Edu_RSS
Separating conjoined twins.
Every so often a case comes before the courts which raises mind-blowing moral and legal issues. One such case was that of Mary and Jodie, conjoined twins born to a Maltese woman in August 2000. Five years on it raises debate amongst the medical profession. The Court of Appeal ruled that it was lawful for an operation to take place to separate the conjoined twins, even though the descision meant that one child, who had no heart or lungs, would die.Discussions of medical ethics suggests that people should be allowed autonomy and that respecting a person's autonomy means that you respect the From
kuro5hin.org on August 1, 2005 at 10:45 p.m..
User experience strategy
Luke Wroblewski has written an blog entry on user experience strategy. To quote: Much of today's business strategy remains highly analytical. When considering product investments, most companies attempt to derive the attainable market size, the revenue curve, the factors for... From
Column Two on August 1, 2005 at 9:45 p.m..
London College Launches All CC/wiki Program
One of those developments we're happy to see. "London's Ravensbourne College is creating a new program called the School of Computing for the Creative Industries. The whole of the coursewear is Creative Commons licensed and the school itself is organized via a wiki." By Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings, August 1, 2005 [
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OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
The Problem of Where to File: Is it Possible to Construct the Perfect Classification System?
If you are still creating hierarchies to organize your data (say it ain't so!) this article pretty much closes the case: you shouldn't. "Because hierarchies has been the designated one size fits all solution to all our organizational needs, we break our semantically pure hierarchies by overstretching their bounds. As a result, we end up with messy hierarchies that are unusable and unmaintainable." What, then? Two major alternatives are considered: tags, and faceted classification systems. I tend toward the latter, because as the author notes, "tags are too flexible for their own good From
OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
HP Free Online Courses
HP offers
free courses online. Judy Breck ponders "why free courses like the ones here cannot be used in schools instead of spending education dollars to create courses that teach the same material." Good question. By Judy Breck, Golden Swamp, August 1, 2005 [
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OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
Really Open Source
A look at the rapid uptake of open source in academia with a focus on Rice university's
Connexions project. Alan Levine is featured near the end of the article with some good observations. "Levine says that some professors have difficulty understanding that 're-use is not a bad thing.' But Levine sees potential for Connexions at Maricopa and in community colleges generally. 'The alternative future for textbook materials is very intriguing because a lot of our students won't buy textbooks," he says. By Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, From
OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
Kenya Pilots Handheld Education
It's hard to say how successful this program will be, but it probably has a better chance than one requiring expensive computers and land-lines. Charging the machines continues to be a challenge (someone like Bill Gates should send over truckloads of solar-powered chargers) and the contents at the moment are mostly digitized textbooks. By Richard Taylor, BBC News, July 29, 2005 [
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Research< From OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
Create vs. Build -- Publishers and Their LMS Dilemma
If I had to define 'useless' it would probably include a description of learning platforms created by publishers exclusively for their own products. As Rob Reynolds observes, "Publishers argue that the LMS platforms available out there don't necessarily provide the best functionality for that content. Well, looking under the surface a bit renders that argument ridiculous." The real reason for such platforms is, of course, lock-in. Once you have the, say, McGraw-Hill platform, you are much less likely to buy Thomson's books. But this advantage disappears as soon as interoper From
OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
Open Source for Digital Curation
Comprehensive guide outlining why curators should consider open source and outlining a number of products and applications. If you are in the museum community this is an essential read. Part of a larger series on digital curation. By Andrew McHugh, Digital Curation Centre, July, 2005 [
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OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
New MacTels Using "Trusted Computing"?
There is dismay in the Apple user community as it appears that new systems will prevent owners from playing 'unauthorized' content. "It's like a blender that will only chop the food that Cuisinart says you're allowed to chop. It's like a car that will only take the brand of gas that Ford will let you fill it with. It's like a web-site that you can only load in the browser that the author intended it to be seen in." By Alec Couros, Couros Blog, August 1, 2005 [
Refe From OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
How To Give A Great Presentation
Not a bad collection of tips, and hence work reading, but won't actually tell you how to give a presentation. I once read a book called Winging It by Keith Spicer that was of vital importance to me. Not online. Maybe it's in a
library near you. By D. Keith Robinson, To-Done, July 20, 2005 [
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OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
e-Learning Tech That is Fit For Purpose, Innovative and Sustainable
Wilbert Kraan asks the question central to e-learning standards: "for a new type of tool, do you agree an interoperability specification first, and then build applications, or build applications first, and then agree a spec later?" A bit of both, he seems to argue; that's why the E-learning Framework (ELF) is being developed iteratively. He eventually steers toward my way of thinking: "Finally, there is sheer, blinding simplicity. Not just to make sure the spec is consistent and coherent, but mostly to make adoption as easy as possible. RSS and Atom are clear examples of what can be done From
OLDaily on August 1, 2005 at 5:45 p.m..
