Autumnal (early)

The experts said that the heavy rains throughout the spring and summer would lead to a beautiful autumn 2009, and they were right. Some shots from a walk we took last Sunday near our home. The waterway is the Charles. And no, we don't own the house.

Another print publication throws in the towel, GateHouse/CNC picks up the pieces

The recession has killed another print-based publisher. Today, I got a letter from Community Magazines (publisher of Newton magazine, which used to be delivered free to our house) saying that the company is shutting down after eight years. It's a pity. I was one of the people who actually heeded the call in last month's issue to pay a modest $15 subscription, but owner Jonathan Brickman returned the check with the following letter.



It's great that Brickman was able to find employment with CNC (owned by GateHouse Media) running magazine sales. I am sure his contacts with luxury vendors (which formed the bedrock of his magazine group's sales) are going to be a huge asset in that position.

Not mentioned in the letter is the impact of the Internet on local publications. The CNC newspapers like the Newton Tab appear to have a better handle on online campaigns than the dinosaurs running the Globe, which during my last check had barely any local online advertising, and a weak print ad lineup as well.

Related blog posts on I, Lamont:

• An open letter to Gatehouse Media, editor Greg Reibman, and other Newton Tab staff
• The robots of Newton
• Boston Globe advertising: What's wrong with this picture?
• Google News: Biased or broken?
• Boston Globe relaunches forums, but they're doing it all wrong
• What is the future of print publications?
• What value do you feel Web 2.0 brings to the news industry?
• Source Blocks get a boost ...
• The power of mother nature, and the power of video 2.0

Robot overlords take over suburbia

The robots of Newton are here -- an army of green Waste Management trucks which pick up the blue trash barrels and green recycling barrels every Monday using a giant robotic arm (or mechanical arm?). They started in our neighborhood at the beginning of October. Here's what it looks like:



I showed this to a Japanese friend (a resident of the next town over, Waltham) who said, "this is in the United States?" Indeed it is! While in Japan robots are used for auto manufacturing and bizarre educational trials, here in Newton our robot overlords are starting with simple trash collection. The company that operates the service is Waste Management, which won the contract in our city based on a trial in one neighborhood and the claim that it will save lots of money, thanks to reduced manpower needs. Indeed, the collection is very quick, as you can see from the video.

However, what the city of Newton failed to take into account is the fact that the barrels are extremely heavy -- the barrels hold 64 gallons and are made of heavy-duty plastic, and must weigh upwards of 40 pounds with a typical load. Many local senior citizens are already complaining, and I can only imagine what it will be like when we have to wrangle these monsters down steps and over three-foot-high snowbanks in February.

Google Visualization API

After seeing this video, reading the API documentation, and playing around with some of the scripts, I'm realizing that this great toolset is making an impact on a lot of startup Web services. Google Finance uses it, and I saw another Twitter-based service that incorporated some of the charts as well in just the past week. The best things about the Google Visualization API: It's free, it's based on javascript, it's relatively easy to use, and it dovetails into people's existing Excel/spreadsheet projects. Geek out ...

Working for Uncle Pat, 1999-2009

October 20, 1999, was an important date for me.

That's the day I entered the American workforce after living overseas for most of the 1990s. My new employer was Network World, a technology trade publication owned by IDG Communications.

Ten years later, I can say that I made a great choice. That's not just because of what happened to the alternatives (after returning to the states, I had briefly considered going to NYC to work for an Internet startup, and also interviewed at a large metro daily). I quickly learned that IDG had a great work culture, and there were some incredible learning and career development opportunities as well. Besides Network World, I've been employed at Computerworld and now The Industry Standard, and have had the pleasure of working with some super colleagues at all three. Of course, there have been some rough spots, and I didn't stay at IDG the whole time (I spent three years in higher education from 2002-2005), but overall it's been a great experience which has enabled me to take my career into new media areas.

