eCROP Blog

Image FAQ Audio FAQ This was great fun! Can you hear the crunch of the damp leaves along the river bank? Resting on the warm river sand, I could shoot upwards at low hanging branches, capturing backlit fall color against a clear blue autumn sky. iCROP meta-thinking: Click the title of this posting for a page that describes how to get image, audio post and text in the same posting display.

Listen to the streams trickling into pools along the river. Paddling down the river, there were many nice places to stop in the warm afternoon sunshine and photograph the rich fall color. Click the title of this posting or see paddle map for a link that goes to a map of the paddling route that was taken below the Dillsboro Dam. The photograph entered yesterday was taken not far from where the paddlers are in this picture. Meta-iCROP thinking. A part of the content for 21st century learners is to learn how advances on the net increasingly make certain types of communication easier than the tools previously provided for desktop computer applications for doing similar things Further, they make other things possible that cannot be done in paper communication, such as adding comments and related source material directly into the original publication, as this blog technology allows.

This Wednesday, 13th October 2004, the market price leader in PocketPCs, Dell, announced their X50 PDA series. Its outstanding features include Bluetooth and 801.11b wireless capacity, provides an SD slot and a CompactFlash slot, and seems designed not only to handle music downloads but to also prepare the way for a new level of computer graphic display. Cost of models runs 299, 399, and 499. The CompactFlash slot makes it possible for sensor/probe companies to keep their products viable with the current level of features in PocketPCs. There is no discussion yet of whether this can be turned into a cell phone via 3rd party cards or installation of software using an internal microphone and speaker.

Combo phones biggest disadvantage may be their explanation. Their feature set though is here to stay. Mossberg's July 29 piece reviews the basic features of the HP iPAQ h6315. The model seamlessly integrates a handheld computer (PDA) with cell phone. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040729.html Palms Treo line has been doing this for some time. What makes HP's product much more valuable is the integration of slower speed cellular systems with high speed Wi-Fi networks with wireless data access ($500). Competition soon from Noka and Motorola will hopefully drive this price down. Combining computer networks with cell phone networks will come in many variations, such as Vocera Communications products which are voice activation only (no keypad). http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2004-09-12-biz-cell_x.htm

Seeing the relationship between textbook questions based on the reading of a chapter or a story and authentic problems is a challenge for the school classrooms. Answering the challenge is essential in giving students the motivation and confidence that they can tackle real world problems. See this link to T. Lowrie's solution to this problem using cultural artifacts which can easily be collected from the communities of learners. For those adults immersed in real world problems, this issue is different. The adult problem is more one of spotting and sharing the problem. Communication systems which tie adult abilities to find and share problems with teachers seeking classroom useable authentic problems would be helpful to both. iCROP uses its SUP (Still Unsolved Problem) database as one model of such a system.

Use iThink tools for remote sharing of field research questions. Scientists might ask: "What kind of plant is this? Leave responses using Comments." Click the above image for a larger picture. Writers might share images of entire web pages or scanned images of or within the article or book. This image posted using Google's free Picasa image collection management software to find and Hello software to online discuss and then autopost to blogs the thumbnails which are automatically linked larger size images. The larger size can include sizes much larger than this example.

http://ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/learner/basicidea.html iCROP is a web based problem processor useful for both educational and economic development. Enjoy. Comment.

Spectacles became the rage in the 13 century; telescopes and microscopes became hits in the 17th. These are but a few quick examples of a centuries long march in increasing human ability to discover, think about and apply new ideas. In the latter half of the 20th century a combination of ideas created the most significant hit yet for thinking, what might more aptly be called a complexityscope. Even now in the 21st century it is still referred to by tedious and obscure titles such computer network, electronic technology, World Wide Web or computer and the Internet. Is it still so close to us that we cannot yet see it clearly? The complexityscope is capable of using almost every form of expression and composition known to our species to magnify our ability to process finding, contemplating and solving problems. This blog will use a two syllable expression of this complexityscope idea, i-think or iThink.