Thursday, December 14, 2006

New ELI Resources on Wiki Applications and Information Literacy. Two new white papers on ensuring today's students are Web savvy, as well as an Innovations & Implementations case study brief on USC Confluence, a campus-wide academic wiki service, are now available from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Getting Past Google: Perspectives on Information Literacy from the Millennial Mind How Choice, Co-Creation, and Culture Are Changing What It Means to Be Net Savvy USC Confluence: A Campus-Wide Academic Wiki  [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] 10:27:53 PM      Google It!.

Theory into Practice: A Bridge Too Far - Joseph Defazio, AACE Journal. This article proposes a research agenda that addresses the gap between theory and practice in the area of instructional theory. It reflects the beliefs of this writer and attempts to address current issues in the field of instructional technology. Citing Online Learning Update, December 15, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 10:12:14 PM      Google It!.

Leveraging a Free Javascript Timeline Widget. Tim points to Timeline, a free Javascript widget you can use to embed a cool customized timeline in any web page. The live examples demonstrate how you can create a wide variety of styles. The examples also show how a wiki can be integrated with the timeline to provide further commentary. Since timelines of various sorts are a common assignment... Ed-Tech Insider, December 14, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 8:46:39 PM      Google It!.

Southwest Regional Conference 2007 to Focus on Strategic Collaboration in Higher Ed. Brian L. Hawkins, president of EDUCAUSE, will present a keynote session on why collaboration is no longer an alternative strategy but rather the only means of competitive survival for higher education at the Southwest Regional Conference, "Strategic Collaboration Is the Competitive Advantage: Leading, Understanding, and Building the Collaborative Community," February 21[^]23 in Austin, Texas. The conference program will also cover leadership and strategic initiatives, partnerships and consortia, and technology tools and infrastructure. Register by January 24 for discounted rates. EDUCAUSE CONNECT - Technology In Academia -- Connect @ EDUCAUSE, December 14, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 8:45:48 PM      Google It!.

Elgg 0.672 released. We've just released Elgg 0.672 - if interested you can get it from Elgg.org. Elgg is a free, open source social networking platform available for anyone to run on an Apache / PHP web server environment. (If you don't have one of those, you can also get a free Elgg social networking site from Elgg Spaces.) Dave Tosh : Weblog, December 14, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 8:41:11 PM      Google It!.

Scientists Decry Political Interference. RamblingMan writes "According to the BBC, the American Union of Concerned Scientists has put out a statement about the misrepresentation of date and a list of such interference by the U.S. government in scientific research. Besides the usual slew of Nobel Laureate signatories, they provide a number of examples besides the well-known example of the EPA's Global Warming Report." From the BBC article: "'It's very difficult to make good public policy without good science, and it's even harder to make good public policy with bad science,' said Dr Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security. 'In the last several years, we've seen an increase in both the misuse of science and I would say an increase of bad science in a number of very important issues; for example, in global climate change, international peace and security, and water resources.'"[Slashdot] 8:36:51 PM      Google It!.

College endowments earned 10.7-percent average return in 2006 fiscal year, survey finds. Endowments earned an average of 10.7-percent in the 2006 fiscal year, according to preliminary data. Diversification of the largest endowments into "alternative" investments paid off. (for subscribers) Chronicle.com - Today's News, December 14, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 11:52:05 AM      Google It!.

Cellular + Wifi from one of the majors. Glenn Fleishman writes in the NYT about T-Mobile's combined cellular and wifi phones and plans. Glenn writes: "In my own testing, I found the service a reasonable first draft of what could become a reliable alternative to both all-cellular networks and an emerging set of Wi-Fi-only phones." [Tags: wifi telecom glenn_fleishman] Joho the Blog, December 14, 2006. [Conversation] [Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ Edu_RSS Most Recent - RSS old] 11:49:44 AM      Google It!.

Wal-Mart Asked to Drop Christian Video Game. doug141 writes "Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves.Players can choose to join the Antichrist's team, but of course they can never win on [his] side. The enemy team includes fictional rock stars and folks with Muslim-sounding names, while the righteous include gospel singers, missionaries, healers and medics." [Slashdot] 11:40:30 AM      Google It!.

Google Patents the Design of Search Results Page. prostoalex writes "ZDNet is reporting that USPTO issued a patent to Google, Inc. for 'ornamental design for a graphical user interface'. This is not, as ZDNet points out, a software patent (which is usually issued as a utility patent), but a design patent, which governs the look and feel of the product and prevents others from directly copying it." Ironic, given Google's recent slip-up of copying a Yahoo page. In news on the flipside, Google has launched a patent search service (in beta).[Slashdot] 11:37:59 AM      Google It!.

Is Internet Addiction a Medical Condition?. PreacherTom writes "Arising from such cases as a recent lawsuit with IBM over employee termination due to online sex chatting at work, recent debate over whether Internet abuse is a legitimate addiction, akin to alcoholism, is heating up. From the article: 'Attorneys say recognition by a court [~] whether in this or some future litigation [~] that Internet abuse is an uncontrollable addiction, and not just a bad habit, could redefine the condition as a psychological impairment worthy of protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.' The condition could even make it into the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, making it a full-blown neurosis. It wouldn't be a huge surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be 'hard to stay away from the Net for even a few days in a row."[Slashdot] 11:35:49 AM      Google It!.

Samsung's Solid-State Disk Drive Unveiled. Iddo Genuth writes "After unveiling their upcoming hybrid hard drive, Samsung [~] along with a number of other manufacturers [~] is planning to begin shipping solid-state drives during 2007. Unlike the upcoming hybrids, solid-state drives should work with windows XP as well as Vista." The drives will be introduced in 1.8- and 2.5-inch form factors for notebooks. While streaming performance can't equal that of hard disks, Samsung claims that random-access performance is more important and that (e.g.) Vista users would see a 4x speedup in many key operations. Pricing was not announced.[Slashdot] 11:34:05 AM      Google It!.