November 17, 2006
OLDaily
Alan Levine[Edit][Delete]:
[NMC Regional] The Br[yI]an Double Header,
Cogdogblog [Edit][Delete]CogDogBlog [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits]
Brian Lamb at NMC
Coverage of the NMC conference complete with a link to a 105 slide deck on storytelling (and a lot more) from Bryan Alexander and some video mashups from Brian Lamb. By the time you read this, one of them or the other will have audio on their website. As I read through this and looked at the photos of Brian Lamb, with the computers and the headphones and the tech, I realized, we are living the science fiction I read about when I read it as a kid. My reading of science fiction (a lot of science fiction, thousands of books) shaped my ambitions, and while I thought I went off track with philosophy and distance education and all that, here I am. Well, more accurately, here's Brian Lamb. But it's where I am, too. [Tags: Online Learning, Flickr] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Brian Lamb at NMC
Coverage of the NMC conference complete with a link to a 105 slide deck on storytelling (and a lot more) from Bryan Alexander and some video mashups from Brian Lamb. By the time you read this, one of them or the other will have audio on their website. As I read through this and looked at the photos of Brian Lamb, with the computers and the headphones and the tech, I realized, we are living the science fiction I read about when I read it as a kid. My reading of science fiction (a lot of science fiction, thousands of books) shaped my ambitions, and while I thought I went off track with philosophy and distance education and all that, here I am. Well, more accurately, here's Brian Lamb. But it's where I am, too. [Tags: Online Learning, Flickr] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Pete Johnston[Edit][Delete]:
The Social In Social Tagging,
eFoundations [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits] Interesting reflections. "DC metadata creation has typically not been a "social" process, and the "descriptions" created are not "social" constructs, or at least not in the way that those generated by tagging within a system like del.icio.us are. And we (the DCMI community) can probably learn from examining those explicitly social aspects of those processes and systems." Via Scott's Workblog (which isn't really all work). [Tags: Metadata, del.icio.us] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Daniel Terdiman[Edit][Delete]:
Second Life Faces Threat to its Virtual Economy,
CNet News.Com [Edit][Delete]CNET News.com [Edit][Delete]CNet News.com [Edit][Delete]CNet news.Com [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits] Funny. A program called 'copybot', which allows users to duplicate anything in Second Life, is threatening to cause a crash in the Second Life economy. I want to see it clone 'Berkman Island', and then set the two Berkmans' public relations agencies against each other. Andrew Raff offers much more analysis and links. "Second Life could be a veritable utopia, where goods spring forth without effort, but that would change the fundamental nature of the Linden economy and at the very least lead to rampant inflation, if not a complete devaluation of the Linden dollar. And it would prove disastrous to Second Life landowners and merchants who have invested time and money in the universe." Yeah - but - didn't anyone stop to think that they were investing in digital artifacts in a freaking computer game? Yes, they may be ruined - but maybe they deserve to be. [Tags: Copyright and Patent Issues, Games and Gaming] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Michael Arrington[Edit][Delete]:
Huh? YouTube Sends TechCrunch a Cease and Desist,
Techcrunch [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits] Hm. YouTube has sent TechCrunch a cease-and-desist letter because TechCrunch was distributing a way for people to save YouTube videos. According to YouTube's lawyer, "YouTube is a streaming-only service. We do not permit users to download the videos we host on our site." Well, this is totally not clear when you upload. And it really erodes the value of the site. Is this because of Google, I wonder? Ever since their IPO, they've been a different (read: evil) company. Via EDUCAUSE. [Tags: Google, EDUCAUSE] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
[link: 3 Hits] This is right: "The real changes that the computer is bringing about - changes in the way we see reality - remain invisible." And it reminds me of this (and I think it's a crime we can't get full-text James Baldwin online): "The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around." [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Poonam Khanna[Edit][Delete]:
Canadian Book Publishers Adopt System to Manage Digital Files,
IT Business [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits] Some institutions are outsourcing publications management. This is interesting (especially in light of yesterday's rant about libraries) because it's a function the university library ought to be doing, or the university publisher ought to be doing, but is instead being outsourced to a third party. It's all PDF, which means DRM is involved in there somewhere, too, instead of simply enabling open access. As though people are breaking down walls trying to get at UBC publications. Thanks to IRAP's William Langley for the link. [Tags: Open Access, Books and eBooks, Canada] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
[link: Hits] I've been enjoying the good-natured back and forth between proponents of the eprints and DSpace repository systems on the JISC mailing list recently. This item maps conferences to flight plans on Google maps (eprints). This thing is a way to map archive contents to history timelines - nifty examples from the history of Christianity and the age of dinosaurs (DSpace). Here is a search bounded by geographical coordinates. (DSpace) Meanwhile, this is a fabulous mapping of aboriginal artifacts in northern Australia (Kakadu! - one of my favorite places) - note that you may have to move the map a bit to see them. (DSpace) None of these is unique to OA repository software, of course (you can do the same with Flickr) and the real test is whether this information can be syndicated, and not just displayed for an individual repository, but still, the effect is pretty neat. [Tags: Learning Object Repositories, Google, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Flickr] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
Various authors[Edit][Delete]:
Research Quality Framework: Assessing the Quality and Impact of Research in Australia,
DEST [Edit][Delete]
November 17, 2006
[link: Hits] I wonder how well my own research would fare in a 'research quality assessment'. According to this document, the metrics are "ranked outputs" that "could be derived for refereed journals, professional journals, book publishers, conferences, or performance venues," "citation data" and "grant income". Not good, then, except (maybe) for the citations. Any hope for web data? Nope, it is explicitly rules out, as are collaborations and contextual data. But I may fare better on research impact. Still, what does this mean? "Adoption of the research has produced outstanding (in the top 2%)
identifiable social, economic, environmental and/or cultural benefit for the wider community regionally, nationally or internationally." [Tags: Books and eBooks, Assessment, Research, Quality] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
[link: Hits] I don't mean to be a naysayer, and I'm sure the authors of this communique meant well, but this document, a follow-up to the Global Summit hosted by education.au in October, is, at best, opaque, and at worst, incoherent. Many statements don't make sense, others are flatly false. The conclusion is typical of the whole document. "Teachers have never been more essential than in the current age." This is not demonstrably true. "However, the focus needs to shift dramatically from imparting content knowledge to empowering students with the fundamental key processes to enable them to conduct their own learning." Huh? What does it mean to 'empower with processes'? "This should occur within the conventions of a discipline, including those disciplines that are yet to emerge." On what planet? Where is the need for this? "In understanding our current environment and the necessity for leadership in new practices of education, the time has come to challenge the forces that constrain education in a world that is fast disappearing." This is just jibberish. I have a vague idea of what the author means, but it is so badly expressed it could mean anything. Tear this up. Try again. [Tags: Leadership] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]
