Small room big world

Well i am off at the Microsoft TAP event for Siliverlight, and asking the question why. Its not i have anything against Microsoft working on a cross platform, cross language development and deployment package, or the fact that “Flash” can do much of this already, its just that the moving between what is avalible and what hypothetically will be avalible in some distant future, or the this is version 1 and well in version 2……. this is exactly what giver Microsoft a checkered name.

Having said that the first speaker (key note address) was great and it was exciting to hear and see some of the possibilities. i get so frustrated though that yes i want tools, but no i am not a programmer, i am a designer, so how do i visualize and integrate my thoughts and visions into the programming cycle. I use Mind-manager, a pencil,Paper (the original Laptop) but not a computer. so with all these new(?) tools i now need to build in movement, scale and color guess i need to break out the crayons and take a tip from my 3 year old in the visualisation stakes.

XAML the new programming language looks good but it does look a lot like XML, and how does this all fit into the W3C world of the net, is it SENDA compatible. No answers yet.

In the cut and thrust of the market lead world i do feel flash needs a good competitor, to help regulate price, but flash is a fairly independent tool and it could be 4 or 5 years before there are enough dot net programmers to really take advantage of this whole new set of tools. That could mean losing 2 years good marketing ground to what i am sure will start to become a developing market, and we all know ADOBE will not sit still, and will start to mobalise the huge Flash programming market to stay ahead.

Having said this there are some neat tools, and stand alone apps such as Photosynth which could provide some off the shelf out of box solutions to data (pictorial) visualization and manipulation problems, and this could force ahead the silverlight agenda.

Where will we see this new(ish) technology first aired to the Nets populous at large, well the commercial sector (Hard Rock have already got a silverlight site) the big players first, including the US economies biggest net player…….the porn industry, i am sure this will be a good economic indicator of market penetration, or

am i just being old and synical?

This is a net marketing inteligence site, i like it, i have just come out of a “webinar” with them on one of there reports into social networking.  Loads of useful information on whats going on.

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I think this is a great idea, a campus wide VLE built around a blog rather than compartmentalized subjects, opening up a view across subjects and allowing alignment.

the students get a reflective blog and access from school and home,web 3 or web 2?

Edublogs Campus

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One of the world’s largest hard disk manufacturers has blocked its customers from sharing online their media files that are stored on networked drives.

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Europe remains a vibrant centre for web technology development, a conference in Paris is hearing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7139175.stm

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More adults in the UK use social networking sites such as Facebook than in other European countries, a report by communications watchdog Ofcom says.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7144511.stm

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Last Updated: Friday, 14 December 2007, 15:42 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version

A very real future for virtual worlds

By Mark Ward Technology Correspondent, BBC News website Many people spend a long time getting their avatar right for Second Life Second Life has long been seen as the bell-wether for the growing interest in virtual spaces. Here, founder Philip Rosedale talks to the BBC News website about the past and future of the parallel world he is helping to create.

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Weblogs rack up a decade of posts

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I have worked
teaching employer lead qualifications and key skills, and I am an advocate of
vocational training and education.  Having said all of this I do worry who
sets the standards and monitors the quality.

Looking at the BBC
news site today and the ongoing debate about diplomas for secondary
education, I do feel that the government agencies do miss the point some
times.  Industry on the whole is interested in making money and their
skills and expertise are all concentrated on this.  The Investors in
People awards are “it is true” aimed at preserving and educating your
work force , to a level where they are  valued as a business assets, but
even the most benign  employer would not want to invest  in training
not related to the job of the individual, or would be of  use to the
company.

Looking at the debate in this BBC article

“The second worry is
that, out of a concern to ensure that the Diplomas
are acceptable to universities, the government is making them more academic in
content than employers really want.”

The question this raises is who the diplomas are aimed
at.  If they are aimed at those who wish a practical training and are
looking at a trade, do they need a qualification which will no0t be looked at
by universities.  If in later life they whish to take a higher education
award, will their diplomas still be a pivotal point for their application, or
will it be their experience, later qualifications and aptitude which will give
them access.  Certainly the foundation degree structure, giving those with
school results which would not make it easy to enter higher education directly.

The governments concern

“The second risk to the Diplomas
has arisen from an understandable concern in government to avoid yet another
vocational qualification reform being labeled as second-class.

That is why the government insists the Diplomas
are “academic”, not vocational, practical or even
“specialist” qualifications.”

Should vocationally labeled qualifications ever be seen as second
class.  The NVQ structure of the late 80’s early 90’s offered a graduated qualification
which at level 4 and above was a good standard for attempting to enter further education
of employment.  These were recognized by the employers working through the
“Industry Lead Bodies” and the government to create a pathway for individuals
to enter a career but still have the ability to move back into education. 
The Intended Learning Outcomes were I agree largely based on ability to perform
rather than understand why, but were a good route to continued involvement in
education and training for individuals.  The whole scheme lent itself to
working with the individual student, helping them develop their own learning
styles through portfolio development, and at the higher levels (3 upwards)
their writing styles and academic ability.

The governments assertion in this article that diplomas are academic seems
miss placed, what is wrong with a good balanced qualification for main stream
education which give young people a wide platform of experience and work
related skills, that is
recognised as educationally sound. 

My other worry is around streaming, the question I would still like to ask
is how many of us knew what we wanted to do at 15/16, and is not the job of
secondary education to provide a broad enough platform of education and
understanding to allow young people to develop into young adults with the opportunities
as wide open as possible to grow in our society.

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