Edu_RSS
links for 2005-06-02
GorillaMask.net: Stuffed animals perform the final scene from Seven Brad Pit as an Orang-Utan (thanks to Relativepath.org) (tags: MakesSnicker) mcharper's musings » More formal folksonomy tags Peer Pressure » Ubertags Thoughts on blending tags and taxonomies Why From
Monkeymagic on June 2, 2005 at 8:53 p.m..
The Records Management Report
CMS Watch has just published a brand new report by Priscilla Emery, titled The Records Management Report. To quote: The Report provides a comprehensive overview of Records Management solution providers and best practices. The bulk of the report entails comparative... From
Column Two on June 2, 2005 at 8:47 p.m..
Summer of Code
Google will be very popular with developers for a while as it sponsors students to create open source code over the summer. "Google will provide a $4500 award to each student who successfully completes an open source project by the end of the Summer." By Announcement, Google, June, 2005 [
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OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Devoid of Content
Would you want to ban content entirely from the classroom? Probably not, but Stanely Fish has a point when he observes that students are not taught the formal properties of language, "the distinctions - between tense, number, manner, mood, agency and the like - that English enables us to make." Having students create their own linguistic rules, I think, is also a good idea, helping them recognize the difference between the concept - the roles of adjective and adverbs, say - and the code used to express them. By Stanley Fish, New York Times, May 31, 2005 [
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Intel Quietly Adds DRM to New Chips
Normally when a chip manufacturer introduces a revolutionary new feature it launches an advertising blitz. When it launches a feature none of its curtomers want, however, it keeps pretty quiet about it. That has been the case with Intel and its very quiet introduction of digital rights management (DRM) into some of its new processors. The chips are not without controversy, and not merely because they enshrine the Hollywood view of things into silicon. The details of how the chips work are being kept secret in order toi prevent hacking - but having undocumented chip functions creates a major se From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children
Using a technique called the Digital Opportunity Measuring Stick researchers surveyed children in the United States to determine whether information and communications technologies (ICTs) were improving their lives. Not surprisingly, they did, most specifically in the areas of health, education, economic opportunity and civic participation. Comprehensive study, good reference. By Various Authors, The Children's Partnership, June, 2005 [
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OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Systems Thinking and Practice: Diagramming
This may all be old news to some people, but there is enough of a relation to concept mapping and to network analysis, both of which have been recent items of discussion in the e-learning space, to warrant inclusion here. Systems thinking is essentially the use of models to represent actions and influences in complex environments. It includes a method of diagramming that enables users to visualize these environments. This link is to a course offered by the Open University. It's mostly Flash-based, and if you view it without sound (as I did) a transcript is available. Watch for the incredi From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
La directrice générale de la Télé-Université du Québec se fait rassurante
It has been in the works for some time now, but now it's official: Quebec's distance learning organization, Télé-Université du Québec (Téluq) has been absorbed by l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Coverage is in French.
