pontification without gravitas
Notional Slurry as pontification without all the gritty gravitas is a quick cosmography of component disciplines of media transaction.
digitization principles
ALA is attempting either to fill a void or wedge in between by creating policy on the “digital library”. Stealth would probably be the best strategy here, at least until the malapropt “digital library” is reassessed. But watch the
blog for some reality checking.
“The OITP working group working with ALA committees and divisions will coordinate the revision, enhancement and creation of new policies regarding creation, access, use and preservation of digital content.”
ALA probably should take a policy stand on authentication and the
library role as a trusted repository of digital literature.
place based learning
The dire need for a hand held reading device is obscured by the doomed
e-book print mimic. The needed realization is that the killer e-book is a BLANK book awaiting
connectivity to places and events.
Tourist’s Path. GPS is often used by tourists to mark and find specific locations.
Driving
Horseback riding
Walking & running
Golfing
Hiking
Scuba diving
Mountain climbing
Flying
Town and City Tours. GPS is used by many tourism groups to mark locations of structures and natural places.
Byways and Trails. GPS is used to mark roads and trails for hikers, bikers, and cars.
National Scenic Highways
BLM Scenic Byways
State Historic Projects
Coastal Drives
Route 66
Historic Trails
Pony Express Route
Civil War Sites
Walking Tours. GPS can be used for walking tours through communities and parks. Groups may use maps, guides, audio, and photos.
Cemetery tours
Historic markers
Community tours
Historic homes
Small parks
Buildings and grounds
Historical Reenactments. GPS is used to mark exact locations and times for meetings and events. These are great opportunities for students to write historical fiction.
Storytelling. GPS is great for activities that involve meeting at a particular location or events where the goal is to give people the sense for what it might have been like to have lived in a particular place in a different time period. For example, you might convene in the location of an historical tribal meeting or at an old fort. Shelbyville, Illinois holds a cemetery walk in the fall. Storytelling is enhanced when participants experience the same location as the original event.
Natural Places. GPS devices can be used to locate a range of natural places and reduce the need for signage.
Geologic formations
Hot springs
Geysers
Waterfalls
Animal migration
Dinosaur tracks
For example, middle school students in Wheelock, Vermont conducted a Study of Soils that involved using GPS units to collect waypoint used in mapping soil types. They used worksheets to note GPS locations, site descriptions, sketches, soil profiles, and soil type analysis.
Ecosystems. GPS is used to monitor ecosystems.
Chesapeake Bay
Salmon Movement
Changes in sea level
Hillside Erosion
Migration Patterns
Remote Location Tours. GPS devices work particularly well in areas without signs such as historic sites, building ruins, petroglyph locations, ghost towns and natural areas.
Biological Surveys. GPS can be used for many types of scientific surveys including remote navigation, locating specific points on ground, mapping species encountered, mapping geological features, and mapping boundaries. Scientists trace changes over time and can compare “before and after”.
Scientific Experiments. GPS has been used to trace animals such as bears, wolves, and birds. It’s used to mark old coal mines, mark underground wiring paths.
thoughtful summary
Ben Vershbow summarizes the state of the art of the future of the book. Although interested in the imagined networked book, the
overall landscape is well described.
optima
Transmission formats are initially considered for wide application, but eventually optimized for more narrow function. Competitive factors have narrowed the functions of print, radio, and television so that they are now better utilized for efficient transmission.
Networked computer screens, cell phones and barcode readers are still in a development stage where they are widely applied. Eventually these transmission formats will also have more narrow function. The interesting question is what sort of competitive factors and new transmission formats will confine these currently expansive modes. Perhaps post-digital formats will emerge or perhaps an increasingly crowded ecology of transmission formats will narrow the functionalities of all.
ìFor what we are dealing with is never replacements that put an end to what they replace but rather, if I might use the word today, restructurations in which the oldest form survives, and even survives endlessly, coexisting with new form and even coming to terms with a new economy.î p.9, Derrida, Jacques, Paper Machine, Stanford, 2005.