Edu_RSS
Shared Spaces Briefing, Oct 11
Today's highlights: Cyan Soft eProof 4.0; More Servers for Office System; Cyan Soft released Version 4.0 of eProof, a document collaboration solution that enables multiple people to work with the same proof file. "eProof is a document collaboration and remote... From
Kolabora.com on October 10, 2004 at 11:03 p.m..
Panadol 24 Pack: new instructions for consumers
Nice usability study governing
information design on the Panadol label : "This case history demonstrates how information design research and practice can bring about useful social change on a large scale. It is a lightly edited version of a report prepared for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in August 2002 following our work on redeveloping the consumer instructions for Panadol, the most widely used paracetemol analgesic in Australia." Here's my take from this experiment: you From
elearningpost on October 10, 2004 at 10:49 p.m..
This Week’s Grab Bag: Oct. 10
Here's another collection of interesting items that have caught my attention over the past week. TOP OF THIS WEEK'S LIST: "Why can't a newspaper be more like a blog?" This is a brilliant and thankfully blunt series published June 2004 in Barry Parr's blog MediaSavvy. (The rest of this week's grab bag includes items on blogging, content management, content style, e-learning, tools and tips, webfeeds, and one tidbit that is just too cool...) From
Contentious Weblog on October 10, 2004 at 10:05 p.m..
Screen It! National Filmmaking Competition for Students Aged 5-12 Years
Australia's first national moving image competition for Primary Schools being run from September to December this year. SCREEN It! is an exciting challenge for primary student filmmakers to create a moving image work that responds to the theme of 'Pacific Explorer' - inspired by the 'Pacific Explorer' 2005 World Stamp Expo, an international stamp show to be held in Sydney, Australia. Registration close: 29 October 2004. From
EdNA Online on October 10, 2004 at 9:46 p.m..
Associated Press on Creative Commons
The AP has a
very nice article on recent developments at Creative Commons. Getting rights OK'd can be frustrating for artists, be they authors seeking to quote an essay or documentary filmmakers who've got snippets of pop songs playing in the background of key scenes. Artists and scholars who believe the current copyright system unduly stifles creativity are pushing a less restrictive alternative that they call the Creative Commons. Driving the movement is the belief that w From
Creative Commons: weblog on October 10, 2004 at 8:45 p.m..
The optimal layout of search result pages
Henrik Olsen has written an article on the layout of search results. To quote: The authors of this article have studied the optimal layout of search result pages. Their findings suggest that categorizing search results improve users' performance significantly.... From
Column Two on October 10, 2004 at 7:48 p.m..
XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/ XML Inclusions (XInclude) is nu een 'Proposed Recommendation' van het W3C. XInclude definieert een algemeen mechanisme om XML documenten op te bouwen uit onderdelen. Het xi:include element kan worden gebruikt om te verwijzen naar samenstellende documenten. Het samengestelde document wordt dan opgebouwd door een 'XInclude processor'. Voordelen van het opbouwen van documenten uit kleinere onderdelen kunnen zijn: * het wordt eenvoudiger met meerdere mensen gelijktijdig aan een document te werken; * logisch gescheiden eenheden vallen eenvoudi From
CHI weblog elektronisch publiceren on October 10, 2004 at 6:09 p.m..
Bayesian spellchecker?
In the '90s, IBM had a machine translation project that bested rule-based translators simply by using probabilities deduced from analyzing the word usage patterns in a large corpus of manually-translated material. (They used the French and English versions of the proceedings of the Canadian Parliament.) Now Bayesian spam filters are all the rage, using word frequency analyses of known spam and non-spam to decide which folder to put a particular message in. So why not use similar analyses to guide spellchecker alternatives? An analysis of my corpus of documents would reveal that the putati From
Joho the Blog on October 10, 2004 at 4:51 p.m..
learning object resource
Here is another resource for those interested in
learning objects from elearnspace.
¶ “Learning objects (or RLO - reusable learning object) have been the hype of the elearning industry since 2001. They have been hailed as the future reality of learning…and as idealistic, but unatta From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
OSI Academic Free License
An OSI license which may be of interest to researchers and developers in academic institutions:
¶ The
Academic Free License applies to any original work of authorship (the “Original Work") whose owner (the “Licensor") has placed the following notice immediately following the copyright noti From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
Digital resume
An exaample of a digital resume
here demonstrates the multiple technologies that current technology workers need.
¶ Comment: I see this type of resume more the norm in the coming years.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
Great start to the quarter
The first week of Spring quarter has been great. I’m very impressed with the quality of students. Even the weather has been wonderful this week. Things are looking up!
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
Learning content. Theirs, yours, mine and ours.
“… there are some developments that, given time, may make surmounting [LO problems] a bit easier. One is
Edutella, a semantic web based project that addresses the most difficult issue –that of control– by getting rid of the server - client relation that is a feature of most present content sharing systems. Rather than having the learning objects stored in a central system, or even just having discovery and access to the objects regulated by a central system, it moves control and From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
"Link- dense" better for presentations
I like using the Web for putting together presentations, whether individual lesson presentations for courses I teach or full presentations for faculty groups. I dislike using tools like Powerpoint - not because I can’t, but because it seems inefficient (people can’t easily get to the material afterward) and presumptuous because 1) it assumes people have the necessary software and bandwidth, and 2) are intersted in the entire presentation.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:19 p.m..
