No Boundaries for the Journeys of the Mind Interesting article that takes a look at the use of instructional technology from the long view. Is the internet delivering on its educational promise? How could we tell? "What makes the Internet more than just the latest in a long chain of technological innovations that have fallen short of inflated expectations in the realm of advanced learning?" By Arun Kumar Tripathi, Ubiquity (ACM), September, 2001.[Refer]

Exploiting and Protecting802.11b Wireless Networks College and university campuses are increasingly providing wireless internet access, but they should be wary of the security risks. This article describes the results of wireless network security testing (the overall result: insecure!) and describes some testing and security methods. By Craig Ellison, Extreme Tech, September 4, 2001.[Refer]

Bad Managers Selected bits of worst practices from software houses. Very funny, punctuated with bits of "uh, oh, my boss does that" and even a little "uh, oh, I've done that." Recommeded, especially for managers. By , , .[Refer]

New SCORM Release Will Incorporate IMS Specifications According to this short article, The Advanced Distributed Learning Network (ADL) is due to release a new version of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) in the next few weeks. Version 1.2 of SCORM will incorporate the version 1.1.2 of the IMS Content Packaging specification, and IMS Metadata version 1.2. There is more (badly written and not especially informative) information on the ADL website By Scott Wilson, CETIS, September 17, 2001.[Refer]

The Next Big Thing? Three Architectural Frameworks for Learning Technologies This is an important article summarizing the panel on Architectural Frameworks at the IMS symposium in Ottawa in August 2001. Three models of learning objects and learning content management systems (LCMS) are described: Mark Norton's services model, in which learning technology is developed and distributed as a set of interoperable modules; Dan Rehak's layered model, in which the technology is depicted as a service stack where with fundamental infrastructure services supporting learning services which in turn support the user experience provided by 'user agents'; and Scott Thorne's Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) framework that is intended to develop a set of learning technology program interfaces (APIs). As the author notes, it is important to see these models not as conflicting approaches but rather as different ways of viewing the same approach. And the same issues crop up with all three approaches: what is content? And how does content merge with learning? This paper is a great read, lucid, clear, dealing with complex issues with a light touch. By Scott Wilson, CETIS, August 28, 2001.[Refer]

Comment & Analysis: Why Context Is King Nice commentary about the nature of learning objects. According to several presenters at the IMS conference in Ottawa last Ausust, "The informational content of the learning experience only gains meaning from the environment in which it is presented; for example, the purpose of the learner, their physical environment when interacting with the content, and the values of the community of which the learner is a part." Fair enough, but then, the argument runs, for something to be a learning object, it must incorporate both information and context, or as Norm Friesen says, "it must have a specified pedagogical purpose." I'm not sure I agree with that. To be sure, when an object is used, it must be used in a learning context with a specified purpose. But it does not follow that the object itself is not separable into its component (pedagogical and informational) parts. And there are good reasons why we want to be able to separate them: we want to use a single piece of information in several contexts, for example. So we need to be careful: if learning object metadata 'locks in' a specific pedagogical purpose, then we will find ourselves needlessly replicating informational content, or failing to find relevant informational content coded for a slightly different pedagogical purpose. By Scott Wilson, CETIS, August 27, 2001.[Refer]

The Seekers According to the author, "Students in modern societies can be classified into three groups, namely the 'certification seekers,' the 'degree seekers,' and the 'knowledge seekers.'" The first two groups are looking for pieces of paper to improve their employment opportunities and are less interested in the knowledge those pieces of paper represent. "Researchers, intellectuals, inventors, discoverers, philosophers and thinkers of the future will emerge from the ranks of the 'knowledge seekers,'" the author concludes, and universities will have to find ways to serve them. By M.O. Thirunarayanan, Ubiquity (ACM), September 10, 2000.[Refer]

How to make Technology-based Training Work Forbes weighs in with a special report entitled "How to make Technology-based Training Work." Caution, though: this is an advertising feature sponsored by Brandon-Hall, Digital Think and a half dozen others. And also, though I'm including this link in today's newsletter, I'm still waiting for the first page to finish downloading... may you have more luck than I. By Brandon Hall, Forbes, September, 2001.[Refer]

German Publishers Campaign Against New Law Publishers are very keen to enforce copyright. But this does not translate into a desire to actually pay writers for work reprinted in different electronic formats, as this unusual publishers' protest in Germany illustrates. By Arthur Graaff , Content Wire, September 18, 2001.[Refer]

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