OLDaily
It's decision time at Wikipedia as the architects of Wikiversity put their concept to the test - and to the vote. The site has evolved into a fairly comprehensive framework, though there remains the more difficult matter of filling it with courses or whatever. And as Teemu Leinonen comments, "it may end-up to be just another platform for delivering learning materials - only. Period. I am afraid that Wikiversity community will not understand what are the factors that make a great academic institution. It is not tests, degrees and accreditations. It is the community." [Tags:
Academics and Academia,
Assessment,
Wikipedia] [
Comment]
The point of this article is eventually stated as this: "Because benchmarking can mean different things to different people, there will be different expectations of it. I also suspect benchmarking could easily become ideologically driven, with advocates and acolytes of one model or another becoming entrenched in their belief that there is only one 'true path' to enlightenment and those who stray from it are to be considered near heretics." But even if you don't agree with the point, you should still sign on for the journey, because between the start of the article and this end point is a comprehensive discussion of benchmarking in e-learning, with the most complete set of resources I've seen on the subject anywhere. [Tags:
Online Learning] [
Comment]
I haven't tried installing this on my own site yet, but this WYSIWYG textarea editor (currently a Drupal plug-in) looks like a winner. I love the full-screen mode! [Tags: None] [
Comment]
Noting that today's e-learning is merely a virtual clone of the more traditional campus-based version, author Tome Abeles reminds readers that new technology is breaking down walls, that 'science rests outside the academy', and that as academics came down from the ivory tower 'to assume the bully pulpit' they also laid themselves open to a leveling of intellectual privilege. One wonders, he ask, whether the new digital university will be so open to seeking truth as the previously cloistered (and relatively impoverished) institution. Nice romp through some heady ideas. [Tags:
Academics and Academia,
Online Learning] [
Comment]
The concepts in this document won't be new to OLDaily readers, but this IEEE-LTSC working group is new, as is the acronym - 'Resource Aggregation Model for Learning, Education and Training', or RAMLET. Thus far all we have is the project document, with some use cases, and while the model is pretty heavily LMS based (and why do they call all the feeds a 'store' rather than a feed?) it is nonetheless moving in the right direction. The new LTSC Plone website, I might add, is coming along nicely - good to see. [Tags:
Project Based Learning] [
Comment]
I sincerely doubt that by 'over' he means over, but Education.au's Gerry White makes the case that software choices should not be made on the basis of whether software is or is not open source. "We have found that the magic mix is to choose the most appropriate solution according to business need, not on an open source versus proprietary basis." The press release links to a number of resources on open source software for education in Australia. [Tags:
Open Source] [
Comment]
Short item summarizing the state of the affairs, as summarized in the title. I found this interesting: "When colleges sign up with those services, record companies tend to stop sending them complaints about individual copyright infractions, according to one administrator. 'Their notifications are stopping even though their peer-to-peer activity remains the same,' he said. 'That's why this feels like extortion.'" [Tags:
Copyright and Patent Issues] [
Comment]
This is a longish and comprehensive guide to creating your own blog using WordPress, a blogging software package. The guide is intended for people who have decided to host their own blogs rather than use a hosted service such as Blogger. There is, to say the least, rather more involved in hosting your own (though I will point out that ISPs will offer WordPress and other software as part of a standard package). Though it weighs in at a hefty 74 pages, readers will still want to proceed slowly, as the author packs a lot into a very short space. Via
e-Learning Guru. [Tags:
Web Logs,
Online Learning] [
Comment]
This extensive business report covering the education sector is now available (as a PDF) in T.H.E. Journal. The most recent issue covered my essay,
The Economy of E-Learning, unfortunately providing neither a title nor a link (they titled the item 'Vision 2020 The New Learning Economy', which is a good title, but not mine). Baird readers who wish to see the actual article should
click here. For other readers: the Baird report looks pretty good, though the writing is dense and business-oriented (so unlike the style of T.H.E. as a whole). Factually, the report is OK but a bit loose - it asserted that I have a PhD, for example, which is incorrect, and translated my prediction of an 'almost complete collapse' of the content industry to the less likely 'complete collapse'. [Tags:
Online Learning] [
Comment]
It's a good article, though I found the scenarios used to introduce the topic at the beginning of the article to be over the top; better would have been some real-world examples. Otherwise, the author offers a relatively light and education-focused account of podcasting. Also noteworthy is the
podcast version of the article. Gardner Campbell also discusses the article
in his blog, which was referred to me, as is so often the case, by
Brian Lamb. PDF - sadly, EDUCAUSE Review's HTML version seems to be missing in action. [Tags:
Podcasting,
Web Logs,
Online Learning] [
Comment]
Useful article on the development of microformats and the philosophy of developing XML formats in general. "Vocabulary proliferation is one of the biggest XML annoyances around. If you're like me, your brain can hold three, maybe four markup languages at a time. The microformats way of life prefers reusing existing work wherever possible." [Tags:
Web 2.0,
Metadata,
XML] [
Comment]
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