OLDaily

Laura Grant[Edit][Delete]: Open University Courseware Trend Comes to SA, tectonic [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: Hits] More good news on the open content front. "The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has made a policy decision to make its course material freely available over the Internet. This is believed to be a first for an African university. Material that will be made available includes courses, syllabuses, lecture notes and exam papers." Also worth noting: "Unlike MIT, which received $11million in grants to get its OCW initiative going, UWC's free and open content project has no outside funding, says Keats. 'It's a UWC initiative. We see it as part of our normal university function.'" Via the OpenCourseWare Consortium. [Tags: Project Based Learning, Open Content] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Colin Milligan[Edit][Delete]: What is a PLE? The Future or Just Another Buzz Word?, JISC e-Learning Focus [Edit][Delete]JISC E-Learning Focus [Edit][Delete]JISC E-learning Focus [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: 15 Hits] Coverage of the public personal learning environment (PLE) forum held by CETIS June 7. Not a lot of content, but do read the section on 'The Discussions' to get a sense of the reaction to the concept. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Lisa Wise and James Quealy[Edit][Delete]: LMS Governance Final Report, Wise Word Press [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] Interesting and well-informed report considering what existing LMS governance models tell us and how this can be contrasted to alternative models described by e-learning 2.0. The difference may be seen in the differing use of language, which "represents a fundamental conceptual difference between (a) Elearning 2.0 practice around dynamic, interactive, adaptive, networked, online learning environments as infrastructure and (b) traditional elearning practice around static multimedia resources as content to be delivered online via an LMS, CMS or portal." These two models characterize differing epistemic models of organization, where the LMS characterizes "ordered ontology and rule-based epistemology", in contrast to "unordered ontology and heuristic-based epistemology". It is in this context we can ask, with the authors (p.7), why generally recognized "principles of good practice" of governance were not followed with respect to the selection and employment of LMSs, for example, "the failure to develop a business case for LMS at Melbourne and Monash" in Australia. A nice, elegant piece of research and writing. [Tags: Online Learning, Research, Portals, Networks, Semantic Web, Content Management, Ontologies] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Steve Lee[Edit][Delete]: Freedback - a Way to Blog Product Feedback, Steve Lee : Weblog [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: Hits] This is a neat idea. Simply, include the phrase 'freedbacking product' in your post, where 'product' is the name of the product you want to review. Aggregators can then collect the resulting posts. Of course, right away we see people will use the term 'freedback' instead of 'freedbacking', which is no major problem. No, the major problem, of course, is 'freedback spam' (that's my contribution to the net lexicon for today). Or fake freedback ('phreedback' - ok, that's another lexicon item). But freedbacks from a social network or selected list of feeds (as in Edu_RSS) would be pretty handy and spam-free. Also: why restrict your freedback to products? I would freedback people, events, ideas, cities and towns, and more! [Tags: Networks, Spam] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Miguel Guhlin[Edit][Delete]: Publicizing Podcasts: 13 Free Services You Can Use, Around the Corner [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: 9 Hits] As the title says, a list of thirteen places you can publicize your podcast. For the rest of us: a list of thirteen places you can find podcasts. Which reminds me, I need to get the whole audio side of my site in order. [Tags: Podcasting] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Academici, July 3, 2006

[link: Hits] Academici is a social networking service for academics. Has a free version and a fee-based upgrade. Fairly standard set of social networking features with group articles. Multilingual. Via Liberal Education Today. My contact name on the site is: Downes

Also just launched is e-Learning Now, "the UKs newest on-line community dedicated to the use of technology in training and learning." No real social netwoking capacity; the site appears to be mostly a news aggregator. [Tags: Online Learning, Networks, Academics and Academia] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Norm Friesen[Edit][Delete]: Communication Genres and the Mediatic Turn, Ipseity [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] I confess, my first reaction when I read the abstract of a new paper by Norm Friesen is usually, "oh, neat." So it is with this draft, in which he argues that it is increasingly important to employ mediatic terms - such as culture, genre, audience, or convention - when characterizing learning resources. I think he makes his case, but I'm not sure that his use of Altman's account of epistolarity is the way to go; I would have preferred to use more common and useful terms such as 'bridging', 'confessional' or 'reciprocal' forms of communication. Nonetheless, I agree that we need to employ a wider range of genres for educational resources, a range beyond cognitive or technological terminology. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

CoSN[Edit][Delete]: CoSN Launches Web Site to Illustrate Benefits of Open Technologies, Press Release [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: Hits] Co-sponsored by IMB and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, K12 Open Technologies is a site intended to "raise awareness among K-12 education technology decision makers about the use of open technologies." By 'open technologies' the sponsors mean "an umbrella term that includes open source software, open standards, and open hardware." Sounds good, though as Tom Hoffman cautions, 'open source' has a very specific meaning while 'open technologies' does not. "They should not co-opt the open source name for their own purposes, or dilute its meaning in the minds of educators," he writes.

My own criticism is more pointed. Where is open content in this mix? It can't be that they simply forgot. The site points out, "Huge libraries of content are being assembled by organizations, agencies and individuals." True, but a lot of that is intended for sale. Is this where the 'private' part of the equation comes in? I always worry about these public-private partnerships, of the sort CoSN promotes, just because there's always some sort of loophole. Let's see K12 Open Technologies promote open content, and do the job properly. [Tags: Online Learning, Schools, Open Standards, Open Source, Open Content] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Derek Morrison[Edit][Delete]: Further Reflections on the Personal Learning Environment, Auricle [Edit][Delete] July 3, 2006

[link: Hits] All Canadians have most of their medical expenses paid for by our system of public health care. So health is a sensitive issue in this country, because while Canadians strongly support their system, corporations and private interests try constantly to undermine it, to open it up to private enterprise. It is in this context that the electronic patient record (EPR) is discussed in Canada. I have been involved in some of those discussions, the tenor of which has varied from "there has to be room for profit in the EPR system" to "we're going to implement it no matter what the public thinks".

How do you implement an EPR system without handing the keys over to for-profit enterprise? In my view, part of the answer is keep the management of the EPRs in the hands of the elements of the public system - the hospitals, the health insurance agencies, and most of all, the citizens themselves. The key to a public EPR system is that the records be personal health records - PHRs. Is the SmartCard an essential element of the system? Maybe. And maybe, as Derek Morrison suggests, the same architecture is what should underlie personal learning environments. Certainly, in my thinking, it should. [Tags: Personal Learning Environment, Canada] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]