Monday, November 15, 2004

A 'Filling Station' Model of E-learning?. The BBC and podcasting. It's a natural, right? Yes - and it should be speaking volumes to educators. "This is a bit different from a model of e-learning which assumes students sit in front of computers, need to be constantly connected to a network and must access all they require from the institutional VLE. I think users may find this 'disconnected but connectable' model attractive as well." By Derek Morrison, Auricle, November 15, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 9:26:43 PM      Google It!.

The Economist on Patent Reform [Slashdot:] 4:35:49 PM      Google It!.

Craig Cline summarizes the Mobile Blogging session. [Scripting News]"most people in the room recognized the huge market potential of providing services to mobile phone users" -- like it or not this the mobile phone with its tiny screen is the future target platform with by far largest market of students and would be students.  BL 9:31:16 AM      Google It!.

Dell Sees Market Gains with New Compact Servers. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dell will begin offering on Monday new "blade" servers at prices it says will bring the ultra-compact computers into the business mainstream and allow it to grab market share from rivals HP and IBM. [Reuters: Technology] This might be ideal for built in cmputer labs like the new ones at Douglas College because when the lab is updated the "old" blades can be reassembled in to rackmount servers and have extended life as a server farm -- BL 9:09:59 AM      Google It!.

Solaris 10 Released, Updated & Free (Like Speech) [Slashdot:] 9:03:17 AM      Google It!.

RFID Labels On Prescription Drug Bottles [Slashdot:] 9:02:14 AM      Google It!.

Reger Blogging Tool. James Farmer continues to report and comment on interesting directions of development and new tools for educational technology. I signed up for a Reger free account, but haven't yet explored all the features. The signup procedure is straightforward; I think that making special purpose blogs (e.g., Running Log, Biking Log, Picture Log, URL Log, etc.) easily available for users will encourage new webloggers. JH _____ Reger. Haven't looked at it in any great detail but I wonder if Reger might be an alternative starting point to Blogger. The thing I worry most about is setting people up using services that then fold & disappear (something I guess Blogger is less likely to do). [incorporated subversion] [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 8:56:20 AM      Google It!.

Site Profile: ARTstor. This site is described in the Nov. 12 issue of the LearningTimes Network (http://home.learningtimes.net): "ARTstor is a non-profit initiative, founded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with a mission to use digital technology to enhance scholarship, teaching and learning in the arts and associated fields." The images are searchable and browseable; orient to the site by starting with the Tour. "ARTstor provides curated collections of art images and associated data for noncommercial and scholarly, non-profit educational use. The ARTstor Charter Collection (available starting July 2004 on a site-licensed basis to non-profit institutions in the United States) will initially be comprised of approximately 300,000 digital images and associated catalog data; the tools to make active use of those images; and a restricted environment that seeks to balance the interests and needs of users with those of content providers." The site places emphasis on the educational tools to use the images as well as the collection: " In order for digital images to be integrated into the fabric of teaching, learning, and research, many individuals and institutions will need tools for searching and using the collections – and the tools must be comparatively easy to use. For example, ARTstor's software will allow faculty to teach with digital images and students to review images related to a course. ARTstor users will be able to create and save image groups, and they will have tools that allow them to zoom in on details of images, as well as to use their own images along with those in the ARTstor collections." One example of the richness of the collection is the Art History Survey Collection, "This 'survey collection' has been defined on the basis of an 'overlap concordance' based on 13 standard art history survey texts, some consulted in multiple editions. It is intended to include at least one image of every art object or monument reproduced in at least two of these standard survey texts. It thus represents an experiment in defining empirically a 'consensus collection' supporting widespread teaching needs, but one that does not yoke the teacher or student to any one particular text, pedagogical approach, or 'canon.' " ARTstor should be of value to instructors in many fields including Art, Humanities, and History. Unfortunately ARTstor is not an open access repository; access to the images and the software in ARTstor is based upon the payment of a one-time participation fee and an annual fee--the fee is scaled according the size/type of participating institution. [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 8:54:56 AM      Google It!.

Cyberlibel Damages Awarded In Canada [Slashdot:] 8:52:10 AM      Google It!.

Google Investors Await the Dropping of 39 Million Shoes. Google investors may find out this week whether there really can be too much of a good thing. By By GARY RIVLIN. [NYT > Technology] 8:43:38 AM      Google It!.

Dark Side of the Band. Dotted around the globe are shadowy, short-range transmitters beaming strange radio messages across the planet. The messages are indecipherable, and often unlistenable. Nonetheless, they have their fans. By Jason Walsh. [Wired News] 8:20:12 AM      Google It!.

Bb-igfoot: Are there More than Blurry Photos of ePortfolios?. Despite a lack of clearly focused photographs, there are some out there clinging to firm beliefs in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. I get the same sensation trying to get a clear picture of Blackboard's ePortfolio functionality. Some messages of inquiry about the legendary beast in question bounced around the AAHE Electronic Portfolio Action Committee. As much as I believe in the concept of Blackboard's content management system, and see how it provides a platform for potential eportfolios, I am left Google-less in actually trying to find one I can see. Is the only one out there the one Bb snapped for Lisa Smith? Maybe I am looking in the wrong places. Maybe they cannot be seen outside the Blackboard fence. Maybe they are all un-published. Maybe Bigfoot and Nessie have munched them all. I just do not know. I am not slamming Blackboard's technology or content system, but more that there has been talk of this for at least a year, and I cannot even find one blurry photograph to believe in. If I was running a corporate site, I would stock it with a pile of real concrete examples. Now about those alien landing sites.... [cogdogblog] 8:02:20 AM      Google It!.