Tag: Alan Levine

Replied to 6x6x1 Two Things To Stand On (CogDogBlog)

If ever you apply Thing 1 to ask a question in public, always keep in mind Thing 2— understand that there is often more.

I always find asking questions online intriguing. There is often so much ambiguity in responses. I find there is as much learning to be had in making sense of suggestions as there is of the suggestions themselves.
Bookmarked Google Images CC Search Bookmarklet (cogdog.github.io)

This site offers a browser bookmarklet that triggers a Google Image Search from any corner of the web you are visiting. All results are filtered to Creative Commons licensed ones.

Alan Levine has created a bookmarklet for searching Google for Creative Commons images.

ᔥ “Alan Levine” in A CC Only Google Images Bookmarklet By Request – CogDogBlog ()

Liked Wrangling an Online Conference in the Discourse Platform (CogDogBlog)

Every element is a conversation. It’s not fair to compare Discourse to a garden variety BBS or discussion board. Yes, in structure maybe – every item/post is a “topic” and a response a reply, and topics are organized in categories and also via tags. But what I saw for a conference venue is that every presentation, event, announcement was open to being as well a conversation.

Replied to A Duct Tape WordPress Plugin for Redirecting Broken Links (CogDogBlog)

I got 5000+ links to comb through. But my blog is gonna be cleaner and I will have accomplished myself the wishful dream I tossed out as tweet in the wind.

I can do my part to tend my own garden of links- whether others let their stuff rot is on them.

I too use Broken Link Checker, but must be honest, combing through hundreds of links is a strange labour of love. Like Jim, I too dabbled with Amber a few years ago, but found it chewed up all my memory, so I scrapped it. My current approach is to link to my own bookmarks where possible, this means that if a link disapeears, I still regain some of the context. In addition to this, I found that I was sort of spamming some sites with pingbacks. Although that seems to have been fixed by the fact that pingbacks seem to be broken on my sites.
Bookmarked Podcasting. Doing it Right. Doing it Wrong. As if Binaries Exist. (CogDogBlog)

I realized another problem with either/or approaches to doing this. Being able to see each other in conversation adds much to the dynamic, especially to see the people we are talking to, and, where, if they are okay to share, their immediate surroundings. And they can easily choose to participate without the camera, that is always an option for me.

But is that the “right” way? The “best” way?

Alan Levine reflects on the use of Zencastr and Zoom to produce podcasts.
Replied to Sharpening The Trailing Edge Technology of Google Custom Search Engine (CogDogBlog)

So go ahead and gloat about your AI infused semantic blockchain… I’ll keep applying the trailing edge tools, and will sharpen them as I go.

Thank you for sharing this Alan. It is another example of why wide reading is helpful. I have been tinkering with different ways of searching my site for a while. I know that I could use Google Custom Search and a raft of other methods, however I wanted to avoid all that. Therefore, I still use the good old www.example.com/?s= method, with some extra code to expand the search. What your bookmarklet now allows me to do is easily search from anywhere without opening the site first or going to ‘search’, although I removed the index.php and replaced this with ?s=.

In regards to itches, I would still like the ability to search for content associated with particular tags, this is what happens when you start using WordPress as a commonplace book. That this granny is happy enough for now.

Liked 2020 Zoomed By(e) (CogDogBlog)

After all the time people are spending in these environments, are there other modalities, what others ways of collaborating we can use besides this one? I find that the first reach colleagues go for is webinar, webinar, webinar. And webinar. And that is my Zoom Fatigue, is that it seems to be the limit of our imagination.

Replied to Mass Producing Google Slides from Sheets: Scripts Are Your Friends (CogDogBlog)

To me, buying an app is serving me a fish dinner; giving me a script I can modify is a lesson in fishing. I’d rather fish. You?

Thank you so much for sharing Alan. I really like the starting point Rohe provides. I too would rather fish, than processed fish fingers.
Replied to The Weird Toy Space of Scavenged Public Domain Images (A Bit Slimy, Too) (cogdogblog.com)

Be wary of the sites Google might offer. I still cannot fathom how their mighty algorithm can favor sites (or even give them space) who clearly scavenge from more legit sources, ones like MaxPixel, pxfuel, pikist, pikrepo, piqsels, pickpik over the sites that house the original images.

Beware of the slime.

Alan, this is a fascinating dive into the world of open sharing. Sadly, too often the weird and wonderful web is overshadowed by the slippery and slimmy.
Replied to Google Sheet Karate Moves for Swapping H5P Video From YouTube to Kaltura (cogdogblog.com)

The challenge was, Spreadsheet Kid, from a BCcampus Kaltura URL, can I devise something that will take that and extract that mp4 URL?


