Monthly Archives: September 2008

Digitization of books speeded up

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I just ran across a video in which an automatic book scanner was presented. It was amazing to see how fast this machine works. Digitization of libraries will sure be faster with such a machine. Furthermore, I think the automatic page turning is less invasive than a person turning the page because there won’t be any dog ears etc., but I do not have proof on that.

Curious as I am, I checked out the website of Treventus, the company producing the book scanner to find more information and actual images of scanned in pages to determine whether the scanner was a good idea. I couldn’t really find any, but the photos showed a setup at the Munich Digitisation Centre of the Bavarian State Library. As this is one of the largest libraries in Germany and has a cooperation with Google to digitize its collections, one can be sure that the quality of the produced scans is good to very good.

Digitized books of the Bavarian State Library can be found here. And I assume that a great number of books (maybe most likely the “Latest additions”) have been scanned with the automatic book scanner. The quality of them is really good.

I am still not very fond of reading books or even longer articles on a screen because I can still not make comments etc. like I am used to when reading on paper. But having the opportunity to print these scans is of great help because old books do not see so much wear as if they were handled by library patrons. Of course, it is a completely different feeling if you hold in your hands a freshly printed copy of a 16th-century book or if you actually touch the book because with the first one you miss all the history of the book, the smell, the texture of the pages, the finely hand-crafted cover etc. However, you are on the save side and don’t have to be afraid of ripping a page or dropping the book accidentally. Furthermore, you can read it anywhere you want and not just under the watchful eyes of a special collections librarian.

But, what do I have to do with 16th-century books? Well actually, nothing really because my field is rather 21st-century educational technology. However, eventually, also the books in this field will be digitized and made available online. Or maybe publishers will provide libraries immediately with camera-ready books as many books are now submitted electronically thus making the scanning process unnecessary.

ScanRobot- the automatic book scanner (Sorry for the small display of the video. The dimensions are set correctly, but not displayed as they should be. :-( )

YAP for the MOOC CCK08

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I love abbreviations. They allow to say a very long title etc. in just a few seconds. The heading in full reads as follows:

Yet Another Participant for the Massive Open Online Course “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008”

Fellow participants of the course know what will follow in the next lines: my introduction. As there are over 1,000 people registered for this course, which George Siemens and Stephen Downes humbly call “a rather large open online course…”, I will try to keep it short because we have read and will read a lot of intros until Monday when the course will start officially.

Currently, I live in Luxembourg and work as an assistant at the University of Luxembourg in the Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education. I have put myself of the CCK08 map in case you want to know where our campus is located in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

I am interested in this course because I want to broaden my knowledge about connectivism, educational technology research and usage scenarios and gain more insight as well as connect with people who are active in this field.

This course has already started to be a success because it brought together people from many different backgrounds and countries who are all interested in the topics of the coming weeks. Even though we may not always be there and contribute to all discussions, we will be able to hear other voices that we might not have come across otherwise and learn from them and with them.

As of now I do not know if I can cope with the “massive” in this online course because even if everybody writes only 1 contribution a day that will be more than 1,000 close to 2,000 if more people than the 1,800 already registered participants sign up. I still have to develop an appropriate reading strategy to stay on top of my game. Do you have any suggestions?

Now on to the last point: random information. I have not yet participated in a course taught entirely online because I am more inclined to blended learning. Thus, this will be a big challenge.

Although I am not in the official Second Life cohort of this course, I guess, there will be opportunities to meet in that virtual world. Then I will be able to practice speaking, walking, teleporting etc. which is much more fun if there is a purpose behind it than simply testing.

I’m looking forward to the official start of the course and the things we will discover together.

Opening the windows for new experiences

Opening the windows for new experiences

Extending the scope of this blog

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I have started this blog back in 2006 (using a different blog software) to end my email “curiousity letter” as I kept adding friends to it who were then not able to read previous mails. Though not many of my friends were and are avid blog readers, I hope they do stop by now and then to see what I’ve come across.

Then in March of this year, I decided to open my blog to the public, not because I thought I could revolutionize the blogosphere or become the next big thing, but to make it easier for people I know to read my postings without going through the hassle of signing up for a user account and keeping track of another login and password.

Due to my quickly upcoming participation in the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, I had to think about creating another blog to be able to post my thoughts and reflections on the course. However, on second thought I wondered why I shouldn’t use this blog here as I will continue to be curious and wonder about stuff. Only the scope of my musings will be extended. Up until now I did not write about anything related to my learning experiences etc., but only about other things. I can use this opportunity to jump into the cold water and also write about things here that concern me professionally.

Let’s see how it goes.