Edu_Rss

Neil Lasher
Neil Lasher, Managing Director of Trainer1, called today from London. He was using TalkTalk, an incredible service offering in 70% of the UK. For about $30/month, Neil gets free local calls, free national calls, and free international calls AND an 8 MB broadband net connection. Neil figures eLearning is in the "clown stage." He told me [...] From Internet Time Blog on June 8, 2006 at 9:45 p.m..

First Look: Google Spreadsheets
The latest office-productivity tool from Google Labs takes aim at Microsoft Excel (and misses). Michael Calore finds browser-based Google Spreadsheets tasty, but frothy and a little undercooked. In Webmonkey. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Top Off the Fun Tank With Cars
Just how charming can animated autos be? Pixar's latest feel-good flick screeches into cinemas. By Jason Silverman. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Rants 'n' Raves: EMF Aids
Readers describe their own sixth senses and offer further evil Google services. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 4:46 p.m..

New CD-Swap Site Hooks Music Fans
La la is an ambitious CD-trading service that allows members to exchange their used discs for other titles. How does it stack up? Mark Anderson gives it a try, and winds up addicted to the flow of cheap, new music. Plus: Swap CDs and Pay Musicians From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 3:46 p.m..

China Stands Firm on Censorship
China reminds foreign companies that they must observe national law. Plus: Sirius boosts its satellite service.... IPod television moves ahead.... and more. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 2:46 p.m..

A Million Bucks in Stolen Calls
Two men -- a Miami businessman and a Washington state hacker -- face serious jail time and heavy fines after being charged with patching into VoIP networks and charging customers more than $1 million to route calls. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 1:46 p.m..

Laura Mullane - Eyes Wide Open: Five Views of Quality in Online Education - American Council on Education
Not five different theories so much as five different people being interviewed for this article on quality. Also some good links, at the top of the article, on some recent reports and studies on quality. Good quick read, and a good starting point for more reading. [Link] [Tags: ] [Comment] From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Jon Udell - On Business/Education Partnership - Infoworld
I'm not so sold on Ruby, though I do think it's elegant. But I do share a lot in common with this view of learning: "Thanks to personal online publishing and to an emerging cultural ethos of transparency, there is an exciting new possibility in the world. A young person today who is interested in software can find out what it is like to be a software developer -- by evaluating products, by reading the accounts of people creating them, by making contact with those folks, and by contributing to real projects." To me the key words here are real projects - it is this, I think, tha From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Jeff Jarvis - Books Will Disappear. Print is Where Words To To Die - The Guardian
I was thinking about this in the train station in Manchester. I once wanted to be a science fiction author, an ambition I sometimes secretly reconsider. But these days, they only publish what seems like one or two science fiction authors. It was always a nice job, but now even more so. "In print, books rely on scarce shelf space, gatekeeping agents and editors, and expensive production." Just one more strike against books - and to me, the critical one. [Link] [Tags: ] [Co From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Gardner Campbell - Surprised by YouTube - Gardner Writes
Exactly right (except - who has time to watch all those video?): "we're witnessing not just the now-routine Internet phenomenon of major new resources, but also massively and unpredictably scaled repositories of public domain materials that are vital information resources for ourselves and our students... we will find our students bringing archival gems into the classroom, casually and crucially. At that point, the professor's role as advanced learner... will be explicit and essential as never before." Via Brian Lam From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Unattributed - Captain Copyright Caught Copying - Broadband Reports
Michael geist, Techdiret and others have been all over this story; most of the links are available here. My own view, of course, is that the publishing industry has never respected content creators, and that the campaign to enforce copyrights is a sham. More fun with Captain Canada from Clarence Fisher. [Link] [Tags: Canada, OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

