By Stephen Downes
March 20, 2004
Learning Objects Summit
Why an
Extra Issue, you may ask? Partially because I got my inbox
down to 14 items and want to keep it that way by sending
these items along early. But mostly because I forgot to
post the Learning Objects Summit item in yesterday's
newsletter. Leaving it until Monday really makes for short
timelines, so...
The Learning Objects Summit is the wrap-up conference
showcasing eduSource, the national learning object
repository network project build by numerous Canadian
universities, agencies and businesses over the last two
years. Taking place next week, the event is being held live
in Fredericton and online via Interwise. I will be
presenting the DRM system while others will discuss various
other aspects of the eduSource network. Registration -
online or off - is free. By Various Authors, March 29, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
TypeKey
The semantic social
network takes another step forward with the announcemnt of
TypeKey from SixApart. "As a TypeKey user, you get your own
free TypeKey Profile Page, displaying only the information
you choose to share." This profile allows you to comment on
any number of websites and weblogs. Another, slightly
different, effort to do the same sort of think is Loaf,
which "is a simple extension to email that lets you append
your entire address book to outgoing mail message without
compromising your privacy." TypeKey might be widely
adopted; Loaf won't. By Various Authors, SixApart, March
19, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Sunny Boy
Interesting post from
XML guru about why he joined Sun and what he expects to do
there. For Jay Cross: Tim Bray is also Canadian - so you
can add XML (or at least, Tim Bray's part of it) to the
list of Canadian contributions to the field. By Tim Bray,
Ongoing, March 15, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
NSW Kicks Off E-learning
System
Now this is an investment in e-learning!
"The NSW (New South Wales) Department of Education and
Training has rolled-out an AU$84 million e-learning system,
providing 750,000 public school students and 51,000
teachers with their own e-mail addresses... the e-learning
system was part of an AU$910 million, four-year program to
install state-of-the-art IT services in NSW schools and
TAFEs." By Kristyn Maslog-Levis, ZD Net, March 19, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Weblogs for Learning 2004
Overview
of links related to weblogs in education. Nice list of
links. You will need to enter your email address to view
this item, an inconvenience that seems to serve no useful
purpose. By Graeme Daniel, WWWTools, March 20, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Improving Peer Review: Who's
Responsible?
Is peer review too important to be
left to publishers. That's the interpretation Peter Suber
gives to this article, which otherwise reads as a call for
greater training for peer reviewers. There is no doubt that
critical assessment is necessary for science to progress.
One wonders, though, why it is then practiced by a small
group of academics essentially in secret, before the
article ever sees the light of day. By Frank Davidoff, BMJ,
March, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Donald Trump Seeks to Copyright 'You're
Fired' Catchphrase
I don't know how many times
the phrase has been used throughout history, but it must be
some. But despite it being in common currency, Donald Trump
wants to copyright the phrase "You're fired!" Once again,
the absurdity of the current system displays itself. By
AFP, ABC News, March 19, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Dive Into Markdown
What converted
RSS from an obscure XML format to the widely popular
specification it is today? Very simply - tools started to
use it: blogging softwrae, on the one end, and headline
readers on the other. Which means that people do not even
need to think about RSS in order to be using it. In the
same spirit is this article, which argues against the need
to have to think - and write - in HTML. By John Gruber,
Daring Fireball, March 18, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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