Edu_Rss

Janna Quitney Anderson and Lee Rainie - The Future of the Internet II - Pew
It's hard to believe they didn't ask me to contribute! LOL. Then again, it's the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And it's not like I would have differed substantially from the main thrust of the report, though I wouldn't have worried one whit about 'refusenik' terrorism (I mean, really now, come on, let's get serious). It would have beed nice to see a wider perspective in this report, but that's not the Pew way (which is as much about shaping opinion as it is about reporting it). [OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Maria Glod - Students Rebel Against Database Designed to Thwart Plagiarists - Washington Post
Well this is a good point. How can anti-plagiarism services operate without ignoring copyright? "They object to Turnitin's automatically adding their essays to the massive database, calling it an infringement of intellectual property rights." It's a good point, as is the presumption of guilt implicit in use of the service. "It's like if you searched every car in the parking lot or drug-tested every student." As more and more students learn of the double standards employed in their education, one has to ask what they will learn: whether such double standards ought to be avoided, From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Yueh-Min Huang, et.al. - Standardized Course Generation Process Using Dynamic Fuzzy Petri Nets - ScienceDirect
I don't link to items requiring subscription access (which thus means many journal articles). But NRC librarians see fit to distribute this content to researchers nonetheless (utterly no distribution of open access content, of course). What am I missing by not covering the journal articles? Well, a lot of stuff like this article. I looked at it and exclaimed, "Oh! So that's what I was supposed to be inventing!" And the sad part is, it probably is. They probably thought I would find automated course generation (and the subsequent licenses and patents it produces) to be an appro From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Paul Ellerman - Thinking About Networks - Thoughts on Training, Teaching and Technology
Two-part discussion of my recent excursion into the topic of groups and networks. Part One and Part Two. To the second part, which looks more closely at the diagrams I used, I have attached a longish comment. [Link] [Tags: Networks] [Comm From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

John Blau - Sony Launches GPS for Cameras - PC World
Excellent. GPS for cameras. Too bad it had to come from Sony. Is it going to have some DRM attached to it? Will it write some sort of rootkit (it does require a software install - and yes, I am still made at Sony about that, since they've never altered the corporate philosophy that led to the fiasco). [Link] [Tags: ] [Comment] From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Shoppers Seek Web 2.0 E-Commerce
Online shopping shows improvement with Web 2.0 features that allow consumers to glean more information and flexibility. From ClickZ Stats on October 2, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Robert Anton Wilson Needs Our Help
I hope people I've inspired with my work would band together to help me out in my later years if I needed it. Which is at least part of the reason why I'm sending what I can to support cosmic thinking patriarch rushkoff.blog on October 2, 2006 at 4:45 p.m..

Snow Ordinary Dessert
A delicious new trendy dessert for sale in Tokyo's electronics district replicates the sensation of eating fresh powdered snow. By Chris Kohler. From Wired News on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Justin Frankel Rocks On
The guy who created Winamp, unleashed Gnutella on the world and quit AOL after clashing with his corporate overlords is still chasing the music. Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk. From Wired News on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

Speed Freaks Blitz Bike Course
Want to bike 56 miles in 60 minutes? You'll need a good pair of legs, a high-glucose diet and a super-tweaked human-powered vehicle. And don't forget your Mylar head wrap. By James Lee from Wired magazine. From Wired News on October 2, 2006 at 6:45 a.m..

An online revolution that is by and for 'das volk' - Jeff Jarvis, the Guardian
A grand experiment in the future of news is succeeding. Pity most of you can't read it, since it's in German. But thanks to an accident of school scheduling that plopped me into a German class, I've been able to follow Netzeitung.de since it was founded i From Techno-News Blog on October 2, 2006 at 12:50 a.m..

Apple, Google to team up for video downloads? - CNET News Web 2.0 Blog
Channel surfers with Apple's iTV device might be able to get video from Google as well as the iTunes store, according to a report in Newsweek. Apple plans to introduce next year a wireless networking device called iTV that will plug into a television and From Techno-News Blog on October 2, 2006 at 12:50 a.m..

