Edu_Rss

Rants 'n' Raves: AI Is Here
Readers point out some artificially intelligent robots that already inhabit our homes, elaborate on the ways amateur astronomers can interact with the International Space Station, and call for an inconvenient video game. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 8:46 p.m..

Sony's Jaffe Wants 'Pure' Games
David Jaffe, acclaimed designer behind God of War, says he'll abandon the epic cinematic games that made him famous to concentrate on the joy of "pure gameplay." In Game|Life. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 8:46 p.m..

MySpace Faces Age-Old Web Problem
Under pressure to protect young users from predators, social-networking sites grapple with age-verification techniques. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 7:45 p.m..

To Each Search Engine Its Own Algorithms
Search engines weigh similar characteristics differently to determine organic rankings. From ClickZ Stats on July 17, 2006 at 7:45 p.m..

Backstory: 'Ringing' in the school year
New York City is fighting over whether to allow cellphones in schools, echoing a debate nationwide. Christian Science Monitor | Learning on July 17, 2006 at 7:45 p.m..

Yahoo Homepage Reborn
Complete with customizable, location-aware page elements and a healthy serving of Ajax, Yahoo launches its new entryway. In Monkey Bites. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 5:46 p.m..

Unattributed - Relational Database Normalisation Process - databasedev.co.uk
In some senses, the Semantic Web is like a big distributed database. This applies equally well to less formal instances, such as the RSS network. As such, there are basic, well-known, principles for its design. One set of these falls under the heading of 'normalization'. The idea of normalization is that you don't needlessly duplicate data entries. That's why I wince every time I see an author name entered into an element as a string instead of as a reference (or link) to an author record. This article explains database normalization and offers some examples. It's a bi From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Alan Levine - Rendering RSS inside Media Wiki - Cogdogblog
This idea has been around for a while, but has often been difficult to implement. Don't know why, it just has. Anyhow, Alan Levine offers this nice version inside media Wiki. [Link] [Tags: ] [Comment] From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Miles Berry - Elgg and Blogging in Primary Education
Short and fairly basic article about using ELGG to have students create profiles, blog, and comment on each others' entries. "A good way of promoting learner autonomy and voice." Via Dave Tosh. [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment] From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Mark Oehlert - Continuing to Play Around With Webtops - E-Clippings
I think Mark Oehlert has a point here when he says they are the interface of the future, and not only because webtops are so similar to the old Netscape Netcenters. No, rather, it's because what we are seeing in the commercial products - 30Boxes, PageFlakes, ProtoPage, Goowy - is remarkably similar to what we are seeing (in concept, at least) in personal learning environments. [L From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Helen Barrett - WebCT Conference - E-Portfolios for Learning
Helen Barrett offers her reflections on WebCT's new approach to e-portfolios and (more importantly, in my view) links to the latest version of her ongoing e-Portfolio slide show. The presentation covers a lot of ground, of which I think the section on 'reflection' (near the end) is the most useful. [Link] [Tags: E-Portfolios, Blackboard] [OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Wade Roush - Marvin Minsky on Common Sense and Computers That Emote - Technology Review
Marvin Minsky gets at what is in my view the core problem with most mechanistic (and virtually all rule-based) theories of learning: " the kinds of AI projects that have been happening for the last 30 or 40 years have had almost no reflective thinking at all." Right. You can practice all you want, but if there is no means to allow this to actually change your understanding, the practice is of no use. But what does 'reflection' amount to in a rule-based system? Especially one where rules are 'innate' or hard-wired in the mind? If you are told what to do, or told what is true From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Jeremy Hiebert - Jere Brophy - HeadsPaceJ
As Jeremy Hiebert writes, "most educational research on motivation implies coersion -- basically trying to answer the question: 'how do we get people to do something they otherwise would not?'" This is because, as Jere Brophy states, "Schools are established for the benefit of students, but from students' point of view, time spent in the classroom is devoted to enforced attempts to meet externally imposed demands." But what would students learn if simply left to their own devices? There is surp From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

