Edu_RSS
Spring course at U of R
If you're looking for a good course to take in the spring session, here's a good opportunity for you. The instructor, Dr. Stephen Kemp is an old friend and a truly wonderful instructor and expert in this area! He's designed... From
Rick's Café Canadien on March 3, 2005 at 10:53 p.m..
[wk] Fourth session
Just a couple of highlights because I'm getting tired. Len Apcar (NYTimes Digital): I'm ecstatic we bought About.com because it says we're not a newspaper company. It's the second largest acquisition in our history; the largest was the Boston Globe. Dan Froomkin: We're not delivering enough value. Newspapers create little articles and then we incrementally update them. We should instead be delivering the value that's in the newsroom: Time lines, context, blogs, maps, video...We're not monetizing our value because we're not delivering our value. Jim Kenne From
Joho the Blog on March 3, 2005 at 10:48 p.m..
Online Courses for Writers and Editors
The Editorial Freelancer's Assoc. (EFA) is offering several courses for writers and editors this spring. Most of these are traditional classroom courses held in New York City, but some are offered online. All courses are open to members and non-members (non-members pay a higher fee). More info... From
Contentious Weblog on March 3, 2005 at 9:55 p.m..
Battle of the Set-Top Boxes
I'm a
TiVo user at home, and I wouldn't be without it. I'm a cable-company DVR user at work and can barely live with it, though I'm considering getting a cable company high-definition DVR at home because it's the only way to capture HD programming with my current setup. I also have a
Windows Media Center Edition PC at home that gets very little use.There are pros and cons to each device. For instance, the TiVo has a great interface, but the
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on March 3, 2005 at 9:54 p.m..
Video of Teacher's Outburst is on Web
This case is a pretty dramatic illustration of the impact of technology in the classroom: a teacher's apparently inappropriate behaviour finds itself posted as a video on several websites. I don't think banning phones in the classroom is the correct response. After all, students have a right to say "Society surveils us, we surveil back." Don't they? By Naomi Mueller, Asbury Park Press, March 1, 2005 [
Refer][
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Government Plans to Abolish BBC Governors
The BBC appears to be headed for significant changes as a Green Paper recommends changes to its governance structure and to its decades-old mandate to "educate, inform and entertain".
More.
More. By Andrew Woodcock and Anita Singh, The Independent, March 2, 2005 [
Refer][
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
NYPL Digital Gallery
Launched today, this service from the New York Public Library puts online more than 250,000 historical images, all of which are available for free to view, download and print (but not public comercially). No doubt the server is being overwhelmed; it was frequently unavailable during the day today. Opening day jitters.
Also worth noting is the repository system used to store the images and the XML used to managed them. The service will eventually display around 500,000 images - and more to the point, sets a great example of what our own Nat From
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Letter to Hypathia
Spanish original. "'I can't read any Spanish newspapers; they all ask for an access key.' A man alone, locked in his library, set on saving a stack of books. 'If it has the (c) sign, don't buy it'. Let them keep their texts, their songs, their films. If they soil their work with the signature 'All rights reserved', they will be burying it forever. We will rebuild the Great Library only if we maintain its integrity, and for that we have to post all our knowledge on the Net in a doub From
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Breaking Down the LMS Walls
The author writes, "The industrial methods that Taylor recommended resulted in a diminution of worker autonomy and an increase in management control. The development and implementation of learning management systems in distance education has proved to be similar in intent and effect." Funny, even though it is now well known that greater management control destroys productivity, so many managers cannot resist the urge. By Michael Hotrum, IRRODL, March 1, 2005 [
Refer][
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Elements of Effective e-Learning Design
In the recent discussion on ITForum I have been seeing instructional designers say that the tenets of the domain are more or less fixed and define instructional design as a distinct profession. If so, then they would probably resolve to the list in this paper: activity, scenario, feedback, delivery, context and influence. Do you suppose that's it? I can't help feeling there's more. By Andrew R. Brown and Bradley D. Voltz, IRRODL, March 1, 2005 [
Refer][
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Central Queensland University's Course Management Systems: Accelerator or Brake in Engaging Change?
