Kevin Ryan in Tokyo

Kevin putting it out there

  • NY Times: Ambient Awareness, Digital Intimacy

    Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing pointed me to this NY Times article Ambient Awareness, the effects of the Facebook and Twitter on culture and psychology. A great read. Combined with my reading for cck08, more than 200 pages, I’m glad today is Sunday.

  • cck08 about to start

    One of the blogs I read (I think it was Robin Good’s) sent me to cck08, an open online class in Connectivism. I’ve been curious about this concept of distributed knowledge and its use in learning and education. It is coming at just the right time. George Siemens posts in blogs I read regularly, and I am looking forward to interacting with what look to be a huge group (200 have sent in self- introductions, 2,000 have expressed an interest). Can’t wait. Look for my reactions here and in their class Moodle. and on twitter, I’m TokyoKevin.

  • Spelling needs simplified

    A 102-year-old former president of the American Literacy Council and other organizations came across the blog at boing boing, pointing to a video of him using a flip-book to show how to simplify spelling in English. If only we could do this.

  • Futurese: How will Americans speak in 1,000 years?

    Justin B. Rye graduated from a Scottish University in Linguistics, worked for a short time as a sysadmin, and then spent the last 10 years unemployed. He built computers out of spare parts and wrote science fiction. He put his studies and interests together in a web page called Futurese, where he explores how English in the US will change over the next 1,000 years. He starts 1,000 years ago and extrapolates changes into the future. With a great focus on pronunciation (reading the IPA, International Phonetic Alphabet, helps), and some very interesting theories, it invites a lot of idle speculation that is a great way to look at the future.

    Just a short sample… In 3000 AD we will say:
    Za kiad w’-exùn ya tijuh, da ya-gAr’-eduketan zA da wa-tAgan lidla, kaz ‘ban iagnaran an wa-tAg kurrap…

    Originally found in BoingBoing, through a blogger called Presurfer.

  • Words are words, even if they aren’t in the dictionary

    Lexicographer Erin McKean writes in Boston.com that English and any other language is designed to be upgraded constantly, and an inalienable right of speaking is inventing and using new words. Where would we be without it?