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I don't have much time, or a fast web connection ... but I visited JiaYou this morning. Actually, I ran into JiaLou along the mountain road. Wow! This was one of the most moving experiences of my life. Education is the key to happiness. Here are some photos:
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Molly and I are spending a few days in Guangzhou before leaving for JiaYou. Some highlights include a 2,000 year old emperor's tomb, and visiting a Buddhist temple while a service was being sung. In addition, this evening everyone is outside carrying paper lanterns to celebrate Sweet Autumn Festival.
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Actually, Molly and I have just arrived in Guangzhou, China after 23 hours of travel. We're collapsed in an airport hotel to recover a bit. Our daughter Karen, who is a newly minted 1st grade teacher, surprised us with a packet of letters ... from the children on Grainwood Elementary in Prior Lake, Minnesota to the kids of JiaYou. Time for bed ... finally!
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I mentioned earlier this week that my Fall project will be to install Linux on an old laptop using Ubuntu. This is another great LINUX resource:
This is not an option one faces, but it does represent technology I am exploring these days. I am down in Nashville attending a technical conference, and with each presentation I become increasingly intrigued with only evaluating content that incorporates Google One Box. During one presentation today, the speaker said it's not about search, it's about "Find". I couldn't agree more. If you're not familiar with one box, it allows proprietary databases to be indexed by an internal Google search appliance.
Why is this important? If you spend your time trying to convince your users to visit your preferred tool, you've already missed the boat. Find out where your users spend their virtual time, and then try to be present in those domains. I know my users are on Google ... thus I want my internal content to come up via their searches.
Oh yes ... Linux. My Fall project is to install Ubuntu on an old laptop and create a basic email / word processing computer. Thankfully, Ubuntu has created a month of screencasts (one per day) to help me navigate through the process. Ubuntu allows one to either download or have a free Linux installation cd sent to them. I'll let everyone know how the experiment turns out.
My church gave Molly and me a rousing send-off for China this morning. We leave on Saturday, and we are super excited to meet the children of JiaYou and see our school! New donations are coming in again! I'll post updated totals before we leave, but for now ... enjoy the story of JiaYou's new school ... and our send-off.
Google has updated their Google Books service, and I decided it was time for an updated screencast tutorial. Specifically, Google Books has added the "My Library" option. This option allows the user to save books to one's own personal bookshelf, but also share those books via RSS.
You may wish to review my orginal Google Books screencast. It has more technical examples and links, but does not review the "My Library" option. The orginal screencast also reviews how to save your own eBooks without the need for a Google account. Some folks may like that option for privacy reasons.
Perhaps this post should have been ... Web 2.0 and the College Admissions Process! Although the five schools to which Erik has already submitted applications are all fine engineering schools, two schools came to be on our list due to the "power of the web":
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) made the list because Erik learned via the Lego Mindstorms NXT Blog of their new robotics degree. It shows that smart schools get themselves listed on "non traditional web sites"
A freshman from the Olin School of Engineering stumbled upon my first posting in this category, and emailed me. Erik and I checked out Olin's web site, and given our experiences at the "big" schools, Erik eliminated MIT from our visit list and has already applied at Olin. Check out Olin's student blog. It appears Olin has a unique approach to engineering education.
Finally, here are the five schools to which Erik has applied. This Fall will be filled with additional visits to all of these schools: (compare against initial list)
One common trait is none of these schools are huge. In fact, the personal approach that these schools give the students is amazing. While on trips to Purdue and Iowa State, we were one visitor among hundreds; however, at Valparaiso our experience was dramatically different. Professor Will from the E.E. department spent a significant amount of personal time with us on a tour. We were thrilled with Valparaiso's virtual reality lab, and the obvious fact that undergraduates actually get access to this kind of stuff. This is in contrast to large universities where the resources were fantastic, but it was debatable that undergrads were the priority. TA's are very involved in the engineering education process. Thus, our choice of smaller schools is by design ... decided by Erik.
I'll get back to technical stuff soon enough, but I found this short presentation of a wild polar bear playing with a husky fascinating. My thanks for the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog for the lead.
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In two weeks Molly and I leave for JiaYou! We now have photos of our new school. We are thrilled and excited. There is nothing more important than education! Although the mountains of southern China near the Vietnamese border are definitely "off the grid", as I am able to I will blog and podcast the trip!
I've inserted below one photo which outlines the entire effort to build JiaYou's school. Use this link to view a photo album of the construction process ... from old to new!
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