Learning webs emerge
SIT’s entry references a discussion on the emergence of “learning webs” and a system of four networks proposed by Illich which will help the learner “define and achieve his own goals.”
¶ Comment: Of course this assumes the learner has goals. Younger learner From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:18 p.m..
edge-think
Liz, at mamamusing.com has a
wonderful entry titled “living on the edge(s)". It’s about many things, but the quote below struck me the most:
¶ “That’s it. Right there. The core of what I’ve been saying to my colleagues, to my friends, to myself. The most interesting things seem to happen at the edges. That’s where the From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:18 p.m..
My "knowledgebase" grant proposal
I expect to find out this week whether a small grant I applied for was approved. The college’s Foundation met this evening and presented their recomendations.
¶ My proposal is to create a “knowledgebase” - a web-accessible, searchable collection of small learning “chunks.” These “chunks” can be anything that a faculty feels important to be included in the “k From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:18 p.m..
Flexible schedules and adult learners
I have been performing a private study into how adult learners handle a flexible schedule for requirements in a distance course. (Not really a study, but it has nonetheless been interesting…)
¶ <%image(20030410-data.gif|154|187|Tinker)%> In past academic years, I have held students to fairly strict schedules for assignment submission. Not too much of a problem in most cases, but in From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:18 p.m..
WebCT and the Web
xplana has an entry about a recent visit from WebCT to the UO campus to demo WebCT v.4. There’s more to this article, including discussion about the arrogance of WebCT:
¶ In fact, one of the major themes of the WebCT presentation was that “you don’t need a website anymore - not like you used to!". From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
Here’s how I am using my blog in WebCT
Reading conversations last week about using weblogs within WebCT started me thinking about how I could incorporate my weblog into the five distance courses I mentor each quarter.
¶ WebCT is cumbersome to work in, so I often find that resources I discover which I feel would be useful to a particular course often never gets communicated with the learners. So, last week’s discussion got my interes From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
weblog = "Communities of practice"
Via
weblogg-ed: A wonderful entry highlighting some strengths of weblogs to promote sharing of knowledge.
¶ Will mentions: Great stuff, and all good in theory. But this is going to be a very, very long haul to get the horses to the water and then get them to take a drink. As I’ve said before, this dire From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
Weblogs "Terms of Use" at Harvard
Via Geoffrey, at
blogdriverswaltz: We don’t mean to turn you off from blogging by immediately inundating you with legalese, but we need to make clear our respective
rights and responsibilities related to this service. Thus spoke the Oracle…. <%image(20030423-ccLogo.gif|88|31|Creative Commons logo)%> Comment: Harvard is making use of the Creative Commons “
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
A weblog-based LMS
A Weblog Learning Management System - Part 2, an entry at James Farmer’s weblog offers a nicely detailed diagram (in
pdf format) and outline of how a weblog-based course system might work. This is a simple system, one which could be scaled up or down, depending upon needs. Mostly importantly, this could work extremely well!
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
Amazing possibilities: Weblogs and RSS
Will at Weblogg-ed writes about a recent presetation he made to library folks concerning using weblogs and create and push content. “I swear when I start talking about this stuff and explaining the “big picture” that is Web logs and RSS, I even amaze myself with the potentials that come up.” Comment: Yes, there are possibilities. But we have to keep perspective. As we continue to ramp up the From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
There’s a lot involved….
Via
elearnspace:
¶ “There’s a lot involved in being an online course designer and educator, from creating compelling, Web-friendly content to fostering meaningful interactions among people who in many cases have never laid eyes on each other. “
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
Narrowcasting knowledge
From
OLDaily:
¶ The other part - and the part I was trying to tweak David into recognizing - is that a significant number of researchers look only at this subscription based material; if something is not there, it doesn’t exist.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
New LO Repository at UBC
A
mySQL-based Learning Object Repository is discussed at the Object Learning weblog. The developer,
Ming Chen is looking for feedback. It can sit on almost any box (it uses MySQL on the backend), and I find its metadata entry to be as simple and fast as anything else I’ve used. It could be a useful application for smaller projects — and the few people who have tried it out and reviewed the code have had mostly positive things to s From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:17 p.m..
Weblog presentation: Lessons learned
Will posted a
great summary of a meeting he had with his local school chums about weblogs. He mentioned an important lesson for us all: I’ve learned my lesson in the past and avoided the “really heavy stuff” like RSS and CMS and all those other initials that tend to make newbies’ eyes glaze over. I just stuck to the concept of distributed content creation, collaboration, ease From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:16 p.m..
SCORM problems
Thanks to
Stephen Downes for summarizing and pointing us to
this article.
¶ So SCORM won’t work across domains. As Stephen Lanahas comments, “More importantly though, the architectural aproach of SCORM actually prevents utilization of distributed content repositories across organizatio From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:16 p.m..
weblog as community-builder in academics
I’ve been thinking of some other ways to use weblogs in education. The idea below has just started to be developed. I would be interested in hearing thoughts from others on this:
¶ Weblog as Community-Building Tool
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:16 p.m..
"Too much homework"
What do you say to a student who complains of too much homework? I often am at a loss, because I don’t know why the student is complaining. Is it because he/she is involved in too many courses, or is working full time and taking classes, or has family problems, or has difficulty organizing themselves? Or is it that I in fact do require too much?
¶ I’ve always been under the impression that learners n From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Maybe it’s not the homework after all….
