Edu_RSS
Korea, US to Develop e-Learning Standards
Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) is opening an office and test lab in Korea, according to this report. "The Korean laboratory will be able to offer certification for the sharable contents objective reference model (SCORM) in two or three years, the ministry said." By Seo Jee-yeon, Korea Times, April 14, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Blue Web'n
Mentioned on WWWEDU today. "Blue Web'n is an online library of 1952 outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (tools, references, lessons, hotlists, resources, tutorials, activities, projects). You can search by grade level (Refined Search), broad subject area (Content Areas), or specific sub-categories (Subject Area)." Sites like this should have RSS feeds so their listings can be aggregated. By Various Authors, SBC Knowledge Ventures, April, 2005 [
Refer< From OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
New BCcampus Services Improve Online Learning
BC Campus made the news yesterday with its official launch of its "final major development phase of BCcampus, which will provide a single point of access to every service an online student needs." According to executive director David Porter, "This system allows learners to use their student number at their 'home' institution to 'visit' other schools and have access to the electronic library of the institution they're visiting HYPHEN all through the BCcampus portal. Students can take courses anywhere in the province to complement w From
OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
MIT Students Pull Prank on Conference
Everyone has gotten a good giggle over this one. A group of computer science students created a random essay generator, printed out a random essay, and got it accepted at an academic conference. Read the fine print and you see it was accepted as an "unrefereed submission". But still. Pretty funny. You can
create your own random paper using the generator. By Reuters, CNN, April 14, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Botany Photo of the Day
Because it's a slow news day (a Friday in April - does it get any better?) and because I like things like this... Via
Tim Bray. Something to build a new website theme around, maybe. By Various Authors, April, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
Blog Numbing Numbers
Paul Chenowith links to a new
Perseus survey of the blogosphere with some numbers that seem strangely out of whack, at least to me. First, Perseus expects around 55 million blogs to have been created by year's end, which is like six or seven times more than any other estimates I've seen. It says
MSN Spaces has like 4.5 million sites, of which maybe I've seen three. And what the heck is
weblogged News on April 15, 2005 at 9:47 p.m..
WSJ's Online Success: Not Bad News
Today, the
New York Post reports on how the online edition of the Wall Street Journal is affecting the paper's economics. In this article, Paul Tharp writes: "Earnings plunged by 54 percent at the newspaper's parent Dow Jones & Co., with its fledgling online operations earning more money for the first time than the flagship Journal and the weekly Barron's."Also, "The Wall Street Journal Online is signing up thousands of new subscribers, up 5.2 percent for the quarter, t From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 15, 2005 at 8:54 p.m..
More Female Podcasters
My "Women in Podcasting List" continues to grow – it now includes 70 shows. Please check it out if you haven't done so already, and let me know about any female hosted/cohosted podcast shows I don't already have listed. Here are the most recent additions to my list... From
Contentious Weblog on April 15, 2005 at 7:56 p.m..
Attention Educators: look who is blogging
"Blogging has revolutionized the news media, but youth dominate its use: Ninety percent of those blogging are between 13 and 29 years old, according to a survey by Perseus Development Corporation, a company that designs software for online surveys. Of... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 15, 2005 at 7:56 p.m..
Articles for Educators
Welcome to Articles For Educators, a site with free resources--lesson plans, field trip ideas, tips and tricks for the classroom--for educators, and written by educators. Each of the articles posted on this site was written by someone in the educational... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 15, 2005 at 7:56 p.m..
MIT students pull prank on conference
In a victory for pranksters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a bunch of computer-generated gibberish masquerading as an academic paper has been accepted at a scientific conference. Jeremy Stribling said Thursday that he and two fellow MIT graduate students... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 15, 2005 at 7:56 p.m..
SCIgen
SCIgen is a program that generates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses a hand-written context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. Our aim here is to maximize amusement, rather than coherence. One... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on April 15, 2005 at 7:56 p.m..
