Synchronous debate tools
Donna Murdoch, Google Plus, October 3, 2012.

Donna Murdoch caught my attention with this post observing "This is probably the 3rd synchronous debate tool I've seen introduced in the past few days." She was pointing to this Edudemic article describing Deeyoon, where you can watch live video debates, or previous debates, and voice your opinion by voting. The problem with Deeyoon, though, is that it requires a Facebook login, which gives it access to all your Facebook data, which makes it a non-starter for me. Murdoch also mentioned GetSpin, which looked interesting, but wouldn't operate on my computer - it's an iPad only application. There's also an asynchronous debating app called Apprennet (who names these things?) which was designed for law students. And Kim Hayworth pointed to a proposal for Ed Roulette, obviously influenced by the infamous Chatroulette. I still think the field is wide open, though in the long run I suspect 'debate mode' will be just another feature we see in video conferencing applications.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Project Based Learning, Video, Conferencing]

Live Weather Display Using CSS, jQuery and PHP
Steven Morris, CSS Tricks, October 3, 2012.

This is an example of the sort of data integration that is going to sit behind the next generation of e-learning (and now I'm talking about what comes after all the MOOC hype here). This article describes a website using CSS and JSON to set up a header than changes based on the weather where you're located. It reads your location, connects with a weather service to get the current weather, then sets up the display with apprpriate images. The article could be a bit clearer - it points the reader to Yahoo's RSS API from 2006, but the code actually uses the REST-JSON api documented in this other article. Of course, weather information is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine, for example, an online course on economics that changes as the economic data changes!

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Yahoo!, Traditional and Online Courses, RSS, Online Learning]

Writing a SOOC
Keith Lyons, Clyde Street, October 3, 2012.

Keith Lyons writes about a SOOC (small MOOC) he is launching shortly, Observing and Analysing Performance in Sport. The course is hosted on a platform called OpenLearning. OpenLearning is "a place for people to teach and learn online. It's social like Facebook, collaborative like Wikipedia and available to anyone in the world." OpenLearning currently hosts four courses and are no doubt planning many more. According to the site, "OpenLearning is currently in Beta and will launch officially on October 15th 2012." Lyons is also using open source icons - that's something else I should investigate. The course starts in November.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Source, Wikipedia]

Australia's University of Southern Queensland launches the first OERu prototype
Various Authors, WikiEducator, October 3, 2012.

It has taken a while, but the first course from OERu is now accepting registrations. "AST1000 is a first-year level course in International Relations and the Social Sciences [and] will provide basic information about, and analysis of, contemporary regional relationships, current affairs and societies in Asia and the Pacific." The course is hosted on Moodle; if you want to read the course-guide you'll need to sign up for an account. Although the assessment model is credited to Jim Taylor, you'll see a lot of MOOC influence in the design (pictured above) which employs web-based resources, social networks and RSS aggregation; in fact, it's exactly the design we used in CCK08 (that's a good thing!). You can enrol now; the course starts November 23. The course appears to be free, but the website is coy about whether there will be a fee for assessment, and there's no indication whether there will be enrolment caps.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Traditional and Online Courses, Networks, Assessment, RSS, Australia, Queensland]