Real Constraints and random thoughts

Real constraints - So ironic that I wrote about constraints yesterday. As it turns out, Columbia rescinded my email account which means that I cannot register for graduation. So I'm now in the process of getting that reinstated. Apparently there is a deadline! Hola!

I'm also having a conversation with my adviser next week -- so I better have something tangible to talk to her about.

Random thoughts about technology for learning
In thinking about using technology for learning, I think we often conflate the ways technology can be used. As communication productivity tools, technologies make communications quicker, & more efficacious. For example: webconferencing, or using Adobe Connect or Centra for lectures/information sharing; wikis for collaborative project management; blogs for one to many sharing; researching a topic or sharing tags with del.ico.us or diigo.

Technology as content - using Second Life to learn about SL or using programming to design games. Using online blogs, sites, etc. to learn about specific technical skills.

Technology as enabling learning - using technology to learn content more deeply - using games to learning financial systems; using modular online video to examine sections of content; using online cases (stories) to understand complex problems.

Technology as identity - this is perhaps the most difficult category to describe. Many people call this technology as social networking tool, but i think it is more than that. It is what Sherri Turkle calls the virtual identity, virtual leash or umbicial cord. It is life-on-line. It is how you feel about your avatar in SL or WoW or even Habbo Hotel. It is your Facebook profile, your LinkedIn status, your blog identity. It's about the care and feeding of the virtual self. This is the different roles you play in your virtual worlds. It is even you email persona. It's that other you. (That's why MikeB, one asks the oracle Google to divine your future for your virtual self.)

Random thoughts about the war(s) - The 3 trillion dollar war - by cash flow accounting - I heard an interview recently on NPR by the author of the 3 trillion dollar war. Did you know the government is using CASH based accounting *not* ACCRUAL based accounting to track the costs of the war.

Do you have any idea how insane that is? If they were a corporation, that would be illegal and it would be impossible to fully understand the financial status of the company. It means that when the government orders tanks for say $3 mil, the transaction is not recordeded as a $3mil expense, the transaction is only what cash was paid up front, say the downpayment of $300,000. The rest is accounted for when it is paid. What's recorded is only what is paid, not the full expense of the tanks. So how do we know how much is really being spent on the war? WE DON'T!!!

It's like giving a teenager a credit card, allowing them to spend willy nilly, and having them record the costs of their expenses as only the minimum amount they pay on their credit card each month -- their actual cash outlay costs. Unbelievably irresponsible.

This in addition to the fact that the gov't is borrowing most of the money from the Chinese to pay for the damn war. What's the collateral? Will they own the country if we can't pay?

It's so important to understand the difference between cash flow and accrual based accounting.