<%image(20030513-homework.jpg|92|92|too much homework)%> I recently blogged my concern about students complaining I ask them to do
too much homework in courses I teach. It seems homework requirements may not entirely be at fault. I’ve had two students within the past two days email me that they are dropping a course because they realized they weren’t prepared. One student had not taken the prerequisite course at all. The other had not done well in the prerequisite cour From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
RFC:: How many weblogs on a single server?
I am requested comments on the following:
¶ <%image(20030515-rfc.jpg|87|86|Request For Comment)%> What is the outside limit on the number of individual weblogs that can operate successfully on a single high-end Linux server? Successfully -> end-users won’t have to wait for page loads, etc. Individual weblog -> a user size of th From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Developing a Knowledge Capture System Based on Sharable and Self Documenting Learning Objects
Via
OLDaily comes mention of: “This interesting paper kicks off this week’s IFETS discussion. The idea is to capture and make available for reuse the knowledge created by students during the course of a class. Those same students could also review previously created knowledge. The mechanism is the ’sniplet’ - a piece of learning material roughly equivalent to what could be placed on one overhead transparency (obviously this definition will have to be updated for those who have never seen acetate). The a From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Reality Weblogging
There’s been some discussion recently among
eduBloggers about whether they should keep the content of their weblogs strictly “business” and not interject other topics or their personal views.
¶ My take on this is, unless one is using the weblog to promote a particular agenda, most who choose to read a weblog wou From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Gaming as a solution for Computer Science Woes
Via xplana comes an
article about the real decline in IT employment and the enrollments in Computer Science departments, and how the gaming industry just might have a solution. At Carnegie Mellon University, applications to the School of Computer Science for next fall are down 36 percent from their peak in 2001; applications to Virginia Tech’s computer science department have declined 40 percent since 2001. At M.I.T., renowned for its computer science curriculum, 20 percent few From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Directory of LO Repositories
A
directory of Learning Object repositories. Sites are categorized according to Level/Organization/Contact/Country/Access/Stats. The directory provides a quick overview about what is available and an entry way to a variety of repositories.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Modified OnyxRSS to properly update cache
I’m using
OnyxRSS as a backend to parse the RSS feeds to my courses, etc. For some reason, I could not get the cache to update using the class as supplied. So, I spent some time tracking down a fix.
¶ Here are my changes: …. // added this function to fix cache From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:15 p.m..
Intel:: How Educators are Using Weblogs
How Educators are Using Weblogs is an article from Intel’s “Innovation in Eduction” site: Weblogs, an increasingly popular form of Web publishing also known as blogs or blogging, offer an exciting new forum for online communication. By allowing for instant publishing and creating a space for dialog between writer and audience, weblogs are generating interest in fields ranging from journalism and world affairs to health news and medical breakthroughs. But this is From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Web Accessibility Learning Module
This site consists of six modules (which in turn connect to a wide array of resources and readings) that cover web accessibility from beginning to end. Every course or learning designer should study this resource. Beginning with definitions of accessibility and regislative requirements (for those in the United States), the modules then provide a host of practical techniques, including very useful sections on accessible PDF, PowerPoint, Flash and stre From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Rubrics, scoring, and grading
Rubrics, scoring, and grading contains examples and guidelines for developing rubrics. Rubrics facilitate student learning and fair scoring and grading. A valid rubric measures what it is intended to measure. Valid rubrics allow instructors to share scoring and grading criteria with students, which focuses students’ attention for both initial learning and for students’ interpretation of feedback. Also, valid rubrics increase the objectivity and reliability of scorin From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Low Threshold Applications
Low Threshold Applications contains all sorts of snippets and tutorials which could be of use to teachers teaching or using technology. A Low Threshold Application (LTA) is a teaching/learning application of information technology that is reliable, accessible, easy to learn, non-intimidating and (incrementally) inexpensive. Each LTA has observable positive consequences, and contributes to important long term changes in teaching and/or learning. “… the potential user (teacher or learner) pe From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Need for support/documentation for eduBloggers
Pam Pritchard blogs: “One quick training inservice or workshop just isn’t going to cut it for most educators attempting to integrate and apply this technology to their classroom world. “ Comment: I agree. A “how-to” won’t be enough. A “cheat-sheet” approach works as well, long term, as a simple in-service - not well at all.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Kucinich: Cut Bloated Pentagon Budget to Fund Education
Here’s the full text of a release from Dennis Kucinich’s campaign (one more reason to take him seriously, IMO): For the second day in a row, Rep. Kucinich took to the House Floor (7/9/03) to call for cutting wasteful military spending to fund domestic programs.
¶ Yesterday, in debate on the $368 billion Defense Department Appropriations Bill, he singled ou From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
Slow blogging days to come
I’m wrapping up my commitment to the college for the Summer and will be moving into a well deserved down time. Instead of eduBlogging, I plan on reacquainting myself with my carving knives, my garden, and do some traveling.
¶ There seems to be a lot of development work going on this summer in the eduBlogging community - wonderful! I’ll stay in touch, but will shift my priorities for a month or so. From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:14 p.m..
RSS feeds for categories
I’ve set up RSS feeds for several categories here at carvingCode. I did this to help readers who may be interested in a particular topic here, but not interested in others.
¶ Here are the RSS feeds:
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
Time for list making
Have put it off long enough. I need to start a list of to-do’s to prepare for Fall quarter. I’ve got several updates/mods to do to my distance courses, syllabus to put together and a new office to put together after the campus made some major room changes over the Summer.
