Today was our first day at our new preschool. We chose it because its discipline philosophy matches ours– they train teachers and parents in the Becky Bailey method, so parents and teachers are all on the same page, using similar language with the kids. They have no limits on parents participating in the classroom, and [...]
Wikis of Locality
As Mark Gaved spoke last week at WikiSym 2006, I couldn’t help but think of the World Board concept the IU Informatics students had to tussle with last year. The idea is that physical places could be used to anchor messages. It seems to me wikis that concentrate on serving a small local community might [...]
Riddle me this?
Q. How do you get a six-year-old to read a note written by Mommy?
I’ve been trying to come up with ways to stay connected to Carter during the school day. Getting him to tell me about his day is like pulling teeth, even when I vary the questions and use all of my social worker [...]
Wiki Creole
Chuck Smith just announced that a site to explore a “creole” markup language to work across wikis is not available. The site includes the current markup scheme and an announcement that eight engines are going to help implement for beta testing.
http://www.wikicreole.org/
Even more research ideas
After a few days of WikiSym 2006, here’s a wiki-centric list of possible research questions to explore:
Barnstars as Motivators — What do barnstars look like as a dynamic network? Do visible peer awards impact contribution or modify behavior?
Impact of Traditional Media — Can usage spikes for viewing, editing or creation of new pages be tied [...]
Semantic Wikis
One of the buzzphrases at WikiSym 2006 was “semantic wikis” (corporate wiki, wikis in education and wiki markup being the other main areas). From a user perpsective, the main problem with semanticizing stuff is the tedious nature of tagging. Even scrolling through my list of two dozen blog categories is annoying, so I can’t imagine [...]
Band Geekery
Band Geeks
A year ago my Uncle died (”Grief”), and I vowed to reach out to family and solidify connections with his daughters. I told myself it was to keep closer to my cousins that I allowed my Aunt to talk me into joining the Bloomington Community Band.
Many Monday evenings, I came home determined to write [...]