Why do Interfaces always change?

It's been a long time since I have written anything. I logged into the new blogger today with it's new interface. I upgraded to Lion with it's newer interface. Why do people always change the interface? Why are there so many themes, skins, or whatever you call them?

I think I might have an answer. Really I've boiled it down to two possibilities. First, perhaps the new interface is "better." I'm assuming that software giants like Google and Apple do market research and usability testing. Then again, they might not. Better said, they don't do it the way I think they should. Perhaps they get feedback via email or other communications. Maybe the designers who use the software just realize that somethings need to change.

The reason I think that they do it though, is to prevent the appearance of stagnation. If gmail still looked the same as it did when they released it, people would think that it was old and out of date. However, I don't remember two many things about the interface that I didn't like or that aren't still around today. Firefox now updates every 6 weeks. OS X has had a steady two year average release time between versions. While the new features and abilities are welcome, the change in the interface seems to be the eye candy that draws you back in. Ubuntu does a good job with this. With every new release every six months I want to see what it's like. I might even install the new version.

This post really doesn't have a point. Well, maybe it does. I think the constant changing in interface layout, functionality, and overall look and feel is to keep people using their products. People just seem to like new things.

Learning Outcomes

I've been working at the Center for Teaching and Learning for a little over a month now. I only go in for 1-2 hours a day. I'm working on some exciting projects. The one I am enjoying most though is the construction of some type of learning taxonomy for affective aspects of education. Bloom's taxonomy was a great start. The cognitive domain has been built upon, improved, and used since its inception. The Psychomotor domain is used quite a bit in performance areas. The affective domain is the neglected child. I've been working with Richard Swan. I've been finding categories to include in this taxonomy. So far, we have Empathy, Moral Reasoning, Integrity, Discipline, Humility, Charity, Drive and Aesthetic Ability. I'll post more as it begins to fill out, but I think this is off to a great start.

First Obstacle

Well, in the transition I lost my RSS feed. So if you are one of the 7 people that are subscribed to my blog via Google Reader, you will want to subscribe to the new location. You can go to blog.benmcmurry.com and resubscribe through your browser OR you can enter this URL directly in Google Reader. feed://blog.benmcmurry.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

I'm sorry to those 7 individuals for the inconvenience. Well, one of the seven is me. So I apologize to the 6 others.

A move from Wordpress to Blogger

I really like wordpress. It's functional and aesthetically pleasing. It's easy to use, open-source, and customizable. But, there are some things that I don't really like that much. I don't like the constant updating of the software. It seemed like every time that I logged in it was time for an update. I also didn't like the commenting system.
So, I decided to move to blogger. There shouldn't be any hiccups, but it will take me a few days to get the layout like I want. So, thanks for your patience.

Watch this!

Help me win! Watch this video:


I am participating in a competition in Instructional Design at BYU. The first part of the competition was pitching our product to a panel of judges. My team won! For the second part, whichever design team gets the most people to watch their pitch video wins an ipad. Please watch our video. I get 10 points for every unique state or country that views it and 1 point per person. Please tell your friends to watch it too. The deadline for the competition is April 7, 2011 at 11:59pm.

CALL Reading

I am in the thick of reading in preparation for the big "D" . . . and I don't mean Dallas (which would be fun). . . or divorce (which would be horrible).  No, this "D" is somewhere in the middle and it stands for Dissertation. I plan on defending my prospectus soon. I've already started working on one of my articles. As I was hauling my books around the house this evening I thought I should take a picture so I could remember how much fun I am having—and I'm not being sarcastic. Some days are not fun, but for the most part I enjoy what I am doing.

Dana Ferris at BYU

The Linguistics and English Language Department at BYU is sponsoring a lecture series on second language literacy. Today, Dana Ferris was the speaker. It was great to here her speak. She is a very intelligent person with a clear perception of the field. She provided some very helpful insights about teaching. She listed 10 things she feels are the most important in developing literacy.

1. Extensive reading


2. Vocabulary Development


3. Text Selection


4. Reading Strategies


5. Reading/Writing Assessment


6. Peer Response


7. Teacher Feedback


8. Grammar Instruction


9. Written Corrective Feedback


10. Collaboration Among Faculty

One of the things that I enjoyed about her was her attitude toward working with others. She said we don't need be prideful and that we don't need to have a chip on a shoulder. We should be willing to work with English departments and all departments to help ESL student write better. This really stuck out to me. We, as ESL professionals, don't know everything.

She also brought up some things that teachers do that are "mean." She said that the high-stakes timed writing is mean. She said that when teachers wait to give feedback until the final draft is "mean." I agree.