Game Changers: Education and Information Technologies
Diana G. Oblinger, Editor, EDUCAUSE, May 10, 2012.

EDUCAUSE has released another major eBook, this one "a collection of chapters and case studies contributed by college and university presidents, provosts, faculty, and other stakeholders. Institutions are finding new ways of achieving higher education’s mission without being crippled by constraints or overpowered by greater expectations." Most of the chapters and case studies (they are short, but there's a lot of them) are based on American examples, but ther's a selection from the world at large: on Royal Roads and Athabasca University in Canada, the CHANCE program in China, blended learning in Northern Sweden, and i-Counseling at the Open University of Hong Kong.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: United States, EDUCAUSE, China, Information, Canada, Blended Learning]

Themeefy
Titash Niogi, Website, May 10, 2012.

I played around with Themeefy for a bit this morning and things it's a good start to an interesting product (though it reallyneeds RSS feed input to support content creation). I'd also like to see a nicer web-based version (the current version wastes way too much screen space). Here's their blurb: "Themeefy is a curation and self-publishing platform, that lets people do four things
- Curate information from the web from various sources
- Create their own content, via notes or pictures
- Publish this collection in a book format (Themeefy Mag). This is an HTML5 / JS based magazine that can be viewed on computers and devices like the iPad
- Read and share magazines and personalize this via bookmarks and comments."

Titash Niogi, who wrote to me to tell me about it, adds some links from their user community: Novel Technology, How to Themeefy, Text2all.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Personalization, Books, RSS]

Lync in education site
Rosanna Clarke, The UK Schools Blog, May 10, 2012.

Microsoft has developed software that embeds a social network into Sharepoint and Microsoft Office products. It's being marketed as a way to improve enterprise communications, and in education, "with its many opportunities to improve communication in schools, colleges and universities." You can try it by downloading software here (it took me a good ten minutes to find it on Microsoft's Byzantine web site) but note - this will involve downloading ther server, which might be more than you want. I was unable to find a way to simply try the functionality inside an existing MS application (I posted the question at the The UK Schools Blog so there may be a response by the time you read this). This post links to a Lync microsite describing how the system is used in education.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Microsoft, Great Britain, Networks]

University violated charter disciplining students for ripping instructor on Facebook
Daryl Slade, Postmedia News, May 10, 2012.

I think this is a correct ruling. "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the disciplinary proceedings undertaken by the university." That's not a blanket assertion that students can say whatever they want. But it is a requirement that in disciplinary hearings the university must take into account the freedoms granted to students - in particular, the freedom of expression - under the Canadian Charter of Rights.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Canada]