¶ I also need to make a decision about whether I’m going to keep the Drupal-based eduBlog I started in June. (I’m not full From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
(Better than) Using an Aggregator as Email
via
Weblogg-ed: …a clever work around for personal emails to friends and colleagues. It involves using an aggregator and a weblog. This idea would work wonderfully in class as a safe, virus-free means of keeping in touch with your students. Comments: Bloglines seems a clear choice for aggregator, as downloadable aggregators may have system requirements not present on some learners’ computers. But, Bloglines will surely introduce some fee structure in the near future.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
Example of focused use of weblogs
Ray Schroeder writes on the
DEOS list about using weblogs as supplemental reading assignments: I have built a mini-seminar (two credit hours) around blog readings, reviews, critiques, and discussions.
¶ CSC 410 C Emerging Networking and Computer Technology Issues is open to students who hav From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
Weblogs: Beyond the Hype
Brian Lamb has posted a
brief introductory essay on weblogs and their interest to educators. …as usual I find it nearly impossible to cover all the pertinent material in a short space… Comment: Yes, this is a problem, but Brian’s done a good job of it.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
OLN Institute on Shareable Learning Objects
Scott Leslie
provides two snippets to comment on:
¶ Via Michelle Lamberson comes mention of an important collection of papers on learning objects that came out of the recent OLN Institute at Ohio State called “Building and Assessing Shareable Content.” The proceedings for the conference, a book titled < From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:13 p.m..
Good crop
I’ve been very impressed with the new crop of learners here this quarter. Many quality questions in class, and more visits during office hours in just the first week or so than I usually receive in a full quarter.
¶ Now the challenge: To keep this level of interest throughout the entire quarter.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Pachyderm:create interactive, Flash-based presentations
D’Arcy and
Brian (and I’m sure others) are talking about a new (to me) piece of software called
Pachyderm. This allows combining static images into interactive, Flash-based presentations. Pachyderm is a project started by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, out of a need to create some kick-ass interactive pieces from their collection of asset From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Blogs used in education settings: RFR
I’ve an upcoming presentation at
OATYC on weblogs in education. It’s an introductory session and I’m looking for recommendations of some interesting weblogs currently being used in education settings, i.e.: K-12 through college/university classroom, admin, teams, research.
¶ Selected weblogs will be added to the
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Kiddies are back in school and unsupervised
I received three crude spam comments today to
this entry on homework from a young person using a public school domain (outside Chicago). I quickly isolated the IP and added it to my ban list. Plus forward the comment to the school and the technical contact emails. Not much they will be able to do, unless this youngster has a history of being crude.
¶Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Bowling for Columbine: Teacher’s Guide
via
Kairosnews: Michael Moore has released this very cool Teacher’s Guide for using Bowling for Columbine in class. There are TONS of ideas for activities. Comment: This was such a fantastic documentary. True to the point, and probably missed by too many who should have seen it. Moore’s teacher’s guide makes me miis having the opportunity to teach middle and high school.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Conference planning: how not to treat your presenters
I’m scheduled to present at a conference in the middle of October. This is a professional conference, which runs year after year, serving education institutions throughout the state. My presentation was accepted back in June. I was first told I’d receive details the beginning of August, then the end of August.
¶ I’ve yet to receive any specifics about the time/locatio From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Should we call this a "slog" then?
… for slow weblog…
¶ dive into mark has an
interesting entry which asks whether a blog is for you: Some writers need editors… Some people need medication… Some webloggers simply need a different publishing tool… maybe one that works like Amazon’s 1-click shopping cart… Click ̶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Too busy to be-logging
The first three weeks of the term has been very rewarding. Students seem very interested in learning now, so I find I’m spending more time preparing additional peices for class presentations and working with students during office hours. And I certainly don’t mind doing either!
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Linkblog as eduTool
Sebastien Paquet brought my attention to the concept of a linkblog
with this entry. Reading this, I found that many are doing it - creating separate weblogs for entries of links that the author finds interesting/important to maintain, but doesn’t necessarily want to promote to the fore of their main weblog. This takes the place of the “linkdumps” we’ve seen in the past.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
Mixed feelings about the CIT conference
Fine conference, overall. Met many great people doing great things for community college students.
¶ Discussed with a few colleagues that most sessions were too “entry-level.” How are faculty expected to make the necessary next move when they attend conferences that contain the same sessions, or session topics, as previous years?
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:12 p.m..
WebCT v4 discoveries - Content tool pathname
Lesson:
¶ This morning I discovered that the external CSS style sheets I use for several of my online courses, delivered via WebCT, were not styling some of my course pages. The news came as a surprise, because we’re ending week 7 of our quarter. I realized that I had not visited the Content pages at all this quarter!
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
It’s project time!
The latter part of the quarter proves to be the most enjoyable, for me, in several of the courses I teach. During this time, students begin working on their final projects, i.e.: web sites and more significant programming projects.
¶ I enjoy this time because I see so much learning happening. If the student has done their job during the front of the quarter, they have a nice “set of tools” to work with, and n From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
If the sage doesn’t design it, will the learner know they need it?