Think about this: "Nearly 45 percent of the respondents believed that the university has implemented Blackboard as an enterprise system as a way to place additional controls on teaching and learning." This appears in the middle of this fascinating article contrasting teleological (or goal-based) and ateleological (or process-based) development methodologies (where 'development' may refer to design, delivery, learning...) and correspondingly centralized and decentralized processes (see the chart adapted from Introna in the middle of the article). It follows therefore that one's c From
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Quality Improvement, Quality Assurance, and Benchmarking
A
special issue of IRRODL has been released. I cover five items, beginning with this one. Good overview article describing the development, choice and use of two e-learning quality frameworks, with an account of some of the dangers (the 'dark side') of using a quality framework. To me the most interesting part was the question of which framework to use, and it of course boils down to what you want to use a framework for. Such objectives, however, tend to be moving - and not always clear - targets. By Alistair Inglis , IRROD From
OLDaily on March 3, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
Open question: wiki filter?
We at CET are looking into wikis, as many of you know. Today's question: is there a filter application for wikis, to defend against spam and other evils? We have a good app running for our blog implementation (Moveable Type),... From
MANE IT Network on March 3, 2005 at 8:57 p.m..
Thursday, March 03, 2005
The old hen and I have been watching Season 3 of 24 (we are a day behind), and a couple of things occurs to us. From
RHPT.com on March 3, 2005 at 8:57 p.m..
Live Video, at Your Desk
An MSNBC.com spokesperson just called to point out an innovation at that news website. Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett just landed after completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight without refueling. MSNBC.com carried and promoted live streaming video of the landing (promoted prominently on the
homepage) -- a first for the site. From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on March 3, 2005 at 8:54 p.m..
[wk] What should stay or change
We call out items for two lists, without debate, about what about current journalism should stay and what should go. (I didn't start recording in time to get most of the first list. Sorry.) What should stay: Integrity Speaking truth to power Commitment to facts Accuracy Be a witness Balance What should change: Truth should be acknowledged as plural Acknowledge the interactive tools Drop the arrogance of the assumption your audience is stupider than you Learn to listen Embrace the customer as innovator and partner Publicly-traded media companies should change their message to Wall Street t From
Joho the Blog on March 3, 2005 at 8:48 p.m..
How People Buy Cars
The other day I noted how I've been using
Craigslist to sell a car, and used
eBay Motors to buy one -- bypassing my local newspapers' car ads. Well, evidence mounts that how people buy cars is changing.Marketwatch.com's Internet Daily notes that a new book published by
Edmunds.com predicts that 30 percent of new cars soon will be purchased through car dealerships' Internet departments. Says co-author Philip Reed, "The only reasons m From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on March 3, 2005 at 7:54 p.m..
Thumbdance Film Festival
From the site: We're excited to launch the very first Thumbdance Mobile Film Festival, an online competition to find the funniest, best and brightest in film, video and animation content for mobile phones. There are four categories in which you can compete: Comedy, Drama, Animation and Video Shot on a Mobile Phone. More at:
Mobliss Thumbdance From
Alpha Channel: The Studio @ Hodges Library on March 3, 2005 at 6:58 p.m..
New Ad-Network Model
The
Tacoda behavioral advertising company has announced a new advertising network which will be launched in April. The company will sell branded ads on a cost-per-thousand impression basis,
according to an article in MediaPost.What's interesting about this is that participating advertisers won't know which websites they'll appear on. Instead, they'll just be paying to show up in front of a particular segm From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on March 3, 2005 at 5:53 p.m..