Daniel Lemire observes, "To my knowledge, it is the first time a large university eats up a distance learning university. It brings all sort of fun stuff... for example, UQÀM has a degree in communication, so does Téluq... UQÀM has a degree in business, so does Téluq... and so on." By Unattributed, Radio-C From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Access All Articles
Coverage of the trend toward open access publishing. "The momentum towards free online publication of scientific research is becoming unstoppable." And I like this: "the UK's biggest non-governmental funder of biomedical research, has taken the historic step of announcing that, from October 1 2005, recipients of its funding will be required to deposit a copy of all resulting research articles in an online archive." By Matthew Cockerill, The Guardian, June 2, 2005 [
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OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Playtime in the Classroom
As the article notes, this may be news to people who don't play video games, but researchers are reporting that the use of these games improves learning. The author focuses mostly on "American pop science writer" Steven Johnson along with MIT Arcade and James Paul Gee. Mentioned are two of my favorite games, Sim City and Civilization (the two of which I have played almost incessantly over the years, though recently I have been recreating the Montreal Expos 2005 season on EA Baseball). By Jim McClellan, The Guardian, June 2, 2005 [
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
Higher Education at Risk
Good interview with Richard Hersh, former president of Trinity College (Conn.) and co-editor of the book Declining by Degrees, a critical commentary on the state of higher education in the United States (and probably elsewhere). I don't agree with everything (for example, I'm not sure it's a bad thing to evaluate graduates by SAT scores rather than GPAs (keeping in mind that SAT itself is far from a perfect indicator)). But there is some great commentary here. "When business groups in every major study of the last seven or eight years, and every major academic study, rais From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
"The Lowdown on Podcasting" (BusinessWeek Online Special Report)
Following a
report in Business week, Mark Oehlert predicts it's going to get ugly. "I can hear all kinds of bandwidth being siphoned off the grid as thousands of aspiring DJ's, trapped behind the corporate facade begin podcasting their own indie shows... I always wonder though, what kind of indicator is a special report in BusinessWeek Online about a practice that was so edgy just minutes ago." Maybe, but podcasting may be what saves the bandwidth industry, which has been moribund lately. From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
We Are All Apprenticing at Light Speed
If there is a theme for today's newsletter, it is probably this. "We are all improvising at some fundamental level; making it up as we go along. Instead of looking for someone with an answer to copy, we now have to participate in the invention process ourselves." You cannot learn it all - you certainly cannot learn it all ahead of time. Even as you read this newsletter, the speed at which innovation flies at you forces you to make decisions, to improvise - read this item, skip that; look at this software, discard that. As you read this newsletter, you are inventing your educatio From
OLDaily on June 2, 2005 at 8:45 p.m..
When User Comments Become Community Journalism
The editors of the
Ventura County Star faced a fascinating online dilemma this week involving a story about a killing spree (four dead and five injured) that ended in the suicide of the shooter in a Wal-Mart store Tuesday morning. The newspaper's website reported the Tuesday incident shortly after it occurred, but because police hadn't released the suspect's name, it wasn't included in the Star's report. (The police knew, of course.)According to assistant managing editor for new media and tec From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on June 2, 2005 at 7:54 p.m..
El PaÃs rectifica su estrategia on-line
"ELPAIS.es, para todos": asà se titula la rectificación de una aventura desafortunada que ha durado dos años. Ese es el tiempo que ha aguantado El PaÃs el "cerrojazo" de su página Web. Hace casi un año decÃamos aquÃ, refiriéndonos a la guerra por la supremacÃa entre los periódicos on-line: "¿hasta cuándo podrá seguir manteniendo su imagen de medio lÃder en el mundo hispanohablante con unos ridÃculos 25.000, o 50.000 usuarios, frente a cifras de millones de usuarios de otros medios?". Que el modelo de pago por contenido (...) From
martinalia.com | Gestión de Contenidos on June 2, 2005 at 6:58 p.m..
The Changing Shape of Corporate Universities
Die Autoren vertreten eine interessante These, um die Schwierigkeiten zu begründen, mit denen Corporate Universities heute zu kämpfen haben: "A primary problem on the demand side was that corporate universities served to isolate learning. They tended to consign learning to... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on June 2, 2005 at 6:52 p.m..
Google and the Gutenberg Project: Read All That Has Been Written (Anywhere, Any time, Any language); Pretty Soon?
Summary: In our efforts to use the writings of others to bootstrap our own learning we often do full-text searches. While we're used to doing this with materials that have been specifically written for the web, we're not yet used to the possibility of having access to all of the world's writings. Maybe it's time to get used to the idea!! In this entry I'm referring to the knowledge quest that starts with the phrase search, i.e., the entry of a phrase , e.g, "individualized, web-based, instruction", "weapons of mass destruction", or "yogic support o From
Connectivity: Spike Hall's RU Weblog on June 2, 2005 at 6:49 p.m..
Google and the Gutenberg Project: Read All That Has Been Written (Anywhere, Any time, Any language); Pretty Soon?