George Siemens blogs thoughtfully about the need to think about content organization in online courses: Content is viewed as “the point of learning"…when in reality, content is a conduit to learning (that is, the content should lead to reflection, discussion, exploration…which in turn, result in learning). I see where he is going with this, and so agree with many of the points he makes, i.e.: designing content to be responsive to the needs of the learner.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Only in teaching…
There’s not many professions where, in the same day from those you serve, you can hear “You’re the best!” and “You’re the worst!” and both of them really mean it.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Quote for the week
“If you plan for a decade, plant trees. If you plan for a century, plant children.” ~ unknown ~
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
LogiCampus: Open Source CMS
[via
EdTechPost]
LogiCampus is a PHP-based, open source CMS for learning applications. There’s even a
demo where you can log in as either an administrator, teacher, or student and get a firsthand look. LogiCampus is a new distance learning system built in conjunction with Tarrant County College Center for Distance Lear From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Multimedia training program
I’m participating in a training program on campus this week, called Multimedia Madness. It should be fun. While I’m
already comfortable with most of the applications we’ll be using, I’m particularly interested in seeing the video production facility on campus. It’s rumored to be state-of-the-art.
¶ The result of this progra From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Quote for the week
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
¶ President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953 From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Selecting textbooks or pulling teeth?
I don’t know which I enjoy least.
¶ Textbook selection, especially for fast changing IT courses, is not fun. The technology changes or software gets updated and colleges need to spin the change wheel again.
¶ Do you sta From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
We really must take a stand
This country is in a mess. No credibility in NATO. No credibility in the world business community. Destroying the environment. Population soaring. Healthcare cost soaring. Jobs declining. Personal rights being violated. And our national leadership misleading us right and left.
¶ We really must take a stand against this.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Quote for the day
“The true test of leadership is having the courage to stand up for what you believe even when it’s not popular.” Howard Dean From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:11 p.m..
Letter I sent to Ohio newpapers today
Dear Editor,
¶ Ohio has lost over 250,000 jobs in the last three years. A large percentage of Ohio schools are now running in deficit mode and asking property owners to pay a bigger share. Ohio’s state sales tax recently increased by 14%, and the fee to license a vehicle in Ohio increased 25%. The national debt is projected to be a half trillion dollars and 10’s of thousands of Ohio Nation From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Kerry exaggerates role in "leadership"
Kerry
often exaggerates his role by saying “I led the fight…” Actually, The Associated Press last July found that only eight laws had Kerry as their lead sponsor, five of them “ceremonial,” two relating to the fishing industry, and one providing federal grants to support small businesses owned by women.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Campaign of optimism
With only 10% of the total delegates needed to win a Democratic Party nomination awarded, the Howard Dean campaign is optimistic about reaching it’s goal.
¶ Dean is looking toward future, delegate rich states to give him wins. (By the way, Dean is still 2nd in total number of delegates awarded, and as such is still very much in the race.)
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Clear distinction - clear choice
With the media choosing candidates and influencing elections, it’s more important than ever that Americans inform themselves: How can you tell the two apart?
¶ One answers questions directly. The other is evasive and self-contradictory.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Will the bubble burst?
There’s
some discussion about the “electability bubble” of Senator Kerry. The idea is, just like what happened in the late 90’s stock market, if you make all your decisions based upon what you think others are going to do, as soon as the tide shifts, everyone jumps ship.
¶ Comment: This is exactly what happened to Howard From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Farewell… I hardly knew you
We lost a colleague in our department this past Thursday. Larry Adkins passed away at his home soon after being released from the hospital. He was treated for a blood clot in his lung and was sent home to recuperate before undergoing open heart surgery to repair clogged arteries, discovered only during this stay in the hospital.
¶ It was sad news for many reasons: I sat next to him and chatted a bit during our From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Internet Research Reports
Security Space provides many reports on various aspects of Internet usage: SecuritySpace provides the most comprehensive and detailed Internet Research Reports available on the web. Our data sets are available for licensing for a variety of research, marketing and other business needs, detailing everything from technology trends, market penetration rates, customer lists, and more.
¶ Constantly cr From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Pushing buttons, instead of building results
It must be Winter. People are stressing out, making arbitrary demands. Not thinking about the short, or long term, effects of these actions.
¶ Instead of asking, “What is the outcome I’d like to see?” - or as one of Covey’s Habits says “Begin with the end in mind” - it’s easy to fall into the trap of “pushing buttons” to see what kind of rea From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Update: Integrating Weblog in WebCT
There’s not been much to write about integrating the weblog-based resource system into WebCT courses. Not much to write about because its been working great. I’ve now been using this setup for four (4) quarters.
¶ The
system I’m using, and the
setup have been de From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
People who should, but don’t
One of the factors which holds back introduction and development of new technologies on campus is the technical support folks who don’t stay current or are not open to learning new things.
¶ Interesting job…
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Updated reading list
I updated the booklist here on carvingCode to reflect books I’ve recently completed and those in process. I’ve taken a liking to Dan Brown’s novels since reading the Da Vinci Code early last Summer. Brown’s novels have quite a lot of historical realism in them, while offering a good, underlying “who done it” plot.
¶ I’m still working my way through Founding Brothers From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:10 p.m..
Primary/secondary educators "get" weblogs
Pam
writes about the eduBlogging presentation she, Carol, and Skip did at a recent conference in Ohio. Standing room only!
¶ Comment: As I’ve been looking at weblogs and their use in education over the past year or so, I constantly am struck by the way that primary and secondary level educators “get” weblogs. I see man From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:09 p.m..
