Loss of Focus, thinking about IPEX as far in the future

http://whattheythink.com/articles/61979-citing-their-diminished-relevance-kodak-will-bow-out-most-trade-shows/?utm_source=WhatTheyThink+Newsletters&utm_campaign=79821421cf-daily&utm_medium=email

Still not sure how to place the learning tech of the week. Education is still based in print, BETT still seems marginal.

Not sure how long we can think about IPEX as being in 2014 much as we remember it from 2010. If Kodak is not there  then given that Heidelberg, HP and Xerox think much the same then something is shifting. Maybe we have to take Microsoft at BETT as some sort of basis for comparison.

Adobe has gone, just like Apple.

I still think trade shows are some sort of guide, maybe you have to think a bit harder about the context.

Still no focus for this week of BETT and Learning Technology #oldsmooc

I am still getting ready for a trip to London. This is the week of BETT and Learning Technology. I will also get a look at EXCEL with a show in place ahead of IPEX next year. Thing is, still no idea what the news focus is and why this week is an event. I think of it as the end of the Winterlude but several things are still missing.

No news on Michael Gove. Last year I thought some of his ideas had potential. The web and mobile devices could relate to formal learning. Freeing up the content might help. But there is nothing much on what happened since and no information yet on whether he or anyone from UK government will be there. I may have missed it, please add a comment if you know. There may be a formal course in computer science but the blogs I can find don't suggest there will be much on digital literacy in video or music. Maybe wrong so will look out for links during the week.

There will be something about games from Microsoft

so alternative tablets will be there by implication.

I have yet to see anything about BIS or MOOCS. I think a lot of the technology that universities describe as a MOOC has already been in use in the sort of context connected to Learning Technologies. Especially so for video and games. When Futurelearn was announced last year there was an encouraging quote from David Willetts

David Willetts, universities and science minister, said it was important for the UK to be at the forefront of developments in education technology.
"Moocs present an opportunity for us to widen access to, and meet the global demand for, higher education. This is growing rapidly in emerging economies like Brazil, India and China.
"Futurelearn has the potential to put the UK at the heart of the technology-for-learning agenda by revolutionising conventional models of formal education.
"New online delivery tools will also create incredible opportunities for UK entrepreneurs to reach world markets by harnessing technology and innovation in the field of education."

 

So will there be any announcements during the week? My guess is that both BETT and Learning Technologies will continue as international events with much of UK education not paying much attention.

Meanwhile via LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130126183946-212158738-is-your-college-going-out-of-business

Is your college going out of business?     Mark Cuban

When I look at the university and college systems around the country I see the newspaper industry.

The newspaper industry was once deemed indestructable. Then this thing called the internet came along and took away their classified business. The problem wasn't really that their classifieds disappeared. It was more that they had accumulated a ton of debt and had over invested in physical plant and assets that could not adapt to the new digital world.

Why in the world are schools building new buildings? What is required in a business school classroom that is any different than the classroom for psychology or sociology or english or any other number of classes? A new library, seriously? What is worse is that schools are taking on debt to pay for this new construction.

You know what? He may have a point.

Cities still working in a week for BETT and Learning Technologies #oldsmooc #leuthanadigital

I have been a bit dismissive about cities on the start of the Leuphana Digital MOOC. I am trying to counter the idea of spectacular buildings. There could be more spent online for some blended situations.

However, next week in London there is both BETT and Learning Technologies. So far online I have discovered that Willesden Junction is only just on the London Transport timetable. I think there is a connection though.

I will try to keep up with the #oldsmooc but the main thing will be getting around in real space.

No news yet on what Gove will do to follow up on last year. The EU Education and Culture operation has a stand. What the official UK take is on web tech etc. is not that clear.

First draft of introducing my take on cities - Leuphana Digital

I have looked at three documents and have some ideas about cities and the web. There should be more investment online, there are enough buildings.

The documents take some study but a few thoughts so far.

Issues and Case Studies in the New Economy page 109 on Risk Management. Suggests that risk management is easier in big cities. Think about recent disasters. Possibly caused by group behaviour in a bubble. London is global and now more or less cut off from the rest of the UK.

Post Modern Geographies Soja
Foucault mentions time as well as space
"Fourth principle. Heterotopias are most often linked to slices in time - which is to say thatthey open onto what might be termed, for the sake of symmetry, heterochronies."
so I think time is still significant

New York Times
Not sure how many creatives are somewhere else in New York state. I live in Exeter, described as a city but functions as a county town. Lots of people visit ( monthly, less often ) from the rest of Devon, maybe other counties ) Some are artists, consultants, technology support.

Lots of strange things in Exeter. The university spent £24m on a forum which involved demolishing the bookshop, not to be replaced. There is a Blackwells "pop-up" for 7 weeks of the year. Seems to be a design thing, books not part of modern retail. Why do they need a library? Is there a point to the campus? Why not move back to the centre of the city and scale down the buildings?

I don't deny that the globalised network of superstar buildings is working well. 

http://bristolculture.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/talking-lamp-posts-coming-to-bristol/

that is thirty thousand pounds gone from south west England towards London. What else might happen?

paste of Flickr url not working

Leuphana MOOC starts today, cities more later on Wild Show

The MOOC about cities starts today but you can still join up to the second task on Feb 3rd

I have found a similar page for one of the readings.

My opinion at the moment is that we have enough buildings. More investment in online could get a blended situation.

More later, getting ready for the Wild Show on Phonic, 10 to 12. I think Chris Norton is recovering so the talk on this will be in the first half hour.

The Wall confirms something shifted during the Winterlude, still not over

http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/11/13/google-advertising-revenue-surpasses-us-print-industry-print-is-dead/

I found this link after a Tweet conversation with theWall.

  1. FT cuts jobs and relegates print to “second” as editor warns of social media “disruption”  /

  2.   Do you think we will get reporting on digital at Guardian, Haymarket etc.? Will Guardian print continue Mon - Fri?

  3.  Our guess is that Guardian will cut print on certain days at some point.

  4.  Could Printweek go online like What They Think? Other Haymarket titles? Think carefully, tweets are public.

 Way above our pay grade! But one would GUESS that at some point many magazines will thrive online only.

The Winterlude will not end till after BETT and Learning Technologies. But it is clear enough that many people in media have gone digital in their mindset. The print media are still not reporting the full situation. The Guardian on Tuesday reported that some UK universities could go bust, but there was nothing about online competition or how the UK adjusts to this. 

Guardian print cash cow, to be continued

Through Online Media Daily I find there was an online report in the Guardian that I missed thoough I did read the print version of the Media pages on a Monday.

FT says Digital First. Now you know.

I have paid another £1.40 for the Guardian today. The teaser about HMV is not followed by any analysis of HMV in the story about universities.

Actually HMV may continue and the record companies do have a digital strategy of sorts. 

Nothing in the universities story about online offers.

Nothing in print today about the FT.

So £2.80 to find out just how strange things can be. If I missed it please add a comment with page numbers.

HMV good news, thanks for link from Exeter City Centre Manager @ExeterCCM

The news via the BBC is that policy has changed at HMV. Thanks John Harvey for the tweet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21118711

Apparently there is a rescue under discussion and the record companies are supportive.

However I still think it is a bit vague as to how involved the record companies were in the previous HMV. Which ones had shares? Where did the directors come from? Will the record companies influence policy on gift vouchers in future?

And the implications for books are very disturbing. I don't see book tokens as a reasonable risk.

Unless there is legislation or something that restores confidence in consumer rights.