David Maister - Why (Most) Training is Useless
I'm going to modify the presentation (which is overly business centric) to allow the author to make the point more generally: "Bringing about change is immensely difficult. It requires that managers schools address questions in four key areas: Systems: Does the company society actually monitor, encourage, and reward this (new) behavior knowledge? Attitude: Do people want to do this? Do they buy in to its importance?" He concludes, "that's what I focus on - primarily trying to get people excited about the topic From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Kathleen Fitzpatrick - Introducing MediaCommons - Institute for the Future of the Book
"We imagine MediaCommons as a wide-ranging network with a relatively static point of entry that brings the participant into the MediaCommons community and makes apparent the wealth of different resources at his or her disposal." The commen ts are supportive, which is niced, but I would ask along with cel4145, "Installing and configuring a content management system website is the easy part. Creating content for the site and building a community of people who use it is much harder." [OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Miles Berry - Becta/Futurelab Innovation Workshop
Miles Berry blogs the recent Becta/Futurelab Innovation Workshop (Day One, Day Two). The best bit is the shared vision distillede from the first day by facilitation team: "To create an ecosystem and processes, fuelled by the ever changing needs and ideas of all learners, nurtured by the people that support them and delivered to help individuals achieve their full potential." Berry criticizes "the emphasis on individuals achieving their potential, perhaps without recognition of a wide From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Patrick Lambe - What is Knowledge Sharing? - Green Chameleon
A couple of good reflections on knowledge sharing, including this one on types of knowledge sharing ("A pop fan sets up a website about her favourite Taiwanese boy band") and the follow-up on the reasons why we share knowledge. Via Column Two. [Link] [Tags: ] [OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

MCM - The Pig and the Box - Push the Third Button Twice
Direct response to the recent 'Captain Copyright' cartoon released by Access Copyright recently. The author writes, "I made the book after hearing how the entertainment industry in Canada is keen on teaching young kids about how to 'respect' copyright. That was a bit heavy-handed, I thought, and otherwise despicable. Preying on small kids, brainwashing them so they believe what you're doing is honourable and good... Feh." Quite so. Via Michael Geist. [OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Tony Karrer - Informal Learning - Let's Get Real - eLearning Technology
Tony Karrer writes, "I'm becoming convinced that folks in the informal learning realm are quite willing to live with 'free range' learning. It's way too touchy-feely and abstract for me. If this stuff is important, then I want to: Know that it will work Know why it works Know that it's repeatable." He is reacting to George Siemens, who writes, "We have a rough end target (solve this problem, innovate, adapt, etc.)...and we really don't have a clear process From OLDaily on July 17, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Oil's Not Well in Canadian Sands
The Bush administration looks north to increase its petroleum supply, but the price of extracting crude from oil sands is skyrocketing. In Autopia. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 4:45 p.m..

Working the Day Sith
Chad Vader rules over the supermarket with an iron fist in Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager. In Table of Malcontents. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 4:45 p.m..

How to Hack Your Verizon Razr
Want to add MP3 ringtones to your crippled gadget? It's possible. But you could void your warranty or fry your phone. In Listening Post. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 4:45 p.m..

Oil's Not Well in Canadian Sands
The Bush Administration looks north to increase its oil supply, but the price of extracting oil from sands is skyrocketing. In Autopia. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 2:46 p.m..

Discovery Home Safe
A jubilant crew lands the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center through thick clouds, and calls the venture to the ISS a "really great mission." From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 1:45 p.m..

AI Reaches the Golden Years
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of artificial intelligence, researchers gather on the East Coast to examine the field's history and future -- calling the first half-century the start of something great. By David Cohn. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Catch a Manmade Star
While most of us watch space shuttles take off and manuever in space on the news, dedicated hobbyists observe the action directly, their eyes trained on the night sky. By Philip Chien. From Wired News on July 17, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Californias Newest State University Is Short of Students
The Merced, California, campus hopes to draw more students from California's vast agricultural basin into higher education. From New York Times: Education on July 17, 2006 at 1:45 a.m..