Chip Makers Benefit from DVD Format War- News Factor
Sony is betting that it has an edge because it has recruited as allies the largest manufacturers of the DVD players. Toshiba's supporters include Microsoft, whose computer software will support the HD DVD format. Even before one side prevails, the chip ma From Techno-News Blog on October 2, 2006 at 12:50 a.m..

Elizabeth Redden - Skype Skirmishes on Campus - Inside Higher Ed
Most of the software I talk about, I comment during my talks, is banned at schools, colleges and universities. Skype is a good example of the latest item to incur the wrath of administrators, ostensibly because it eats bandwidth. I would be interested, though, to hear what sort of arguments cross the desk when university officials are meeting with telco representatives. As for the bandwidth, "Skype works over dial-up. How much of a bandwidth hog can it be if it works over dial-up?" [Link] [Tags: OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

Monica Shelley, Cynthia White, Uwe Baumann and Linda Murphy - `It's a unique role!' Perspectives on Tutor Attributes and Expertise in Distance Language Teaching - IRRODL
The research in this report (n varies between 17 and 32) leads the authors to conclude that "Tutors who work within distance education differ markedly from their classroom counterparts in terms of the roles they assume, the ways in which they interact with students, and the attributes and expertise required of them." This may even be true, but I still have to ask, when are journal editors going to reject this sort of sham that passes as academic research? This is not to disparage the authors - they are simply doing what they have led to believe is the way things are done. And the program they From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

Dariya Mukamusoni - Distance Learning Program of Teachers' at Kigali Institute of Education: An Expository Study - IRRODL
The September issue of IRRODL is out. This article describes a distance learning program in Rwanda. The location makes the article compelling, but that's it. The authors conclude, "Without clear communication, course tutors often cannot effectively facilitate the DL modules." One wonders why they felt this needed to be established. I wonder, certainly, why academic writing leaves me so dissatisfied. This needs to be examined. An entire discipline, it seems to me, is failing. [OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

Various authors - GuruLib
New web 2.0-ish application that lets you list (and review) your books, CDs, DVDs and more. I like the listing of various types of content. Various interface irregularities - this is very early beta. Still, I liked it, and especially the potential for it to interface with, say, my iRiver. The link is to my list of stuff, which I will add to as time goes by (assuming the service works out the kinks). For those of you looking for educational uses, imagine how a remote educational application could read the GuruLib RSS feeds to learn the student's tastes and programming environment. [OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

Margaret Spellings - Let's Really Throw Open Doors to Higher Education - Houston Chronicle
The title of this article attracted me (after all, our current system is built almost entirely around the idea of blocking access to poor people). But while the principles touted - accessibility, affordability and accountability - seem reasdonable, the author seems to not understand what they mean. College will not become more accessible if students are tested more in high school; how could anyone suppose that this is true? Now will it be made more affordable by simplfying the financial aid documentation, it will merely be more obviously unaffordable. And accountability is not fostered by "a v From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

John Houghton, Colin Steele and Peter Sheehan - Research Communication Costs In Australia: Emerging Opportunities and Benefits - DEST
Study on the costs of information access in Australia. In and among the references tgo billions of dollars one finds this: "a full system of institutional repositories in Australia costing AUD 10 million a year and achieving a 100% self-archiving compliance would show: A benefit/cost ratio of 51 for the modelled impacts of open access to public sector research (i.e. the benefits are 51 times greater than the costs); A benefit/cost ratio of 30 for the modelled impacts of open access to higher education research; and A benefit/cost ratio of 4.1 for the modelled impacts of open access to ARC comp From OLDaily on October 2, 2006 at 12:45 a.m..

Google's Garage: Home Sweet Home
The search company buys the Menlo Park home where its founders leased a garage to start their business just eight years ago. With $1 million in startup capital, the company is today worth $125 billion. From Wired News on October 1, 2006 at 11:46 p.m..