Edu_RSS
Dear Mr. Real Man: Volume 2
Dear Mr. Real Man-- There is a woman where I work that has been flirting with me. She's smart, funny, and good looking, and I've found myself flirting back with her a little bit. OK, more than a little bit. It's all in good fun, and I'm totally devoted to my wife, so it's not like there's any hanky-panky going on. Here's my question. Should I tell my wife about this? It's fun and innocent, so I don't think it would be any big deal if I told her. What do you think? Curious... From
Brain Frieze on April 8, 2005 at 10:55 p.m..
American High Schools are Obsolete.
"America's high schools are obsolete," Gates said. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools _ even... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 10:54 p.m..
ICT Literacy Assessment
To succeed in today's information-driven academic and workplace environments, people need to know how to find, use, manage, evaluate and convey information efficiently and effectively. As part of the National Higher Education ICT Initiative, ETS and a group of colleges... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Importance of Personal in PC
We talk about access to computers for students and pat ourselves on the back when a school system reaches the point where there is a computer in each classroom...never mind that it took 10 years, and that the ten year-old... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Computer essay grading
Of course, digital essay graders are really nothing new. It's possible that what is developing is a critical mass of electronic essay grading. I think some of the more interesting questions about this sort of thing revolve around the perception... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Mapping the Terrain of Online Education
Like so many things in education and the academic community, much of the (sometimes polite, sometimes passionate) conversation about big issues is often driven by opinion and epiphany, rather than data and evidence. Certainly, the decade-long discussions on and off... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
10 Steps to Develop Learner Support
The guidelines aim to assist: managers of learning schemes wishing to develop support to learners, providers of programmes and materials wishing to recommend support options to customers and course designers who need to ensure that programmes are adequately supplied. It... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
A roadmap for the Personal Learning Landscape
Over the past year Ben and I have been researching and working on the Learning Landscape(pdf) model and more recently Elgg - a personal learning landscape. We have put together a roadmap detailing where Elgg is going. In making this... From
ERADC Blog on April 8, 2005 at 8:55 p.m..
Education as Toaster
Another thought-provoking post from Nathan Lowell, about how the nature of our field makes it very complicated to have an effective annual AECT conference. Education as Toaster From
Martindale Matrix on April 8, 2005 at 7:50 p.m..
Blackboard vs. Moodle
Via Stephen Downes, this article comparing two popular course management systems, one of which has no license fee. Blackboard vs. Moodle From
Martindale Matrix on April 8, 2005 at 7:50 p.m..
[s2f] New opportunities
David Dixon tells how in 2001 he publicized an MP3 that performed a Beatles track in the style of Metallica. He did it without permission of the band that did it. Sony sent him a cease and desist letter. Lars of Metallica is actually on the right side in ths case, trying to get Sony to drop its stupid, bullying lawsuit. Sony is not pursuing the suit, although they also haven't dropped it. Wendy Seltzer of the EFF says that this is a good example of chillling effects. The new means of distribution bring small-town bands under the gaze of... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 7:48 p.m..
[s2n] Machinima
Paul Marino has been doing machinima for six years. Machinima are animated films created using the tools video game companies make available to build levels to add on to their games. It started with Quake in 1996. He shows some terrific samples He says his group is working with game developers to allow for derivative works and to explore various licensing models, ultimately making machinima commercially viable. He says that machinima's future is the democratization of animated storytelling. [I have to leave the conference now. Damn.] [Technorati tags: s2n machinima]... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 7:48 p.m..
Action research vs. ethnography?
Can someone explain me (or point to something) differences between action research and ethnography? My feeling that the differences should be somewhere around: role of action (~action as intentional/explicit goal of action research) process (cycles in action research) data collection/documenting focus ... From
Mathemagenic on April 8, 2005 at 6:51 p.m..
Cultural assumptions of photo editing software
Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah has a fascinating post about how photo upload sites and image editing packages look to someone whose skin is dark and who is shooting in very bright sunlight. This is just an example of a broader theme in the post: "The Subtle Business of Software Localization," as Ethan puts it. Snippets: The first thing I very quickly noticed: somehow all the photos that I uploaded to Yahoo Photos turned out darker than on Flickr (the services both resize uploaded photos). The photo-resizing algorithm used by Yahoo Photos was giving worse results. This was noticeable to me because a... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 6:48 p.m..
[s2n] Jochai Benkler
Jochai Benkler of Yale (and, Charlie Nesson says lightly in his introduction, he hopes someday maybe of Harvard) begins with a video of DangerMouse's Gray Album, which mixed the Beatles' White album and Jay-Z's Black album. Then he shows something "not so complimentary": "The Mashin' of the Christ." It mashes clips from Jesus flicks on top of a "Christianity is stupid. Communism is good" soundtrack. He gives an example of using these techniques to critique the media representation of news from CapedMaskedAndArmed. He shows a couple of others, but I didn't get enough in From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 6:48 p.m..
