Edu_Rss

Blackboard Update
Eric Goldman and John Ottaviani notes, "The academic community is outraged at the lawsuit. Most of the venom has been directed at the perceived breadth of the patent, which many feel is so broad as to cover any course-based on-line learning management system, including those in existence since the early 1980's." We know that Blackboard probably hustled down to the patent office just as fast as its little feet could take it after reading of OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Stephen Downes - mLearning Tools - Half an Hour
Leonard Low offers a nice theory and set of activities for mLearning in an EdNA forum, but like Geoff Stead I see the 'mobile' aspect as "flavouring" and not essential to the model. I haven't spend a lot of time on mLearning for just this reason, because I see it not so much as a new form of learning but rather as a transition to something more useful, something I describe as virtual hardware in this short article. But also, mLearning concerns me a bit because of the From OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Scott Jaschik - 'Privatization and Public Universities' - Inside Higher Ed
Book review looking at the trend toward the privatization of the public university system in the United States. Interesting because it recognizes the phenomenon of de facto privatization, where public funding is reduced and replaced by tuitions, foundation grants, research revenues, and other enterprise income. A number of the traditional beliefs (such as: high tuitions can be offset by need-based grants) are considered and refuted, which leaves us facing the genuine problem of how to ensure access to qualified but low-income students. [OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Press Release - Creative, Capable, Connected - Our New Brand - Education.au
education.au got a new identity last Friday. Personally, I've always felt identities should reflect what people or organizations are, or what they do, while compliments - such as 'creative', 'capable' and 'connected' - should be the domain of friends and well-wishers. But perhaps I take an overly modest approach to branding. Also from the same EdNA newsletter, information on podcasts from Friday's seminar and news that Australia will no longer From OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Joseph Epstein - Friendship Among the Intellectuals - Commentary
I really didn't like this mean-spirited paper listed in today's ArtsJournal, but I spent enough time with it to merit passing it along. I am torn between wanting to disparage the author's off-handed swipes against socialism (by equating it with Stalinism) and wanting to show disdain for the offhand manner in which the author supposes that he is an intellectual (and therefore qualified to talk on the subject of friendship among the intellectuals). If I may be thought of as an intellectual, just for the moment at least, then my observation would be that friendship among the From OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Jakob Nielsen - Screen Resolution and Page Layout - Alertbox
In his first relevant post in quite a while, Jakob Nielson says we ought to optimize screen displays for monitors with a 1024x768 resolution, but that we should continue to employ liquid layout for users of other monitors. You'll notice that this is what I do on my website. What Nielsen doesn't tell us, though, is how to do this. Usually such sites use three column liquid layouts. You should also ensure that the columns have margins (called 'gutters') and that th From OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Scott Leslie - stu.dicio.us - What a Student-developed, Student-focused Learning/study Tool Looks Like - EdTechPost
Described on the stu.dicio.us blog: "[Stud.ilio.us is] part scheduler, todo manager, and 'web 2.0' notetaker, stu.dicio.us is also a social network. By using stu.dicio.us, you agree to make all of your notes public. The search function allows you to search for notes by school, professor, class, or the note itself." Pretty interesting concept, dead simple. What I like is how it becomes something really useful by focusing on a student need and essentially ignoring what teachers or administration would want. OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Miguel Guhlin - Data Analysis - Around the Corner
Be sure to have a look at the 'multiple measures of data' graphic in this post. It is a four-circle Venn Diagram identifying four corresponding measurement metrics and how they interact. Of course, once you admit these dimensions of measurement, what is to argue against a variety of other measurements - nutrition intake, for example, local crime rate, perhaps, or per-student computer budget - into the same sort of calculation. Of course, if you do that, then you have made a mash of the idea that you can nicely and neatly measure school achievement - and you can't have tha From OLDaily on August 10, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..