College name game is a troubling trend

Posted on March 21, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

A friend of mine runs his small IT consulting business from his house in St. Charles. Regardless of the fact that his company consists of himself and his little schnauzer, he has adopted the title “president and CEO.”

When we are given the freedom to pick our own titles, we tend to give ourselves a title that reflects our aspirations, not reality.

The same seems true of Missouri’s colleges and universities. Central Missouri State University, a moniker that the state institution of higher learning in Warrensburg has held for 34 years, changed to the University of Central Missouri, or UCM a couple of years ago. Not to be confused with UMC, a designation that the Columbia campus of the University of Missouri recently downgraded in favor of MU, not to be confused with MSU, which is the former SMSU.

Sometimes the logic behind these name change games is Continue reading →

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Chris Sanders and I have an idea that we’d like your input on.

Posted on March 14, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

But first a little background…

For the past couple of years, I have had the opportunity to work on various projects at the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center (where Chris works as Technical Director). This center is one of several such centers for medical simulation across the country, part of an evolving trend toward using highly fidelity simulations for medial education and professional development. These simulations take many forms.

Some are done with actors who have been trained to represent the “standard patient.” In this case, medical students meet, diagnose and consult with the actor/patient in a specially designed exam room, which is equipped with multiple cameras and microphones so that instructors can watch, record and provide feedback to the students.

In other cases, the students work on an advanced mannequins. These high-tech mannequins range from Continue reading →

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We can’t afford manned mission to Mars

Posted on March 11, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

When I was a teenager, one of my few acts of organization was a scrapbook containing every news clipping I could find on the space shuttle and NASA’s space program. To me, the development of the space shuttle was the next step toward a future in which I could purchase a ticket to the moon, Mars or the next galaxy; all places that while cold and desolate were much more interesting than my eighth-grade classroom.

During the early ’80s, many others were likewise enthused about a reusable space vehicle and continuing U.S. leadership in manned space travel. While early unmanned missions such as the Voyager and Pioneer space probes and the Viking probe to Mars were successful, they were limited in their abilities. It seemed clear any real space science would require lifting real scientists off the ground, and the space shuttle seemed to be the perfect machine for manned space travel.

Now, 28 years after the first space shuttle took off, NASA officials are in the process of retiring the remaining shuttles and replacing them with two more conventionally designed rockets, the Ares I and Ares V. NASA has more ambitious plans for these rockets, however, than just replacing the shuttle’s orbital hauling capabilities. Namely, it plans to return humans to the surface of the moon, establish a base there and then use it to launch a manned mission to Mars — an extremely expensive, dangerous and misguided plan given the challenges currently facing our planet. Continue reading →

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How does technology-related anxiety affect educational technology adoption?

Posted on March 5, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

It is hard for those of us who deal with educational technology to understand why some high-school and college instructors are so reluctant to use new technology or to even use well-proven technology to make their courses more effective or productive. In the age of YouTube, Blackboard, Wikipedia, Wimba, and Twitter, and with years of research showing how technology can be used to increase student mastery and retention, why are some profs still suck using the overhead projector and the copy machine?

There are certainly institutional and personal factors that encourage or allow this type of luddite behavior, but perhaps one of the main factors preventing the adoption of educational technology is the level of anxiety that instructors feel about using–and depending on–educational technology in the classroom. This anxiety has influences on the integration of technology into the curriculum ranging from decreased participation in training sessions to outright refusal to use the technology. Current and previous research supports the assumption that the level of-related anxiety that an instructor experiences directly affects their willingness to use technology in the classroom.

Continue reading →

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Weekend Rant: I’m turning into an old fuddy-duddy

Posted on March 4, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

Well, it is really happening. I’m starting to become an old fuddy-duddy. While I’m not a full-grown coot yet, I can tell that “the change” has started.

I should have seen it coming back in 2004 when Matt Blunt was elected governor at age 33. I always knew there would come a day when Missouri would elect a governor who was several years younger than I, but I had assumed I’d at least have one or two gray hairs by then. I chalked it up to random chance at the time but can see now it was an omen of bad things to come…

This past year, Continue reading →

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Installing short-throw Projectors in rooms with low ceilings.

Posted on February 26, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

Short throw projectors have a lot of advantages for classrooms and conference rooms:

  1. The short image throw allows for presenters to approach the screen without interfering with the image or having to look into the projection light.
  2. The short image throw also allows for several projectors to be placed in a small room, making it ideal for videoconferencing, or I-TV, classrooms.