Brian Storm Launches Media Storm
From Press Release... Calls for submissions to multimedia publication in print, broadcast, and online NEW YORK (March 1, 2005) -- Photojournalism veteran and new-media pioneer Brian Storm announced today the launch of MediaStorm, a multimedia production studio with the principal aim of ushering in a new era of multimedia storytelling. The launch includes a call for submissions to Voices, the company's flagship publication, which will feature in-depth multimedia stories.
Alpha Channel: The Studio @ Hodges Library on March 3, 2005 at 4:59 p.m..
In Atlanta? Come Meet Me for Drinks This Evening!
As I mentioned earlier, this week I'm in Atlanta, looking after my brother who just had foot surgery yesterday. (The operation apparently went well -- thanks to all of you who sent best wishes to my brother.) At 6:30 tonight I'm meeting CONTENTIOUS reader Lucas Mire (of Weather.com) for drinks at Padriac's Restaurant in the Vinings section of Atlanta. Feel free to join us if you like! I'm buying the first round for CONTENTIOUS readers. More info... From
Contentious Weblog on March 3, 2005 at 4:55 p.m..
[wk] Second session: Jay Rosen
After you spend a year at the Nieman Foundation, says Jay, no one at your paper even asks what you learned. If you were Microsoft, sent an employee away for a year to learn, and didn't even ask what they learned, you'd be fired. "This profession doesn't value intellectual capital," Jay says. "It doesn't even really respect learning." New media has forced traditional media to have to learn quickly. "It has not happened," he says. "There's this huge gap between what most journalists know about the Web and what's actually happening on the Web." If the traditions are From
Joho the Blog on March 3, 2005 at 4:48 p.m..
The Weblog as the model for a new type of VLE?
In this blog post on auricle Derek Morrison outlines his thoughts on a weblog as a new type of VLE. This discussion includes his opinions on Elgg. "In February 2004, Auricle initiated a series of articles The Weblog as the... From
ERADC Blog on March 3, 2005 at 3:54 p.m..
Digital Gallery launches
Launched today, the NYPL Digital Gallery shows how a great cultural institution can use the internet to distribute its richest and rarest content. Four years in the making, the XML-powered site provides fast, free access to over 275,000 images you can collect, enlarge, print, hang, or even use in publications. From
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report on March 3, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
[wk] Whose news? Introductions...
Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Media Center are sponsoring a conference called Whose News? Media, Technology and the Common Good. There are about thirty people sitting around circled tables and another twenty in chairs outside the magic circle. The invitee list is heavy with mainstream media folks, new media folks, and academics, with a handful of bloggers who blog about blogging. Mainly white, mainly male, mainly American, skewing 40+. The official agenda: Mainstream media and the connected society: Will the traditions of professional journalism survive? Should they? From
Joho the Blog on March 3, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
New York Public Library puts digital collection online
The 275,000 items in the New York Public Library's collection of prints, maps, posters, etc. can now be viewed online. The collection, which the New York Times calls "grand and eccentric," includes the photographs of Lewis Hines and Berenice Abbott,... From
MANE IT Network on March 3, 2005 at 2:58 p.m..
Word of Advice: Back Up ALL Your Firefox Settings
I've been using the Firefox web browser for months now, and I love it. However, yesterday I was about ready to tear my hair out. Here's what happened. I'm sharing this so you can learn from my experience and easily prevent similar frustration... From
Contentious Weblog on March 3, 2005 at 2:55 p.m..
Jorn Barger's law of linktext
He said it well five years ago: The first law of linktext is that it needs to provide enough information to allow you to make an intelligent choice, to follow it or not. Anytime you follow a link and are disappointed by what you find, that link has been inadequately labelled.
# New writers, with an undeveloped sense of audience, have trouble making these and other writerly judgment, though. As... From
Weblogs in Higher Education on March 3, 2005 at 2:52 p.m..
E-Learning and Economic Development
The ideas and experience described in this article are rooted in the Bosnian war. The experience with Bosnian students was great; we learned a lot about e-Learning; its capabilities, advantages, disadvantages and problems. From
eLearnopedia on March 3, 2005 at 1:49 p.m..