The Tenure Trek
Theresa Desmond
writes from the University of Utah about the trek for tenure that occupies every college professor’s thoughts until it is achieved. The article attempts to demystify the topic.
¶ Comment: I’m just beginning the time period where I become eligible for tenure at my college. I have applied for promotion (will not hear f From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:09 p.m..
Web Geek humor
Q: Why did the XHTML actress turn down an Oscar? A: Because she refused to be involved in the presentation.
¶ Q: Why was the font tag an orphan? A: Because it didn’t have a font-family.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:09 p.m..
That was interesting…
The domain registration for carvingcode.com expired on March 14 (Sunday). I wasn’t notified by the registrar that I needed to renew it because the email address I used when registering it initially is no longer active (a casualty of spam). It gets better….
¶ I’ve had domains registered since 1995, but this is the first time that one has expired, so I was surprised when I could no longer acces From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:09 p.m..
The ending is the beginning
I find myself at that point in the quarter where I am simultaneously closing the books and reopening those same books; working at both ends of the book (Books used figuratively…)
¶ There always seems to be a two or three week period where I am working in two different quarters; prepping and proctoring final exams and projects, while at the same time prepping the start-of-quarter lessons and materials.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:09 p.m..
50+ hours and counting
It’s 8:30 in the evening on a Saturday and I’m still working on revisions to two online courses. The start of the quarter is Monday, so I need to get things stable soon.
¶ These courses are two that we updated textbooks and increased the number of credits and content, so there was significant work to do. I develop the course materials and do all of the coding myself, rather than get the college’s w From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Rule breakers in edutech
While looking at an institution’s intranet site today, Downes’ “
Nine Rules” kept coming to mind. The person showing me was excited with the technologies it employed, but seemed unconcerned, or perhaps unknowing, that it was useless to most. Hardly anyone at the institution has access to the various tools I saw today, or will in the future. The tools this person was the proudest will be hidden from view from many who could use them.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
The Joys of Instructional Design
George Siemens points to an
entry at xplana discussing one person’s process toward instructional design. I liked the comments George leaves behind: Just a quick note on learning objectives - I find that objectives are of greater value to the designer than the learner. Most learners (based on my experience) do not use the objectives as sign posts to course progress. At best, they read them at the start of the course to see what will be cover From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
I like it
WordPress is nice! Simple set up. Clean admin interface. Wonderful entry panel. Version 1.2 will have a plugin interface (current has a series of “hacks").
¶ v1.2 will also have a method to create sub-categories. This is a feature I am very much interested in! I have been considering porting my
courseBlog over to Drupal based on its taxonomy feature. But, it is cumbersom From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
23rd Page
bahhhh. Here’s the deal: 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 23. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence on your blog along with these instructions.
¶ Heres mine:
¶Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
WordPress update
Over the past three days, I’ve installed and tested three different versions of WP – the 1.02 stable release, 1.2 alpha 1, and 1.2 alpha 2 versions. The 1.02 version worked well, but I wanted to see what the sub-categories option looked like, as well as test some of the additional features, such as the plugins option.
¶ v1.2 alpha 2 came with the first useful plu From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Thumbnail creation and upload
¶ The upload admin option in WP is easy to use, integrated into the software. There is an option to create a thumbnail of the image as you upload it. Nice! The only suggestion I have is to include the URI t From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Importance of blogs on tenure
There’s an important entry on pedablogue concerning
blogging and tenure. Important because scholarly writing is taking on a new face. Academics are no longer only relying on journals to review and publish their writings. We are writing and sharing our thoughts, ideas, and research openly, to the benefit of (most) everyone.
¶ It̵ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Switching hosts within the next month or so
I’ll be switching hosts within the next month or so. Some of the work I am wanting to do requires additional mySQL databases which my current hosting company does not provide (without significant additional cost).
¶ I’m contemplating what to do with the carvingCode weblog. I’ll continue to maintain the
course resource blog, as t From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Still testing WordPress
I’m now testing the CVS version of WP. FIrst time I’ve used CVS, and am finding it simple - love the simple processes!
¶ They doing a great job with the software. Fixing problems, not adding too many while fixing - always a good thing. From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Harmoni PHP Project
Scott Leslie points out a
PHP-based OKI application hosted on sourceforge. This is the result of a collaboration of two projects we’ve heard a little bit about in the past, Segue (which has been referred to at times as the ‘blogging-based CMS’) and a LMS from the Associated Colleges of the South Tech Centre. It’s hard to overstate the impo From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:08 p.m..
Going for consistent interface
I’m in the process of setting up a wiki to compliment the weblogging I’ve been doing for the past year. My NucleusCMS-based weblog has been very useful, and I’ll be importing quite a number of those entries here once I finalize all of the interface issues.
I’m not a designer, yet want to make sure there’s a consistent interface between the
WordPress weblog and the
phpWiki wiki. I’ll be placing resources I use, and will refer thos From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Blog transition
This weblog will not be my primary source of blogging until sometime at the end of the Summer. I am transitioning from one server to another (the new is
opensourcehost – great!!). I am moving some of the work I’ve been doing for the courses I teach to a separate weblog at
resourceblog.com, and will continue to do my daily blogging at my current weblog,
carvingCode.
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Why wouldn’t you use Linux?
Call it dancing with the girl you brought to the prom (or whatever that silly metaphor is,) but Linux on it’s surface just seems too “out there” when you’ve got something that works pretty well already, the resources to change are slim, and no one has any time to learn something new.