Wikibooks
Following up on the two previous postings about free online libraries, here's a link to Wikibooks, a collection of open-content textbooks. "Wikibooks is a
Wikimedia project set up July 10, 2003. Since then, volunteers have written around 7654 book modules in a multitude of books." Wikibooks is yet another resource for students, teachers, and online learners. More information about Wikibooks is provided in the section Why open textbooks?: "The textbooks on this s From
EduResources--Higher Education Resources Online on April 8, 2005 at 6:47 p.m..
Alternatives to College
You may not need to spend time and money on higher education in order to achieve your goals. Danielle Wood presents an array of exciting opportunities in The Uncollege Alternative.... From
Adult/Continuing Education on April 8, 2005 at 5:51 p.m..
[s2n] Borrowing or stealing panel
Terry Fisher runs a panel. Bill Alford wrote a book about the Chinese views of "intellectual property," called To Steal a Book Is an Elegant Offense. He says that the Chinese have a sense of the past as a living, shared context. One makes one's mark not by breaking from the past (as our Romantic geniuses do) but by making it one's own. "Copying doesn't carry the same dark implications as in the West." Unfortunately, I missed most of what Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club, had to say. When I came in, he was speaking charmingly about noticing... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 4:49 p.m..
Thomas Jefferson on blogging
Dan Bricklin points to Chris Daly's Are Bloggers Journalists? Let's Ask Thomas Jeffeson. Here's a snippet that Dan pulls out of the article: Common Sense and other pamphlets like it were precisely the kind of political journalism that Jefferson had in mind when he insisted on a constitutional amendment in 1790 to protect press freedom — anonymous, highly opinionated writing from diverse, independent sources. In historical terms, today's bloggers are much closer in spirit to the Revolutionary-era pamphleteers than today's giant, conglomerate mainstream media. Both From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 4:49 p.m..
[s2n] Wayne Marshall
Wayne Marshall traces the movement of one particular musical idea, the "mad mad" of Reggae, used in Alton Ellis' Mad, Mad, Mad in 1967. [Technorati tag: s2n] [Technorati tags: s2n reggae]... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 4:49 p.m..
[s2n] Signal to Noise conference - Mike Doughty
The second Signal to Noise conference begins to the sound of "Sexy Jesus" beating through the Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall at Harvard Law. The conference — sponsored by Berkman, Journal of Law and Technology, the Harvard Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law and Gartner G2 — has something to do with remix culture. About a hundred of us are sitting in an auditorium, facing forward, which seems at odds with the aims of the get-together. Charlie Nesson begins by saying the aim of law is to create a culture in which we can have freedom and creativity in peace.... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
[s2n] Briefing book
There's a PDF of a "briefing book" for the conference with articles about fair use, sampling, fan fiction, and more. John Palfrey is blogging the conference, too. [Technorati tag: s2n]... From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 3:48 p.m..
RSS Instead of E-mail Subscriptions? Maybe Both?
Recently, I got rid of some of my e-mail newsletters, because a lot of them also have an
RSS outlet. It seemed rational at the time.But now I am not so sure. You see, a lot of the e-mail newsletters I subscribed to, such as
Research Buzz and Poynter's
Web Tips, are full of information that I need when in my job. So I want to keep the information where I can find it very fast. Even when I am offline. (It happens.)< From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 8, 2005 at 2:49 p.m..
Broadcaster Offers Surround Sound Via the Web
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK, is
experimenting with surround sound transmitted via the Web.During a test period, NRK is offering streaming and download versions of a radio documentary, a radio play, and a
Haydn symphony. You need a surround-sound sound card and the right speaker system to really enjoy it. The streaming version at first sounded really bad to me, but after I did some tweaking in my control panel, I am now listening to Haydn on my laptop. It sound From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 8, 2005 at 2:49 p.m..
Manila Me This...
I'm feeling like one of the last holdouts here with
Manila, and I've got open source issues that I need to come to terms with, but this news from Userland CEO
Scott Young has me hoping: We are getting closer to the release of Manila into public beta. Its been a fairly long process, but the size and scope of the changes will be worth it. Significant additions have been made and as we have finally worked through all the change notes and have come to discover that what w From
weblogged News on April 8, 2005 at 1:48 p.m..
Hypertext book reading
Have a strange, but nice experience of reading several books on ethnography at the same time (re: yesterdays's posts). It feels pretty much like hypertext or web browsing - I start somewhere, with the topic I'm working at, move along one book till I need a break or clarification or see interesting reference to another book. Then I switch - either looking for a relevant topic in another book or by following a reference. Then read a bit more, till the next switch... This is the first time I do that with books. I often read several books in parallel or start from random/intere From
Mathemagenic on April 8, 2005 at 12:52 p.m..
