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by Stephen Downes
July 29, 2010 4:26 p.m.

CoSN Pushes Use of More Flexible Software Systems
Wow, CoSN may have set a new record for claiming to lead while trailing badly. Ian Quillen writes of a new CoSN report released Wednesday "pushing for the educational use of new Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)." Or, writes Quillen, "or the acronym literate among us, a better summary might be: LMS + CMS = LCMS (FTW!)." Those of us who have been around long enough will recall Maish Nichani's article of almost exactly that name, LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs], first published May 02, 2001. That leaves CoSN just under ten years late in calling this "new." As for "FTW" (For The Win)? Well, your call. Ian Quillen, Education Week, July 29, 2010 4:16 p.m. [Link] 53013 [Comment] [Tweet]

Digital Books Come of Age (Or) The Textbook is Dead; Long Live the Textbook
Have eBooks really come of age, or are bloggers just jumping on a recent media bandwagon. There's no question perceptions of eBooks are being helped along by advertising for the Kindle, Nook and iPad. But I think overall sales of these devices are still quite low - three million iPads sounds like a lot (I can't find Kindle sales figures) but in a world of seven billion people, and one billion internet users, it's a drop in the bucket. Christine Cupaiuolo, Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, July 29, 2010 3:56 p.m. [Link] 53012 [Comment] [Tweet]

Large Collection of My Writings to Date
David Wiley provides readers with a full summer of afternoon reading as most of his papers are now available. "My blog contains over 600 posts, but my longer writing typically goes to more academic outlets like journals. Thanks to the help of the amazing folks at BYU's Scholar's Archive (our institutional repository), much of my peer-reviewed work now has a stable home online, too. I've gathered up links to these peer-reviewed articles as well as whitepapers and other long pieces on a new page called Articles." David Wiley, iterating toward openness, July 29, 2010 3:40 p.m. [Link] 53011 [Comment] [Tweet]

Go Sky Watch Planetarium
The first post in the new iPad Curriculum blog covers the topic of Go Sky Watch Planetarium (it's a bit revealing that there are no links in the article to the application; you don't get to link to it unless you're Apple). The new blog, writes the author, "I will post app and web app reviews, highlight educational tools that work seamlessly on the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, and give tips and tricks for using the iPad/iPod Touch in the classroom." I personally wouldn't dedicate a blog to a single platform, but I'm sure some people will find this new blog useful. Kelly Tenkely, don't forget to put your name on your new blog somewhere; I had to go back to your old blog to find it. Kelly Tenkely, iPad Curriculum, July 29, 2010 6:17 a.m. [Link] 53007 [Comment] [Tweet]

For Educational Change - Teachers Are the Key
There is such an irony in getting a lagging group, teachers, to change so that they can lead the change. The expectation that the adoption of new technology will be led by the teachers, once we get them to adopt this new technology, seems absurd. What we are seeing is that students (and the people who will eventually employ students) are adopting new technology, and teachers (followed, even more slowly, by administrators and professors) are scrambling to adapt. Jim Shimabukuro, educational technology & change, July 29, 2010 6:06 a.m. [Link] 53006 [Comment] [Tweet]

Vast Majority of Professors Are Rather Ludditical
I don't know why Anya Kamenetz is surprised to find most professors don't use social media tools. Check their age, then poll the general population of that age, and you'd probably find similar trends. It's not that they're not trained (come on, this software is dead simple to use; small children teach themselves) it's just what they're doing now is working for them (alter all, they are university professors!) and there's no real reason to change. Change will not come from within the system, certainly not when change undermines the system. Anya Kamenetz, DIY U, July 29, 2010 5:57 a.m. [Link] 53005 [Comment] [Tweet]

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