Stephen's Web

OLDaily

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

by Stephen Downes
July 15, 2008

The New Apple Core
Chris Deering contends that the shift to mobile phones from computers puts Apple back in the driver's seat in terms of leading information and communications technologies. He reviews major shifts in technology and concludes that because of the success with the market leading iPhone, "Apple becomes the Microsoft of the 21st century". An interesting read... -GW Chris Deering, Handheld Learning, July 15, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc., Microsoft] [Comment]

Wordle with Teeth: U of Quebec's Vocab Profiler
Wordle may be the latest online "application du jour" but Clay Burell talks about a more pedagogically important tool from UQAM which has been around for several years. VocabProfiler is a lexical analysis tool. These tools, of which Clay mentions several, can be used by students to analyze their writing and by teachers to develop quizzes, among many possible uses. -HJ Clay Burell, Beyond School, July 15, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Brain Rules
Based on the book, Brain Rules, John Medina's site, with blog, is rich with well-produced videos and explanations on his 12 brain rules or "twelve principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school". Rules include, "exercise boosts your brain" and "male and female brains are different". He also dismisses our perceived ability to multi-task, saying that it is not possible. It would help many learners and educators to pay attention to these rules. -HJ John Medina, Brain Rules, July 15, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Video] [Comment]

A Bridge Between Blackboard and Open Source?
An announcement made Monday at the Blackboard Developers Conference is sure to get some attention over the coming months. Bb and Syracuse University will work together on an integration of proprietary Blackboard with Sakai, one of the primary open-source alternatives. The end result should be a platform that allows users to import Sakai content into Blackboard or vice versa. "There's been some concern in the [open-source] community that this is a giant attempt to suck everything into Blackboard.... It really is done in the spirit of trying to be an open company, [to] really focus on something that will add value to the student experience," according to John Fontaine, Blackboard's senior director of engineering. -BD Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, July 15, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Experience, Blackboard Inc.] [Comment]

Eduslide Will Be Released As Open Source
E-mail received by Stephen from Mark Vernon of Virtual Training Company: "I started creating an LCMS called eduslide (was tutorom), last year with a view to delivering our own content at VTC, and we are at the stage of releasing it as open source later this month. We also have quite a bit of free content, created over the last couple of years. The open source downloadable version will have permissions, roles, customisation and admin features which you won't see on the public site (http://www.eduslide.net) but the main features are there. We've concentrated on the content creation side more than anything else so far, but it is fairly easy to add new modules. I'd be grateful if you could take a look at it and give me your thoughts." -BD Mark Vernon, The Virtual Training Company, July 15, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Customization, Content Management Systems, Open Source] [Comment]

This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.