I also appreciate the fact that IDG took a chance on me. When I came back to the states in 1999, I didn't have any local media connections or recent U.S. work experience, but a few people at NW saw some potential, and gave me the green light. I'm grateful to them, as well as to "Uncle Pat," the man who founded IDG in the 1960s, took the organization global (he was one of the first American businesses to go into China following the thawing of bilateral relations in the late 1970s), and still makes a point of personally visiting and thanking thousands of employees in dozens of countries every year before the holidays. There aren't many leaders like that in corporate U.S.A.

Thanks.

Charlie Chaplin would be proud

This is supposed to be real security camera footage. Check out the original here, and judge for yourself.

(Thanks Gavin P.)

Online education: A teacher speaks

"I'll never do it again." That's the title of an essay by Elayne Clift about teaching online courses. It was published in May on the Chronicle of Higher Education website, and I've excerpted a section below. Some of the problems she points to are well known, such as increased workloads, low pay and communication difficulties associated with monitoring and responding to lots of email and message board posts. But I thought I would highlight some sections that are relevant to my recent critiques of the Harvard Extension School's aggressive expansion into online education:

1. "Virtual community" is the ultimate oxymoron. It is an inherent contradiction in terms -- like saying one is "fresh from the tennis court." While some people find the anonymity enabling and are able to bond with their cybergroup and engage in true confessions, I find it extraordinarily difficult to communicate with people for whom I have no face, no persona, no body language, no in-the-moment exchange. To me, virtual anything is by definition not real. In the case of the classroom, it is a substitute for an actual space in which people physically gather to explore, discuss, grapple, and grow together in the true spirit of learning and meaningful exchange.

2. The lack of immediacy in communication is maddening. I met my British husband 38 years ago when we both worked in Washington. When his job ended and he returned to London during a tenuous time in our relationship, it took us at least seven days to have a conversation, let alone an argument. (Those were not only pre-computer days; overseas phone calls were still considered a luxury.) I revisited that experience every time I read and responded to students' posts, waiting to see what they would say the next time I heard from them, all the while worrying that my feedback might be misinterpreted and thus hurtful or confusing. I can think of no more important place for immediate communication to occur than in a classroom where difficult subjects are being discovered and debated. It is essential, in my view, that a teacher be able to probe, clarify, comment in the moment. That moment is lost in a virtual community.

3. The quality of education is compromised in online learning. My first experience with "distance learning" did not occur in an online course, but it did involve adult learners and minimal face-to-face time. I taught in an adult degree program in which faculty members met with students only periodically —two weeks a year or on selected weekends. The rest of the student-teacher dialogue occurred through the mail. I never felt that the independent research that the students were undertaking completely matched what they might have learned from a structured curriculum designed to expose them, in a systematic way, to theories and key thinkers in their fields of interest. I can say unequivocally that students were given credit for independent work that never would have passed muster in a traditional course of study.

Similarly, in online teaching, I was only able to introduce students to a limited amount of material outside of the textbook readings; it is simply impossible to replicate a lecture online. Nor could I adequately help them develop better writing and critical thinking skills or to foster original ideas because there simply wasn't enough time or a proper forum. For one thing, online courses, in my experience, are too big; I can't give each student enough attention. That load contributes to the poor quality of discourse — an interchange that, in traditional classrooms, is not only my reward but a way for students to realize their own intellectual growth.

I think Clift is overly critical of the ability of people in virtual communities to form relationships and communicate, but I think her point about such communities lacking "meaningful exchanges" is appropriate for those situations in which faculty don't have the bandwidth to make connections with students. This is the case in at least some online Extension School classes I've been told about (see the update at the end of this blog post). I also suspect it's been the case for some of the videotaped Harvard College classes used by the Extension School. According to Dean Michael Shinagel's account in The Gates Unbarred, these classes were introduced as a way for otherwise busy Harvard professors to participate in the Extension School's online program, which leads me to wonder how much interaction takes place between faculty and distance ed students in the classes.