Summary: In our efforts to use the writings of others to bootstrap our own learning we often do full-text searches. While we're used to doing this with materials that have been specifically written for the web, we're not yet used to the possibility of having access to all of the world's writings. Maybe it's time to get used to the idea!! In this entry I'm referring to the knowledge quest that starts with the phrase search, i.e., the entry of a phrase , e.g, "individualized, web-based, instruction", "weapons of mass destruction", or "yogic suppor From
Connectivity: Spike Hall's RU Weblog on June 2, 2005 at 6:49 p.m..
Blog Guides
Anil Dash for ProNet points up two potentially useful resources available at Yahoo: A comprehensive RSS users guide and their employee blogging guidelines. Cheers Anil! EdTechUK: Blog Guides... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
Blogrolls...good or bad?
On his website and in his regular newsletter, Stephen Downes has argued eloquently against the blogroll. Stephen's ideas are always worth thinking about, but in this case, I happen to disagree. In defence of the blogroll, or, Some Of Us... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
Too Much Homework?
Looks like a pair of researchers have gotten around to proving what many students have argued all along--too much homework may result in less prepared students. Too Much Homework = Less Prepared Students | Kairosnews... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
Laughter and Learning
Watch out, Leno, here come the professors. Though most students would argue that academia and humor are about as compatible as oil and water, two Ohio University psychology professors argue that the use of humor in online courses can yield... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
Influence of Personality on Online Discussion
Online collaborative learning has typically been studied within the context of learning communities. Little is known about the potential influence of students' personalities on online communication, group interaction, and task engagement among members of a learning community. Influence of Personality... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
These factors retard digital teaching.
What's holding back the digital curriculum? A lot of things: too few classroom computers, poorly conceived professional development, and a lack of time to research and plan--to name three big factors, according to a new report from the nonprofit Education... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
ElPais.es Turns to a Free/Paid Mixed Model
After two years and seven months working with a paid-subcription model, Spain's
ElPais.es has made the decision to switch to a mixed one, increasing its free offering. In November 2002, the website of El Pais decided to turn from a free service to a paid one, as a I explained in
an item here at that time. This period of experience has convinced the company that the best option right now is to have a combined offer."This is the tendency we see in the sector and the model we From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on June 2, 2005 at 5:46 p.m..
Finding Local Bloggers
I get a lot of e-mail from people thinking that I might know the answer to new-media related questions; sometimes I do. A few weeks ago I was asked how to find blogs by geographic location -- which I did not have a good answer for then. But this week search guru Chris Sherman pointed out, in a
SearchDay column, Blogdigger's new
local blog search.This should be a handy tool for local news organizations looking to locate local bloggers to be inc From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on June 2, 2005 at 3:50 p.m..
The Citizen Meteorologist
WeatherBug, which has a history of innovation, continues that by adding "citizen journalism" to its weather news service. It's formed a nationwide (U.S.) network of citizen weather reporters, "who will collect, report, and share weather information from their own WeatherBug Backyard Tracking Stations," according to its press release.WeatherBug has been selling Backyard Tracking Stations since late 2004, but the new feature is that anyone who's purchased one will be allowed to be a "citizen meteorologist," writing blog items and submitti From
Poynter E-Media Tidbits on June 2, 2005 at 3:50 p.m..
Mediation
Dave Rogers pushes back on Doc's statement on the Chris Lydon show he, Dave Winer and I appeared on that the Net isn't a medium and is unmediated. "Doc's weblog is as heavily mediated as network television, it's just that there's only one box in the org chart and his name is in it," Dave writes, part of a long post I can't summarize adequately. I think it's helpful, though to drop the word "mediation" and its variants for purposes of this discussion. With that word out of the way, it does seem to me there's a real difference between... From
Joho the Blog on June 2, 2005 at 2:48 p.m..
Einstein Quotation:
I know this is a bit of a departure from the usual content of this blog, but I hope it is a good one. Brian Buydens sent along this quotation from Albert Einstein that I think has some resonance. Here... From
Rick's Café Canadien on June 2, 2005 at 1:53 p.m..