Order of Magnitude Quiz: Death by moose
Fill in the blanks with answers within an order of magnitude and win the satisfaction of having guessed right: One in ___ people who hit a moose are killed, compared with one in ___ who hit a deer..." USAToday, April 15, 2005, "Moose brake for no one..." by Trudy Tynan Select between the X's to see the answer: X Deer: 1 in 75 .... Moose: 1 in 5,000 X... From
Joho the Blog on April 15, 2005 at 7:49 p.m..
A Home for My Group: MyTown or Blogger?
I'm a firm believer in the concept of local news organizations (especially newspapers) getting community groups hooked in to their websites. We as an industry have tried this over the years, without too much success. (Remember Koz Inc.?) But as the
citizen journalism movement gains steam, enabled by technological advancements and the popularity of blogging, I think it stands a good chance of happening this time around -- but it probably won't be easy for newspapers.On a personal and related note, I recently created a blog/website f From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 15, 2005 at 5:54 p.m..
Tag it!
This week, Steven Levy, Newsweek's technology editor, writes about the tagging phenomenon. Tagging, social bookmarking, folksonomies are all terms used to describe the way regular people categorize the information they find on the web. Services like furl and del.icio.us allow... From
MANE IT Network on April 15, 2005 at 4:58 p.m..
My NewsU Course has Launched!
My career involves many kinds of content work, including e-learning content development. I'm pleased to announce that an online course I've been working on for the last year, Covering Water Quality, is now available via the Poynter Institute's News University. Curious? Visit NewsU and sign up (it's free). This is a completely self-paced online course, no instructor involvement, so you can work through the lessons comprising the course in your own preferred order and on your own schedule. There are lots of exercises and interactivity, too. The target audience is journalists From
Contentious Weblog on April 15, 2005 at 4:55 p.m..
Women and Technology
Cindy Royal's
article in Online Journalism Review, "Tech-savvy women seek support in classroom and newsroom," drove me to my class roster for my
George Mason University Online Journalism course to double-check the female-male ratio in the class.In the article, Royal writes that she "was surprised and concerned to learn [that] women were not making strides in the design world when I recently attended a panel called, & From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on April 15, 2005 at 4:54 p.m..
Commission launches legal proceedings against ten member states over infringement of communications rules
The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against defects in national laws, and incorrect practical application of EU rules, in Germany, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Finland. From
Digital Media Europe - digital media news from across Europe on April 15, 2005 at 2:55 p.m..
Infoworld goes tagalicious (David Weinberger)
Matt McAlister explains that the Infoworld.com upgrade isn’t merely cosmetic: On the articles pages they’ve moved from a fixed taxonomy that took them a lot of time to develop to a semi-structured tagging system: What I like most in this... From
Corante: Social Software on April 15, 2005 at 2:49 p.m..
Infoworld goes tagalicious
Matt McAlister explains that the Infoworld.com upgrade isn't merely cosmetic: On the articles pages they've moved from a fixed taxonomy that took them a lot of time to develop to a structured tagging system: What I like most in this new architecture is that the related links are now driven by del.icio.us. Our edit team is tagging content in del.icio.us. The engineers are pulling down the del.icio.us RSS feeds. And then we create matching logic based on the common tags. We also link back out to del.icio.us pages via the tags for the article on display. This is a first... From
Joho the Blog on April 15, 2005 at 2:48 p.m..
Who draws?
[...], human cognition is mediated not only by computer artifacts. Underneath this, the activity is historically crystallized in these artifacts. (Susanne Bødker, Computers in mediated human activity, 1997) From
thomas n. burg | randgänge on April 15, 2005 at 2:47 p.m..
Getting out of ruts
From On Cruise Control: How to get out of a life rut by Cynthia Hanson: Along the journey of life, we're destined to fall into some ruts. Sometimes, they're big (think career change). Other times, they're small (think new exercise routine). Either way, experts say it's inevitable that we'll become bored with one or more facets of our lives. This article talks about identifying ruts and then how to go about getting out of them. Something good to think about and be aware of. From
megnut on April 15, 2005 at 2:45 p.m..
