Edu_RSS
Understanding PISA
The headline was dramatic enough to cause a ripple in the reading public. "Students who use computers a lot at school have worse maths and reading performance," noted the BBC news article, citing a 2004 study by Ludger Woessmann and... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 7, 2005 at 10:55 p.m..
Pre-empted TV Show to Air Online
Over at the Lost Remote blog,
Liz Foreman notes that
WTSP in Tampa will pre-empt its morning news show on Friday in order to air the Pope's funeral live. But it will still produce the morning show, and stream it live on the Web -- only the Web. This may be a first.But as several people commenting on Foreman's blog item note, maybe it's not ideal to just stream the entire program. Instead, the show might be better offered in small chunks, allowing From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 7, 2005 at 10:55 p.m..
Termine
Die nächsten Wochen bin ich - wenn alles planmäßig läuft - auf verschiedenen Veranstaltungen: Morgen geht's nach Aachen, wo die Frage "Sind deutsche Hochschulen fit für das digitale Zeitalter?" zur Diskussion steht. Nächste Woche steht das 5. Zukunftsforum "Arbeiten -... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on April 7, 2005 at 10:51 p.m..
Betsy on happy bikes
Betsy explains quite clearly why the Dutch use of bicycles make them happier than we are. It's almost enough to make me get back onto my damn bike. [Technorati tag: bicycle]... From
Joho the Blog on April 7, 2005 at 10:49 p.m..
Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines
PDF. James Paul Gee asks, "How do good game designers manage to get new players to learn long, complex, and difficult games?" Here's how (quoted from the text): - Learners feel like active agents (producers) not just passive recipients (consumers). - Different styles of learning work better for different people. - People take on a new identity they value and in which they become heavily invested. - They can manipulate powerful tools in intricate ways that extend their area of effectiveness. - Early problems are designed to lead players to form good guesses ab From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Can "Blended Learning" Be Redeemed?
After an extended discussion arguing that the term 'blended learning' is hollow, the authors argue that, rather than being abandoned, the term can be "redeemed" by interpreting it from the perspective of variation theory, "the idea that for learning to occur, variation must be experienced by the learner." Thus, "Blends of e-learning with other media may make it easier to help students experience the variation in the critical aspects of the topic being learnt." I am certainly in favour of diversity of experience. But it seems to me that blended learning is more about increasing the co From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Children Online: Learning in a Virtual Community of Practice
After some preliminary discussion of the distinction between Wenger and Vygotskian theories of learning in communities, the author gets to the much more interesting discussion, "how these children are producing social capital and learning through the discursive and social practices of that community." What's interesting is that "children are learning that to be literate is to have power." And through a process of trial and error, shared negotiation and criticism, and a gradual increasing of skills, the community develops, and with it, the skills and abilities of the members. PDF. By Ange From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
From Student Work to Exemplary Educational Resources
Following a link on the EdResources mailing list I find the contents of the current issue of E-Learning - access, I guess, is normally restricted but appears to be open for a time at least (they should consider opening it permanently - the content is good and it seems a shame to lock it away from potential readers). I cite four articles from this issue, with the warning that access may be restricted at any time (so download a copy of the articles). In this first article the authors "describe in this article a way that student work can be systematically made available for use by others beyond t From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
F For Assessment
Blunt criticism of the standardized tests currently applied in U.S. schools: "in most instances these evaluations are inaccurate. That's because the standardized tests employed are flat-out wrong." Some of the tests, argue the author, are designed to elicit responses based on social profile rather than learning. "This kind of test tends to measure not what students have been taught in school but what they bring to school... they're unable to detect improved instruction in a school even when it has definitely taken place." By W. James Popham, Edutopia, April, 2005 [
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Learning to Play to Learn - Lessons in Educational Game Design
"There is," notes Ip, citing an unnamed author, "a huge gap between game designers and educators in the understanding of issues in 'using games' in education." Educators are captivated by the fancy graphics and stimulating audio. But "Good games integrate a number of complex elements (moments of decision-making, challenging goals, rewarding feedback, etc.) to create a fun play experience." By Albert Ip, Random Walk in E-Learning, April 7, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
The Case for Creative Commons Textbooks
This is a crime, isn't it? "University of California students now spend 40 percent more on textbooks than they did six years ago." This tells us what to expect from commercial publishers of educational content. This is, as the author argues, reason enough for an Open Textbook project, "the idea of establishing a global coalition... that would acquire and distribute high quality creative commons content that could be used in any of the following combinations: a) as the basis of an online course, b) as an electronic textbook, or c) as a customized printed textbook for use in a traditional c From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Blackboard vs. Moodle: A Comparison of Satisfaction
