Edu_RSS
E-Learning Centre Pick of the Month
E-Learning Centre has launched a new look and name for its newsletter this month: it is now called the 'Pick of the Month' and features five resources: library (links to selected and reviewed articles, white papers, research reports, journal articles and resource collections in the wide field of e-learning), showcase, products and services, events and bookshop. It's an interesting format, lending much more visibility to the more commercial side of the field (products, events and books) than is usually the case for online resource sites such as this. By Jane Knight, E-Learning C From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Fifty Writing Tools
I always enjoy a good
writing resource. But this massive work, authored over the space of a year by journalist Roy Peter Clark, deserves its own special place in the canon. Clark probes beyond mere grammar and style to unveil what makes a piece of writing powerful, evokative and clear.
Like this: "paying attention to parallel structures in their words, phrases, and sentences... Single words should be balanced with single words, phrases with phrases, clauses with clauses." I From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Adults Better Web Surfers Than Teens, Study Shows
There has long been a supposition - attacked in recent days by writers on the WWWEDU mailing list - that our students are better at using computers than their teachers or parents. This article describes a study that refuts that supposition. Teens are hampered by their poor research skills, weak reading and short attention spans. They also prefer sites with images - not glitzy images, but 'cool' design, such as at Apple. And labeling a site for 'kids' drives them away in droves. By K. Oanh Ha, San Jose Mercury News, February 1, 2005 [
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
JavaScript Triggers
This is a bit technical, though all designers should heed the opening paragraph: "The front end of a website consists of three layers. XHTML forms the structural layer, which contains structural, semantic markup and the content of the site. To this layer you can add a presentation layer (CSS) and a behavior layer (JavaScript) to make your website more beautiful and user-friendly." The rest of the article describes how to trigger executions of Javascript based solely on elements in the presentation layer. Start messing around with XSLT and you see how important this becomes. By Peter-Paul Kock From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
RSS_LOM on Downes Wiki
A lot has happened since I posted my
first version of RSS_LOM almost two years ago. Since then, both RSS and LOM have changed a lot. There has also been more interest in RSS_LOM recently, leading me to work toward a redraft. Not everyone agrees with what I've put out thus far, which is fine. That's why
it's on a wiki, which you too can edit (the nice document or PDF will come after the discussion). This link takes you to my new RSS_LOM proposal and to an
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
ICALT 2005
5th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2005) July 5-8, 2005 Kaohsiung, Taiwan http://lttf.ieee.org/icalt2005/ * Important Dates February 25, 2005 - Paper submission (Extended) March 25, 2005 - Notification of acceptance April 15, 2005 -... From
Rick's Café Canadien on February 2, 2005 at 9:54 p.m..
Newspaper Archive Madness
In Mark Glaser's current
piece at Online Journalism Review about paid vs. free newspaper Web archives, he quotes New York Times Digital CEO Martin Nisenholtz as saying that it wouldn't be wise for NYTimes.com to switch to free access for archived articles. The reasoning, in part, is that such a paid revenue stream provides a bit of insurance against the online ad market turning south again.I don't have a fundamental problem with newspapers that decide to go this route -- though from a serving-the-p From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on February 2, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Heeeeellllp me with a presentation
The discussion I'm holding at the Berkman Center tonight is really a desperate plea for help. I'm working on a presentation I'm giving next week at a TTI Vanguard. The first part is based on my Library of Congress talk, but then I go into tags. And it all falls apart exactly where it needs to get interesting: Beyond making things easier to find, what are the likely/possible social effects of tags? I'd love to have your help fixing the talk. 6-7:30 pm tonight, at the Baker House (map).... From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 8:48 p.m..
Anne Davis Has Moved...
...More importantly,
so has her feed. (Just kidding
Anne; you know you're more important than your feed...) Please make sure you change your subscription if you are at all involved in the use of blogs in education. Her new address at teachesme.com says it all. From
weblogged News on February 2, 2005 at 8:47 p.m..
Nieuws van de DBNL
http://www.dbnl.org/nieuws/opl022005.htm Nieuwe teksten opgeleverd in de DBNL: [lopend project, 2004-....] Wim van Anrooij, Ingrid Biesheuvel, Karina van Dalen-Oskam en Jan Noordegraaf, Aanvullingen op Bio- en bibliografisch lexicon van de neerlandistiek: 23 nieuwe lemma's H.C. ten Berge, De witte sjamaan Lambert van den Bosch, Konst kabinet van Marten Kretzer Maria Geertruid de Cambon-van der Werken, De kleine Grandisson, of de gehoorzaame zoon Simon Franke, Kantjil, het dwerghertje Historie van den man met de bonte-muts Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, 1883-1 From
CHI weblog elektronisch publiceren on February 2, 2005 at 8:00 p.m..
