OLDaily By Stephen Downes May 19, 2003 World Education Market I am sitting in the press centre at the World Education Market in Lisbon, Portugal. It has been, oh, 24 or more hours since I have slept. I am using an odd keyboard which won't let me access email. I couldn't find my speakers' meeting. But I'm here. Email and full coverage begins tomorrow. Let's rock. Let's roll! By Stephen Downes, May 19, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] If You Want To Be in Google, You Gotta Be On The Web The Google issue in a different light. Dave Winer wrote the above on Sunday. OLDaily readers will recall that I said the exact same thing on Friday. "Want Google rank?" I said, "Publish good stuff..." But it is, of course, Winer's version of the argument that is all over the Blogsphere. See, Google doesn't rank 'first' it ranks 'most' (the one interesting exception to this being Google news, where 'first' counts but 'accuracy' doesn't). And though many articles break first in the mainstream, they are discussed most in the Blogsphere. So I take back a bit of what I said Friday. The Google algorithm should attempt to trace - and credit - the origin of a meme. Otherwise we will be in a situation where, according to Google, Dave Winer is the originator of all thought. By Dave Winer, DaveNet, May 18, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Buried Treasure "Why has Bill Gates stashed millions of the greatest images of the 20th century under a mountain in Pennsylvania?" On the one hand, critics allude to a desire to own much of 20th century history. On the other, however, is the fact that the photographs were disintegrating faster than they could be scanned. By Mary Battiata, Washington Post, May 18, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Microsoft to Buy Unix Technology From SCO Group Say it ain't so. According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is to license SCO's unix technology. The move is seen as indicative of Microsoft's desire to undercut open source in general. More... By Unknown, Dow Jones Business News, May 19, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] WebCT Campus Edition Version 4.0 - Key Features Click on the 'Learining object demo' link on this page to view WebCT's current support for learning objects. What is needed, of course, is a means to tie this system into a learning object repository (I guess plans are in the works) or - what would be better, from my view - a way to link into an external metadata repository to provide maximal selection and search capability. By Various Authors, WebCT, May, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Developing a Knowledge Capture System Based on Sharable and Self Documenting Learning Objects 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 diuring 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 author describes a sniplet authoring system and raises a number of questions related to their classification and use. Good stuff. By Michael Verhaart, International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, May 18, 2003 11:59 a.m. [Refer][Research][Reflect] Learning Object Discussions Patricia McGee adds this useful footnote to last week's IFETS discussion: "The discussion about learning objects and the many issues related to them is an important one and clearly of interest to a wide audience. As the forum moves onto to another topic, there are other venues to carry on this discussion including ED-MEDIA's Learning Object symposium, NLII's Learning Object Focus Session as well as the EDUCAUSE Learning Object Virtual Community of Practice." By Patricia McGee, May 17, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/subscribe.cgi [ About This NewsLetter] [ OLDaily Archives] [ Send me your comments]