Edu_Rss

Backstory: Is America pledging less?
The schoolkid's mantra is more legally mandated - but less recited - than ever. Christian Science Monitor | Learning on December 6, 2006 at 6:45 p.m..

Active Home Internet Users by Country, October 2006
The number of active home Internet users by country for the month of October 2006. From ClickZ Stats on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Michael Geist - Canadian Documentary Film Makers Speak Out on Copyright
Harold Jarche and Michael Geist report on a letter submitted by Canada's documentary film makers (if you are not from Canada, then you should know that documentaries are the major type of film made in Canada). "The letter notes the growing concern with the effect of copyright on documentary film makers, citing the survey results which found that 85 percent of film makers find copyright more harmful than beneficial and 82 percent find that the law is more likely to discourage them from making new films." OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Anne Smith - Skype v. Blogger: The Battle of the Fishbowl - Learning and Laptops
Tom Hoffman criticizes the use of Skype to facilitate in-class discussion (they're just within a few feet of each other, he notes. Why don't they use Jabber, or something that doesn't involve using a global network. My respose: why not? And as Hoffman notes: it works. Nuff said.) [Link] [Tags: Networks] [Comment] From OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Jeff Jarvis - Bad Guys Winning - Buzznet
I have also noticed the increase in spam propelled through our (no doubt very expensive) spam filtering system, and therefore agree with Jeff Jarvis when he says, "Anyone who thinks that spam is a problem that has been or will be solved with technology alone is wrong." Now I have also noted that there is also no legal solution to the problem either. There is, in my view, only one way around spam: change our current 'push' technologies to 'pull' technologies. [Link] [Tags: OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Fred Stutzman - Social Networking: Five Sites You Need to Know - Unit Structures
Some social networking buzz. The five sites aren't what you might expect. "In my opinion," writes the author, " these trends are really telling. Social networking is absolutely here to stay - this is not simply a 'phenomenon'." I agree - the phenomeonon may be refined, but the idea of creating systems that help people connect with each other will not go away. Via Partnering for Professionalism. Related: see also Let's be F From OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Leonard Low - Carnival of the Mobilists, Edition 56 - Mobile Learning
The Carnival of the Mobilists is well known, having been bouncing around the ether for some time now. What caught my eye in this edition was Leonard Low's remark, "My fellow edubloggers may also be interested in my preparation for launching a Carnival of the Edublogs early next year (so that the lull of the holidays doesn't slow the momentum of the event getting going). I've already set up a blog for tracking each week's installment at http://carnival.edublogs.org." Good stuff. [OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

George Siemens - College Education Without Prospects - Elearnspace
George Siemens links to this unencouraging article from the New York Times (so it will disappear from view shortly) about schools in India. "A lack of communications skills may be the most obvious shortcoming, but it is not the only one. A deeper problem, specialists say, is a classroom environment that treats students like children even if they are in their mid-20's. Teaching emphasizes silent note-taking and di From OLDaily on December 6, 2006 at 5:45 p.m..

Uni-lingual?
I was going to open my keynote at Online Educa by asking: Wenn jemand zwei Sprachen spricht, ist er zweisprachig. Wenn jemand drei spreachen sprict, ist er dreisprachig. Wie würden sie jemanden nenner, der eine Sprache spricht? … Amerikaner.** At the last minute, I chose to [...] From Internet Time Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 p.m..

ALA 228: Take the Edge Off
Issue 228 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, is all about smooth. From Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Inflamed linkazoidal tissues
Worthy causes, worthless internet acquisitions, and more. From Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Abductive reasoning
Never has Euan Semple's The Obvious blog been so aptly named. You'll have to go to his site to see a not-to-be-missed snippet of English as it was never meant to be uttered... [Tags: euan_semple academics]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Craig Swanson's notebook
Craig Swanson and I knew each other a bit when we both worked for Interleaf in the late '80s and early '90s. You wouldn't have guessed from his work self that he's an artist, cartoonist and humorist, but you wouldn't have been shocked to find out, either. I've enjoyed keeping up with him a bit over the years by dipping into his posted works. Now he's posted a brain-crawl in the form of online notebooks. In addition to his cartoons, many of which are nicely drawn invocations of little puns, you don't want to miss his etch-a-sketch portrait. Naturally, I.. From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