Implementing Online Secondary Education: An Evaluation of a Virtual High School
This evaluation of a virtual high school determined that achievement in online courses was equal to or better than achievement in regular high school courses. The study of over 2600 online student enrollments found that online delivery of high school courses fulfills a very real and practical need in the high school curriculum, especially for students in small or rural high schools. From
eLearnopedia on March 3, 2005 at 1:49 p.m..
Austria goes wiki (David Weinberger)
Thomas Burg reports that the Austrian government has commissioned new social software from Thomas’ company, Permalink Information Architecture, Ltd. It combines blogs, wikis, tagging, events management, RSS feeds, email and search. (I believe there is also a shoe-polishing attachment. :)... From
Corante: Social Software on March 3, 2005 at 1:45 p.m..
Yahoo celebrates a decade online - BBC
Yahoo, one of the net's most iconic companies, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. The web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang in a campus trailer. The students wa From
Techno-News Blog on March 3, 2005 at 11:49 a.m..
How Not To Troubleshoot Computer Problems
I lost 4 or 5 days of work this week to problems on my Mac. To say that this is highly unusual would be an understatement. Typically my little iMac hums and burbles along, and has done so without fail for the last two years. But on Saturday morning things got ugly. Now that the experience is behind me I can review a little all the many ways that I made things worse. Step 1: Accept all updates for OS X without question. (Hey, it comes from Apple and therefore it must be necessary and... From
Brain Frieze on March 3, 2005 at 10:54 a.m..
ChoicePoint Was Targeted Before
Confidence in the database company does not increase with the revelation that it suffered a security breach in 2002 that looks a lot like the one it reported last month. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
The King of Thrones
The turbo-flush, hands-free toilet is here! (Wipe that smile off your face.) By Daniel McGinn from Wired magazine. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Library Shuffles Its Collection
Forget CDs -- now Long Island library patrons can pick up the latest audio books preloaded on an iPod shuffle. By Cyrus Farivar. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Cinequest, a P2P Movie Fest
The Silicon Valley movie festival is open to one and all, even to film buffs nowhere near California. Thanks to a peer-to-peer movie-delivery system, many of the flicks can be watched online in near-DVD quality. By Alison Strahan. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Media Sites: Say No to Pop-Ups
Most people block pop-up ads when they can, so why do websites continue to inflict them on their visitors? Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Predicting Bird Flu's Future
A Pittsburgh scientist says researchers could predict avian flu mutations by tracking the recombination of viral genes. However, most researchers don't believe recombination happens in viruses. By Kristen Philipkoski. From
Wired News on March 3, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
An Educator's Guide to Evaluating Web Sites
Thanks again to Judy Byers for these resources. This self-guided tutorial provides an introduction to the issues of information quality on the Internet and teaches the skills required to evaluate critically the quality of an Internet resource. The Internet offers... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on March 3, 2005 at 6:54 a.m..
WWW Elementary Objects
What are web objects? Web objects may be information, printable materials, interactive activities, work sheets, videos, or other educational resources. Who is this site for? Elementary school teachers and their students. These links support the Saskatchewan curriculum, but other teachers... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on March 3, 2005 at 6:54 a.m..
Native Studies Grade 10
Welcome to the Native Studies 10 Resource Page. This web site will provide teachers learning resources that are specifically designed in conjunction with Saskatchewan Learning Policies and Guidelines. The site is organized into modules identified with the same heading as... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on March 3, 2005 at 6:54 a.m..
French Language courses
In partnership with Saskatchewan Learning, school divisions receive funding to develop Web-Based Instructional resources which support Saskatchewan curricula. Proposals are submitted in the Spring with development being conducted in the following academic year. Created by educators, the RBW resources provide... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on March 3, 2005 at 6:54 a.m..