¶ Wait until Longhorn comes out. Rumors are that all applicati From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Unlimited WP Weblogs
There’s an interesting article
here about setting up multiple weblogs using WordPress. I’ll read it in more detail later, but it looks as though it’s author has worked out some of the issues.
¶ If this works, I may look at switching my 500+ entry
resourceBlog From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Oops! A new interest…
One of my failings is that I find too many new things to become interested in, although I did read something recently which indicates this might be a trait of a highly creative person; I’m happy to use this to justify my failings.
¶ I have many things on my plate: finishing up a multimedia (hate the word!) Fla From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Feed2JS
Alan has reworked rss2js into
Feed2JS. Basically, it now uses Magpie instead of OnyxRSS as it’s backend parsing tool. Extra feature is ability to parse Atom feeds too. I’m downloading and will study and probably make the changeover on the various sites I currently use rss2js, although rss2js has performed flawlessly for over a year.
¶< From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Separation of personal and profession-related weblogs
This weblog, carvingCode, is now going to be used for personal musings and topics I find interesting that are not related to what I do in my profession. Like many, my career is only one facet of my life. It does not define me. As Jackson Browne once sang, “Don’t confuse what you do, with what you do to survive.”
¶ My career is certainly more important to me than sim From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Hail damage
Here in Southwest Ohio yesterday, we had a hail storm which included the largest hail I have seen. There was 3/4″ and 1″ hail stones laying ont he ground when I arrived home. No major damage to our house, but I did notice this morning that the plastic window well covers we have over our basement windows are shredded: in pieces; will need to be replaced.
¶ From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 4:07 p.m..
Learning Objects Aren't Legos, Part II
In my
last post, I agreed with Stephen Downes that we have to be careful not to take our analogies too literally and specifically pointed out flaws in the “learning-object-as-software-object” analogy. Sometimes the best way to make sure an analogy doesn’t get too deeply rooted is to counter it with… From
e-Literate on October 10, 2004 at 2:59 p.m..
Learning Landscape
This diagram is the first attempt by Ben and myself to represent the learning landscape conceptual framework.... From
ERADC Blog on October 10, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..
Eric Rice's PodCast Interview With Robin Good
Eric Rice, well-known blogger and founder of AudioBlog, now also hosts a radio show on the net. In his relatively recent and experimental audio broadcasting journey Eric's using Garageband to record his an explanation of podcast" target="_blank">podcasts. While in San Francisco Eric visited Robi... From
Kolabora.com on October 10, 2004 at 2:55 p.m..
Game-Based Learning:
Game-Based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century Herein lies a moral about how videogames (arguably one of the most sophisticated forms of information technology to date) are influencing higher education. To learn more about videogames in... From
Teaching and Developing Online. on October 10, 2004 at 1:56 p.m..
Web Conferencing
I hope someone can steer me in the right direction. I am looking for a program that I can purchase one time and load it up on my website to host a web conference a few times a week. I don't ... From
Kolabora.com on October 10, 2004 at 12:55 p.m..
Bush's URO
Geodog, in a comment, points to Cryptome's investigation of the Unidentified Rectangular Object under Bush's jacket during the first debate. Not only does he conclude it was probably a receiver, he has photos of possible devices and lists the frequencies that could be used to provide one's own commentary direct to the presidential tympanum. Cryptome also links to a site with 28 photos that make it pretty clear that the appearance of a URO is not due to, say, a solar flare. Now the NY Times has noticed, so it's an Official Item.... From
Joho the Blog on October 10, 2004 at 12:49 p.m..
The Long Tail
Did I really manage not to link to Chris Anderson's great piece on how the-rest-of-us bloggers are changing the nature of the entertainment market? D'oh! This is the difference between push and pull, between broadcast and personalized taste. Long Tail business can treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass-market fare. Not to mention the social effects of having 5-10 million people creating webs of written relationships.... From
Joho the Blog on October 10, 2004 at 12:49 p.m..
Kerry and Bush on Health and Energy
(This is also my
Sunday column in the
San Jose Mercury News.) They are not-so-hidden drags on our economy: soaring medical and energy costs. The health care system is undergoing a slow-motion implosion, and crude oil is regularly hitting record-high prices on world markets. On health care and energy, George W. Bush and John Kerry have serious differences. They advocate policies that, if enacted or continued, will reverberate through our economy for years to come. This From
Dan Gillmor's eJournal on October 10, 2004 at 12:47 p.m..
American Phrasebook: Addendum
When I visit a country, I like to learn how to say the usual polite things: Hello, Goodbye, Please, Thank you, It was like that when I got here. Starting two years ago, I've found myself learning a new phrase: I am sorry about George W. Bush German: Ich bin über George W. Bush traurig Spanish: Estoy apesadumbrado sobre George W. Bush French: Je suis désolé au sujet de George W. Bush Italian: Sono spiacente circa George W. Bush Portuguese: Eu sou pesaroso sobre George W. Arbusto* Chinese (simplified): 我是抱歉关于乔治・W. 布ߠ From
Joho the Blog on October 10, 2004 at 11:49 a.m..
