Edu_Rss

Microbes Key Ethanol Future
Genetically modifying plants and bacteria to more efficiently produce ethanol could help us escape our self-inflicted climate change, but we can't let the science run amok. In Autopia. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 9:45 p.m..

FBI Kids' Site Violates Law
A new FBI site to teach kids safe web surfing asks young'ns to give information online without requiring parental consent -- that's a no no under online child protection laws. In 27B Stroke 6. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 9:45 p.m..

Sit Locally, Listen Globally
A weekly, solar-powered radio show from a California cabin compiles top stories from shortwave radio stations in China, Cuba, the Netherlands and Russia into an easily-digestable MP3 file. In Listening Post. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 9:45 p.m..

from The Masie Center
Saratoga Springs is dressed in Fall colors. It’s a beautiful town, one of those rare spots that has not been defiled by McDonald’s, Wal*Mart, and strip malls. Like Hot Springs, Arkansas, or Baden Baden, Germany, this is a town founded on its water. Cathy and Elliott live in a 1832 Greek Revival mansion that once [...] From Internet Time Blog on October 20, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Love, Internet Style
"Less Than Three" is a dangerously cute animated video to a lethally cute song about online relationships. In Table of Malcontents. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 4:46 p.m..

Ed Felton on Net neutrality
Ed Felten has a paper (pdf) on the Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality (revised in July '06) that is a highly readable explanation of the technical issues. It is not foaming-at-the-mouth partisan. [Tags: net_neutrality ed_felten ]... From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 3:49 p.m..

Sony's Online Free-for-All
PlayStation 3 will offer a free Blu-Ray movie, free online gameplay and free sharing of downloaded games. Will that be enough to smooth the $600 sticker shock? Chris Kohler reports from San Francisco. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 3:46 p.m..

Greg Sandoval - Visa Halts its Service for allofmp3.com - CNet News.Com
The Russian service allogmp3.com offers MP3 downloads at popular music for discount prices - usually about 15 cents per song, rather than the usual 99 cents. It pays royalties on this music to the Russian equivalent of royalty collection companies, however, the music industry has refused to accept these payments. The dispute is not over whether artists are being paid but rather about control. That's what the article means by 'unlicensed'. But it's not illegal in Russia and Visa may need to think twice about its actions here, as people depend on it to guarante transactions, From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Dave Pollard - Malcolm Gladwell on Neural Networks That 'Solve' Complex Problems - How to Save the World
Some light discussion with some interesting examples on the use of neural networks to solve problems. Pollard describes their use to predict the success of popular songs and movies. While this is typical of the current use of neural networks, it is pobably a bit much to expect specific recommendations - such as "how to design a health care system." They don't work that way. The phenomenon described part way through the article - 'clustering' - is the result of a separate analyis. And it is very much a gloss to say, 'change this variable and you get the result you want' From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Alan Levine - The Levelator Rocks! - Cogdogblog
Alan Levine credits Scott Leslie for this nifty link to a software application that evens out the sound levels in your podcast. [Link] [Tags: Podcasting] [Comment] From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Heather M. Ross - Kathy Cassidy - Cool Teacher - McToonish
I like links like this, links that give you a glimpse into what's being done in a particular (blogging and Flickring and so on) classroom. And I like this slogan: "Learning: it's easier when your child helps!" [Link] [Tags: Children and Child Learning] [Comment] From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Bud Hunt - The Podcast: Asking Questions About the K12Online Conference - Bud the Teacher
I had an interesting listen this morning to this conversation between Bud Hunt and Ed Tech Talk's Dave Cormier. Recorded before my comments posted on Half an Hour yesterday, but after my initial reaction in this blog, the discussion explores whether the conference process distorts the blogging ethos. Of significant note to me, and something that should give people pause, is the association of the conference with a grad credit program offered by Plymouth State and From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Alfred Essa - The NOSE: Information Technology in Higher Education - The NOSE
More on the Blackboard patent case. Consider this well: "Can Blackboard sue a user for patent infringement? The answer is yes. According to Professor LaFrance, part of Blackboard's strategy 'probably is to discourage universities from developing their own system...because the threat of litigation could cause some universities to terminate those efforts.'" Essa also talks with John Mayer, Executive Director of CALI (Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) and comments, "The next ti From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Various authors - Sakai - Blackboard Patent - Sakai
Sakai has commented about the Blackboard patent in its most recent newsletter. "We feel this patent is a hindrance to the free flow of innovation and communication in higher education technology." As well, Sakai Board Chair Joseph Hardin wrote to me in an email October 18, "It is important to note that we are working with the Software Freedom Law Center, along with Moodle and ATutor, and the SFLC is rather well known for upholding the interests of open source and free software developers, supporters and users. We are not interested in any outcome that benefits only the Sakai Community and not From OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Various authors - Blackboard's Reply in Support of its Motion - Desire2Learn
Blackboard has responded in the patent suit, claiming "D2L has not identified any person who allegedly acted with an intent to deceive the patent office, nor has D2L pled facts to support an inference of fraud" and "D2L has not identified the 'undisclosed e-learning products' with particularity." [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Blackboard, OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Mark Glaser - Creative Commons + Flickr = 22 Million Sharable Photos - MediaShift
In case you haven't noticed. What you should take away from this is that you should not be paying for image libraries any more. Though I imagine that the managers of commercial image libraries are trying to find a way to make photo sharing illegal. Watch for it - a few pre-emptive lawsuits in the U.S. about the representation of a corporate logo on a CC photo, or something like that. Something that could chill the whole market. It's not like we haven't seen this sort of thing before. [Link] [Tags: OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Sonia Arrison - Technology's Impact Depends on Values - E-Commerce Times
I believe this: "Technology leaders should use all the tools they can to promote freedom and prosperity throughout the world, but they should remember that the values they help foster may be more important in changing the world than the gadgets they make." My values are slightly different from the author's, but no matter, the point is right. That's why the way you do something, and why you do it, are as important as how you do it, or indeed, whether you do it at all. [Link] [Tags: ] [OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Marshall Kirkpatrick - Technorati Announces Support for Open ID - Techcrunch
This is the tipping point. Expect most major online services to support OpenID (or OpenID 2.0 if people can agree on one) shortly. As Marc Canter opines, by the end of the year. Then look for browser plug-ins to support OpenID, as I have urged. What then? Well, I guess, look for someone to claim to have invented it. [OLDaily on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

