Left to my own devices

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Ben Harwood

I’ve owned several record players over the years. I remember thinking from way back that I should probably squirrel one away in storage just in case. I’m pretty sure the last player I owned was accidentally thrown away while I was living overseas in the 1990s. It was stored in my folks’ basement. I did manage to take my Yamaha amplifer and a 5 disc Sony CD player with me to France. And all my CDs! But I left the record player at home. Why would you take a record player to France in 1994 anyway? A few years ago, a family friend retired and downsized her house in the Bryn Mawr area outside Philadelphia. She kindly gave my parents a number of vintage LPs, some of which are now in my possession. I would love to listen to them but am now tasked with finding a record player. My friend Dr Garcia kindly recommended one. Here’s another: the Crosley CR40 Mini-Turntable from Sears. But I’m keeping my eye out at garage sales for a real bargain. In the 70s, we had one of those all-in-one humongous furniture type devices. I think it had a built-in radio. It looked very similar to this one for sale now on Craigslist. It was a great hand-me-down from someone! I wonder where it is now? Is it still spinning vinyl in somebody’s living room or perhaps it’s stored in a basement or storage locker? I’ve got some albums I’m eager to listen to and share with others. Here is a future ds106radio show in the works… Oh, be sure to hold onto a VCR. I’ve got two. In another post, I’ll share how a friend and I rigged up a transformer to convert the 220V to 110V so I could hear my tunes in France. This setup worked great for a few years until it failed one day and gave both devices too much juice. Its last song ended with a bang and a puff of smoke.

Internet searches and social media influence: What is you Klout score?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Ben Harwood

I was a guest lecturer today and provided an hour and fifteen minute long lecture/workshop for the first time on the exciting combo topic of internet searches, social and collaborative learning spaces and online influence. It was a fun topic to prepare because it combines some of my personal research interests along the lines of information literacy, algorithms and heuristics, personal learning environments and networks (PLE/PLN), and online “influence” analytics i.e., Klout. Only one person had heard of Klout before so I gather it’s a new topic for most folks (including me). Students were genuinely intrigued by views of my Klout dashboard and especially my score. It’s currently 49. What does this mean?

I ended with some open discussion about internet searches and credibility and showed part of Howard Rheingold’s video about online crap detection. We used clickers at the beginning of class to get the conversation going and to also probe social media use. Be sure to click the CONTINUE READING link so that you can read on!!!

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Exploring the new Knowledge Commons at Penn State

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Ben Harwood

While visiting my parents this weekend in State College, I took a trip up to the Penn State campus to visit the new Knowledge Commons in Pattee Library. It’s always a treat to see new spaces coming online on campus. In short: what a fabulous space for students! To name but few quick obserations… There are post production labs and quiet meeting rooms with sound proofing. There’s even a self-service recording studio where a student can practice public speaking. At the end of practice, a copy of the recording gets automatically written to your thumb drive. How cool is that? But one of nicest features is the very nice live wall with real plants. Below are some pictures I took using my Droid 2 Mobile camera. I’m sharing the images via flickr with the Awesome Flickr Gallery plugin. My flickr account is found here.

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A DIY story: revise a fireplace in 5 years

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Ben Harwood

A new kind of post for my blog: home improvement. In my Twitter profile, I self-identify as a home improvement enthusiast. I am actually a huge DIY fan. When I moved into my home in January 2007 after having lived for two years + in a one bedroom flat in Washington Heights (NYC), I knew that the green fireplace just had to go first thing. That’s right. Someone had painted the fireplace green. I just love REAL BRICK, not the fake stuff. I wasn’t about to paint it RED BRICK.

Within the first week of moving in, I attempted to remove the paint using a paint removal product called PAINT BE GONE or something like that. I was in a hurry to get this job done because contractors were coming the following week to re-finish the hardwood floors. Movers were coming with all of our furniture and everything else, etc. I was starting work at my new job in just a few weeks. It was a good and exciting kind of pressure that makes you want to get started today 🙂

So, I applied the caustic with a brush to the green fireplace. Then I waited. An hour or two later, still, nothing happened. The paint did not magically peel or fade away. At all. Oh boy, now the green fireplace has a crusty, thick haze of white frosting. It seemed a lot like glue and it had solidly bonded… Call in the experts? Nope. Ultimately, with some quick web searching and a hunch, I purchased a high-end respirator and other gear that has come in handy again since then. My tool of choice though? A $45 hand grinder purchased from one of my favorite stores. This made the paint disappear …. very gently…. basically lightly grinding/sanding it off. And, it created a huge dust mess and took hours of careful, precise work. But it worked. Check out the nearly finished project here. 5 years later, it’s time to wrap it up as we Harwoods like to say. It just needs a mantel. That’s it. And it’s done. I tried installing two pre-fabricatated mantel pieces from everyone’s favorite DIY centers, but they were about 3 inches too short on either side to completely span the 6 foot 6 inch brick top. And way too much $ for the custom build. Therefore, this weekend, I’m going to build my own. Nothing fancy. I don’t have time to. In another post, I’ll tell how I repaired other parts of the fireplace including re-pointing the chimney outside.

Note: Anytime you remove old paint, you *really* need to plan well. Check local building codes for recommendations and procedure. If sanding near or over pre-1980s paint, remember to seal everything off in the room with vertically hung plastic tarps. Turn off all HVAC so dust is not moved elsewhere in the house via air ducts if present. Imperative to have a respirator, protective eye gear and work clothes that get thrown away when you’ve finished. Afterwards, clean, clean, clean the room when you’re all done so there is no dust anywhere. Or, just paint over it and call it good.

The Right Stuff: Open content licensing for educators 2012-01

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Ben Harwood

Blog post pending on this week-long MOOC. It finished yesterday. I’m still working my way through it as I didn’t have time to devote a 1.5 to 2 hours per night last week. I will be back.

Back to this post on 2/11. I did finish the course last week and now have got a moment to quickly summarize and finish out the post. What an awesome experience! Here’s a post about how the MOOC has influenced my thinking about whether teaching is more a vocation or profession… Great question.

I took a number of notes in a Google doc for later reference. I understand much more now what creative commons licensing is and how it works to name but one takeaway. The Moodle course and Wiki are rich resources that I’ve bookmarked and will come back to. They just work great in tandem, too. The wiki structure gave me an overview to frame what I needed to learn that day with the key concepts. The Moodle course let me interact with others in a more traditional online environment where I shared some posts and comments in the discussion boards. Of course, following #OCL4Ed on Twitter was indispensable for communication. Using any and all of these tools to engage around OER topics is very cool:

Now more than ever, open is the way to go.

I would like to offer a huge shout out to all the folks who signed up and participated. It was great to meet some of you. Above all, thank you so much to the course leaders and organizers, to the very good people at Aotearoa, WikiEducator and the OER Foundation. For me, this was an inspiring eye-opener and community-building event. I’m ready to visit friends and colleagues in New Zealand now. I once spent 10 days or so in the Cook Islands on my honeymoon. The next time we are down that way, we will be sure continue on to Auckland and points south.