The truth behind Strangelove
There's an interesting article in today's New York Times about Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (one of my all-time favorite movies), Truth Stranger Than 'Strangelove' What few people knew, at the time and since, was just how accurate this film was. Its premise, plotline, some of the dialogue, even its wildest characters eerily resembled the policies, debates and military leaders of the day. It's pretty horrifying to think that any of what happens, is supposed, and is said in this film is even slightly true. The article also notes that the Film Forum, "is scr From
megnut on October 10, 2004 at 11:45 a.m..
Mobile Instant Messaging
The Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated in early September that 53 million U.S. adults used Instant Messaging. This article reports the technology is now going mobile. "The Pew survey revealed that 15 percent of IM users had sent... From
Kolabora.com on October 10, 2004 at 10:55 a.m..
AACE journals change names
The current online issue of the AACE Journal (International Forum on Information Technology in Education) has been posted at www.aace.org/pubs/AACEJ The former Educational Technology Review, has been renamed to the AACE Journal (AACEJ) to better reflect Its broader topic scope... From
Rick's Café Canadien on October 10, 2004 at 10:55 a.m..
Updating look-n-feel
I haven’t used IE for quite a while. Switched to Mozilla over a year ago, then recently began using Firefox. Both are superior browsers.
¶ This AM, needing to do some testing of my blog/wiki integration authentication, I opened IE. Wow! I didn’t realize the site looked so bad in IE! I apologize to anyone who has d From
Open Artifact on October 10, 2004 at 9:59 a.m..
AOL Readies Stand-Alone Browser - Craig Newell, eWeek
As the hubbub of alternative Web browsers keeps growing"from speculation over a so-called "Gbrowser" from search-engine leader Google Inc. to the many advances in the open-source Mozilla project"in the background, America Online Inc. has been quietly t From
Techno-News Blog on October 10, 2004 at 9:50 a.m..
Crystal Structure Tunes Nanowires - Technology Review
Several groups of researchers are working to control the growth of wires that can be as narrow as a few atoms in diameter and that can be used as nanoscale electronic components. Researchers have been able to grow nanowires that have specific material From
Techno-News Blog on October 10, 2004 at 9:50 a.m..
Free magazine for youth work professionals
UK Youth, the UK's leading national youth work charity, is offering all professionals in the youth sector a special FREE EDITION of their quarterly publication 'UK Youth'. [PRWEB Oct 10, 2004] From
PR Web on October 10, 2004 at 4:46 a.m..
The Columbus American History Never Knew
Since 1892, when President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation urging the nation to mark the day when Christopher Columbus is recorded to have discovered America, the United States has enthusiastically organized school programs, plays, parades, and community-wide festivities across the country. We now celebrate Columbus Day as a day of rest and relaxation. American History, however, fails to teach the true meaning or significance of the man we now honor with a national holiday. [PRWEB Oct 10, 2004] From
PR Web on October 10, 2004 at 4:46 a.m..
African American Author Creates Inspiring and Colorful, Educational Book For Children, Ages 8-12
Zinzi: A Child's Journey to Self Fulfillment, Giving and Caring is a multicultural, family-based values book about friendship is an empowering journey of self esteem building, creative ingenuity, knowledge and leadership. The author, Lynnette Velasco, also includes recipes to help children nurture a healthy body. Zinzi's journey continues in the story of Aunt Rasheida's Pearls where the author uses the craft of soap making to bond family, tradition, and youthful, creative ingenuity. [PRWEB Oct 10, 2004] From
PR Web on October 10, 2004 at 4:46 a.m..
Art Students Attract Attention by Marching at the Met, Seeking Support to Overturn Old-Masters-use-Mirrors Hockney Hypothesis
Artists and students who paint highly realistic pictures 'by eyeball' will march in front of the Met this weekend with a petition protesting uncritical publicity of David Hockney's theory that great artists of the past traced their drawings using optical aids. The students, who come from schools approved by the non-profit Art Renewal Center, will collect signatures supporting their request for a televised rebuttal of the Hockney hypothesis, which is disputed by contemporary master artists and art historians. [PRWEB Oct 10, 2004] From
PR Web on October 10, 2004 at 4:45 a.m..
iPodder up and running
I have been reading quite a few blogs talking about podcasting in the past 2 weeks. Maybe its just the meme-of-the-month, but I enjoy listening to bloggers even more than reading them -- the social presence is just so much greater when I can hear someone. Besides, now that blogging ... From
Just Another Ant on October 10, 2004 at 1:58 a.m..
Sunday, October 10, 2004
While watching the debate the other night, it occurred to me, when did it become a bad thing to be a liberal and why? From
RHPT.com on October 10, 2004 at 1:57 a.m..
autonomic computing becoming necessary...
Stephen Morris, in an article for informIT, writes about:
The Need for Autonomic Computing. I believe that self-diagnosing, self-healing systems are certainly in our future. And, for some of us, that future is now. Some of the more effective solutions that I have been a part of creating have had strong 'autonomic' properties. In this article Stephen Morris comes to the conclusion that: "...The world of software is at an important point in its From
judith meskill's knowledge notes... on October 10, 2004 at 12:56 a.m..
Running out of steam
In a comment at Small Initiatives, Victor speculates about bloggers running out of steam: As for the slow down of frequency and depth of posts of expert bloggers . . . I believe it's mostly because these people had something to say and said it. I used to subscribe to Bicycle Magazine and canceled my subscription because the articles were becoming repetitive. The magazine had little more to add to any of its topics. Although blogs I have found that have become stale have in no... From
Weblogs in Higher Education on October 9, 2004 at 11:47 p.m..