Looking for a Fun Job in Higher Ed?
SUNY is hiring for a position at the Training Center in Syracuse (technically associated with the Upstate Medical University) to think Big Thoughts about teaching, learning and technology, and to run some enrichment programs. It looks to be a pretty juicy position. Here’s the description: From
e-Literate on February 2, 2005 at 7:59 p.m..
Google Would Like to Suggest ...
Google Labs has a new beta product available to the public called
Google Suggest, and I am immediately switching my default search to this new offering. The idea behind it is type-ahead, similar to what you get when you start typing in an e-mail address in Outlook; it tries to finish your thought, saving you time.But there is more: As you type, you see a list of similar terms below as well as the number of results you will receive from each one. Below you can see the result of typing in From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on February 2, 2005 at 7:55 p.m..
Lets create an open source web accessibility policy
Recently I've come accross a problem. Managers are often unable to convey what the accessibility requirments are for a product to their developers, outside of "it needs to be accessible." I've been working on a document that serves as both our accessibility policy and as guidelines for us and the developers and contractors who work on our sites. Now I would like to release the first version of this document to anybody who would like to read it, and encourge anybody to make suggestions and changes [that are clearly marked] and send it back to me and I will look at intergrating the cha From
Curb Cut Learning on February 2, 2005 at 7:53 p.m..
100 Bloggers: I’m in! Now, What to Write?
I'm pleased to announce that I've been selected to contribute an 1000-word essay to Jon Strande's forthcoming book, "100 Bloggers." Here's how Strande describes this project: "The purpose of the book is to push blogging further into the mainstream – to give people a taste of what blogging is all about and extend an offer for them to join us." Not a bad idea, given that the recent Pew report, "The State of Blogging," revealed that 62% of US internet users do not know what a blog is... From
Contentious Weblog on February 2, 2005 at 6:55 p.m..
WAN/Ifra Merger Off
Merger talks between two of the world's largest newspaper associations have broken off. For the past months, the
World Association of Newspapers and
Ifra had been discussing the merger, but this morning WAN announced that talks had ceased, at least for the foreseeable future. Neither WAN nor Ifra said why."Both associations agreed to continue close cooperation and expressed the hope that circumstances would allow them to re-open discussions on a merger at a future date," wrote WAN spokesman Larry Kilm From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on February 2, 2005 at 6:54 p.m..
CAD company kickstarts folksonomy for product knowledge sharing
ProgeSOFT is encouraging its users to tag content about its products (IntelliCAD, PRogeCAD) so they can learn from one another. It's recommending three tags — intellicad, learnintellicad, and "learn software" — for use at del.icio.us, flickr and blog sites via technorati tags. Great experiment, although I'm not convinced that those are the right tags, especially the "learn software" one. Is that so you can search for items tagged both as "intellicad" and "learn software"? It'll be interesting to see how the folks develop their own folksonomy. I don't mean to car From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 6:48 p.m..
Skype Doesn't Want to Share Its Software in China
For months I have been wondering why my favorite
VoIP provider,
Skype, teamed up with
tom.com, one of the many subsidiaries of Hong Kong tycoon Li kai-Shing. The deal, signed in October last year, triggered a marketing campaign that really seemed not needed.Long before tom.com came into the picture, groups of giggling female students from Guangzhou or flirting women from Beijing were calling me over Skype to practice their English or improve their vocabular From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on February 2, 2005 at 5:55 p.m..
CAYDI Open House
Faculty, staff, and students of the Child and Youth Development Institute will be holding an open house for faculty, staff, and students in the College of Education on Friday, February 4th at 2:30 pm in room 1218. The Institute is... From
Rick's Café Canadien on February 2, 2005 at 5:54 p.m..
Recuerdos
La puesta en marcha del blog comuniario de argentinos en el exterior Argenautas.com, me trajo recuerdos de hace muchos años (antes de la Web, incluso), cuando comencé a buscar en la Red a otros argentinos residentes en el exterior, fuentes... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on February 2, 2005 at 5:52 p.m..
BradSucks at #20
BradSucks.net, an online band of one who both gives away and sells the very same songs, is #20 on a major Australia radio station. The song is "I Think I Started a Trend"(mp3). BTW, Brad most definitely does not suck. You can prove it to yourself here.... From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 5:48 p.m..
Bruce Taylor interviews me
Bruce Taylor at ITWorld has published a long-ish interview with me. (I haven't had the guts to read it, so I hereby preemptively renounce anything stupid I said.)... From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 5:48 p.m..
