OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
August 3, 2005

Microformats in Business — Structuring Content for Search & Collaboration
In my paper Resource Profiles I talked about XML documents made up of XML formats specific to the resource being talked about. This has not been invented and is known to the wider community under the heading of 'microformats'. Examples include the 'rel' tags used in links (especially in Atom), XFN and similar personal metadata (hcards), embedded calendaring markup (hcalendar), and more. This article in an introduction to the concept. Here is another good overview. For detailed information see the microformat wiki. By Bud Gibson, The Community Engine, August 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Communities of Practice: The Role of Classification Schemes and Taxonomies
Interesting meander chronicling the trials of an instructor seeking learning materials for use on campus. I like the remark about 'tangental communications'. I disagree with the conclusion - that taxonomies are needed for threaded discussion lists - but I appreciated the journey. Article with podcast. By Susan Smith Nash, eLearning Queen, August 2, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

A New Solution for Electronic Transcripts
The solution to the problem of fraudulent transcripts, touted in this article as a growing problem, is not "a proprietary data translation engine" but rather an open transcript format that can be used by educational institutions and accessed (with appropriate permissions) by any software capable of reading the XML document. But with companies like ESP Solutions Group seeking and getting media push, such as this article in eSchoolNews, it becomes less likely that we'll get an open solution. By Robert Brumfield, eSchool News, August 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

JOLT--Journal of Online Learning and Teaching
As Joseph Hart writes, "MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org/Home.po) has established a new online journal... 'The MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) is a peer-reviewed, online publication addressing the scholarly use of multimedia resources in education.'" By Joseph Hart, EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online, August 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

UK Based Edubloggers Directory
If you are an edublogger based in the U.K. you may want to consider adding your coordinates to the wiki beings started. By Josie Fraser, EdTechUK, August 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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