A new version of opdis with some minor build fixes has been uploaded to the opdis repository.
Note that the opdis command-line utility and C library have been moved from the tg-community repository into a dedicated opdis repository.
The Ruby gems are still at rubyforge. They might be folded into the Github repo at some point.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
How to ensure your educational material is useless
Material intended to educate is most useful when it is searchable, when it can be processed without a computer, and when the audience can determine the speed with which information is presented.
Thus, to guarantee that educational material has no lasting power, has a limited audience, and will ultimately fail to present new information as efficiently as possible, choose one of the following presentation formats:
* Video : The ultimate cop-out. Why organize the material and present it in a thoughtful manner when one can just start babbling at a webcam? And the audience has no idea whether you are wasting their time until the end credits roll -- surely that very suspense will keep them interested!
* Audio : Sure, the audience can do something else while listening -- which ensures that they are not concentrating on the material. As for the rest, see Video.
* Scribd and similar web-only readers : No reading offline (e.g. in a plane/train/limo)? Limitations on copy/paste? Latency for every page turn? Sounds awesome! The only thing missing is to require a login in order to read something. Oh, you're working on that too? Fan-tucking-fastic!
Seriously, any educator unwilling to invest time in writing up their material is unlikely to be presenting anything well-thought-out or well-researched. Learn to write or go home!
Thus, to guarantee that educational material has no lasting power, has a limited audience, and will ultimately fail to present new information as efficiently as possible, choose one of the following presentation formats:
* Video : The ultimate cop-out. Why organize the material and present it in a thoughtful manner when one can just start babbling at a webcam? And the audience has no idea whether you are wasting their time until the end credits roll -- surely that very suspense will keep them interested!
* Audio : Sure, the audience can do something else while listening -- which ensures that they are not concentrating on the material. As for the rest, see Video.
* Scribd and similar web-only readers : No reading offline (e.g. in a plane/train/limo)? Limitations on copy/paste? Latency for every page turn? Sounds awesome! The only thing missing is to require a login in order to read something. Oh, you're working on that too? Fan-tucking-fastic!
Seriously, any educator unwilling to invest time in writing up their material is unlikely to be presenting anything well-thought-out or well-researched. Learn to write or go home!
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