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It’s very early in the morning (I neglected to change the clock by my bed back from daylight savings time), so I do not recall how I ran across this, but the first thing I caught, in these early hours, was an announcement from Dave Sifry, the founding CEO of Technorati. His new endeavor is Offbeat Guides.
He explains in the announcing blog post from his Sifry’s Alerts,
Our first product is quite simple: On-demand, Personalized Travel Books. Travel books that are tuned just for you, only about the place that you’re going, with local information like festivals, events, and concerts that are going on during the dates of your stay. We put in local maps that are tuned to where you’ll be, and we even customize the guide based on what we learn about you, like the timezone differences from your hometown, electrical plug differences, embassies and consulates nearby, differences in tipping policies, exchange rates, local weather forecasts, and much more.
They include 30,000 cities destinations from around the world, which include New York, Paris, Rome, and Tokyo — and Newark, Paradise, Romeoville, and Tokorozawa.
The tool needs to know where you are going, when you will be there, where you are coming from, where you are staying, and your name. From this information, it constructs a travel guide that is geared to your specific locales, any local festivals, events, or concerts, and contextualizing the material to your place of origin.
As we continue to dream about the possibilities of textbook 2.0, which is not only digital, but pliable — and we imagine book services where the teacher (and even students) can pick and choose among modules of content, assembling webtexts that are specific to instructional needs, such individualized content generators may be one of the most appealing aspects of such a service.
The Offbeat Guides are not free. A printed book will cost $24.95 and a PDF edition is $9.95. You can get both for $24.95. As you shop for modules for your North Carolina history, specific teacher-generated reports about the origins of various generations of immigrants might be highlighted, both by the publishers and by procedural recommendations.
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I wonder if it can contextualize the material for age so that families with young children might be matched to different sites than a 20-something college student? Are the criteria used available before using the product?
Most teaching practices are needed to be reformed to more appropriately connect with the new technologies/ways of today. One major answer is time. With more planning time, teachers’ frustrations would decrease and therefore, the teachers’ motivational levels and the successes of the students would increase. I dream of one day having a longer length of time to plan and reflect. I still wonder- in reality, is this solution really attainable? What is our first step in having everyone (educators, communities, government, students, etc.) meet on a common ground? How can we show this theory in an effective way for others to understand?