Olberman on the torture blank check
Video here. (Thanks to David Isenberg for the link.) [Tags: keither_olberman torture politics] Here's a video of Gore criticizing the new Bush proposal to militarize space.... From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 2:50 p.m..

[berkman] PLOS - Open Access science
Hemai Parthasarathy who's the managing editor of PLoS Biology, is leading a discussion at the Berkman Center. She was an editor at Nature for five years. PLoS was started to put scientific papers into the public domain. It started with genomics three years ago. It's a peer-reviewed open access journal. They hired editors from established journals.It wants to be "inclusive of top-tier papers": Instead of trying to determing the top .001% of papers, it aims at publishing maybe the top 1%. PLoS has an "intrinsic tension" she says because most of the people who started the journal don&ap From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 2:50 p.m..

No Cash Prize for Darpa Race
Millions in prize money motivates contestants in Darpa's Mojave Desert robot race. But Bush signs a new law preventing the agency from awarding dollars for the vehicle best able to navigate rough terrain without a human driver. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 2:46 p.m..

The Clintons Get Their Village
Bill and Hillary join other "opinion drivers" at Hotsoup, a new issues-oriented, non-partisan online community that hopes to connect its participants to the world around them. By Steve Kettmann. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 1:46 p.m..

What's up with peace studies?
I'm thinking about writing about the current state of peace studies in universities, especially in the US. How have the current climate and events affected the curriculum? How about enrollments? (This is a backhanded way to approach the topic "What is peace today?" in a form that I'm hoping a magazine will find appealing.) Do you have any leads or thoughts? (FWIW, I used to teach a course called "Peace and Conflict," back in the early '80s. I tried to remove the usual coercive elements, including grading and the teacher-student barrier. Yes, I was that sort of teacher. In fact,. From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 12:48 p.m..

Adapter Lets Any Car Use Ethanol
Hybrid owners (or anyone else) who wish they could fill their tanks with ethanol can purchase a gadget and drive green. In Autopia. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 12:45 p.m..

One-Touch IPod Recording
The iRecord lets you record to your favorite playback device without a computer. In Gear Factor. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 12:45 p.m..

Medical Refugees Forced Abroad
Not able to afford a life saving treatment? You might be forced to join the swelling number of medical refugees filling Indian hospitals. But don't worry, they're safe. In Bodyhack. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 12:45 p.m..

Olberman on the torture blank check
Video here. (Thanks to David Isenberg for the link.) [Tags: keither_olberman torture politics]... From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 11:45 a.m..

DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Partisan name-calling
The Republicans are in a concerted way calling Democrats "Defeatocrats." Forget whether the content is true or not, and ignore how degrading to democracy name-calling is. "Defeatocrat" is just lame. Not only doesn't it rhyme with "Democrat," it doesn't even scan. Surely we can help the Republicans come up with a better insulting term for the Democrats! [Tags: doep puzzle]... From Joho the Blog on October 20, 2006 at 11:45 a.m..

Learning Like Kids
So the second best thing about being in Bolton yesterday after the amazing group of Year 6 students that were in attendance was that I got to sit in on an introductory Garage Band workshop that and Joe Moretti, and ADE from the UK was giving. All I can say is: Oh. My. Goodness. Now [...] From weblogged News on October 20, 2006 at 4:46 a.m..

Cone Zone Yields Naughty Grins
The hottest new vibrator comes out of the box bubble-gum pink and shaped like an inverted tornado. Can it take you down the yellow brick road? Commentary by Regina Lynn. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Get Your Caller ID to Go
It's a handy feature for your phone, but caller ID is popping up in all sorts of other places too, from rearview mirrors to wristwatches. Is it convenience or information over-delivery? By Joanna Glasner. From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

How to Catch a MySpace Creep
See the custom code Wired News used to search through millions of internet records and track down convicted sex offenders on the world's most popular social network. By Kevin Poulsen.Plus: MySpace Predator Caught by Code From Wired News on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Seeking Quality, German Universities Scrap Equality
Germany, whose universities have been in decline for decades, is increasing financing to its best schools so they can rejoin the worlds academic elite. From New York Times: Education on October 20, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

No Test Tubes? Debate on Virtual Science Classes
A dispute has flared over how far the Internet can go in displacing the brick-and-mortar laboratory. From New York Times: Education on October 20, 2006 at 2:45 a.m..