OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
June 16, 2005

The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism
Author Steve Outing offers an interesting taxonomy of citizen journalism initiatives, ranging from citizen comments to news blogs to collaborative wiki-based citizen news reporting. By Steve Outing, Poynter, June 13, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Forensic Science
Pete MacKay writes, "My friend, Carol Vaage, came across this site which looks to be very useful for all of the Gr. 6 classes doing Forensics." He might not know how odd this sounds to me - when I was in grade 6 we never did anything like forensics, couldn't even conceive of doing forensics. And yet this post is written in a casual as though this happens every day. Which it may well - I haven't been in Grade 6 for a long time. Anyhow, this is a nicely done site with a certain eww factor - which, no doubt, will make it a hit with the Grade 6ers. The site was designed as an entrant in the Oracle Thinkquest competition, where it got an honorable mention (though in my view outshines the winners). By Various Authors, Thinkquest , June, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Automated Assistance to Educators with Intelligent Agents
Useful short presentation in PDF describing the (future) role of intelligent agents in providing dynamic and context-sensitive information useful to educators and students. Not a lot of description, but enough, and names (but no links - you'll have to Google these items) of numerous agent and agent-type applications. By Jon-David Knode and Steve Knode, EDUCAUSE, June, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Rise Of The Amateur Professionals, Prosumers, Pro-Ams
Robin Good taps into the 'prosumer' meme with a good, well-sourced overview of the movement that sees an increasing number of people creating their own newspapers, radio, photography and even video. He writes, "the level of innovation and the speed at which new ideas can be embedded in such amateur-created new products and services can outpace established players." Quite so, as as often observed in these pages, they are also changing the rules, impacting business models, and unleashing a proliferation of welcome creativity into the ether. Don't miss the link at the end of the article to a longish (PDF) report by by Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller that makes it clear that this is not merely an internet phenomenon; 'pro-ams', as they call them, are sweeping through all sectors of society. By Luigi Canali De Rossi, Robin Good, June 16, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Practitioner Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST)
The Practitioner Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST) series has been published by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in collaboration with the International Research Foundation for Open Learning. This is a substantial resource, consisting of six core guides (with accompanying reading resources), six handbooks, and a user guide. Readers, in addition to the volumous instruction offered, will find gems throughout - for example, Alan Woodley's Doing institutional research: the role of the partisan guerrilla, which I hadn't seen elsewhere, along with standard readings from people like Berge, Anderson and Cookson. I didn't read it all, but what I did read (2 core modules and readings, and two handbooks) was first rate. Don't miss this resource, which will be definitive in the field. By Various Authors, Commonwealth of Learning, June 15, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Duke University iPod First Year Experience Evaluation Report
Duke University has released the results of its evaluation of the first year of iPod use to support on-campus learning. The devices were used to both record audio content and to store and play back educational audio content. Getting content proved to be a problem; recording was not always of high quality, locating and licensing commercial content was difficult, and loading content into the iPod was cumbersome. Still, the device was used in a number of classes and the evaluation generated a lot of positive publicity for Duke. PDF. Via Inside Higher Ed. By Various Authors, Duke University, June 15, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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