Seb Schmoller sent along this link to a site offering a detailed comparison between Blackboard and Moodle. The authors ask, "Can free software satisfactorily meet the needs of students, faculty, and instructional technologists for online teaching and learning?" And, according to this study, Moodle performs as well as, if not better than, Blackboard. By Kathy D. Munoz and Joan Van Duzer, Humboldt State University, February 15, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Duke Puts Restrictions on Free iPod Program
Results are in from the Duke iPod experiment and while the devices will be used again next year, things will be different. This year the university handed out the devices to all students; next year they will be handed out only to students enrolled in courses that will use them. And to judge from this year, that means
very few students will be getting them: "In its roster of more than 1,000 courses, Duke has only fully integrated the iPod into the coursework of 16 HYPHEN that's 1.6 per cent of classes." B From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Opposition Mounts to OMA DRM Patent Licensing Scheme
As this story notes, "Opposition to MPEG-LA's patent licensing pool for implementers of the OMA DRM 1.0 standard is mounting, as trade associations in the mobile industry and academic researchers have begun formally expressing concerns about it." Some of the opposition was to be expected, the article written by proponents of the Open Digital Rights Language. But the more staid GSM Association goes even further and "implies that any royalties on DRM patents are unacceptable." The last paragraph of this article is very misleading and should be, in my view, disregarded. By Bill Rosenblatt, From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Responding to Faculty Anxiety about Online Learning
I'll begin today's newsletter with a mea culpa and criticism of an item I ran yesterday. First, the author of
Why Online Teaching Turned Me Off, Susan Sharpe, is obviously not male, as I implied in my summary. That said, the author of this item, Martha Burtis, also found my listing "generally too dismissive" and adds, "I'm not sure we are yet at the point where we can refer to the traditional, face-to-face classroom experience as the 'dark ages.'" By Martha Burtis, The Fish Wrappe From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
A Billion Essays
One. Billion. Essays. That is nothing short of incredible, and it's only secondarily about technology. Primarily, it's about writing, all this writing that's taking place in the world, and challenging all of these static, stolid institutions. They're rewriting the world... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 7, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
The Active Web
Here is another posting that I am not sure how I feel about what is being said. Can we get to the point where we believe our students can add value, can participate in meaningful ways even while they're still... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 7, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Service with a switchblade
Marketer Michael Cage reports: "Union leaders must be the only people on the planet who haven't figured out that if you want to get anywhere today, you have to think and act like a businessperson," Norm Brodsky writes for Inc. Magazine in Why The Union Can't Win. "In a competitive economy, nobody buys because they're forced to. They buy because they want to. The notion of threatening a customer shouldn't even enter your mind." Serendiptiously, I was watching the news conference that the TTC union leader was delivering to see if the public transit workers were going to go on From
silentblue | Quantified on April 7, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Einheitliches Bildungsangebot mit db Learn
Die Deutsche Bank hat ihren Geschäftsbericht 2004 veröffentlicht. Darin gibt es unter dem Stichwort "Mitarbeiter" auch das Kapitel "Weiterbildung", das in diesem Bericht ausschließlich der Einführung des unternehmensweiten Learning Management Systems db Learn gewidmet ist. Weiter gibt es noch einige... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on April 7, 2005 at 8:51 p.m..
Who Learns At Work?
In der gewohnt übersichtlichen und klaren Weise liefert das Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) wieder aktuelle Daten über Corporate Learning in UK. 750 Mitarbeiter wurden über die letzten Bildungsmaßnahmen befragt, an denen sie teilgenommen hatten. Themen waren u.a.:... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on April 7, 2005 at 7:51 p.m..
My Dentist Really Does NOT have RSS (but digital technology...)
I whimsically, and falsely, wrote
My Dentist Has an RSS Feed (there was a point, but that post has scrolled away...). However, he is rather wired for his work. Today, at his new office, they used a digital xray machine that takes the photos of your teeth, but they insert a mini sensor card in your mouth, that is read almost instantly into a computer and projected on a flat screen in the office for him to examine and show me (no plasma screen yet). Apparently the cost savings (on su From
cogdogblog on April 7, 2005 at 6:48 p.m..
Real Madrid - Barça
El gran clásico español Real Madrid - Fútbol Club Barcelona que se juega el próximo domingo, ya tiene sus especiales en los diarios deportivos Marca y AS. Lo cuentan en Madrid - Barça: Los especiales del flamante blog Notas de... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 7, 2005 at 4:52 p.m..
