blogs.netedu.infoSkate of the web | Educat10n & media from Antonio Vantaggiato

Skate of the web | Educat10n & media from Antonio Vantaggiato Skate of the web Educat10n & media from Antonio Vantaggiato Skip to content Home Got Class(es) inf115 | New Media & Social Networks cco360 | Artificial Intelligence inf103 | Fundamentos de Informática delicious SkateStar SkateTumblr Zen of Teaching SkateTube SkatePhoto First Reads AV.net netedu ← Older posts Inspiring Webs Posted on August 31, 2020 by Antonio Vantaggiato “Memex” by mariebeysson is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 I have been following John Naughton’s blog Memex (the title being a link in itself to the mother of all hypertext machines ) for a while, for his recommendations and acute, to-the-point observations, his articles on The Observer, and so on. Compelling, but this is not all. Every day for a while he has been sharing some “Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news”. Since, you see, Recently, I became so fed up with the morning radio news programmes […] that I decided it would be better for my sanity just to listen to music at breakfast and read the news in papers and on the Web. Hence the ‘Musical alternative’ at the top of each day’s blog. John Naughton That, when I read it, did rang a bell. I have had, in fact, a similar reaction to the radio news programs as well as the tv news ones. Suddenly, I got fed up with their little muzaks, noise, frills and pompousness. I got fed of the US tv news outlets, the Puerto Rico ones, the European, and so on & so forth. And I got fed of the so-called analysts . It helped that for similar reasons, in my home we decided to also get rid of cable TV. We were paying a lot for tv we weren’t watching. And we weren’t watching tv for the above-mentioned reasons. And because, let’s face it, tv is pretty poor today. Even considering the golden age of tv series, which I love (some of them, at least), it was worth the while to save a little and focus instead of internet-driven content, with Netflix et al. Also, practically since the Web age’s dawn, circa 1992, I began a practice of reading Newspapers on the Web. And yes, one of the very first on the Web was Italy’s visionary and left-wing Il Manifesto , a paper I recommend, even though today I don’t read it often any longer. Motivated in part by the need I felt to read news in Italian and of Italy, I began thus a daily practice to read newspapers on the Web. Not on social networks, but straight from a browser. Not any browser, mind you, but Firefox. I started with Il Manifesto, then went mainstream with La Repubblica . I added soon the major Puerto Rican papers too, typically El Nuevo Día . Then, others piled up, such as Spain’s El País , The New York Times (the only paper I actually pay 4 dollars a month), the Guardian and some others. So, I felt at home with that expression: I decided it would be better for my sanity just to listen to music at breakfast and read the news in papers and on the Web I love that practice, and I love the space it affords, to relax, sit down and enjoy the readings of different newspapers, in the original way they are thought of, compiled and published. And I love some other human actually prefers like me to read the news on newspapers rather than having them on tv. Many bloggers publish link recommendations, some with comments. John’s own are lucid and he always points to very good English-language articles. He also recommends books (I love that part too), music and sometimes, a photo. Example comment on a news piece: Facebook Braces Itself for Trump to Cast Doubt on Election Results Zuckerberg & Co are — according to the New York Times — working out what steps to take should Trump use its platform to dispute the vote. Well, well. Could this be the moment that reality dawns on these geniuses? I have already written about the people and Webs that inspire me, and certainly this one is one of the best. It’s very refreshing to read such great reading recommendations and analyses. This is marvelous. Ceiliuradh = Celebration, pronounce = kell-oor-ah And this is too, also recommended by Memex. But, wait!! This song triggered a memory… A scene from a movie where some kid in the wild plays Dueling banjos with another guy. What film was that? Oh yes (thanks Google), Deliverance, 1972 btw – Memex 1.1 ( https://t.co/LyyNtPhyvh ) is now also available as a once-a-day email. Subscribe at https://t.co/yFSB4c8Der (It’s free and there’s a 1-click unsubscribe if you decide to prune your inbox!) — John Naughton (@jjn1) August 26, 2020 [Featured image: “linked data” by elcovs is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 ] Posted in delicious | Tagged inspiring , newspaper | Leave a comment My Top 10 Learning Tools Posted on August 25, 2020 by Antonio Vantaggiato “50 Web Tools in 50 Minutes” by Editor B is licensed under CC BY 2.0 In a recent post on his Half An Hour blog (which he declares to be “A place to write, half an hour, every day, just for me.”), Stephen Downes struck a chord with me, for what he writes and how he writes it. I’m referring to My Top Personal Learning Tools 2020 , where he starts with Jane Hart’s annual call for the top e-learning tools, and he builds and publishes his own. The interesting stuff comes here: he explains why he uses such tools in a way that I felt connected with mine. In fact, his choices are (not so surprisingly, given the subject we’re talking about) practically identical to mine. Here, I just report my own and add a couple of bits of comment here and there. Firefox – The Web browser is likely my most-used tool, period. Firefox is one of the most efficient browsers and Google already knows a lot about my email, searches and docs that I don’t feel like providing them also with my browsing activity. Firefox is great, and so are its tools and add-ons. Disconnect.me I have always on, plus OneTab, a little marvel at keeping tabs on one page (which can be made public). Feedly – Probably the best RSS reader around. I use Feedly every day, from either my computer or iPhone. I love that it can show a magazine-like interface, which is quite pleasant. Have to say that Laura Gibbs has made a wonderful case for the Inoreader RSS reader and its usage to syndicate students’ publications, and I am scheduled to try it out. Check her wonderful work with a complete tutorial on blogging and syndicating without Feed WordPress. But for the time being I stick with Feedly, and its tiny monthly fee. A post apart will be on that: to pay or not to pay? Instapaper (Stephen prefers Pocket )- True, Instapaper is not associated and integrated with Firefox, like Pocket, but it’s lean and minimal and perfectly effctive ti stacking my read-it-later pages. I use it across many devices, almost daily. Problem is, I am not quite the disciplined guy to routinely check the Instapaper stack and decide what to do with the saved pages. But, at least, my algorithm is simple: IF the page is interesting/useful THEN it gets saved permanently in my Diigo bookmarks (see item #8); ELSE, it’s thrown away. Email – Also at number 4, email is a top application for everything, including courses, student communication etc.. I open email every day and most of times I am overwhelmed by the number of messages, so I start frantically to reply to the top-priority ones. When I get to the newsletters (which I love, BTW) I’m often left without energy to open them. Tomorrow, I say to myself. Anyhow, Newsletter reading and subscribing is one tool I’d love to see enhanced for the Web. Unless it already has. Reclaim Hosting – I agree with Stephen here. A virtual server is a technology I use daily: Reclaim hosts this site and my courses ( inf115 , inf103.com , cineitalia , etc.) and lots of stuff, including a NextCloud instance which should soon supplant (or complement) my Dropbox. I do appreciate Reclaim’s support! In this same spot, allow me to place WordPress , which I use daily, for my sites, courses and almost everything! Presentation tools : (Downes chooses PowerPoint as his first choice – “I alw...