David Davies - Edublog Simile Generator - David Davies' Weblog
Because we all need to simile now and then. [Link] [Tags: ] [Comment] From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Scott Leslie - UMW's Bluehost/Fantastico Experiment - Ed Tech Post
Yes, well, aren't we all going in the same direction now? I mean, isn't this what the whole PLE discussion is: "Still, Gardner and his crew are to be totally commended for their approach - maybe instead of a 'learning management operating system' we might start thinking about a control panel for instructor-controlled (or student controlled, how about sticking that in your pipe!) mix- and matchable lightweight apps that already had the connectors to the SIS and authentication systems built in (or can these be the same thing?)." [OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Scott Leslie - Project Pad - Web-Based Media Annotation and Collaboration - Ed Tech Post
Of course we want this, don't we? "It is a suite of audio and video annotation tools, including tools to annotate quicktime a/v files, flash movies and mp3 audio streams, still images, and do audio transcription." More on the Sakai Conference presentations. And as Scott Leslie points out, there's a "whole segment of the edu-blogosphere I don't know about" devoted to Sakai stuff. [Link] [Ta From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

Sherry Saavedra - Schools Weigh Control Versus 1st Amendment - San Diego Union-Tribune
As you have probably guess, I was not lucky in Innsbruck, and so did not have internet access from my hotel yesterday. I am now at the Microlearning conference here, which I will address tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, here is yet another MySpace article, which I am linking to not because it's the same-old same-old, but because of the incredible variety of behaviours it reports (and reports as being objectionable). For example: "a student had posted a snapshot on MySpace of his answer sheet for a standardized test. He had blown off the assessment and bubbled in answers in a pattern From OLDaily on June 8, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

The New Online Collectivism
Edge.org founder John Brockman asked a few of us to respond to Jaron Lanier's essay, Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism. Jaron's main point seemed to be that we are overestimating the potential of online collectivist projects. In Jaron's words:"The hive mind is for the most part stupid and boring. Why pay attention to it?"The problem is in the way the Wikipedia has come to be regarded and used; how it's been elevated to such importance so quickly. An From rushkoff.blog on June 8, 2006 at 10:45 a.m..

Art Can Be a Moving Experience
The Mona Lisa is one high-maintenance painting. Moving her just a few meters costs a cool $5.9 million. Forbes.com takes a look at the shenanigans involved in moving other pricey pieces of art. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Kings of All Media
Wired magazine puts media hub computers through the paces. Plus: Cool alarm clocks.... Handy battery packs. In Test. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Slides: A Playground Menace
Thanks to static electricity, a simple trip down a plastic slide can fry a cochlear implant. But there might be a way to dampen the surge. By Randy Dotinga. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

You Say You Want a Revolution?
The last Luddite column resulted in a welter of e-mail, so we'll stay on topic for another week. Commentary by Tony Long, with a little help from his friends. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Once More, With Aggression
Step inside the studio as video-game voice actors engage in the quest for the perfect take. By Preston Lerner from Wired magazine. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Fan Films Reclaim the Whedonverse
From Buffy to Firefly, geek hero Joss Whedon's retired TV franchises still command a loyal following online, where fan filmmakers churn out quality sequels and parodies on shoestring budgets. Annalee Newitz reports from Seattle. From Wired News on June 8, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Texas Southern University President Is Fired
Priscilla Slade failed to attend a hearing she had requested to appeal her April dismissal. From New York Times: Education on June 8, 2006 at 4:45 a.m..

E-Knowledge & I-Knowledge
When we hear the word knowledge, most of us think of explicit knowledge. That's the tidy stuff people can agree on. Schools teach it. There's a right way and a wrong way. It's in the book. David Weinberger likens explicit knowledge to a tree. It's organized into branches. Some of the branches have been pruned. That's [...] From Internet Time Blog on June 8, 2006 at 2:45 a.m..

Audit Disputes $52 Million in School Medicaid Claims
A federal audit said school districts in New Jersey filed claims for thousands of speech and physical therapy treatments that they could not prove were necessary. From New York Times: Education on June 8, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..