Moodle Forum - Blogs, Forums and the nature of discussion
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27338 One of the things I love about the Moodle community is that, far more than almost any of the other open source CMS, they seem to have really rich discussions about the pedagogical uses of the tools they are building, not just their functionality utility or technical challenges (AND, you can even view them as a Guest if you are adverse to new accounts). And this particular one is no different - starting with a post from Moodle's founder, Martin Dougiamas, this thread (55 From
EdTechPost on August 1, 2005 at 4:51 p.m..
On the beach
Aunque vendré por aquà de vez en cuando, ya que el próximo lunes este sitio cumple 3 años, además tengo que contarles que vuelvo a México en septiembre, que avanzan los preparativos del II Encontro de Weblogs en Portugal,... From
eCuaderno v.2.0 on August 1, 2005 at 3:47 p.m..
Is 2006 the year of the e-Book?
Is 2006 the year of the e-Book? "The e-book market still has three uncertainties. The first is suitable devices. The second is publishers releasing books, and the third is library lending. Before e-books can take off, these issues need resolution." [
TeleRead] From
Bill Brandon: eLearning on August 1, 2005 at 1:46 p.m..
Virtual Earth
Microsoft's answer to Google Maps is
Virtual Earth. Obviously Microsoft uses other data for their maps. Alltogether Google Maps appear to be nicer, faster, a little more precise and with better aerial imagery. Microsoft sometimes uses BW images - maybe from the infrared spectrum. Microsofts product also sometimes fails to load all tiles of the current view. But Virtual Earth offers more detailed information per zoom level that are hidden in Google Maps. While Virtual Earth offers a very cool search feature (with auto update). There is also an A From
owrede_log on August 1, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..
Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful
Interesting
shift by Donald Norman, who now suggest that designers may be missing many opportunities by spending too much energy focusing on user-centered design: "The historical record contains numerous examples of successful devices that required people to adapt to and learn the devices. People were expected to acquire a good understanding of the activities to be performed and of the operation of the technology. None of this “tools adapt to the people” nonsense — people adapt to the tools From
elearningpost on August 1, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..
Mapping Emotions
Interesting article from BusinessWeek: "People are shying away from the next "best thing" and opting for products that "work for me." As a result words like "emotion" and "personal meaning" are finding their way into corporate strategic briefs, in places where words like gigabytes and baud rate used to reside. Even new descriptions of great design -- "easy," "accessible," "affordable," "empowering" and "personal" -- reflect on the person rather than the object." Now, a From
elearningpost on August 1, 2005 at 11:45 a.m..
Teens Online
From "Teens and Technology" by The Pew Internet & American Life Project, as summarized by the Center for Media (taken verbatim): About 21 million teens use the Internet and half of them say they go online every day 51% of online teens live in homes with broadband connections 81% of wired teens play games online, which is 52% higher than four years ago 76% of online teens get news online, 38% higher than four years ago 43% have made purchases online, 71% higher than four years ago 31% use the Internet to get health information, 47% higher than four years... From
Joho the Blog on August 1, 2005 at 9:49 a.m..
Sorry to be missing BlogHer
I'm on family vacation or I'd be there instead of occasionally swimming alongside via the blogher tag. Sounds great. [Technorati tag: blogher]... From
Joho the Blog on August 1, 2005 at 9:49 a.m..
Fox movie studio backs Sony's Blu-ray DVD - Reuters
Twentieth Century Fox film studio on Friday gave its backing to Blu-ray technology for next-generation DVDs, becoming the last of Hollywood's major movie groups to choose sides in a pitched battle over standards. Blu-Ray, developed by Sony, is challengin From
Techno-News Blog on August 1, 2005 at 8:46 a.m..
Congress lowers the national bedtime
Following on the heels of its successful one-month extension of Daylight Savings Time, the US Congress today lowered the national bedtime by one hour on weekdays and one and a half hours on weekends. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored the bill, said that this would save 100,000 barrels of oil a day as people snapped off the lights sooner. And, he noted, "Everyone knows that most alcohol-related accidents occur after 11pm. We expect to save 12,000 lives a year from that alone." A rider to the bill added at the last moment changes the extra day of Leap... From
Joho the Blog on August 1, 2005 at 8:45 a.m..