I fully agree with Clift's statement that "It is essential, in my view, that a teacher be able to probe, clarify, comment in the moment." This type of contact is missing from online courses that focus on prerecorded video, email, and message boards. I've tried it, and it was frustrating: You can't raise your hand and get an answer. You can't steer the debate in a new direction. In class you will be exposed to these types of interactions even if you don't participate, but in an asynchronous online format, it's all too easy to ignore those threads, be left out (if the debate is carried on by email between the teacher and just one student) or fast-forward over the Q&A segments of the video.

However, this doesn't mean that technology can't help bridge the gap. The Extension School is trying a live Web conferencing program called Elluminate for some classes. Real-time dialogues using video conferencing and virtual worlds may also play a prominent role in distance education. Unfortunately, the technologies aren't ready for prime time ... at least not yet. Elluminate relies on audio chat, text, and a simple GUI, but does not include video. High-quality video conferencing setups currently cost tens of thousands of dollars, while virtual worlds require lots of preparation and a sharp learning curve to master. But live video and virtual worlds have the potential to provide something that most Web-based platforms lack -- unencumbered dialogue between students and teachers, and the free exchange of ideas.

Disclosure

Update: Since writing this post, I have taken an online math class for credit, and have this to say about the online education experience:

• My online math class: Convenience gets an 'A,' but at what cost?

SNL's "University of Westfield" ad: The reputation of online degrees takes another hit

(Updated with comments and links at the bottom of this post) I saw this on Saturday Night Live yesterday: An ad for the "University of Westfield" and its online degree programs (note you may have to sit through a real advertisement before the fake SNL ad starts):



The basic message of the fake ad is summed up in this line from the script:

"The University of Westfield taught me that having gone to Internet college is not something that would make people want to hire me."

Clearly, it's spoofing the University of Phoenix, which has its own image problems, as well as online education in general. Unfortunately for the people who are pinning their educational and career hopes on online degrees, jokes like these help perpetuate various stereotypes of Web-based education, regardless of the quality of the programs or the dedication of the students who register for them.

Update: A new blog post that illustrates some of the problems with distance education, as seen by instructors: Online education: A teacher speaks

2nd update: University of Phoenix astroturfing, or sarcasm directed at its own student customers? See this comment and my follow-up comment (#8), and judge for yourself.

3rd Update: Since writing this post, I have taken an online math class for credit, and have this to say about the online education experience:

• My online math class: Convenience gets an 'A,' but at what cost?

ATTENTION COMMENT SPAMMERS: Don't bother leaving comments, they'll never make it past the moderation queue.

See also:

• For-profit schools take a hit from Frontline
• More distance education commentary from Harry Lewis, ClueHQ, and yours truly
• "The Gates Unbarred" review, part II: Shinagel's views of distance education
• Follow-up: My online education experience

About the author: My name is Ian Lamont. I am the co-founder of Invantory, which provides a Craigslist Ma alternative for people in Mass interested in buying and selling furniture, cars, electronics, toys, tools, textbooks, strollers, bikes, and household items. For sellers, it's safer and quicker than using a PC (just a minute or two to create a listing using a mobile phone!) and lets buyers discover interesting things to buy using photos, maps, and alerts. You can sign up for Invantory product updates or request service in your city or town.

More distance education commentary from Harry Lewis, ClueHQ, and yours truly

Spotted in the latest edition of the Harvard University Extension School Alumni Bulletin: An interview with Harry Lewis, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science. When asked "What value do you see in distance education," Lewis replies:

Distance education is the future. It's the way Harvard can bring its incomparable intellectual resources to the rest of the world that cannot come to Cambridge. The Internet has created the opportunity to end the tyranny of distance and physical buildings over the storage and communication of ideas.

I'm with Professor Lewis up to this point. Technology does have the potential to bridge distance and physical boundaries. But then he says:

We don't know precisely how best to do that yet, but everything happening in distance education at Harvard is a step toward realizing that dream.