Reading Machines for the Blind and Dyslexic...Acquired
Kurzweil Educational Systems, which makes scan-to-speech systems for the blind and dyslexic, has been purchased by Cambium Learning, a company serving "at-risk" students. In 1976, Ray Kurzweil invented a system that would read a page out loud. At that point it cost $100,000 and was the size of a major kitchen appliance. Kurzweil Computer Products became Xerox Imaging Systems in 1980. In 1996, KES was officially launched on its own. In 1998 it was purchased by Lernout & Hauspie. When the founders of L&H were led away in manacles because they were despicable con artists who should rot in hell,.. From
Joho the Blog on April 8, 2005 at 12:49 p.m..
Even More Ed Blogging/Wiki-ing Going On
So before I get to my semi-regular list of newfound practices out there, I just want to note a couple of people who for some reason have been drinking from the blog Kool-Aid because of my blogvangelism. Always nice to know someone's listening... Amy Bowllan, who I met at
Mohonk last fall, gets my vote for Rookie of the Year so far this year. She's really gone, shall we say, "blog wild" over at "
Teaching in the 21st Century" to the point where just recently she even got her mother to From
weblogged News on April 8, 2005 at 12:48 p.m..
The Big Picture
Everyone has been raving about the new satellite imaging in
Google Maps and I have to agree it's pretty impressive. While most people I've seen are zooming in on their spaces, I like the longer view of mine...and I like the space. Forget what you've heard about Jersey. There's some real purty parts, and I'm fortunate to live in one of them. Yesterday, I took my daughter Tess on a satellite trip to school and then over to my wife From
weblogged News on April 8, 2005 at 12:48 p.m..
Graeme Daniel
Interesting links we "come across" in our research on education matters that have informed or amused us and which we would like to share with you. From
wwwtools on April 8, 2005 at 11:51 a.m..
Why the 'e'?
I recently attended an e-learning workshop where one of the participants started up a conversation around 'what is e-learning'? The main argument centred around the notion that many people are focusing too much on e-learning as a separate entity -... From
ERADC Blog on April 8, 2005 at 11:50 a.m..
Bicubic cierra sus puertas
Al parecer Sam Regis deja de publicar Bicubic. Lo cuentan en Mangas Verdes, No tengo palabras y Borjamari. Es una mala noticia, pero espero que vuelva pronto. ¡Play it again Sam!... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 8, 2005 at 11:47 a.m..
ChoicePoint Top Big Brother Pick
The nominees for the annual Big Brother Awards are in. Leading the pack is ChoicePoint, which sold private data to identity thieves. But Google, the U.S. government and a small California school are also in the running. By Joanna Glasner. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
The Science Guy Grows Up
Bill Nye, the rubber-faced engineer whose television series for kids was equal parts lesson and stand-up comedy, returns to the small screen. By Elizabeth Svoboda from Wired magazine. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
Underencrypted and Overexposed
Do you know where your sexy pictures are? A stolen hard drive teaches a lesson about safer virtual sex. Commentary by Regina Lynn. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
Testing Your Tech Smarts
A reporter tries out a new exam that promises to measure one's ability to make sense of all the information that technology throws at us every day. Can he make the grade? By Amit Asaravala. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
Putting Flesh on Phones
Mobile porn promises to be big -- really big. But how does the sleazy porn industry strike deals with squeaky-clean phone companies? That's where firms like Brickhouse Media step in. Brickhouse president Clinton Fayling talks dirty to Daniel Terdiman. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
Cells That Go Back in Time
Some animals can grow new body parts through a process called dedifferentiation -- and humans may be able to do so, too. New regeneration studies could solve ethical concerns about embryonic stem-cell research. By Kristen Philipkoski. From
Wired News on April 8, 2005 at 10:46 a.m..
OhmyNews abre sus puertas
El popular modelo coreano de medio participativo OhmyNews acaba de anunciar la apertura de sus sistema de edición a colaboradores de todo el mundo: Log On and Be Part of History. Lo cuentan en Hypergene. En Visualmente se aborda el... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 8, 2005 at 9:52 a.m..
Supervillainy: Astroengineering Global Warming
Last year in April, at a sf convention here in Canberra, I watched a presentation on global warming by Gregory Benford, supposedly telling us about a global warming summit that he had recently participated in. Anticipating the nature of his audience, he first showed us the summit's deliberately conservative final numbers on temperature rise, carbon dioxide levels etc for the next 26 years, then quickly demolished some popular but flawed solutions with clear logic and straightforward calculation. Then he showed us the solution that he'd presented, amid mixed amusement and excitement, From
kuro5hin.org on April 8, 2005 at 9:45 a.m..
