affordable. Somehow they need to be held to the standard of capitalist doctrine and forced to actually compete to create a system that provides the best service possible for the lowest price. If the municipalities can offer equal service for less than the telecoms then the telecoms should get out of the business.
Another good Dilbert. Does anyone know where I can get a new RSS feed for Dilbert? The site for the one I was using has apparently expired.
I have never linked to Dilbert before, but sometimes they are so funny I just have to share.
In “It takes a whole village – or does it?” I see some strong truths expressed that the family is the basic unit of society, but there is also a kernel of truth in the saying “it takes a village.” The village in which I raise my children will have an effect on how they grow up and what they learn – whether I like it or not.
I, like Hyrum, refuse to allow the village to become the primary teacher for my children. I’m sure that Hyrum would agree with me though that we must be careful in choosing the village in which we raise our children because it will have an effect. I consider that “it takes a village” when I choose the village and also when I choose to participate in shaping that village.
I moved to the University of Missouri and within two days I met one of my fellow students who introduced me to TheOpenCD. I have always been a proponent of free and open source software but not an activist. I have also always wanted to find a good suite of programs that would make a linux desktop functional for everyday use by everyday users – something that could be used by the people I help rather than by people who are intimately comfortable with their computers. TheOpenCD provides a good base for such a computer. I was impressed by the range of software provided. Some of it I already use, such as OpenOffice, Firefox, and 7-Zip, but I think I could replace almost all the rest of the software that I regularly use with programs included on TheOpenCD. It looks like the momentum is building for Microsoft independence.
Stephen Downes just posted an intro with a link to the powerpoint files for his keynote address at the Instructional Technology Institute. This will tell you what I heard when I thought what I posted in Thoughts Raised by Giants. I can’t wait to go through this again to glean some of what I’m sure I didn’t catch the first time.