Baseball game

Last night, we attended the Blue-Jays vs. Angels game at the Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome). The group included myself, Heather, Dad, Terry, and Ken.

This was one of the most exciting games of the year, with the Jays coming back to win 3-2 in the 10th inning on a wild pitch with the bases loaded. That was merely the ending to a game that included a homerun by Vlad Guerrero and an amazing over the shoulder catch by Corey Koskie, not to mention that Gordon Lightfoot was sitting in the front row.

Our seats, which cost 39$ a piece, were ideally situated along 3rd base in the 16th row. We had a perfect perpendicular view of homeplate, allowing us to see the plane of the pitches as they crossed home plate. We also had a perfect view of the CN Tower opposite us. One other note about going to this game was that the Rogers Centre was very brightly lit up thanks to all the new scoreboards. All in all, it was a very entertaining evening.

Weekend in Toronto

Highlights of a long weekend in Toronto:

Thursday... we spent the evening at the Dodsons in Scarborough.

Friday... shopping in the afternoon, dinner with Dan and his fiance Keiko downtown. Then we spent the night at the Delta Hotel in Scarborough.

Saturday... party at Koshans in Brampton, with many friends from university and their children.

It was great to reunite with these good friends, and the kids had a very fun time together, too.

A beautiful day

Yesterday was a gorgeous day on the Bruce Peninsula. One day after a cold front moved through and lowered the humidity significantly, we had bright sunshine and very warm temps.

In the afternoon, while the kids slept and Grandma watched them, Heather and I went to Oliphant beach. Unlike last week, the water was very nice today - almost like bath water. After swimming for about 20 minutes or so, we sat on the beach and listened to music, all the while getting some work in on our tans.

In the evening, my family had our "turkey dinner and birthday party for everyone" celebration. Because we are usually far apart from my parents, we decided to have a birthday party for everybody, so we gave each other gifts and had a turkey dinner (another pleasure I don't get to enjoy often in Korea). Later, we went to the lake to throw stones in the water - an activity Renee and Kaitlyn love doing.

It was a day that made us wish that we were going to stay here for the entire summer.

Enjoying my vacation

I'm now in week two of my four-week holiday in Canada. So far, I can say that I'm in no hurry to go back to Korea. The air is clear, the weather is nice and warm, and the beach has been a great destination.

We saw Aunt Myrna, Laurie, Luke, and Sean (sp?) on Saturday. Laurie mentioned that she was going to Ecuador and the Galapogos Islands later this month on an eco-adventure tour. That will be an awesome experience for her. I hope she sends some photos.

On Sunday, we went to Port Elgin to visit the Dodsons and Hyatts at their trailer cottages, which they have done up into nice weekend getaway homes. Renee and Kaitlyn were introduced to the wacky sense of humour of Uncle Roger. Too bad he's not available to fly to Korea to be a nanny. He'd do a better job than we are doing.

I visited the Koshans (Ernie and Virginia) yesterday for a little while. I've had a good relationship with them since Terry and I became friends in high school, so it was great to see them.

We've already done and seen many things in the first week of this vacation. There is so much more to come. As I said, I'm in no hurry to go back to Korea.

In Canada

We arrived in Vancouver on Saturday morning. Taking a limo from the airport downtown to our hotel, we noticed how the houses along the main road into the city were secluded, 'fenced in' by large trees. This would definitely be helpful in reducing the traffic noise, but it adds a clear sense of privacy, also.

We are located right in the financial district, so Saturday and Sunday were quiet around here. This morning, though (Monday), things are quite busy. It is also raining heavily.

We took a city tour yesterday, and prior to that in the morning, I went on a solo walking tour of two neighbourhoods around the hotel. The first walk was around the financial district; the second was to Gastown, the historic centre of Vancouver.

Today, I plan to visit JLS. I know where it is located - quite close to our hotel. If possible, I'd like to head over to Robson Street, too, since this is a trendy neighbourhood that we drove through yesterday on our tour.

I also find myself making a conscious effort to use Canadian spelling again. In Korea, I have taken to using American spelling (two reasons: Koreans prefer it, and I had to use it for my master's program). So far, it is good to be back in Canada.