After reading this, I have a few questions for Prof. Lewis and Dean Michael Shinagel: If Harvard doesn't know the "best" way to do distance education, then why is Harvard passing off this apparently inferior educational platform as a substitute for in-class instruction to Extension School students? Why are students in two of the Extension School's most popular degree programs -- the undergraduate ALB and graduate ALM in IT -- allowed to earn 90% of their class credit watching videos and using message boards and email, with only minimal interaction with faculty and other students, and only a token presence on campus for the remaining 10% of class credits? Why aren't Harvard College or any of Harvard's other professional schools using asynchronous Web-based classes, and granting credit to students who try it?

I've written about this topic in the past, and have even tried a Web-based class myself, although not for course credit. I have concluded that the current technologies used for distance education are inferior to in-class instruction, and that Harvard is jumping the gun by allowing students to earn large amount of credit with what should be considered an experimental, limited platform for education.

Not everyone agrees with me. My last essay on the topic -- an analysis of Dean Shinagel's account of distance education in his book The Gates Unbarred: A History of University Extension at Harvard, 1910-2009 -- generated a long response from a proponent of distance education, who himself was able to earn 88% of his undergraduate Extension School credit remotely. You can read the ClueHQ analysis from Richard here. His post is well-written, and brings up some good arguments -- such as the distance education degrees offered by Columbia and Carnegie-Mellon -- but he nevertheless failed to convince me. I responded with this:

Thanks for taking the time to continue the debate over distance education at Harvard. You bring some interesting examples (particularly live videoconferencing) but my stance remains unchanged: Web-based, asynchronous education is providing a watered-down academic experience that should not be allowed to replace up to 90% of degree credit in various Extension School programs. The Extension School administration is making a mistake by putting convenience ahead of academics. It should scale back its distance credit policies until suitable technological alternatives and pedagogical methods are identified and implemented.

In addition, I was hoping you or some other reader would address my question of why Harvard's other schools have failed to allow any online credit for their respective degree programs. Even though hundreds of faculty from other Harvard schools have taken part in online Extension School classes, they have not shared these modes of education with students at the College or Harvard's professional schools. If sitting in front of a computer screen is an adequate substitute for real, in-class instruction and discussion, then why haven't they pushed for change elsewhere at Harvard, even on an experimental basis?

However, you did cite two other well-known schools (Columbia and Carnegie-Mellon) that have distance education-based degrees. The two examples that you provide are both in technical disciplines, not liberal arts coursework which forms the backbone of the Extension School's ALB degree. Tellingly, neither Columbia nor CMU has incorporated distance education into its other for-credit degrees, despite the fact that the former has operated its distance program for decades and the latter is one of the top engineering/CS schools in the country. As for the Extension School's own ALM in IT program, it has never been established that having students complete 90% of their coursework online, with only limited options for dialogue with their instructors and fellow students, is an effective replacement for in-class instruction. Both you and I work in technology-oriented occupations, and are fully aware that face time is a crucial element of developing new products and getting IT projects off the ground. If bulletin boards, prerecorded video, and email were an acceptable substitute for live interaction, Silicon Valley and the Rte. 128 technology corridor would have become ghost towns years ago -- developers, network engineers and other IT professionals could do most of their work from home.

Two other issues you bring up -- handicaps, and live classes with poor instructors or indifferent students -- are red herrings. Dean Shinagel does not address them in his book, and for that matter, I have never seen them raised by Harvard or the Extension School administration as a reason for establishing or expanding Web-based distance education. Instead, the factors that are mentioned in The Gates Unbarred include:

1) Making classes available to vast number of potential students who don't live near Boston/Cambridge
2) A million-dollar production facility and professional staff to run the programs, and
3) The Harvard name and reputation all over the world.

