Tuesday, February 22, 2005

WikkaWiki support for mindmaps (Flickr). WikkaWiki is an open-source wiki engine with native support for mindmapping. Freemind maps can be inserted in wiki pages in two ways. Either as links or as embedded data. Just paste freemind data in a wikipage and the map will be generated on-the-fly. [Edubloggers Links Feed] 11:59:15 PM      Google It!.

COL Learning Object Repository. Paul West advises that the Commonwealth of Learning's Learning Object Repository has opened, and writes, "It's based on a combination of 'eRIB' and 'pakXchange', which gives it a strong database with security. Multiple partnering institutions can collaborate on the same implementation; they can each have multiple libraries of content, with different levels of security on each (from open to proprietary)." Downloads of the repository software are also available on the site. By Various Authors, Commonwealth of Learning, February, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 11:56:04 PM      Google It!.

If All The Learning Objects Are Web Pages Who Needs a Repository?. I've done a number of workshops demo-ing how to search various learning object Repositories and invariably deal with the question, "Why don't we just do a Google search?". Strangely, having built one sort of similar system myself, I am asking the same question. Stephen Downes today shared the announcement of the Commonwealth of Learning's Learning Object Repository being released, "An online database of learning content that provides software to Commonweath countries free of charge" and the software was being made available as well.. sounds interesting enough to click around. Hitting the technical documentation, you get alphabet soup explanations: The COL Learning Object Repository (or in short COL LOR) integrates eRIB and pakXchange such that the local repository of eRIB is disabled and replaced with pakXchange, and pakXchange is modified to act as an EduSource node for the purpose of searching. Easy for you to say... what the heck is all that? So then I thought, give the thing a whirl and see what I can figure this does. Now I am looking at the eRIB "eduSource Repository-In-A-Box" (Yikes, hope that fares better then the long gone "Web Course In a Box!"). But apparently it lets you do "federated" searches, or searches for learning objects across multiple sites. I tried some real simple queries to generates lots of results. Unfortunately, not taking the cue from Google in that search results produce retrievable URLs, I cannot easily link you to what I saw. But I ran three searches on: * volcano * economics * heart Hoping to see some learning objects, what I found is that 95% of the results are simply links to web pages, many of them course syllabi [1] [2], in some cases images [1], pages not found [1] [2] [3], this page has moved [1] [2], a thesaurus [1] Yes, an unscientific sampling, and perhaps I misunderstand the purpose of this site is more to demonstrate the search technology than the content. But if these are the learning objects that are meant be "reusable" chunks of content, I am totally mystified as to what this giant piece of technology has created- a keyword search engine that finds web sites, and pretty meta data for web sites (many of which do not exist any more). If that is the case, we ought to just use Google, eh? [cogdogblog] 11:51:36 PM      Google It!.

NTT's Cool - Human Area Networking Technology [Slashdot:] this is very cool and would enable simple and effective security solutions.  This has the potential to be disruptive technology as the hanshake or the kiss could exchange information between two PDAs with the touching channel.  When coupled to medical implants this technology would allow for both monitoring and control of complex adaptive devices.  As a wearable "data watch" this touch channel could make mobile computing much easier to navigate -- BL 10:28:04 AM      Google It!.

NewPRWiki - Resources.NorthernVoice05. Wiki notes from The Feb 2004 Northern Voice conference [Edubloggers Links Feed] 10:00:58 AM      Google It!.

iChat Remote for PowerPoint [Edubloggers Links Feed] 10:00:16 AM      Google It!.

ajax: a new approach to web applications. describes combined approach of Javascript, XHTML/CSS, XML/XSL and the formation of a 'AJAX' engine as a way to have more synchronous interaction with end users in web applications. [Edubloggers Links Feed] 9:56:25 AM      Google It!.

IMEJ Article - Students use of learning objects. fairly weak article that argues from a small set of examples and fairly small sample size that 'students find learning objects useful' [Edubloggers Links Feed] 9:55:31 AM      Google It!.

Women in Physics Match Men in Success. A recent report says that after they earn a bachelor's degree in physics, American women are just as successful as men at climbing the academic ladder. By By KENNETH CHANG. [NYT > Education] 9:53:37 AM      Google It!.

Test for canine personalities. Dogs show huge differences in personality, according to a US scientist who has developed a test to assess canine character. [BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition] 9:51:53 AM      Google It!.

How Distance Learning Changes Faculty - Christine Uber Grosse, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. How do faculty change as a result of teaching a distance learning course? What new knowledge, skills, and attitudes do they develop as a result of their experience? How does work in distance education affect their teaching, service, and scholarship? This [Online Learning Update] 9:49:33 AM      Google It!.

Inside the Games Machines of the Future [Slashdot:] 9:16:37 AM      Google It!.