Bud the Teacher
Bud Hunt is a teacher in Colorado who is about to take his students on a blogging adventure. Here's a good sign: When I walked into school, there it was. Someone had written, in dry erase pen in the center of the empty board, one simple word: "Blog" You know something has potential to reach students when it so quickly becomes graffiti. I'd say. Go, Blogs. Go! From
weblogged News on February 2, 2005 at 5:47 p.m..
Groundhog Day Party
Celebrate Groundhog Day with a bunch of activities, some Internet exploration, and a variety of groundhog games. Fun for all ages! Education World ® - Lesson Planning: Come to the Groundhog Day Party!... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on February 2, 2005 at 4:55 p.m..
Careers in Adult Education
Teacher, instructor, tutor, professor, lecturer, facilitator, trainer, coach or mentor - volunteer and paid employment opportunities are rich and varied in adult education. Get job descriptions, salary information, employment prospects and more, and decide whether this field is right for... From
Adult/Continuing Education on February 2, 2005 at 4:50 p.m..
State of the Union backchannel
Personal Democracy Forum is sponsoring an IRC chat during the State of the Union. Since PDF is non-partisan, it's actually sponsoring three: Democrats, Republicans, Free for All. If you want to participate, go here any time after 8:30 EST. I'm not sure I have the fortitude to sit through the address - I'm a weak, weak person - but if I do, it will only be because of the IRC.... From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 4:48 p.m..
New Issue of Media Culture and Society V. 27 No 4.
TI: American journalism and the politics of diversity AU: Benson, R JN: Media Culture and Society PG: 5-20 TI: Obsessed with the audience: breakfast television revisited AU: Wieten, J; Pantti, M JN: Media Culture and Society PG: 21-40 TI: Selling learning: towards a political economy of edutainment media AU: Buckingham, D; Scanlon, M JN: Media Culture and Society PG: 41-58 TI: The Jerry Springer Show as an emotional public sphere AU: Lunt, P; Stenner, P JN: Media Culture and Society PG: 59-82 From
Alpha Channel: The Studio @ Hodges Library on February 2, 2005 at 3:59 p.m..
Meer Middeleeuws (en Renaissance-) Latijn uit Italië
http://157.138.65.54:8080/poetiditalia/ Een lezer maakt me attent op de website Poeti d'Italia in lingua latina tra medioevo e rinascimento. De site verzamelt Italiaanse poëzie in het Latijn uit de periode tussen de geboorte van Dante en het midden van de zestiende eeuw. Volgens de voorpagina van de site zijn teksten aanwezig van 283 auteurs en 555 werken. In totaal zou het gaan om 430.000 versregels. Vanuit editiewetenschappelijk oogpunt lijkt iets meer toelichting op de gevolgde procedures wel op zijn plaats. Wat men vermeldt over de herkomst van de teksten (overgenomen uit recente e From
CHI weblog elektronisch publiceren on February 2, 2005 at 3:59 p.m..
Los chicos crecen
Los antiguos alumnos de la Facultad no hacen más que darle alegrías a uno: Adela Ucar ganó un concurso internacional de documentales de Discovery Channel y estará durante el 2005 como ayudante de producción en la oficina de Discovery Networks... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on February 2, 2005 at 3:51 p.m..
Kenya BridgeBlog
Jean Warner blogs her Volunteers in Mission trip to Kenya, complete with photos, and becomes (whether she knows it or not) a BridgeBlogger. You get a real sense of the country as seen through her very individual eyes. Jean confesses at the top of the blog: Before and during our trip to Kenya, this site functioned as a traditional blog, i.e., we posted notes in chronological order. However, now that the trip is over, I have chopped up our notes and reposted them — often along with a photograph, additional information on the topic and one or more links. Sounds... From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
Maine goes broadband
From the State of the State address by the governor of Maine, John Baldacci: "...Tonight I am announcing 'Connect Maine,' a broad and aggressive telecommunications strategy for this state. Connect Maine will give nearly every Mainer the opportunity to plug into the global economy from their community. It will ensure that 90 percent of Maine communities have broadband access by 2010; 100 percent of Maine communities have quality wireless service by 2008; and Maine's education system has the technology infrastructure that leads the nation." Yeah, the details count, but still: Cool From
Joho the Blog on February 2, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
A photo of the jeans police in action
Shortly after the time I wrote about the New York City Jeans Police, GQ contacted me about doing a short article and photo shoot about the idea. On a nice October day in 2003, we set out into the streets of Tribeca to photograph and Gina brought her camera along. Now she's posted a photo from the shoot to Flickr, a great one of me throwing Choire's jeans into the trash while he stands on the street in his boxers and handcuffs. From
megnut on February 2, 2005 at 2:45 p.m..