I believe that many distance education students are seeking the easiest and most convenient way of getting "Harvard" on their resumes. Many of these students would spend 0% of their time on campus if they could, even though it would mean forgoing interaction with faculty, listening to live debates, and performing the simple act of raising your hand and getting feedback or leading the discussion in a new direction -- in other words, the very factors that make Harvard one of the best schools on the planet.

You bring up Cisco's TelePresence system, and describe the positive experience you had "meeting" with colleagues on the other side of the country. I agree that this technology could be an answer to the limitations of Web-based distance education, and allow students and faculty to interact in a way that's similar to a live classroom experience. But, until costs come down dramatically (Cisco's basic units are $80,000, not including networking costs), such technologies will not be a realistic option at the Extension School, much less in people's homes. In the meantime, Harvard must acknowledge the shortcomings of Web-based distance education, and end its liberal credit policies governing online coursework.

Ian Lamont
ALM '08

I think this debate should be taken up at higher levels, but I suspect the school will never respond to critics like me. This is not only because of the fact that Web-based distance education is supported at the highest levels of the Division of Continuing Education and Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but also because scaling back credit policies would halve enrollment in the Extension School's most popular programs, including the undergraduate ALB and graduate ALM in IT and ALM in Management degrees. It could also slow the commendable efforts by people like Prof. Lewis and the Extension School's Henry Leitner at Harvard to find other technologies and methods that are not only adequate substitutes for traditional, in-class instruction, but are actually superior in terms of educating students and providing effective channels for academic discourse, communication, and understanding.

(Disclosure: I am a board member of Immersive Education, which seeks to promote the use of virtual worlds in education)

Update: Since writing this post, I have taken an online math class for credit, and have this to say about the online education experience:

• My online math class: Convenience gets an 'A,' but at what cost?

(Feel free to comment below.)

Photorealism and film

Last month, I applied to be a presenter at the Economist Media Convergence forum in New York. The application required putting together a YouTube video discussing some technology that will shake up the media industry. I chose photorealism. It's something I've been writing about for years (see my paper on the topic below the video) but doing a YouTube video allowed me to incorporate some graphics, including a photorealism software demo and some clips from Wii and the XBox 360's Fallout 3:



Video, Computer-Generated Environments and the Future of the Web

Unfortunately, I didn't make the final cut at the Economist forum, but there will be more chances to talk this up in the years to come. It really is an unavoidable technology trend that will shake up the movie and video industries, as well as the ways in which we consume and customize what we see on TV.

Testing a FriendFeed widget

Testing out some microblogging widgets. First FriendFeed, Twitter, and then Twubs widgets:

FriendFeed TIS voices:



Friendfeed search widget:


Twitter search widget: Doesn't work -- chokes on link href tag

Twitter Flash widget: Also doesn't work

Twubs widget based on Twitter #collaboration hashtag:



HootSuite widget:





TIS custom widget:

The robots of Newton

My letter to the local newspaper about robots. Specifically, the new robotic arm-equipped garbage trucks that will start collecting trash from our neighborhood next week:

In the article about the new trash and recycling system that relies on robot arms to pick up and dump the barrels’ contents into trucks, you were told by the city’s spokesman that contractors currently cannot collect trash in the new blue and green barrels “because they would be too heavy to lift by hand.”

If people who do this for a living have trouble lifting the barrels, what about ordinary people? Are residents going to get robots to help manhandle the barrels up and down stairs, through the snow and onto the curb?

This automated trash pickup system was not well thought out, as evidenced by this situation, and the fact that it wasn’t put out to bid (aldermen approved Mayor Cohen’s plan, 23-1, last April). I hope the new mayor, aldermen and city officials can deal with “upgrades” like this with more realistic planning, including assessing a range of use-case scenarios of how city residents will be affected, including senior citizens, people without garages, apartment and condo dwellers, etc.

For some reason, the Newton Tab didn't print it, but did publish the letter online, along with another letter on the same topic that did not make it into the print version.

When the trucks finally did come to Newton, here's what they looked like in action:



Image: srqpix/Flickr (creative commons license)