By Stephen Downes
July 21, 2004
New £12m Programme to Support Regional
e-Learning Networks
Britain's Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) has announced a Distributed
e-Learning programme that is intended to establish links
between schools, colleges and universities to encourage
progression into higher education. What they're after is
probably an effect like that documented in a report in the
Kansas City Star wherein a 15 year-old
inner city high school student was able to connect with,
and be inspired by, university-level studies (this latter
link worked for me once then demanded a registration when I
returned later in the day, so download it as soon as you
see it if you think you';ll be returning to it). By P
Pothen, Joint Information Systems Committee , July 21, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Oracle, Macromedia Partner on
E-learning
The bigs are getting together on
e-learning as this press release-type article announces a
collaboration between Macromedia and Oracle "to ease
rollouts of corporate e-learning initiatives." It's a good
fit; Macromedia is known for front-end interfaces, while
Oracle is known for back-end power. By Joanne Cummings,
Publish, July 20, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
8 Tips for Administrators Using Handheld
Computers
Pretty good article describing how
school administrators can use handhelds with internet
access to maximize their efficiency during or between
meetings or while on duties that take them away from their
desks. The article doesn't really get into the fact that
you really have to train yourself into these habits; if you
do not normally check your messages during lulls in
meetings, having a handheld won't make it suddenly happen.
It also occured to me that, especially for those large
urban schools, having photo-recognition would be useful.
Focus your camera on the student and the handheld displays
the student's name and info. Nothing about this feature
(it's probably more than a few years in the future) in the
article, though. By Miguel Guhlin, Miguel Guhlin's Web
Site, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Complete Guide to Isometric Pixel
Art
I don't know whether you'll ever use this in
your online course, but you might. This complete guide is a
very nice exploration of a topic that doesn't get much
coverage outside media design classes. Well worth a read,
if only to see how they create those little icons and
displays in computer games. By Not attributed, RhysD.com,
July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Bundled Journals: From Big Deals to Fair
Deals
Interesting presentation (in PowerPoint)
from a pre-conference to LIBER's 2004 Annual General
Confernce held in St Petersburg recently. The author
surveys the impact of the practice of bundling by major
journal publishers - this practice involves selling
electronic access to a large number of journals for a
single price, but typically requires a multi-year deal and
restrictions against cancelling individual journals. The
weaknesses of this approach are a lack of choice for the
library, as smaller publishers are squeezed out by the
majors as they consume more and more of the library budget.
The author proposes a system of 'fair deals' as an
alternative, which would allow libraries to purchase
journal collections from a mixed bag of publishers. Better,
sure, but it's not open access. Other presentations from
the same pre-conference are also available. Via Peter Scott's Library Blog. By Heather
Joseph, LIBER 2004, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
A Guide to Handheld Computing in K-12
Schools
Summary of a report on the use of
handhelds in learning; the full report (which I haven't
seen) is available for purchase. I know that some school
divisions in Canada are planning pilot projects with
handhelds. Me, I'm sceptical about the long-term use of
handhelds, since the displays are too small, but hey, I
could be wrong. Another concern is whether software will be
produced for the devices, since in many cases a special
edition is required. By Unknown, Consortium for School
Networking, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Information and Communication
Technology
Recommended on WWWEDU today was this
resource offered by the Alberta government describing the
ICT (Information and Communications Technology) curriculum
in Alberta schools. The kit provides programs of study,
examples, classroom assessment tools, and more. By Various
Authors, Government of Alberta, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Self-archiving: Institutional Repositories
Something government funding agencies and
foundations in other nations (including my own) should look
at: the possibility of tying research funding to the
provision of publications in an open access eprints
archive. The idea was broached by a U.K. Parliamentary
report released yesterday, which noted that there is not
currently sufficient incentive for authors to take the time
to place their materials into such archives. The report
also contains some interesting discussion of the role of
publishers in all this, along with links to numerous
newspaper clippings. Via BOAI. By Select Committee on
Science and Technology, UK Parliament, July 20, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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