Ontologies are overfeared
Clay's recent polemic misses a key point I think. Yes, classification is political. Yes, classification is imperfect in a changing world. Yes, we need to be wary of all that. But what are "tags", "folksonomies", "ontologies", and "tag clouds" when... From
Monkeymagic on June 2, 2005 at 9:55 a.m..
Schools Not Being Schools
David Warlick makes a great point about the ramifications of blocking blogs instead of teaching blogs and the message it sends to our students when he asks For the sake of protecting our "behinds", are we shoving learning out the doors of our schools? IÂ’ll say it again, the more I think about this and the more I see it happening, the more I think that this is about losing control over the content rather than safety. That is not to say that there arenÂ’t safety issues out there. Certainly schools have to prot From
weblogged News on June 2, 2005 at 9:48 a.m..
The Keller Theory of Permanence
One of my coworkers tossed off a line in a meeting last week that I think was good enough to paraphrase into a basic rule of the workplace. With absolutely no apologies for my shameless theft of his original idea, I offer The Keller Theory of Permanence: No job transfer, reassignment, retirement, or other personnel change is permanent until cake has been served. From
Brain Frieze on June 2, 2005 at 8:56 a.m..
Gpic Worm Hits AIM - Jim Wagner, Internet News
In an advisory posted by enterprise IM vendor IMlogic Wednesday, officials warned of a new worm spread by old means: getting users to click on a URL that purports to come from a friend on their buddy list. The latest threat to AOL's instant messaging (IM) From
Techno-News Blog on June 2, 2005 at 8:49 a.m..
Community MX Releases JumpStarts Vegas
Community MX, the on-line journal for web developers using Macromedia products, has released another in our series of JumpStarts packages.
JumpStart Vegas as described by Sheri German in this overview of the package, contains all the images and code you'll need to quickly create an entire web site "using valid XHTML 1.0 markup and formatted using valid CSS 2.1 styling. Vegas also follows the WAI... From
Brain Frieze on June 2, 2005 at 7:53 a.m..
Patterns in production and distribution
I like this. A lot. Though it makes me wish I could read Norwegian. Jon Hoem over at Diablog :: has come up with a nifty chart which, if I understand it, breaks down relationship types (ish) as a result... From
Monkeymagic on June 2, 2005 at 6:53 a.m..
Koreans Forge Ahead on Cloning
The Bush administration opposes the cloning of human embryos for stem-cell research. South Korea has no such qualms, and cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk intends to open a world stem-cell bank to facilitate wider research. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Too SeXXXy for Dot-Com
The net's oversight group is creating an 'xxx' website suffix for adult-oriented sites to help make the web safer for kids. The addresses will sell for $60 each by next fall or winter. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Broadcast Flag at Half Mast?
Key lawmaker says he opposes adding a copy-protection scheme to digital TV bill, handing the movie industry another setback in anti-piracy plans. By Michael Grebb. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Sniff This and Fork It Over
Swiss researchers identify trust in a bottle: Study subjects who sniff oxytocin are more trusting with their money than a control group, and the implications cause concern. By Kristen Philipkoski. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Biomass Adds to Ethanol Debate
Corn rules the roost when it comes to ethanol in the United States, but new technologies may make plant debris a cheaper, more abundant choice. By John Gartner. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Spamming Outside the Box
Enforcing the Can-Spam Act isn't exactly at the top of the FTC's to-do list, so individuals are taking up the fight. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
The Other Side of BitTorrent
As Hollywood ramps up its fight against the film-swapping kingpin, some in the industry find a silver lining. By Patrick Gray. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Collector's Trove of Podcasts
A man makes it his mission to archive every scrap of online amateur radio, even though he thinks most of it is rubbish. By Ryan Singel. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
The Washingtonienne, a Novel
Jessica Cutler's roman à clef chronicles the sexploits of a young woman who humps her way around Capitol Hill, only to have her anonymous blog bring her life crashing down around her. By Susannah Breslin.PLUS: Read an excerpt from the book. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
The Fire Rebels
They're taking on the American firefighting establishment with a precision method of dousing flames. The hot new way to save lives and burning buildings: bursts of delicate fog. By Joshua Davis from Wired magazine. From
Wired News on June 2, 2005 at 6:46 a.m..
