A folder mind-set in a tagging world

Johnson's Law of Searching:
It's easier to find something than to find it again.

A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. On a website in which many users tag many items, this collection of tags becomes a folksonomy. - Wikipedia

Doug Jamison at Geezer's online wrote about the impact of search engines on traditional organizational structures in his Front Page for Everything entry:

The personal computer and online databases started the erosion, then Gopher, Archie, BBS's, usenet, and the web. But the search engine was the giant killer. It made all previous information-organizing structures seem cumbersome and restrictive.

The entry struck a nerve with me - and not just because I too am a geezer. I am in the process of shifting from using the folder and subfolder organizational struture of Outlook/Entourage to the tagging system of Gmail for tracking my saved e-mails.

And I am nervous.

I'm not sure why I should be other than the fact that for 10 years or so I have lived and died on the ability to retrieve specific e-mails using a filing system. E-mails that contained things like ike flight reservations. Like price quotes. Like writing deadlines. Little things like that.

And I've taught people how to organize their own files using folders and subfolders for as long as I have been teaching teachers how to use Macs. I used to bring in real file folders as visual aids in workshops. (Just like in your real file cabinet, your hard drive can hold folders. And you can put a folder inside another folder. Everything does NOT have to stay on your desktop.)

Now, whenever I see a computer desktop that looks like this on a teacher's machine in our district, I consider it a personal failure:

Have the "dump everything in one place" people been the smart ones? Due to tagging and full-text searching using OSX's Spotlight, Google, and other powerful indexing/search tools, I seem to have been wasting my time and effort carefully filing my documents - and teaching others to categorize and sort as well.

Shudder.

It's now a simple matter to save everything in a "Documents" folder morass and then use the Genie of the Find Command to quickly summon just those works with key tags or phrases. Easier and more effective, I admit, than trying to remember the name of folders and subfolders and documents.

But I can't help but think that we are losing a something as well - the ability to think in terms of categories and hierarchies and abstraction ladders ala S.I. Hayakawa. Knowing how to move up and down the abstraction ladder easily:  Living things -> animals -> birds -> penguins -> Tacky.

from Language in Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa

Tagging and full-text searching seem just one small example of technology relieving us of the need to think for ourselves, to come up with ways of organizing our thoughts and our world. Of exercising our gray matter a bit.

Or maybe such a thought is simply my geezer-itis flaring up.

Flood relief efforts and teasing

The Johnson household is doing what it can to help the flood victims in the Fargo area by taking in this pathetic litte group:

Dad stayed in Fargo to sandbag, protect the house, and minister to his church flock, but Mom. the boys and Willie the dog came down for an unexpected but very welcome visit. So far their home in Fargo is dry. Keeping our fingers crossed for them and all those living near the Red River.

Our big question - who is going remove all those sandbags piled up by the hundreds of volunteers when this is over and what will they do with the sand? Inquiring minds want to know.

Like most families, ours has tradition. It's sort of fun to see this one go multi-generational. When Carrie was small, I teased her that they put signs like this out just for her.

And now Paul gets the same treatment. As you can tell his ego is taking a real bruising.

I suppose everyone knows about when it is OK to tease and when it is not, but it might be worth repeating. Fun, even affectionate, teasing is about something that the person  feels confident (in this case Paul and his mom's intelligence). Mean teasing is poking fun of something about which the other person feels insecure. Easy as that.

There are those who would like to see teasing abolished completely. Are there are enough other sources of humor that teasing wouldn't be missed?

What do our school buildings say about us?

"We shape our buildings; and forever afterwards our building shape us." - Sir Winston Churchill

Paul at Quoteflections quotes Jack Diamond of Diamond and Schmitt Architects:

Architecture is an expression of its time and place. It reflects the values, power, and dominant elites of the prevailing social structure and the relevant position of nation states in the global context. It even demonstrates the attitudes of imperial powers to their subject peoples.

Having just visited Paris, Paul reflects on colonialism and how the great buildings he encountered suggested its influence. But this quote struck me a little differently: to what extent do our school buildings show respect or disrespect for children? Do we adult overlords design spaces that purposely subjugate and control rather than encourage growth and individualism?

One of the ugliest buildings both inside and out has to be Minnesota State University's Armstrong Hall of Education.

Squat, square, and spartan both inside and out, it's windowless, right-angled and utilitarian classrooms couldn't have been very exciting even when the building was new in 1964. Might one not expect graduates of this school to think in straight lines and exhibit one-right-answer mentalities?

Designers of most educational spaces seem to concentrate on low cost contruction, ease of maintenance, security, and visual control. Comfort, aesthetics, and inspiration don't much figure into the design process. Hey, it's just kids that will be in these buildings after all - what do they care?

Here are two pictures from projects I've been proud to be a part of designing. Look at the pictures as see if you note anything they have in common:

Give up?

While it's a little dificult to see, both media centers use curves in their design. The St. Peter media center above has a curved circulation desk that mirrors the curved lines of the greenhouse above it. The Eagle Lake media center has a curved couch (and its unseen story area is curved as well).

There are lots of other ways to show respect for facilty users beyond creating interesting lines. Indirect lighting; varying eleveations in ceiling heights; real windows and skylights; warmth-creating wood and fabric surfaces; and comfotable work/study/reading areas, both social and private. And of course, a place to display art on either a permanent or rotating basic.

Our students are no longer the captive, "subject peoples" they once were. Few students have to attend your school with the growing number of alternative education options like charter schools, home schools, open public school enrollment, online schools, and private schools from which they have to pick.

Do we need to start designing schools for people with choices? And for children we respect?