Weblog de AS sobre fichajes
En La Tejedora anuncian el lanzamiento de un nuevo blog de Prisacom: El Soplo, a cargo de Manuel Esteban y dedicado al mercado de los fichajes de futbolistas.... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on April 15, 2005 at 1:52 p.m..
Boring Schools, Boring Content
Yesterday as I was driving my seven-year old daughter home from her gymnastics class she ominously announced that she wasn't going back to school. "It's so boring, daddy," she said, and then proceed to sing the word "boring" about 157 times to make sure I got the point. Now I know Tess is pretty smart, and I know that she's not being challenged by some of the curriculum which she learned a year ago at home. But I wondered if there was more to it. "We do the same stuff every day," she said as she poked holes in the paper mache turtle she'd made in class. "Everybody do From
weblogged News on April 15, 2005 at 1:47 p.m..
China's Filters Strong, Subtle
Eager to encourage economic growth by providing net access to its citizens, the country is developing powerful, broad tools to block touchy topics without alerting users that anything has been censored. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Senate Confirms New NASA Head
Michael Griffin is unanimously confirmed to lead the U.S. space agency. His first order of business: Get the space shuttle program off the ground again. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Linux Distribution Tames Chaos
Have a crop of underutilized PCs but not sure how to harness their processing power? A new 6-MB Linux program can round them up into a cohesive, secure network -- no matter what operating system they use. By Alison Strahan. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Governor's Campaign Site Unseen
Most states require politicians to keep their campaigns clearly separate from their official duties, but the line between the two can get muddled. Minnesota's governor drags the issue online by redirecting his campaign domains to a state-owned site. By Jacob Ogles. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Get Your Game Off
Jenna Jameson's new game lets you simulate a porn photo shoot, direct adult talent in sex scenes and use virtual dildos on naked girls. But that's only the beginning. Commentary by Regina Lynn. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
Fantastic Spastic Elastic Plastic
Shape-shifting polymers that change form when exposed to light are in the works. The morphing materials may lead to artery-opening stents or wacky, warping toys. By Rachel Metz. From
Wired News on April 15, 2005 at 10:45 a.m..
technology forms cognition
It's again about journalism and new technologies and formats. Seems as if technology has - against lots of arguments - a lot of impact on how we understand (construct) our view of the world. The Catholic Highschool of Limburg started a
Wiki as part of their
Communication and Multmedia Design program. You are invited to join their effort to collect relevant papers and articles and else at this place. They make usage of
thomas n. burg | randgänge on April 15, 2005 at 8:47 a.m..
Surfers learn to tolerate spam - Iain Thomson,VNunet
Computer users are getting used to spam and no longer regard it as such an issue, according to a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Although two thirds of respondents found spam annoying, this was down from 77 per cent a year ago. As From
Techno-News Blog on April 15, 2005 at 7:49 a.m..
P2P Fuels Global Bandwidth Binge - Joanna Glasner, Wired
Internet users consumed more bandwidth than ever last year, driven by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks and heightened demand for video files. Burgeoning demand also prompted internet carriers to upgrade their network capacity to handle the From
Techno-News Blog on April 15, 2005 at 7:49 a.m..
Promoting a staff directory
While a staff (phone) directory is often the most-used element of a corporate intranet, this is reliant on staff becoming aware that the directory exists. For this reason, it is vital to conduct a comprehensive internal marketing campaign when the... From
Column Two on April 15, 2005 at 7:47 a.m..
Open Spectrum podcast
In this podcast, Kevin Werbach and I are interviewed by Richard Giles about Open Spectrum, i.e., getting the government out of the business of controlling frequencies. I haven't heard it, but I remember Kevin being very interesting. [Technorati tags: werbach spectrum]... From
Joho the Blog on April 15, 2005 at 6:48 a.m..
Worst hotel wifi...ever
I'm at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort (trip #2 of my 3 trips to Phoenix over the course of 8 days). The hotel is lovely but their broadband offerings consist of two parts: You can get broadband via a wire in your bedroom for $10 for 24 hours, or you can take advantage of the wifi in the hotel lobby for $10 per use. Yes, per use. Cheaper hotels offer wifi for free. More expensive hotels sometimes, in my experience, make you pay for a wired hookup in your bedroom but provide free wifi in the lobby. Leave it to the... From
Joho the Blog on April 15, 2005 at 5:48 a.m..