This Just In
The 2005 Educause Policy Conference is in full swing, and Chip German, the University of Mary Washington's CIO and VP for IT, is attending on our behalf. Via email, Chip files this report: I'm detecting among governmental relations people (as well as the IT folks here) an interesting theme that, if not new in this arena, [...] From
Gardner Writes on April 7, 2005 at 4:01 p.m..
A Political Blog With Some Differences
It's election season in the U.K., and The Guardian is innovating with its online coverage. Check out its new
Election 2005 Blog, a group weblog featuring succinct coverage from The Guardian's print and online political teams. Assistant editor Neil McIntosh points out that the blog also includes a "Blogwatch" list of headlines from political blogs outside of the Guardian Unlimited network of websites.McIntosh also boasts that this blog encourages reader comments and
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 7, 2005 at 3:55 p.m..
A Learning Blogosphere
This is excellent stuff it is great to see some empirical evidence. Part One: A Learning Blogosphere (1): Into the Deep Part two: A Learning Blogosphere (2): The Long Tail "The number of posts represents a doubling in online communication... From
ERADC Blog on April 7, 2005 at 3:54 p.m..
Weekend announcement
Make it a point to drop into the café this weekend to check out an exciting announcement to the U of S Educational Communications and Technology community.... From
Rick's Café Canadien on April 7, 2005 at 3:53 p.m..
The amazing world of my French class
On the very first day of French class, Madame spent the good part of our first hour together having everyone state their name, where they were from, what they did, and what hobbies and/or activites they enjoyed. I was surprised (and relieved) to discover that I was the only American. And in fact, one of only two North Americans! I tried to jot down as best I could everyone's name and hometown. Roughly here's the summary by country: America (1) me! Brazil (3) China (5) Columbia (1) Japan (3) Korea (1) México (1) Poland (1) Russia (2) Spain (1) And what's even more int From
megnut on April 7, 2005 at 3:45 p.m..
Enlarge This Photo at Least 30%
Earlier this week, I
pointed out an example of an "Enlarge Image" feature that popped up a new photograph that was the same size as the original one -- something I see frequently on news websites. That example was from a page of
GlobeandMail.com of Canada.The site's editor, Angus Frame, reports that that was glitch in the system, and that their intent is never to present bogus "enlarge this" photo links. So the system now has been tweaked so that an "Enlarge This From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 7, 2005 at 2:54 p.m..
A Good Conversation About Content And New Media
The interesting guest sitting in front of me today is Marc Eisenstadt, from the Knowledge Management Institute of the Open University in the UK. Marc is the chief research scientist at the institute, and over the nearly 30 years he... From
Kolabora.com on April 7, 2005 at 2:54 p.m..
Michel Gondry at MIT
This is what I'd call interdisciplinary education. Two days ago, video- and film-maker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) expressed his mind at a free public lecture at MIT. As a follow-up in the not-too-distant future, he'll come back as an artist-in-residence "to visit classes and labs, investigate research on [...] From
Gardner Writes on April 7, 2005 at 2:02 p.m..
Advice to young terrorists
I have been pulled aside for special searches four out of the previous four times I've flown. Yesterday I asked the supervisor at the US Air desk at Logan Airport about it. He said that if you test positive for any two of the following three tests, the computer marks you for searching: A one way ticket, a ticket purchased in the past 24 hours, or paying by cash. On this particular trip, I met the first two criteria. Thus, I am a likely terrorist. So, here's a word of advice to today's would-be terrorist: Splurge on the round-trip. Sure,... From
Joho the Blog on April 7, 2005 at 1:48 p.m..
Los lÃmites del formato
Tanto Furilo con Deshacer un weblog como Logicola con C'est ne pas le mort d'un weblog, apuntan sugerentes direcciones para la necesaria revisión del formato weblog. Jorge Portillo con El florido byte demuestra que los cambios, además de necesarios, son... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 7, 2005 at 12:51 p.m..
RSS is Google's Enemy?
Google's greatest enemy isn't Bill Gates. It isn't France, and it's not Yahoo! According to this article by Steve Rubel, the search network's biggest foe may very well be feeds. While Yahoo! and MSN have both been riding shotgun on the RSS Bandwagon, Google's held back with uncharacteristic reserve. Is this the same company that holds innovation high on their list of corporate values? What Rubel calls the "aha" moment comes when you take a look at the way Google views syndication in comparison to the mindsets of its competitors. Unlike Y From
RSS Blog on April 7, 2005 at 11:59 a.m..
Mientras se recupera Blogalia
Los lectores de Fernando Tricas (Reflexiones e irreflexiones) pueden encontrarlo en Condenada y los de Juan Julián Merelo (Atalaya) en La Coctelera: Atalaya.... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 7, 2005 at 11:52 a.m..
