BabyBoomerBlog

Hawking in Space,U of MN students Clean Hub

Greetings  from Excelsior,  Minnesota, where the sky is cloudy, but the wood roast is delicious.

Picture for the week

Hawking takes zero-gravity flight

British physicist Stephen Hawking has completed a zero-gravity flight in a specially modified plane provided by Zero Gravity Corporation.

Hawking, who suffers from motor neuron disease, was able to float free, unrestricted by his paralyzed muscles and his wheelchair.

He believes private space ventures are vital to reduce the cost of space tourism and make it accessible to a greater number of people.

"I think the human race doesn't have a future if it doesn't go into space," he said.

 

Architecture that can change the world

University of Minnesota Students Design The Clean Hub Unit
   

There are some very tired, and slightly nervous architecture and design students at the University of Minnesota. They have spent weeks getting their final project ready for a public presentation.

They've created a portable structure, called a "clean hub," that, when set up, can meet the power, water, sanitation, shelter and storage needs of people affected by natural disasters. The concept could also be used in refugee camps, which has drawn the interest of the World Bank.

A computerized rendering of the "clean hub" unit, designed by U of M architecture and design students. It's a portable unit that can provide power, water, and shelter in disaster areas. (Image courtesy of Shelter Architecture)

Virtual Worlds - Second Life and MTV's Leapfrog Initiative – Virtual Hills and Laguna Beach

 

Web 2.0 – The Virtual Self   

Second Life and MTV's Leapfrog Initiative – Virtual Hills and Laguna Beach

 

The February 2007 issue of Wired magazine has an article titled "A Second Life for MTV" by Mark Wallace.  The article describes MTV'S newest program – Virtual Hills and Laguna Beach.  They call it a Leapfrog Intiative.

MTV executives are "scrambling to catch up the with hot new hangout spots on the Web.....With its headlong leap into virtual worlds, MTV hopes to forge MySpace 2.0 – and find it's way back to the cutting edge."

"When (MTV exec) Matt Bostwick pitched his ambition vision of an avatarized environment, the network still hadn't fully embraced the Web.  But (MTV exec) Van Toffler's reaction was , 'That's the scariest shit I've ever seen, man. Let's do it'"

"Leapfrog was born, and its first venture would be tied to Laguna Beach, one of MTVs top-rated shows."  The article continues to explain how MTV used the technology currently used by There.com, because it "runs more smoothly, looks prettier, and gives developers tighter control... - a perfect fit for MTV."

Virtual Laguna Beach launched in September  2006  drew 300,00 sign ups in the first ten weeks, compare to Second Life, which took three years to attract that many members. Since the article isn't available on the Wired website yet, this short article explains what MTV is doing with their Leapfrog Initiative.

Second Life is A virtual world that readers may be more familiar with.  I have been following this application since reading about it on the Fourth Turning chatboards. There have been numerous articles about Second Life in the New York Times, Wired, and other MSM.  Photojournalist Rita J. King has been blogging about her experiences on Second Life on her own blog and on the Huffington Post. She calls her avatar Eureka Dejavu, and has been letting her readers experience her adventures in Second Life. She calls the blog Eureka Dejavu, Sex, Money and Fame in Second Life. 

Second Life is much more "do it yourself" than the MTV application, or other virtual communities like There.com.  In Second Life, the user is responsible for creating their own avatar, learning how to manipulate it, dressing it, getting it a place to live, and finding it's own way around the virtual world.  For those who don't have programming ability, time or the inclination, you can purchase "upgrades" to your avatar with Linden dollars.  Linden dollars are converted from real currency.  People have actually become real life millionaires by selling services and upgrades on Second Life. Corporations, advertisers, even political candidates are creating their own presence on Second Life to sell their product or agenda. Their have even been music concerts, lectures, and movie previews on Second Life.  Even though there are not many users as compared to MySpace, currently 150 million, the users are considered influential early adopters.