Link Presentation (Outside and Inside)
Does anybody know if you can colour-code links based on where they're going to? What I'm interested in is getting (and giving) a quick visual indication of where the links on a post are headed. As far as I see... From
Monkeymagic on June 2, 2005 at 5:52 a.m..
Formulario para comentarios en fuentes RSS
Russell Beattie está experimentando con la inclusión de un formulario para comentarios en la fuente RSS de su blog. Lo cuenta en: Playing with Forms in Feeds y Forms in Feeds Continued.... VÃa: The RSS Weblog.... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on June 2, 2005 at 4:51 a.m..
Why Does Knowledge Management Still Matter?
Weil dieser Artikel so typisch ist, sei auf ihn verwiesen. Und weil er in einer der weltweit auflagenstärksten Zeitschriften auf dem Bildungsmarkt erschienen ist. Bei diesem Blick auf das Thema geht es weniger darum, was Knowledge Management ist oder sein... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on June 2, 2005 at 3:51 a.m..
Auf dem Weg zur Lerngesellschaft
Ich hatte mich vor einigen Wochen auch um die Teilnahme an dieser europäischen e-Learning-Konferenz beworben(!), leider ohne Erfolg. Jetzt muss ich lesen, dass viele der Teilnehmer mit positivem Bescheid nicht gekommen sind. Dabei ging es um nichts Geringeres als Europas... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on June 2, 2005 at 3:51 a.m..
The Virtual University: Models and messages
Eine Sammlung von Case Studies, in denen verschiedene Modelle von Virtual Universities vorgestellt werden. Einige sind (mir) bekannt wie z.B. die Athabasca University in Canada oder die University of Maryland in den USA, aber von den anderen habe ich noch... From
www.weiterbildungsblog.de on June 2, 2005 at 3:51 a.m..
Touch down in Victoria
Sebastian Fiedler After a few fabulous days in Sydney where
Anne and Stephen were generously hosting me in their lovely house in the cozy Paddington neighborhood, I flew down to Melbourne where
James kindly offered a pick up and delivery service to
Adrian and Anna. Shame that I missed
Mark who departed Melbouren only a f From
Seblogging News on June 2, 2005 at 3:50 a.m..
The intranet imperative
James Dellow has written a blog entry on the evolution of intranets. To quote: The nature of intranets is changing. In fact the term intranet itself is rapidly losing meaning as the Internet interpenetrates organisations through a mixture of business-to-business... From
Column Two on June 2, 2005 at 3:47 a.m..
Kooser on writing
And I'd like a world, wouldn't you, in which people actually took time to think about what they were saying? It would be, I'm certain, a more peaceful, more reasonable place. Ted Kooser, "A Poet's Job Description," The Poetry Home Repair Manual, page 5. From
Weblogs in Higher Education on June 2, 2005 at 2:49 a.m..
Encouragement of personal learning
The terms 'training', 'teaching', 'tutoring', 'therapy', 'coaching'. 'counselling', 'custody' and 'consulting' define some of the professional activities which are, or should be, concerned with the encouragement of personal learning. To avoid lengthy repetition... the whole kaleidoscope of professions will be referred to as T-C. The term will be used as both noun (e.g. teacher, consultant) and a verb (e.g. to teach and to consult)... [Thomas & Harri-Austein, 1985, Self-Organized Learning: Foundations of From
Seblogging News on June 2, 2005 at 12:50 a.m..
One hell of a bad bill
Sen. James Sensenbrenner (Rep., Wisc.) has introduced H.R. 1528, a bill that would mandate a ten-year minimum sentence if you smoke pot within 500 feet of a child. And that's just the beginning of its badness. If you see someone using drugs anywhere near a child, you must tell the cops within 24 hours or go to jail for 2-10 years...unless you're the parent of the child so wickedly exposed to someone smoking a joint, in which case you're sent away for 3-20. Yeah, forcing people to become informants. That's what's made this country great. The bill has been referred... From
Joho the Blog on June 2, 2005 at 12:48 a.m..