Weblog as a research notebook (3): my own experiences
In the
previous post I discussed possible types of research notes for ethnographic research of blogging practices. This one is a reflection on research notes I have for my research (which wasn't designed as an ethnography). artifacts when participating: link or quote in my weblog when observing: adding to del.icio.us collection process knowledge when participating: indicators or summaries in my weblog when observing: not docu From
Mathemagenic on April 8, 2005 at 8:51 a.m..
UK think tank asks public for ideas
Britain's Institute of Public Policy Research is
asking bloggers to post answers to a set of questions about how digital technologies can improve people's lives. BBC News
reports that Will Davies, senior research fellow at the IPPR, said, "We hear too much from the futurists and technology experts...Successful technology strategies depend on listening to the public and those who have to us From
NITLE Tech News on April 8, 2005 at 7:51 a.m..
Blackboard vs. Moodle
(4/8/05) A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools Kathy D. Munoz, and Joan Van Duzer of Humboldt State University (15 February 2005) Developer's Feedback Some interesting student data and Developer's Feedback -- worth a read if you have these two on your short list. From
Edutools News: Course Management Systems on April 8, 2005 at 6:48 a.m..
Web Content Management (KL, Malaysia)
I will be running a two-day Web Content Management workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 9-10 May 2005. This is packed full of useful information for anyone wanting to plan a web strategy and select a CMS, with the following... From
Column Two on April 8, 2005 at 5:47 a.m..
Go figure
I'm working in the library of another university, and I get bored for a second and start looking at the computer rather than the words on the screen. There's a little label, and on it, beneath the manufacturer's name, I see "Service Tag" followed by a 7-digit code. Then I see the "Express Service Code" on the next line. Guess what -- the express code is four digits longer than the regular code. Go figure. From
Weblogs in Higher Education on April 8, 2005 at 4:49 a.m..
International student collaboration
This week I'm at another conference, this time on getting global perspectives into the curriculum. I'm supposed to have a chance to see a video conference between students in North America and Hong Kong tomorrow morning -- very cool, and I'm looking forward to it. The blogger in me, though, is resisting on one level. After all, for much less money and with no reliance on a team of techies on two sides of the world, we bloggers and our students could be collaborating all the time from... From
Weblogs in Higher Education on April 8, 2005 at 4:49 a.m..
Persistent Spam (Ross Mayfield)
Like many over the past few months, I have happily filled my aggregator with persistent queries from the likes of PubSub, Newsgator, Technorati and Feedster. At first it was ego surfing without leaving the couch. Now I'm creating lots... From
Corante: Social Software on April 8, 2005 at 3:46 a.m..
No soy pirata
MagnÃfica la iniciativa de Carlos Sánchez Almeida y Kriptópolis: Nosoypirata.com, que, como explican en su página principal, es una plataforma alternativa y sin ánimo de lucro que trata, desde la legalidad, desmitificar la piraterÃa en la red. También pretende dar a conocer los derechos y obligaciones que nos asisten, como internautas y como ciudadanos, de una manera amena y cercana. Nosoypirata.com condena la piraterÃa organizada tanto como las patentes de software, "que (...) From
martinalia.com | Gestión de Contenidos on April 8, 2005 at 1:55 a.m..
APA style is driving me nuts
Oh, I already suffered a lot during my time at the University of Georgia, where I was required to follow the unnecessarily complex and inconsistent APA style for writing up papers.Only recently I (unfortunately) decided to fine-tune my citation and bibliography software to allow for the correct output of APA styled papers. What a mess! Once you start to look for detailed information on some specific citation types you quickly get lost in contradicting descriptions and examples all over the place. Even the folks at APA don't seem to get all their examples right.So, here co From
Seblogging News on April 8, 2005 at 1:50 a.m..
Is Phoenix the Future?
This is a nice
interview with Gary A. Berg on the University of Phoenix model. Gary is dean of extended education at California State University Channel Islands and actually taught a course at the University of Phoenix in order to understand the model. "The University of Phoenix and other for-profits argue for a practitioner model claiming that part-time faculty usage can actually lead to higher quality in particular disciplines such as business where real world experience rather than research is especi From
elearningpost on April 8, 2005 at 1:47 a.m..
links for 2005-04-07
Questionnaire for KM Readiness PWC/Sveiby owned Collaborative Climate Readiness survey (tags: Knowledge_Management)... From
Monkeymagic on April 8, 2005 at 12:48 a.m..
BlogWalk Salons in the pipeline
Ton Zijlstra is taking the lead on organizing a
BlogWalk Salon in Brussels, Belgium, sometimes in May 2005 (possible theme: citizen journalism), while I am currently exploring the possibility to set up another one in Innsbruck, Austria, right after the
Microlearning Conference, which will take place on June, 23-24, 2005.So, if you are considering to participate at the Microlearning Conference 2005 and if you share our general interest in Weblogs, Soci From
Seblogging News on April 8, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..