ColLABorating

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One of the most important outcomes of our new Lab’s efforts will be in expanding our collaborations in order to advance the field. To that end, we started with the Sea Grant Education retreat that Harrison wrote about, outlining where the Lab fits in with the new vision of an education program and the Hatfield Visitor Center. We continued our discussions by having the Education team join in with the Sea Grant Extension folks this past week as they retreated for their own planning (though they got to go further away than just across the Bay, as Education did). For those of you unfamiliar with Sea Grant Extension, they’re similar to the Agricultural Extension programs that are the community outreach arm of Land Grant university programs: “The primary role of Oregon Sea Grant Extension is to be a trusted broker that provides the interface among scientists, managers, and the public, including stakeholders.’ – from the Oregon Sea Grant Extension website.

We met, first of all, and each took a few moments to explain what we do. As with the education retreat, there was a mix of who knew a lot of people from working together before, and who didn’t. The other task we took some time on was one we’d worked on as an Education team: 1) defining what “free-choice learning” means, 2) figuring out what we already do that is or isn’t “FCL,” and 3) deciding if and how to proceed to incorporate more FCL practices into our work. In both groups, we found that a lot of ways we are already working with our constituents use free-choice learning techniques. Moreover, both groups (Education and Extension) felt that these were effective styles to use whenever possible. The sticking point came with how much choice and control learners could have; for Extension, often, and especially K-12 school group programming, attendance is either mandated by regulation changes or by a teacher, neither of which situation was felt to provide the learner much choice or control. However, we felt that the more we could structure our delivery to center around the learner, the more effective and more positive the experiences could potentially be. Of course, all of these changes will require careful planning and ongoing evaluation. Good thing our Education and Extension programs are well-versed in these ideas. Now we just need a more coordinated effort so as to keep on top of things and not duplicate efforts.

Some choice quotes: Pat Corcoran describing his work as “feral-choice learning,” and Cait Goodwin noting that creating Quests “sounds like it should be easy, but it isn’t.” How apropos both of these were to the conversations as a whole. All in all, it was obvious that we have a lot of areas where we can (and often already do) help each other out. Here’s to continuing those relations as we all share the mission of supporting coastal and ocean resource research, outreach, and conservation.

 

 

 

WebOS going open-source (from Businessweek)

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I found this while browsing the technology headlines today. I wonder if interest in the platform will pick up after it goes open-source. What do you think?

“Hewlett-Packard Co. will turn its WebOS software into an open-source project, aiming to get other hardware makers to embrace the struggling operating system as an alternative to software from Apple Inc. and Google Inc.”

Surveying Survey Software

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It’s time for more product research. This time, it’s survey apps for the iPad. We’re in the process of acquiring a set of iPads that we’ll be able to sync together to deploy surveys. Our main requirements are customizability of the survey questions and answers and ability to collect data off-line, so museums can collect data with their visitors on the exhibit floor, no matter whether or not they have wi-fi, which a number don’t.

Having learned the value of the spreadsheet with my last product research endeavor, I immediately started creating categories as I looked at the first app’s features. It turned out to be a bit like coding qualitative data; the first product reveals a certain number of codes, the next might add to the list somewhat, and so on until you reach saturation and can just apply the “code book” to all the products. There are a surprising number of pricing schemes – by the survey, by the number of users and responses, and various combinations of those. Ultimately, we’ll prioritize the categories and in this case, consider costs as well, but so far, one product reveals itself as the standard. As our software developer said of a similar process with face recognition systems this morning, so far, there’s no reason to eliminate this one from consideration, though we may find something we like even better.

In the process, we’re also evaluating the use of a case with a handhold as well as a stylus. The stylus may help those less techno-savvy visitors, but it is so small it could walk off if not properly secured. One solution may be a tether to the iPad case. The catch is that once we add the case and tether the stylus, the iPad no longer fits in its original box, which may make it more difficult to ship around to various sites. Stay tuned for updates.

Retreat!

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Our Sea Grant educators’ retreat took place Tuesday. Thanks largely to Shawn and Laura’s planning and facilitation, we made some real progress in setting individual and collective trajectories for the education program.

Among our many agenda items were the construction of a staffing plan draft and—this was interesting—a small-group assignment to define “free-choice learning.” We found that our groups’ definitions generally agreed, even where they became fuzzy around the intricacies of motivation.

The staffing plan was a major outcome for the day. Currently, each of the folks on the floor of the Visitor Center or in the classrooms follows one of several chains of command. Even so, we’ve managed and communicated very well. This was evidenced by the fact that just about everyone at the retreat was already on a first-name, comfortable-talking-about-anything basis with everyone else.

Once the proposed plan is ironed out, we should have a more streamlined organizational structure and better coverage in some areas. Drafting the plan took surprisingly little time, as the needs of each team member and department were fairly well understood and complementary.

On a different topic, some of you are undoubtedly aware that Ursula began expelling eggs recently. These are infertile, and she seems to know it. She has not been laying them in ropes or grooming them as an expectant mother would, but rather attaching them in small clusters to the tank walls.

The husbandry team is currently making plans for Ursula’s release and the acquisition of another octopus. At this point, it’s uncertain exactly how much time Ursula has—a factor in when, where and how she can safely be released. In the meantime, Bill has been offering her live, local food to get her back in the habit of hunting.

We’ll all miss Ursula when she leaves, but we know that’s part of a human—or at least vertebrate—narrative. As always, we have to acknowledge her needs and to recognize that her perceptions and emotions do not mirror our own. With the onset of reproductive maturity, we must accept that her current needs can only be met by the sea that bore her.

Hurry Up and Wait

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Have we made the right decision? I am still getting queries from companies that I contacted over the course of the process. One company’s main guy contacted me after weeks of no contact. I told him that the guy he’d referred me to had ignored my request to set an appointment to talk to him. The main guy tried to tell me he had referred me to a different person than I told him! Some of these businesses seem very strange and disorganized. We definitely based some of our decisions on how strong the companies seemed, especially based on their web presence and their general conduct.

In any case, another wrinkle may be in store for us. We heard from Anthony Hornof at the University of Oregon that the Oregon University System (of which both our schools are a part) required him to basically decide on the specifications for a system and “put it up on the web for bid” for a month, even though he had already chosen the system and the vendor that best suited his project. Luckily, no one responded to the public bid and he was able to go with what he wanted. Maybe the fact that we’re specifying the system in our matching funds proposal will help us out, but if it doesn’t, we could be in for another delay in purchasing. As it is, once we get the go-ahead for funding, it takes about a month for delivery of the system. So we’re currently looking at March delivery.

The good news is, the staff here are eager to volunteer to test out the equipment when we get it!