observations on students writing
Reading and evaluating a master-thesis is part of my job. Now, they are mostly interesting but I wonder why people tend to write so much. I don't think they want to impress me with the sheer amount of words they can process. Although the challenge is to make the long story short. Almost 50% of those theses are based on nothing else then litrature review which is necessary, of course. But couldn't they just do a summary, extract what's important for their object of research. There is a tendency to retell what is found in other sources without weighing it against the overall objec From
thomas n. burg | randgänge on February 2, 2005 at 1:47 p.m..
ebay2rss PHP
ebay2rss.php is a freeware PHP script developed by 2RSS.com to create RSS feeds from an eBay.com category or user products. It's very simply to use and install. If you have an eBay store or selling products on eBay this could increase your products visibility, making available your listings to RSS readers. Additional information on
ebayrss.php From
RSS Blog on February 2, 2005 at 11:59 a.m..
Wishing for the Classroom..and Student blogs
Somedays I wish i were back in the classroom, and specifically, teaching social studies. I miss the opportunity to engage with kids, to introduce new ideas to them, to get their feedback and listen to their discussions about Things That Matter. And if I were in the classroom today, I'd most definitely want to have student blogs as a means for them to write their thoughts in a forum that allows for sharing and critiquing by others. blogs in other words. Two articles I've read over the... From
Brain Frieze on February 2, 2005 at 11:55 a.m..
Sizer on Schools
From The Red Pencil by Theodore Sizer, on how we define secondary schooling: ...a clsss of twenty or so adolescents gathered by age into grades to learn together a subject both for its content and for the skills embedded in that content taught by a single teacher who is responsible for delivering that material, assigning homework, and assessing each student's performance in a uniform manner, all this proceeding in sequential blocks of time of forty to sixty minutes each in a specialized s From
weblogged News on February 2, 2005 at 11:47 a.m..
Alternativa se muda
Mi colega María Luisa Santos (Wila) ha trasladado su blog Alternativa a un nuevo dominio: Una visita obligada para los interesados en fotografía, diseño web, educación online y weblogs.... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on February 2, 2005 at 10:51 a.m..
Britain Pushes U.S. on Warming
Although she writes President Bush off as a lost cause, Britain's environment minister urges the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol or risk global catastrophe. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Building the Fun Bomb
South Park and The Daily Show made them No. 1 with the PlayStation generation. But seriously, how do you top Jon Stewart? Inside Comedy Central's R & #038;D lab. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Database Fights Diploma Mills
The Department of Education launches an online database of accredited schools to help fight dodgy online institutions. By Ryan Singel. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Backroom Tussling Over Biodiesel
Grass-roots environmentalists and soybean farmers agree that biodiesel is the next big thing in auto fuels. What they don't agree on is how to make it happen. Mark Baard reports from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill
Apple's music player apparently is wildly popular on Microsoft's campus. Thousands of Microsofties own the devices, to the great irritation of management. By Leander Kahney. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Software Taming Gene Data Pool
After years of hype, gene-expression research finally starts to pay off. The discoveries come thanks to a new niche of software tools that give scientists easy access to huge piles of data generated by genetic research. By Kristen Philipkoski. From
Wired News on February 2, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Predictive usability
Andrew Swartz has written an article exploring the concept of predictive usability, that is, determining whether someone will want to use a product. To quote: Historically, usability research was focused on identifying obstacles to success, not on assessing how intensely... From
Column Two on February 2, 2005 at 6:45 a.m..
Free African-American History Resources
There are a basketful of resources from Thomson Gale covering African-American history. You'll find a terrific listing of well-written biographies of famous and influential African Americans, a timeline of black historical moments, and a downloadable calendar. Just in time for the many reports kids will be doing this month. Over at In Motion: The African American Migration Experience a terrificly interactive experience is offered by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and... From
Brain Frieze on February 2, 2005 at 1:55 a.m..
Selling our Birthright in South Florida
I have this image in my head. Juan Ponce de Leon wades ashore on this new land that he's discovered. Landing during the Feast of the Flowers in 1513, our man Ponce struggles through the surf near what today is St. Augustine, claims the land for Spain, and names it La Florida. Right behind Juan is his right hand man--and well-known deal maker--George de Lucasio. "Juan", he whispers, "this place is little more than a swamp. What is the Kind going to want with this place?... From
Brain Frieze on February 2, 2005 at 1:55 a.m..