However, the installation of these projectors can be complicated. A small change makes a big difference in the projected image with a short-throw projector. I recently learned a few lessons installing a couple of Sanyo PDG-DWL100 projectors in a classroom. Continue reading →

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The easiest and most reliable way to make RS232 and other wired connections

Posted on February 25, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

There are a couple of ways to make RS232 and similar cables, either by soldering or crimping:

  1. Soldering is time consuming and can be difficult to do correctly, especially for the novice or those that don’t do it regularly. Moreover, problems with solder contacts sometimes don’t show up until years later, when a weak solder connection fails.
  2. Crimping can be much faster, but the quality of the connection is largely dependent on the parts (pins and hoods) used. The type of crimp connector found at radio shack and other electronics outlets are hard to crimp correctly and if there is any strain on the wire, it can easily pull out.

I have found that the best solution is to use crimping, but with a military spec pin and crimper. With this solution, we can make cables quickly and reliably. The pins and tool are not cheap, but neither is a trip back to a job site to troubleshooting a bad wire. In addition, the pins can be easily reconfigured in the event of a mistake or changing of equipment, making the cables more re-useable. The long term payoff is well worth the investment in the upfront cost of materials. Here is what I recommend: Continue reading →

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Leaving Chicago
I learned some new words and phrases this week in Chicago. “Aldermanic Runoff Elections” being the one that has stuck in my mind. Working in Chicago reminded me of the rising dominance and power of cities in our economy and politics. Not that they have not always been important, but the exodus out of the rural areas of America that began 80 years ago, continues today. Cities are where the ideas that will drive the new economy reach a critical mass. Despite higher cost of living in cities, there are economies of scale that make cities much more efficient and more sustainable in the long run (which also translates to higher salaries for those living in the cities). Given the current debate in the country about deficits and governmental budgets, it will be interesting to see how much longer urban America will be willing to subsidize the lifestyle of rural America. Despite claims of independence and need for people to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” rural Americans receive much more government support than their urban counterparts. Farm subsidies and governmental grants don’t support small family farms, they support corporate agriculture and corporate ethanol production, not the highest priority for urban Americans who are working to compete in a globalized world. As someone who grew up in a small town and works in a lot of rural towns across the midwest, I can say that there is a real loss to American culture when our rural communities decline. But, we have set ourselves up for this. Globalization is driving competition to such as degree that the higher costs of operating in rural areas (mainly from transportation and utility costs), means that businesses in rural areas can’t compete like their urban counterparts.

Posted on February 24, 2011 by J Scott Christianson | Leave a comment

Perfection may not be possible, but software should be better than this.

Posted on February 20, 2011 by J Scott Christianson

My coffee maker has a sensor that detects whether the coffee holder is in place, the lid for the coffee holder is in place, the water reservoir filled and all the flaps and hatches closed. If it determines any one of these items is not in place, it refuses to automatically turn on in the morning to make the coffee before my alarm clock goes off.

The one thing this modern marvel won’t detect is whether I have remembered to put the coffeepot on the warmer, where it can catch the brewed coffee. That, of course, is the step I forget. And somehow the first sip of the day is not as special if it has been wrung out of a paper towel after being fried on the coffee warmer and spilled all over the kitchen counter.

Despite this glaring flaw, this is probably the best coffeepot I have ever owned, so I thought I would let the company that makes it know about this one problem. But like most everything we purchase today, the company that makes the coffeepot also produces a million other products. The only phone number connects me with a foreign call center and an operator who can only deal with issues on the list of scripted responses that come up on his computer screen. So it looks as if I will continue to accept imperfection when it comes to my early-morning coffee experiences.

Overall, manufacturers have done a good job of training us consumers to expect and accept imperfections in the products we purchase. When it comes to computer software, the problem is even worse. Software users are willing to put up with a lot of imperfections in the daily operation of their computers – from lost data and “blue screens of death” to printers that will only print after being reset between print jobs. I can only imagine the hundreds of hours of productive work time lost each year to various software bugs.

We have all come to expect software to not function perfectly and believe flawless software is impossible. But is that really so? When it comes to software that we will not tolerate flaws in – such as the software that runs our cell phones – software companies seem to get it right. Continue reading →

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