Sunday, June 20, 2004

Web-based tutoring gives students study aid 24/7 - Cara Branigan, eSchool News. A commercial, web-based tutoring service is helping high schools and colleges make live instructors available 24-hours a day, seven days a week to tutor students in mathematics. At the moment, this round-the-clock tutoring service is available only for [Online Learning Update] 11:33:15 PM      Google It!.

CrossRef supports forwarding linking. CrossRef and its partner Atypon have added forwarding linking to the basic CrossRef linking service. From the June 8 press release: "In addition to using CrossRef to create outbound links from their references, CrossRef member publishers can now retrieve 'cited-by' links -- links to other articles that cite their content. This new service is being offered as an optional tool to allow CrossRef members to display cited-by links in the primary content that they publish....As part of the same functionality powered by Atypon, CrossRef is also offering a new Forward-Match feature that eliminates the need for users to query CrossRef repeatedly for citations that do not initially return a match. When a query is marked to enable alerts, the CrossRef system automatically sends an email containing the matched results once the relevant content gets registered in CrossRef." (PS: Forward linking can give us a new window on impact by helping us track the articles that link to a given article. It can also mitigate what I've called the many-copy problem created by OA. If there are many copies of a given OA article around the net, each one absorbing some previously unknown percentage of the user traffic, then forward linking can help us measure their relative prominence, by links if not by downloads or other parameters.) [Open Access News] 11:23:10 PM      Google It!.

CETIS: Matching Content to Learning. IMS has released a public draft of the Accessibility for Meta-Data specification, step two of addressing accessibility issues for learners (Step one being the Accessibility for Learner Information Profile (ACCLIP). Wilbert Kraan of CETIS provides a thoughtful analysis of this spec, in CETIS-Matching content to learners. He outlines the positive aspects of the spec, as well as pointing out some... [Michelle's Online Learning Freakout Party Zone] 11:20:56 PM      Google It!.

SUSE 9.1 Personal ISO Available For Free Download [Slashdot] 11:20:03 PM      Google It!.

PluggedIn: 'Handtop' PCs Set to Hit Mobile Market. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Want a more powerful computer in your hand without having to settle for a personal digital assistant? New fully functional Windows-based "handtop" computers will make their debut later this year. [Reuters: Technology] under 2 pounds 11:18:36 PM      Google It!.

Skolelinux Project Releases Version 1.0 [Slashdot] this is a Debian derivitive that is basically a network server for thin client of limited machines that can support a screen, keyboard, mouse, and network driver.  The linux applications run on the network servers and can deliver open office and fronter VLE level applications.  The target maket is education on a budget with hand-me-down machines with at least a 2mb/sec network. In principle this could be evolved into a secure networked desktop made portable with a USB drive/CD that would "solve" the software compatabilty/upgrade issue centrally while  making the educational  experiences to students on a budget.  With a little evolution the thin client could be a playstation or xbox or better yet a wireless cellphone/pda.  I think the ultimate thin client is going to be some sort of cellphone with an online speech recognition server that may just be your personal desktop system.  The home office server as a skolenux box is an attractive idea because it deals with the synchronization/backup issues in a graceful centralized manneer. ---- Bruce Landon 11:15:12 PM      Google It!.

Old Search Engine, the Library, Tries to Fit Into a Google World. Librarians have increasingly seen people use online search sites not to supplement research libraries but to replace them. By Katie Hafner. [New York Times: Technology] 10:30:46 PM      Google It!.