Document Security in Web Applications
Many web applications serve Word or PDF documents to the users. These documents are often cached in user's PC and could reveal sensitive information. This White Paper talks about the rendering of documents like Word, PDF files in such a way that they are not cached by the browsers. The paper looks at the current implementations followed and suggests an implementation that successfully tackles the issue. A sample code in ASP would also be provided in the paper. From
Infosec Writers Latest Security Papers on March 3, 2005 at 5:54 a.m..
The news from NYTimes.com
The NYTimes.com site is re-fashioning itself, launching in April. That's what Robert Larson, director of product management and development of NYTimes.com, told me when I interviewed him for the issue of Release 1.0 that came out last week. (Here's the article's first section.) They're doing something bold and important, which I think may mark a turning point...but perhaps not the one NYTimes.com envisions. The NY Times famously moves stories from their original links to new ones in the for-pay archive after a week. As a result, important stories exit the public sphere, and From
Joho the Blog on March 3, 2005 at 5:48 a.m..
Wists = flickr + del.icio.us?
I am not sure yet what to make of
wists - visual bookmarks, yet another variant following the flickr del.icio.us trail through the mountain pile of folksonomic tag mania. Create a wist account, load a browser bar tool, and when you are surfing and want to track a site in your "collection" (a del.icio.us task), wist offers to create an icon based on any image it can find in the page (quasi flickr-like). Slap on some tags, and see where your tags lead you. There is a friend of a friend thing there too, but I lack friends (apparently). You end up From
cogdogblog on March 3, 2005 at 4:48 a.m..
Open Publish keynote speaker
I'm pleased to report that Martin White will be the keynote speaker for the upcoming Open Publish 2005 conference to be held in Sydney on July 27-29. Martin will be presenting on creating an information-centric organisation. (Martin is the author... From
Column Two on March 3, 2005 at 4:47 a.m..
Monetizing RSS and Adding Ads To Feeds
Moreover Technologies, provider of aggregated online current awareness information, announced FeedDirect RSS Ads, the first self-service integrated RSS feed delivery and monetization service. The service is offered as part of FeedDirect, a Moreover property that provides personal website owners and Bloggers with tools to increase traffic, maximize distribution and profit from their content. Kanoodle?, a leading provider of sponsored listings for content and search results pages, will power the RSS feed monetization, reporting and publisher account management components of the service via its B From
RSS Blog on March 3, 2005 at 1:58 a.m..
AllRecipes RSS Feeds
Allrecipes.com offers several "Daily Recipes" RSS feeds organized into topics. Each feed includes several recipe items -- these include brief descriptions and links to the full recipe. From
RSS Blog on March 3, 2005 at 1:58 a.m..
NextUp's NewsAloud Now Supports RSS
NewsAloud personal news agent from NextUp.com finds the stories you want, then reads them aloud in a natural, human sounding voice. NewsAloud is easy to set up and get started with right away. Select the categories for news you want and choose how you want to be notified when new stories are found. Select from several available voices to create your own personal information broadcast. Additional Details -
NewsAloud From
RSS Blog on March 3, 2005 at 1:58 a.m..
Educating the Net Generation (an EDUCAUSE eBook)
This book from EDUCAUSE was edited by Diane Oblinger and James Oblinger. The book chapters can be viewed as html or pdf files; also, the entire book is available as a large pdf file. "The Net Generation has grown up with information technology. The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised--one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up. This collection explores the Net Gen and the implications for institutions in areas such as teaching, service, learn From
EduResources--Higher Education Resources Online on March 3, 2005 at 1:45 a.m..
How To Improve Massively Multiplayer Games
Face it, online entertainment companies: massively-multiplayer games are not raking in the major bucks anymore . That's because players are bored; there just isn't anything new, fun, or interesting in the current crop of MMORPG's on the market today. From
kuro5hin.org on March 2, 2005 at 11:45 p.m..