Net can transform public services - BBC
Net catching up with phone as preferred way to communicate. One-third of people would be happy to interact with government via a website, a survey for The Work Foundation found. The UK study also established that an equal number of people wanted to comm From
Techno-News Blog on April 7, 2005 at 11:49 a.m..
The Active Web
Douglas Rushkoff calls it the "Society of Authorship" this new era that we are entering, and I like that phrase a lot. But I also like Sun Microsystems' CEO Jonathan Schwartz's description too: "
The Participation Age." The Participation Age, in which an open and competitive network fuels growing opportunities for everyone - not simply to draw data or shift work around the world, but to participate, to create value and independence. If the Information Age was passive From
weblogged News on April 7, 2005 at 11:47 a.m..
A Billion Essays
At this moment,
Technorati claims to be tracking 1,019,611,610 links, an amazing number by anyone's standards. Collin Brooke
referred to this fact with some amazement: One. Billion. Essays. That is nothing short of incredible, and it's only secondarily about technology. Primarily, it's about writing, all this writing that's taking place in the world, and challenging all of these static, stolid institutions. They're rewriting the From
weblogged News on April 7, 2005 at 11:47 a.m..
Mosaico
Activismo La Campaña para la modificacion de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, el Manifiesto por la liberación de la cultura y Vote for freedom of expression blog award-winners. Buscadores Google nos maravilla con su banco de imágenes por satélite y... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 7, 2005 at 10:50 a.m..
Playing Games With Sony's Player
The PlayStation Portable is being adapted to myriad uses, many of which its manufacturer probably never intended. But you can't keep a good hacker down. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Drunk? Your Car Will '86' You
The ignition interlock -- a device designed to keep someone who's been drinking from starting his car -- has been in use for a while now, especially in New Mexico. There are plusses and minuses, but by and large it seems to be working. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Fixed-Gear Bikes an Urban Fixture
Often brakeless and always exciting, single-speed track bicycles are not just for kamikaze bike messengers anymore. Hipsters are flocking to 'fixies' for the bikes' simplicity -- and their street cred. By Ryan Singel. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Bloggers Pitch Fits Over Glitches
Technical troubles slam Google's blogging site. The problem is, Blogger is a lot like a public utility, and when it goes down, so does discourse on much of the blogosphere. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
The Need for Feed(s)
For online newspapers, news aggregators like Google News are a mixed blessing: They can generate big traffic, but maybe they're also stealing a bit of thunder. Some newspapers are about to fight back with services of their own. By John Gartner. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Cable and Tech Bigwigs Make Nice
At the National Cable Show, the buzz is all about how the convergence of broadband and digital TV is generating a new series of products to boost the profits of cable, entertainment and tech companies. Michael Grebb reports from San Francisco. From
Wired News on April 7, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Friends with the IT Guys
Often this blog has published my rants and vents against our IT department, like
last month's escapade with a hacked server. It's only fair to report when things go the opposite way. I met face to face with the head of our server team and their top Linux tech, and they were both helpful, supportive, and we came up with some interim and long term solutions that can take me out of the hassle of being a server admin (of which I do poorly). Essentially, an aging server we currently use for our From
cogdogblog on April 7, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Quality Personas
This article (PDF) describes an extended use of a persona -- user behavior: "The best personas will also go the extra step to describe key behaviors such as a decision making process, an information browsing approach, or a shopping mode—the drivers that affect how people approach a given solution." From
elearningpost on April 7, 2005 at 6:45 a.m..
The Ice Cream Man
Not the emperor of ice cream, mind you, though I wouldn't be surprised a bit to learn his curds were concupiscent.... Going back to the radio daze archives for this podcast. From about 1985 to 1988 (I'm fuzzy on the beginning date), I worked as a DJ at WWWV-FM in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I was in [...] From
Stand Up Eight on April 7, 2005 at 3:52 a.m..
Men Are Like Oranges, Women Are Like Onions
OK, let's forget all that Venus and Mars stuff and get down to the real deal. Men and women are fundamentally different, but the planetary analogy is fatally flawed. There's a better way to look at those fundamental differences. While apples and oranges may be the more common vernacular, it turns out that oranges and onions is closer to the way things are when comparing the sexes. Let's talk about the guys first. Men are like oranges because we compartmentalize things. If you were to take... From
Brain Frieze on April 7, 2005 at 3:46 a.m..