$18 not to read the Gospel of St. Matthew
Mark Dionne points out that emailweb.us—a service that delivers fully-formatted Web pages via email—charges $18 per year, but waives the fee if you can answer 10 of 12 questions about the Gospel According to Matthew correctly. [Tags: emailweb religion]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Whither Information Architecture?
Peter Morville (author of Ambient Findability) wonders out loud about the future of Information Architecture as a discipline, as well as about the role of IAs. Then a bunch of smart people comment... [Tags: information_architecture peter_morville librarians taxonomy folksonomy everything_is_miscellaneous]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Web of Ideas: Being and Tags
On Monday, I'm trying out a talk I'll be giving at the U of North Carolina a few days later. The talk is called, for now, in a doomed attempt to be slightly light-hearted about it, "Being and Tags. Here are the five sections (not counting the zero-based prologue): 0. Three orders of order 1. Tiny tags2. Are taxonomies real?3. Can tags be wrong?4. The miscellany beneath5. Tagging meaning The section that particularly worries me is #2—Perhaps you've heard that there is no one true taxonomy?— mainly because I think it argues against a position no one really holds. But.. From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

My brother's honor, and takin' the midnight train
I'm in NJ tonight for my brother's award ceremony. He's Rheumatologist of the Year, an award he earned by caring about his patients and not processing them like flounder. He's also the most ethical person I've met and damn smart, too. He's getting an honor he richly deserves. (Yay, Andy!) Then I take the 3:20am train from Newark to DC for Day 2 of the RootsCamp unconference. If you're there, I'll be easy to find: I'll be the incredibly cranky old man in the corner. [Tags: andrew_weinberger rootscamp]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

[rootscamp] RootsCamp and coalitions
I'm at the second day of a Bar-style RootsCamp in DC. (Bar camps are unconferences, initially inspired by FOO camp.) It looks about 200 people are here today at the space made available by the National Education Association. It's generally (entirely?) a progressive group. Young. Well-mixed by geneder, not as well by race. Some political consultants but mainly (I think) organizers...hard-bitten optimists. The big schedule board up in the hall is pretty much full with topics ranging from experiences using electronic tools to help labor organize to a discussion of why Democratic women c From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

[rootscamp] Why Democratic women challengers disproportionately failed
Few women Democratic challengers won. This session is trying to figure out why. There are about 25 people in the session, more women than men. Marc Laitin of Wired for Change will present data he's gathered. Then the group will put forward cases and hypotheses so that Marc can adjust his statistical model. The aim is to figure out why women did so badly, because, as Jackie Bray says, the solution can't be to run more men. Marc's data show there was definitely a skew against women challengers. But is this what always goes on? There's some historical analysis... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

[rootscamp] Net neutrality
About twenty people are at this session, evenly split by gender. Sentiment in the room is definitely pro Net neutrality, although we probably don't all agree about what exactly it is. Many in the room are activists on the issue, from the political side more than the technical side. Nancy Scola, the moderator, is interested in how the issue of Net neutrality might be used to energize progressives. I think everyone agrees that we're not good enough at explaining that the issue is. [I'm paraphrasing and taking notes. I'm missing much and undoubtedly getting things wrong. Sorry From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

[rootscamp] Four reasons why RootsCampDC was a really, really good event
1. Interesting discussions all over the place. 2. People working for progressive change for the sake of others, aware of the possibilities of the Internet not only for making them more effective, but for invigorating our democracy. 3. A community that has not come together quite this way before. 4. The possibility of real change in the real world for real people. [Tags: rootscamp rootscampdc politics]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Egyptian Good Night and Good Luck
Global Voices runs (and translates) Mohammed Hisham's post urging Egyptians to see George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck because, he says, it describes Egypt today. It's apparently a movie with unfortunately wide application... [Tags: gv egypt]... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:49 a.m..

Net neutrality is clear
Ack. Doc just pointed out to me that I'm cited in the second paragraph of the current Wikipedia article on Net neutrality. Here's how the article begins: Network neutrality is a general principle of Internet regulation which states that a network is neutral if it satisfies all application needs equally. For example, a perfectly neutral network would not give better service to some web sites than others, and it is argued that it would likewise not favor web-surfing or blogging over online gaming or Voice over IP. It is also guided by the assumption that the public good is maximized... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:48 a.m..

[berkman] StopBadware
Christina Olsen is giving a Tuesday lunch talk at the Berkman Center. She says that StopBadware.org is "neighborhood watch for the Internet," finding sites you want to avoid. It's based theoretically on Jonathan Zittrain's work on generativity. JZ favors open PCs and and open network, but the openness also means that bad actors can create badware that may create a backlash and a demand to lock down PCs or put gatekeepers in place. To avoid that, StopBadware.org addresses the badware problem. [[Disclosure: I'm an advisor to SiteAdvisor.com]. StopBadware has a set of guidelines th From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:48 a.m..

