Google's Cloud

Happy New Year!
I recently read an article in the NYT's Sunday business section. Essentially, the article concerned Google's ongoing high-stakes competition with Microsoft in Microsoft's backyard. Most interesting for me was a detailed mention about Google's belief that, in the very near future, 90% of all computing tasks will be accomplished online. Google calls it "the cloud." For example, Google now has a free service that allows a user to, for example, create a document on a Google site (docs.google.com) which can be accessed from any computer, anytime, anywhere. I've checked it out and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities--do not have to have your computer with you at all times, for one thing. There are some privacy concerns but that is true in all working online on any computer. Once again, that issue should be dealt with by our elected representatives (re: electronic privacy should be one of the most important issues right now and in the coming decades). Check out this Google offering and see what you think.
drfaust

Power Point Reconsidered

The critique of Power Point is found in a short (34 page) essay by design guru, Edward Tufte, and is titled "The Cognitive Style of Power Point.". . .It available for about $3.00 on Amazon. If you happen to read it, let's discuss Tufte's critique. . .

IL as a liberal art

One of the readings argues that IL is a liberal art. . .Until reading that piece I had never thought of IL as a liberal art. . .I agree with the premise of Shapiro and Hughes that IL ". . .extends beyond technical skills and is conceived as one's critical reflection on the nature of information, itself. . .". . .We fail to critically examine the technology that we use in our daily work to the point that all too often the technology uses us as much or more than we use the technology. . .For example, "Power Point" has imposed its will on presentations throughout the planet by virtue of the limitations of the software to the point where PP has begun to alter the way our species approaches a problem--it limits rather than expands the horizons of each user. . .That is to say, it's a Power Point world; we just live in it. . .p.s. read "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov before it's too late. . .

I'm back

Hello All!
I've been overwhelmed. . .This my first post--better never than late, my father always said. . .I'm settling in with the busiest schedule I've had in about fifteen years and now have reached the point where I will be blogging daily. . .I'm enrolled in a master's program at Hamline and last night my class was given a brief tutorial on the technology available for research in our program. . .All I can say is wow!. . .I'm particularly interested in a citation tool called Zotero. . .With these tools, technology does everything but write the paper for you. . .Alas, the days of card catalogs, etc. . .Gone forever. . .See you this afternoon. . .
Dr. Faust

Testing, Testing 1,2,3

Eureka. . .I came, I waited, I waited some more, (but alas), I created---my blog. . .drfaust