Folksonomies Tap People Power
More on
folksonomies: "It's very much people tagging information so that they can come back to it themselves or so that others with the same vocabulary can find it." True, but how many have the same vocabulary? From
elearningpost on February 2, 2005 at 1:46 a.m..
'Zero intelligence' trading closely mimics stock
This is so interesting: A model that assumes stock market traders have zero intelligence has been found to mimic the behaviour of the London Stock Exchange very closely. However, the surprising result does not mean traders are actually just buying and selling at random, say researchers. Instead, it suggests that the movement of markets depend less on the strategic behaviour of traders and more on the structure and constraints of the trading system itself. [thanks
elearningpost on February 2, 2005 at 1:46 a.m..
Google Sandbox
Before we get too far into an explanation as to what Google's sandbox is, it must be noted that not everyone even agrees that the sandbox exists. The sandbox is actually nothing more than a theory developed to explain what many different SEO experts have witnessed with their listings. Whether or not the sandbox really exists is actually irrelevant when we know that the effects of the sandbox exist. Complete Article -
Google Sandbox From
Software Marketing Articles and Marketing Tips on February 2, 2005 at 12:54 a.m..
Not Bloglines' Problem After All
Looks like my
earlier post may have been an overreaction (won't be the first time), but not without productive results. The reason I posted my email to bloglines publicy was because I had heard from a few folks I asked that they had experienced similar problems, and also that they felt they were getting stock 'we're looking into it' responses. But luckily it also drew the attention of one-time fellow blooger
Greg Ritter (Greg, come back, we miss you ; From
EdTechPost on February 2, 2005 at 12:51 a.m..
On Copyright Law and Myopia
The author points out what should be obvious, that the major argument for copyright is that it makes the publishing industry richer - and that making the publishing industry is far from a sufficient argument for the criminalization of sharing. But without protection, nobody will create content, it is claimed. Absurd! People will continue to create so long as there is a demand for what they create, whether or not creators get to use an interventionist law to run the purchaser through the wringer. By Donna Wentworth, Corante, January 31, 2005 [
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
DSpace Filling the Vacuum?
Lisa Williams looks at a study of institutional content repositories. "An April 2004 survey of 45 IRs found the average number of documents to be only 1,250 per repository, with a median of 290. This is a small number when considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars and staff hours that go into establishing and maintaining an IR." Well, yeah, but where does the problem lie - in the design of the repository software, as Williams seems to suggest? Or in an institutional structure that always seems to turn a simple idea into an expensive project? By Lisa Williams, Auricle, January 28, 2005 From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Interview With a Link Spammer
It's nothing personal, they say - they're just using some open proxies, automating sign-on procedures, and filling your comment pages with links to their sites. And making six figure incomes to boot. In related news, Alan Levine notes that
backtrack spam has started - something I've been expecting for a while (which is why I don't use it). And aggregator spam has also started - I took the 'feed submission' page on Edu_RSS offline after getting more than a 1,000 new advertising RS From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Can Web Service Technology Really Help Enable 'Coherent Diversity' in E-learning?
Scott Wilson defends "a statement I once made that using a service-oriented approach to system design could lead to greater pedagogic diversity." The defense takes him straight down the path to RSS (which is what I would expect), and then looks at a wider range of similar technologies - iCalendar, for example, and IMS Enterprise, which extends the model using WSDL and SOAP (and here I begin to grumble a bit about the high overhead). From there, it is but a short jump to the E-Learning Framework (ELF), a network of services set up in much the same way. Enter, finally, pedagogy. When viewed from From
OLDaily on February 2, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Why Bloglines Sucks
OK, after getting some helpful
comments on my earlier post, mostly by a pMachines programmer (along with a somewhat more passive aggressive but at least marginally helpful post from somebody at Bloglines), I think I’m beginning to understand the problem. The short version is that there is something wrong with… From
e-Literate on February 1, 2005 at 11:58 p.m..
Summer media studies seminar: on digital gaming
From July 11-15, 2005, NITLE will offer an immersive seminar on Digital Gaming for faculty at participating liberal arts colleges. Hosted by the CET, this workshop will explore the growing world of computer and videogames as a distinctive medium, as... From
MANE IT Network on February 1, 2005 at 11:57 p.m..
Students, schools benefit from online classwork.
In her Advanced Placement biology class, Lauren Baker is learning about organisms, the environment, and time management. The junior at Tiffin Columbian High School is taking the course online through Virtual High School, a Massachusetts-based consortium that lets districts across... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on February 1, 2005 at 11:54 p.m..
Connectivism
Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments. These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. Over the last twenty years, technology... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on February 1, 2005 at 11:54 p.m..