Ethanz on Cass Sunstein
Ethan Zuckerman has a brilliant review and consideration of Cass Sunstein's Infotopia, a book I have not read but now look forward to even more. Sunstein's previous book, Republic.com, gained notoriety for arguing that the Net tends to polarize opinions. (I am way over-simplifying.) Infotopia takes a closer look at the economy of knowledge on the Web. Sounds terrific. I wish I had been able to include it in what I say about Republic.com in Everything Is Miscellaneous...all part of the seven months of regret between when an author turns in a book and when it is available in print.... From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:48 a.m..

ReadSpeaker
People who have difficulty reading—because they're blind or dyslexic, or they access large sites using small mobile devices—have difficulty using the Internet. ReadSpeaker has been providing a hosted service to European sites so that users can click on a button and have a Web page (or a portion of it) read out loud. I met with the ReadSpeaker team today. ReadSpeaker uses other folks' text-to-speech renderers, running it on their servers. Today they work in 12 languages (the European ones, plus Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese), and have 600 customers. Some are sites aimi From Joho the Blog on December 6, 2006 at 3:48 a.m..

That Whacky Web 2.0
So today was a finish line of sorts…once I get home (if I get home) tonight, I’m staring seven weeks of R&R in the face starting tomorrow, and I have to say, I’m ready. It’s been such a treat for me to travel around the country (and the world) and meet so many interesting and [...] From weblogged News on December 6, 2006 at 3:48 a.m..

Rants: Say Goodbye, Firefly
Readers chime in on the Goodbye Weapon, the state of mobile technology, and the death of science fiction in Hollywood. Plus: Links to our most commented-upon blog posts. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Dude, Where's My Password?
Identity 2.0 company Sxip releases a new login and password management extension for Firefox called Sxipper. The free download encrypts and stores your login information locally, then lets you gain access to websites with a click of the mouse. In Monkey Bites. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Dreams of Spray-On Contraception
Sci-fi versions of baby blocker in a can could turn out to be loads of fun. In Sex Drive Daily. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Cheaper Gas Hurts Hybrid Sales
Hybrids didn't keep up with the rest of the auto industry's offerings in the weeks before the November election, but resurgent fuel prices should keep the gas-electric cars popular. In Autopia. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Chip Adapts Stereos to Any Car
The Bongiovi Digital Power Station tweaks audio playback to maximize the rolling thunder. In Listening Post. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Can Massive Shakeup Save Yahoo?
Simply reorganizing the web giant's business may not turn things around -- it might be resignation time at the top. In Epicenter. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:46 a.m..

Gadget Lab: Vacuum Therapy
A transparent cyclone vacuum for those who like to watch, a wicked LCD screen for those who need crazy visuals, and a robosaur who needs something to kick around, all in this week's Gadget Lab. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

MySpace to Purge Sex Offenders
In the wake of a Wired News investigation, the social networking site announces a plan to search its user list for registered sex offenders listed in a national database. But the company's sweeping ban might just drive repeat offenders underground. In 27B Stroke 6. From Wired News on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

California: Protest by College Newspapers
College newspapers nationwide planned to publish identical editorials denouncing the University of Southern CaliforniaÂ's decision to bar the editor of the student-run paper from a second term. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

New York Tightens Rules on Commercial Colleges
The vote came after a yearlong effort by state education officials to find ways to control such colleges more closely in the face of concerns about poor educational practices. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Court Reviews Race as Factor in School Plans
There seemed little prospect that plans to maintain racial integration at two urban school systems would survive the Supreme CourtÂ's scrutiny. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Regents to Increase Oversight of Commercial Colleges
The New York State Board of Regents adopted new regulations that will increase state oversight of commercial colleges when they change owners or seek to move into New York. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Hawaii Schools
Students may be denied admission based on their race without running afoul of a civil rights law, a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco ruled. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Studying Philanthropy, and Doling Out Real Cash
Colgate University offers a class in philanthropy where, at the end of the school year, the students will award $10,000 to nonprofit organizations of their choice. From New York Times: Education on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

States give failing grade to graduation rates
Rising tuition, poor preparation, and not enough degree-focused help are responsible for the disappointing figures, experts say. From Christian Science Monitor | Learning on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Displaced students need more resources, study finds
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused the largest displacement of students in US history. Christian Science Monitor | Learning on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Backstory: Look, Mom, it's me. I'm OK!
Colleges are deploying web cameras to give eager parents live glimpses of children away at school. Christian Science Monitor | Learning on December 6, 2006 at 3:45 a.m..

Pure enjoyment (Not safe for work)
After several hectic days in Berlin, I flew to the UK to visit close friends who have a new place in Somerset, a couple of hours southwest of London. We lunched at a wonderful pub in Winchester, drove past Stonehenge, and on to Wincanton. It is so relaxing to be surrounded by well-manicured farms on [...] From Internet Time Blog on December 6, 2006 at 2:45 a.m..