Tomorrow, we fly to Toronto, and then head on up to Wiarton.

Canada vacation

A little over 24 hours from now, we will be heading to the airport to leave for Canada. Stop number one will be Vancouver for three days. Then we go to Ontario to visit my family and friends until the first week of August.

Originally, I had planned to attend my graduation ceremony in Phoenix at the end of the month, but nobody I knew from my classes was going to be there, and the trip would have added quite a bit to the overall cost of this vacation. So, we will spend an extra weekend in Wiarton, which happens to be the weekend of the village fair and the Schroeder family get-together.

Explosion in podcasting

Since iTunes made podcasting easily accessible to the masses five days ago, the number of articles on the Net about podcasting has exploded, as has the number of people who are suddenly learning about this medium and tuning into it.

This explosion is being reflected, as well, in the podcasts themselves, as people like Adam Curry are reflecting on the huge increase in subscribers to their shows. The NECC 2005 podcast features daily speakers, university faculty mostly, who are discussing the potential benefits of the medium in education.

Of course, I'm interested in this development. But I'm also really interested in Apple specifically. iTunes is becoming this amazing center of multimedia activity. It is no longer merely a music jukebox. It is also a video player, a music store, and now a podcast directory. And the podcasts themselves are moving into the next generation, including chapters and PowerPoint-like images that can help listeners follow a lecture, for example.

It is an exciting time for a digital life junkie like myself.

Canada Day... and Podcasting on iTunes

Well, it is July 1st, so happy Canada Day to those of us who hail from the Great White North.

On Tuesday of this week, iTunes added podcasts to their music store, and as I write this, I'm listening to a podcast of CBC Radio 3, all independent Canadian music. That's a pretty good way to celebrate Canada from a distance.

Speaking of podcasting, I want to look at this new medium a little more. Essentially, podcasting is the broadcasting of radio-like shows, but it can be done by anybody who has a computer. Thus, just like the World Wide Web allows anybody to publish their ideas to the world at large, podcasting allows anyone to record and broadcast a show about anything they want to share with the world. These shows are recorded on one's computer or some other audio recording device, and then uploaded to the Internet as MP3 files. Listeners, then, can download the files to their computers and sync them to an MP3 player (such as an iPod - thus the name "podcast").

What are the advantages of this medium? First, it provides a potential world-wide audience for anybody who has something to say. Second, listeners can get this content for free in most cases. Third, listeners can listen to the programs whenever they want because they have the files on their computer or MP3 player. And fourth, if you subscribe to a particular podcast, the latest edition of it will be sent to your computer automatically.

So far, I have subscribed to CBC Radio 3, Engadget (a tech show), and the NECC 2005 conference. There are thousands of podcasts available covering every taste imaginable.

Is there potential for this medium in education? I think so. There is a certain 'cool' factor which can motivate kids. Thus, if there is a media studies course, or an English course, students may like having that potential wide audience for their material. This is just an example, of course. I also think there is potential for teachers to use podcasts to send information (such as homework notices or course supplementary information) to students.

There is also a strong likelihood that podcasting will be misused in the early going. It is still very new, and we don't know yet how to use it well for educational purposes. For sure, there will need to be research done to see how it can best be utilized in education.

Education in your hand

What are some of the present and emerging technologies that could allow delivery of education to the hands of learners?

• 3G Cell phones
• PDAs
• Digital audio and video players (iPod and PSP, for example)
• GPS
• Podcasting, blogging, SMS, e-mail
  

Of course, what is really happening is convergence of the above technologies. People are using one or two devices that cover multiple technologies, and the cell phones seem to be the main device for doing this.

The point here is that info can be delivered to people with these devices, and education - first, in bite-sized chunks - is a field that can really benefit. Imagine if you are a Korean business person who is about to have a meeting with your American trade partner. You want to practice your language skills, so you use your phone to log into a service that can deliver expressions with a pronunciation guide, short videos to demonstrate how and when to use the expressions, and so on.

I think I will come back to this topic and develop my thoughts more since I see this as a potential research topic (should I get into a doctoral program).