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OLDaily is currently being produced by Barry Dahl (BD), Harold Jarche (HJ), and Gary Woodill (GW).

by Stephen Downes
July 14, 2008

The Top 5 Platforms for Creating Educational Video Games
I am aware of several companies working on generic platforms where you can create your own educational games. John Rice in this post provides a list of what he considers to be the top 5 platforms today. The market for game construction tools will get crowded within the next year. -GW John Rice, Educational Games Research, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video, Gaming] [Comment]

Why We Know Less Than Ever About the World
How does the news shape how we see the world? Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, shows a fascinating map of the American view of the world depicted through the amount of news coverage by American media by country. The death of Anna Nicole Smith received more coverage than all the stories on any country in the world with the exception of Iraq. This TED talk is an eye opener. -GW Alisa Miller, TED Talks, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: United States] [Comment]

5 Minute Intro to Yahoo Pipes
Marshall Kirkpatrick explains in this video how to use Yahoo Pipes. I've been a Bloglines and Google Reader user for a long time but the power of Pipes to manage RSS feeds is incredible and Marshall explains just how easy it is. I can see many educational uses for these user-defined feeds, both for educators and students. -HJ Marshall Kirkpatrick, Marshall Kirkpatrick, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video, Google, Bloglines, Yahoo!, RSS] [Comment]

Smart Girls, Smart Boys
The Eide's refer to research that shows that boys and girls process verbal comprehension in different ways and discuss the need for gender-appropriate teaching strategies. "One wonders whether right hemispheric language approaches for boys (e.g. analogy, word associations, voice, imagery, inductive learning) and left hemispheric languages for girls (direct semantic learning, deductive learning)might be a better way to help more students reach a high level of language mastery." I have not heard of any curriculum in public education that allows for different teaching approaches for boys and girls, but the research shows that is necessary. -HJ Fernette and Brock Eide, Eide Neurolearning Blog, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Semantic Web, Research] [Comment]

Sign the Julie Amero Petition
Miguel Guhlin, along with many others, wants to help reach the goal of 1,000 signatures in support of Julie Amero, the substitute teacher whose life was ruined back in 2004 in a Norwich, Connecticut middle school. She still faces the possibility of 40 years in prison for not doing enough to protect the kids in her class from a continuous stream of porn-related pop-ups on a poorly protected computer in the classroom. Although the first trial was overturned due to shoddy ... (well, shoddy everything), the State Attorneys office still hasn't dropped the charges scheduled a new trial, leaving her in a state of limbo. "Signing this petition, and indicating where you are from, will let the prosecutor folks in Connecticut realize just how much this case has not lost the interest of folks around the country." and beyond - BD Miguel Guhlin, Around the Corner - MGuhlin.net, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning] [Comment]

The Academia Gap and the New Philosophers
Joel Adkins opens his post with a memory of his grad school days when they discussed "The gap between research and application of the research to the classroom." He is starting to see a similar gap between classroom teachers and the "new upper echelon of education technologists and bloggers out there." The evangelism of the edtech bloggers is getting out of hand - "I am in the field. I know the push. I do. But frankly, it is getting embarrassing. I have tried most of the tools and even found a few I like personally. However, I don't think most of my teachers would really give a flying flip about most of them or the conversations we are having." He concludes with an apparent shot across the bow at the work habits of many in the ed-tech crowd: "I wish I could Twitter and Plurk all day too. I wish I could research blogs and contribute to the online conversation like they do. I wish I could Ustream and connect with this global philosophy shift in live streaming. I wish I could participate in their witty and fun conversations and travel tips they share all day and night." etc, etc.

"But I can't. I have to work." -BD (hat tip to Scott McLeod) Joel Adkins, The TWAIN Blog, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Twitter, Research, Web Logs] [Comment]

Alabama Distance Learning Rolls Out Statewide for 2009-2010
There seems to be several pockets of momentum in the U.S. high schools regarding e-learning. A southern state appears poised to take it to the next level. "Alabama is aiming for a first. All high schools in the state will have distance learning programs beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, including videoconferencing and Web-based learning tools" Funding is being provided to create "ACCESS labs, which provide "online and interactive video conferencing technology to link classrooms and offer coursework, including Advanced Placement and languages, to students in schools where those courses may not be available," as well beefing up the state's series of tubes to 10 MB of Internet bandwidth. -BD Dave Nagel, The Journal, July 14, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Conferencing, Video, Bandwidth] [Comment]

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