The Cracking of Napster WMA DRM
Cody Brocious was kind enough to
respond to
my post below, and then chat with me on AIM about the crack. Here's the scoop: Cody and co. are apparently very near an implementation of a utility that will allow people to turn songs acquired through Napster Light (the a la carte service) and Premium (the non-portable subs From
A Copyfighter's Musings on April 15, 2005 at 5:47 a.m..
Go Get Thawed: NBT- Locally Produced Movie Aimng High
Arizona may not have a reputation for producing local independent movies, but
Never Been Thawed may change all that. I saw the previews a few weeks ago, and could tell it would be a riot. Yup, I going by my guy and saying it is a good movie before having seen it.... Better known (or not) as "NBT", the movie is a mockumentary in the vein of
This Is Spinal Tap. Apparently, NBT takes a look at the small worlds of sub-cultures weaving everything from th eMesa Frozen Entrée Enthusiasts From
cogdogblog on April 15, 2005 at 4:47 a.m..
Small vectories
Remember when spaceship shoot'em ups cost $70 and took up an entire cartridge? Now they're free for the PC, and they work with your gamepad too! (They are also all Japanese made, go figure) Cho Ren Sha 68K Translated as "Ultra Rapid Fire", you'll be blasting baddies Raiden-style. Warning Forever It's just you and the "boss", but what makes this game unique is that the bosses adapt to your attack patterns. For example, if you destroy a boss with close-range frontal assaults, the next boss will feature armour and rotating turrets on its bow. Torus Trooper A game of chicken, a From
silentblue | Quantified on April 15, 2005 at 12:54 a.m..
The Potential of Students as Resource Creators
Kirsty McNaught, an AS level student from Peter Symonds College, Winchester (Britain), argues that students are missing out on a valuable learning opportunity when teachers, rather than students, create learning resources. "Through designing interactive materials to complement my independent study, I have learnt many new skills, and my work has clearly benefited as a result." Via
Teaching and Developing Online /
Ed Tech UK. P.S. From
OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Publishers Disagree Text Prices are Too High
According to the Association of American Publishers, textbooks are reasonably priced given what it costs to produce them. Association president Patricia Schroeder argues, for example, that "one of the books cited by the letter from the mathematics professors, Thomson's 'Calculus: Early Transcendentals,' had 'extensive revisions that cost the publisher more than $1 million.'" One wonders what they spent the money on - it certainly wasn't the author. And the cost to students isn't so high, argues Schroeder, once the resale value is factored in (unless, of cours From
OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Guide to Distance Learning
Trey Martindale saves this link to his
del.icio.us bookmarks, a Flash based tutorial for new distance learning students at Regis University. Nice production values; cut-and-paste doesn't work, of course, so you can't save any information, and the display didn't size correctly on my screen. Was Flash the way to go here? But despite that, it's still one of the better examples of the genre I've seen; full credit to the designers. By Various Authors, Regis University, April, 2005 [
OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
Lemmings, Blackboard, Blogs & RSS
What we have here, of course, is proof that management at Blackboard does not read OLDaily. How else could we explain them having just discovered blogging (from the campus newspaper at University of South Florida, of all places - but hey, at least they read that). Meanwhile,
James Farmer is just beside himself. By Greg Ritter, Bblog, April 13, 2005 [
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OLDaily on April 15, 2005 at 12:45 a.m..
The Dog Barfed Up Some Comments
Although I noted yesterday that my own
technical gaffs had erase all of our blog comments going back to September 2004, I did comb through the last database dump from early March 2005 and sifted out the legit comments for Sept 2004 - March 3, 2005, so the loss was the last month and a half. It was fairly trivial with BBEdit to semi-manually sift out all the spam roach poop. There were a total of 1947 rows in the comment table of the database (for about 6 blogs, mostly inactive) and out of those, From
cogdogblog on April 14, 2005 at 11:48 p.m..