F For Assessment
F for Assessment: Edutopia, a free magazine published by the George Lucas Foundation, has an excellent article that discusses the failure of standardized testing to truly determine the outcomes that schools achieve. For the last four decades, students' scores on standardized tests have increasingly been regarded as the most meaningful evidence for evaluating... From
Brain Frieze on April 7, 2005 at 1:54 a.m..
Ensure the staff directory can be printed
While the majority of staff will access the staff directory online, there will be a number of users with a strong need for a printed version of some (or all) of the directory details. These include staff who work off-site... From
Column Two on April 7, 2005 at 1:45 a.m..
The emerging mind
The
2003 Reith Lectures from the BBC profiled Professor VS Ramachandaran, a noted neuroscientist and the Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California (San Diego). The Prof. talks about how the "activity of the 100 billion little wisps of protoplasm - the neurons in your brain - give rise to all the richness of our conscious experience, including the "redness" of red, the painfulness of pain or the exquisite flavour of Marmite or Vindaloo." These audio files are in .rm format (Real From
elearningpost on April 7, 2005 at 1:45 a.m..
MindRaider
Interesting. "MindRaider is Semantic Web outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to organize not only the content of your hard drive but also your cognitive base and social relationships in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing." Coded in java, so it's a pain to install. Looks like open source - it's on SourceForge - but absent any declarations I can't tell for sure. The integration with a wiki is a very cool idea. By Martin Dvorak, April, 2005 [
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
How to Select a Content Developer
Useful article that takes a middle-of-the-road approach to selecting a content designer based on an analysis of the design requirements (based on the ADDIE Instructional Design Model). By Mitch Weisburgh, Pilot Online Learning, April, 2005 [
Refer][
Research][
Reflect] From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Why Online Teaching Turned Me Off
I'm not really sure of the point of this contrarian article - the author says "I want to look my students right in the eyeball" while pretending (I guess) that the eyes in the top row of a 500 seat classroom are anything other than a distinct blur. What i think happened is that the author expected a 2010 experience from 1995 software - this bit, for example, is telling: "Click, click. Next comment. If there's a thread to this discussion, I've lost it." But mostly, I think, it's this: "I love classrooms. I love the physical presence of students in all their variety." I' From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Digital Tweed: Mapping the Terrain of Online Education
Discussion of the recent Sloan-C reports on the number of students involved in online learning. "Some 1.92 million students were enrolled in at least one online course as of fall 2003, up almost 20 percent from 1.6 million in Fall 2002. Sloan-C projected the Fall 2003 online course enrollment numbers would increase by a third to 2.63 million students for Fall 2004." Via
Distance-Educator, which seems to have repaired its RSS feeds. I also notice that DE is now offering a "premier member From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Why Google is Syndication Shy
I think there's a germ of truth here: "Feeds may be Google's greatest enemy. If Google did offer feeds that connected users with the information they are looking for from the Web they would miss the opportunity to advertise to them. What will remedy this? Google will incorporate contextual Adwords ads into these kinds of feeds, much like Overture has done. What's taking so long? Beats me." But the answer is this: if Google can aggregate, anyone can aggregate - and who is going to aggregate advertisements? The very first thing to follow a Google RSS feed will be an ad-free Google From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Handheld Computer Yet to Reach the Masses
The low-cost Simputer developed for use in India is being regarded as a failure - "Picopeta has sold fewer than 2,000 units in the past 12 months, far below the target of 50,000. Worse, only 10 percent of those Simputers were bought for rural use. Encore software, the other company making Simputers, also sold about 2,000 units." The major reason for the slow sales seems to be the dramatic drop in price of traditional computers. "Sales of desktops and laptops are booming in India, with 4 million sold during the 2004-2005 fiscal year and demand expected to grow 35 percent annually." One wonders, From
OLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Remote Approach Launches PDF Tracking Service
"Every time the PDF is read, it briefly interacts with the reporting repository to record the event. The user has access to live reports and data to see reports on views, distribution by channel or user group, or even download the logs into other systems and applications." You know, it seems to me that a document that reports back to its author when its being read isn't something to be touted - it's something that should be illegal. By Robyn Weisman, PDFzone, March 15, 2005 [
ReferOLDaily on April 7, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Gmail doubles storage
My favourite email client, Gmail, just got better. Gmail is owned by Google, so it makes good use of the Google search engine to help you find things in your mailbox without the need to spend time organizing folders of... From
Rick's Café Canadien on April 6, 2005 at 11:53 p.m..
Push awareness, pull content
John Maloney has written a blog entry outlining his concept of push awareness, pull content. To quote: The simple principle is to just provide awareness of information to people. Some call it 'skimming the cream.' If they wish to do... From
Column Two on April 6, 2005 at 11:47 p.m..