Second Life has an official blogger, Wagner James Au.  His blog is called "New World Notes."   He has links to  Bloggers, Periodicals, Podcasts, Wikis, Company Blogs, Linden Lab Blogs, and Metaverse Blogs, all within Second Life.  There are even links to a "real world" company called Millions of Us.  This company helps the above mentioned corporations figure out how to utilize Second Life.  Their motto is, "Millions of Us.  Virtual Worlds,  Real Brands."

Au also has an academic article on a peer reviewed journal on the Internet called First Monday.  It's called "Taking New World Notes - An embedded journalist's rough guide to reporting from inside the Internet's next evolution ." 

I haven't attempted creating an avatar on Second Life yet.  I am already too much of an internet addict and  it would take away from my Ebaying.

This is a snapshot of Eureka Dejavu on

Second Life.  She is chatting with an artist named Aimee Weber.

 

Here is the article about launch of Virtual Laguna Beach

    MTV's Leapfrog Initiative.

 

Global Leapfrog Institute Presents Journal of Global Leapfrog Education

Congratulations to My Advisor, Dr. Arthur Harkins, Ph.D.  on the Global Leapfrog Institute

The Global Leapfrog Institute is devoted to creating, through innovative education and human capital development, communities that can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves with the tools to invent their own futures.

Congratulations again to Professor Harkins, and Ph.D. candidates John Moravec and George Kubik on their article in the inaugural issue of Global Leapfrog Education.

             Their article is called, "Facilitating 21st Century Education: Leapfrogging Culture and Time through Simulational Learning."

Global Leapfrog Education has a Blog with information on the new journal

Today (Dec. 31, 2006)  marks the first release of Global Leapfrog Education (ISSN 1933-0200), an open access, online journal hosted by the Global Leapfrog Institute, LLC.

As we learn to master the OJS journal software, articles will be released in two trenches. First, Cristobal Cobo (FLACSO Mexico) discusses new learning opportunities provided by “Web 2.0″ and successor technologies. In a near future release date, Arthur Harkins, John Moravec and George Kubik (University of Minnesota) describe a leapfrog pathway through simulational learning.

Introduction and mission

Global Leapfrog Education (GLE) is devoted to exploring how, through education and human capital development, communities can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves to invent their own futures. GLE publishes articles spanning a wide range of interests related to leapfrog education (viz. change, technologies, knowledge production and innovation, global youth leadership, and futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education). This journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Our electronic submission process is designed to facilitate rapid publication. Once an article is published, peer reviewers submit written, critical feedback to the author as an addendum to the article, published in GLE. Such reviews may be considered publications in their own right. Reviewers and other participants are also encouraged to contribute to discussions related to each article via the journal blog at this website.

What is leapfrogging?

• Leapfrogging means jumping over obstacles to achieve goals.
• Leapfrogging is a leadership necessity.
• Leapfrogging saves precious time.
• Leapfrogging builds institutional and community prestige.
• Leapfrogging works best if everybody collaborates.

Focus and scope

The first country to adopt the Leapfrog Paradigm, bolster it with advanced communications technologies, and apply it in preschool through graduate contexts, will either continue to lead or will acquire newfound leadership among emerging knowledge and innovation economies.

We are aware of the need for simplicity, but the reality is that the Leapfrog Paradigm we describe is fundamentally cognitive in nature. It is the new educational mission required to support knowledge based innovation economies. New language and concepts are required.

The focus of GLE is on the language, concepts and education required to produce knowledge and direct it toward continuous innovation. This calls for an entirely new education mission –one that requires a different vocabulary and mindset compared to the now globally-distributed education missions for agricultural, industrial, and information-based societies.

GLE will help readers and contributors:

• Understand that states, regions and individuals are in a global competition in human capital development and application;
• Understand how technology shapes human world views and choices;
• Understand the relationship between technological change and social change with emphasis on the emerging Technological Singularity;
• Understand exponential acceleration of technological, scientific, societal and economic changes;
• Understand multiple perceived realities and their vectors;
• Develop leapfrog education scenarios related to technology, innovation, systems design and integration; and,
• Connect these leapfrog scenarios with 21st Century education redesign and redirection.