I explain below, but for those who want to cut to the chase, you can make a copy of my spreadsheet and explore/play/criticize.

I really need to dig into the world of xpath.
Replied to Waving the Asynchronous Flag (CogDogBlog)

Do people think of asynchronous as adrift, alone in space? There’s every reason to feel a sense of conversation in a place of being in different times there, exchange, that can be every bit as engaging as being there exactly together.

Alan, this reminds me of Dave White’s discussion of lectures and the need to create moments of shared presence to facilitate new connections. We worry so much about the presentation of information and forget about learning opportunities. The problem is that for some this is not the work that matters, however I would argue that it is the work that often makes the biggest difference.
Replied to Desperate Pleas for Nothing (Kicks Condor)

How the interview works is – someone e-mails me a desperate plea to contribute to my blog – in a voice that almost reads like an automated marketing e-mail.

I then reply that, no, they are not desperate – I am the desperate one. I truly want to interview them![1] And I attach my questions right there – to make it easy for them.

At that point, inexplicably, I never hear from them again.

Thought provoking as always Kicks. I really enjoy Alan Levine’s treatment, but you take it to a whole new creative level.
Liked The Greatest and Most Flawed Experiment Ever in Online Learning (CogDogBlog)

If I was helping folks, my suggestion an strategy would be… do as little as possible online. Use online for communicating, caring, attending to people’s needs, but not really for being the “course”. Flip that stuff outside.

Bookmarked On Deconferencing (CogDogBlog)

Conference on… but I am deconferencing. I am looking for better ways to share knowledge, ideas that can include more people and less travel, but just plain… better.

Alan Levine responds to posts from Bryan Alexander, Will Richardson and Stephen Downes about climate change and conferences. He argues that this is neither either or. In some respects, the choice to say no is in fact a point of privilege:

The number of people who have the means to attend these confluences are excruciatingly small compared to the number of educators in the world. It can sure look like a prestigious club. When you are not in it.

Sometimes conferences are something that is a part of the hustle.

Let me tell you what it’s like being self-employed. Just getting pay is a second full time job. Every small to medium sized contract I have comes with hours submitting paperwork, following up with HR departments, asking if they got the paperwork, and trying not too much to nag your client to check up on getting that payment. Or just shrugging and starting work in hopes of getting paid maybe within weeks of doing the work.

In the end, what is needed is to stop and consider the Academic Conference Industrial Complex as a whole, not just focus on global warming.

Personally speaking, this discussion of the wider impact and implication of conferences has me thinking about a piece I wrote a few years ago thinking about the hidden professional development made possible by conferences, especially as conferences go online because of things such as coronavirus:

Replied to Glitch, Remix, a #NetNarr Exquisite Corpse (CogDogBlog)

There you go, try guess the nature of this blog post from a word heavy vague title. Better yet, just go first and try the thing I will be ‘splaining right here. Well, are you back? Did anythi…

I always love how you unpack your projects Alan. The story game is another great introduction to Glitch as a replacement for Mozilla Thimble.
Replied to It’s On! Direct Audio Recording into a SPLOTbox Site (CogDogBlog)

I’ve thought earlier this year I broke some new SPLOT ground, with a working TRU Writer as a pure plugin, with removing the need for secret special accounts, adding more media support to SPLOTbox … but this is big, right?

Record Something Now!

With support for podcasting feeds, moderation options, and now recording, this could be a one site podcast studio. The thing you get with this… is an ability to have people contribute content.

This is pretty awesome Alan. I can see this as a useful way for somebody to leave thoughts and feedback on my ‘calling card‘ site. It would also be an interesting addition to an ask me anything page.
Replied to I Never Was an “EdTech Guy” (CogDogBlog)

what exactly is an “EdTech Guy” (I will gloss over the genderization)? Judging from the stuff I do and blog about here, you will likely lump me in as one, but I pick a fight to differ.

I still tinker as much or more in tech as I did when Dean and I started crossing paths, but technology has never been the reason or the primary focus (nor was it really Dean’s). But I have always sought to understand the stuff underneath, so I can both explain it in human language but also leverage and exploit it.

It never is/was about just the tech.

Although I have always used EdTech, like you my interest was in the various affordances and possibilities. My concern is the name for that? It feels like as much as anything EdTech is a label that leaves others feeling clarity where there may not be very much.
Bookmarked Ok to Cross the Streams When Code Fixing (CogDogBlog)

“Who ya gonna call?” “CODEBUSTERS” No. But the metaphor of Ghostbusters crossing the streams was inversely appropriate to a little bit of code action over the holidays (of w…

Some updates from Alan Levine to On This Day plugin, including the means of showing titleless posts.