Journal keywords and key concepts

accelerating change, basic knowledge engine ecology, creativity, cybernetics, design, entrepreneurship, global leapfrog education, invention, innovation, knowledge engine ecologies, knowledge production, knowledge engine ecologies, memes and new social patterns in thought and belief, sociocultural prosumers, youth development

Website: Global Leapfrog Institute

Website of Journal: Global Leapfrog Education

Blog for Global Leapfrog Education

Blog of John Moravec Education Futures

 

MySpace.com and Robyne Robinson Rox

My next paper is an analysis of Millies using MySpace.com within the context of Mode 3 and Mode 4 learning.  I know this sounds like code words that they teach in Graduate school, but this is what it means.
Mode 3 learning is teaching yourself, and Mode 4 learning is using that self learning in an environment where everyone is doing this.  In Myspace.com,  38 million (as of this writing) Millennials are creating musically and ever other way within  networks of literally millions of others.
Here is my MySpace.com page, so you can see what it looks like. I'm still working on the here's and there's, but generally it's easy to use.  If you look at some of my friends, you can see how the Millie's love to customize with bright colors. Wired magazine ran the article that started my interest in writing this paper.

The Hit Factory   Who needs major labels, marketing, or airplay? A social networking site is getting more hits than Google -- and turning invisible bands into mini entertainment networks. How MySpace became the MTV for the Net generation.  By Jeff Howe

Other stuff:  Did you know local Mega Star Robyne Robinson has a Jewelry Line?  rox minneapolis
Robyne makes beautiful natural stone and sterling bracelets and earrings.   How did I find this out?  From  Tyra !  She gave it a good plug at the end of the show yesterday. The designs are available near Ridgedale and at the Walker gift shop, and some other places, including NYC. 

I finally ordered the Sunday NYTimes, with its ready supply of articles for graduate students.  We have easy access to archives, so I am attaching copies for my Firefly friends, but for the blogosphere, we are pretty cut off from NYTimes Opinion and archives without paying for the new service.  So I'll just summarize the Brook's article:

Psst! 'Human Capital'  By DAVID BROOKS 
Help! I'm turning into the ''plastics'' guy from ''The Graduate.'' I'm pulling people aside at parties and whispering that if they want to understand the future, it's just two words: ''Human Capital.''

If we want to keep up with the Chinese and the Indians, we've got to develop our Human Capital. If we want to remain a just, fluid society: Human Capital. If we want to head off underclass riots: Human Capital.   .......

We now spend more per capita on education than just about any other country on earth, and the results are mediocre. No Child Left Behind treats students as skill-acquiring cogs in an economic wheel, and the results have been disappointing. We pour money into Title 1 and Head Start, but the long-term gains are insignificant.

These programs are not designed for the way people really are. The only things that work are local, human-to-human immersions that transform the students down to their very beings. Extraordinary schools, which create intense cultures of achievement, work. Extraordinary teachers, who inspire students to transform their lives, work. The programs that work touch all the components of human capital.

There's a great future in Human Capital, buddy. Enough said.

 

The other article was in Sunday Business, still online for a while about inventor James E. West who says Americans need to be more devoted to investing in innovation.

Not Invented Here By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN 

Inventors have always held a special place in American history and business lore, embodying innovation and economic progress in a country that has long prized individual creativity and the power of great ideas. In recent decades, tinkerers and researchers have given society microchips, personal computers, the Internet, balloon catheters, bar codes, fiber optics, e-mail systems, hearing aids, air bags and automated teller machines, among a bevy of other devices.

Mr. West stands firmly in this tradition -- a tradition that he said may soon be upended. He fears that corporate and public nurturing of inventors and scientific research is faltering and that America will pay a serious economic and intellectual penalty for this lapse.

For the Firefly cohort - Has everyone seen Into the Blogosphere? It presents serious academic papers on Blogs, prepared right here at the University of Minnesota.

Final note - Here is the Liberal Skills Firefly blog for more information on the application of Learning Modes.