Friday, June 25, 2004

The US Department of Education has an RSS feed. [Scripting News] 4:42:06 PM      Google It!.

10...9...8...7 - Start of a new open source LOR partnership. A few times over the last two months I have mentioned the project I am currently managing, to implement a learning object repository for both BCcampus and Open School B.C., and the fact that we had done a fairly lengthy product evaluation that has led us to back an open source project as our way forward. Well I can finally let the cat out of the bag; I hadn't wanted to say anything yet as I didn't want to steal any thunder from the software's originators, who presented their work to the public for the first time recently at the NMC 2004 conference in Vancouver, and partly because we were still trying to work out the details of our ongoing relationship. But I think the times is right, in part because I want to explain our motivations for choosing an open source solution, and specifically *this* open source solution. (read more...) [EdTechPost] 9:34:23 AM      Google It!.

I Remember When Kids Didn't Have Cell Phones..... Mobile Users Top 1.5 Billion "As of the first week of June 2004, the mobile service industry broke the 1.5 billion subscriber mark worldwide. Research firm EMC also predicts that the industry will pass the 2 billion mark as early as 2006, far earlier than some other predictions, and reach 2.45 billion by the end of 2009." [infoSync World] Guess where a lot of that growth is going to come from? Generation Text "New research from Mobile Youth - a mobile telecoms consultancy - found that 700,000 (20%) of primary school children own mobile phones and that the under 10s "represent the fastest-growing segment of mobile phone ownership within Britain". 'They are the key fashion accessory which no self respecting child can do without,' says the report. It predicts that by 2006, more than one million primary school kids (a third of all five-to-nine year olds) will own mobiles." [The Guardian] [The Shifted Librarian] 9:27:57 AM      Google It!.

Supporting Students by Telephone: a Technology for the Future of Student Support? - Anne Gaskel and Roger Mills, EURODL. Abstract: Student support by telephone has a long tradition in open and distance learning, but most recent research and discussion has concentrated on support by electronic means. Some recent findings however provide evidence that the telephone is stil [Online Learning Update] 9:16:49 AM      Google It!.

ATutor and ACollab from the Adaptive Technology Resource Center. Scott Leslie is doing a fine job tracking both proprietary and open source Learning Management Systems. The combination of ATutor and ACollab from the U. of Toronto seems exceptionally promising as a well-developed open source LMS. JH ______ ACollab - accessible, open source, multi-group, Web-based collaborative work environment. http://www.atutor.ca/acollab/index.php If you weren't already impressed enough with Atutor, the accessible, open source LMS from U of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, along comes the second piece in their ever-growing suite of accessible learning technologies. With shared document authoring, calendering, chat, threaded discussion and extensive group support, ACollab is WCAG 1.0, Section 508 US-compliant software that can be easily integrated with Atutor to provide a powerful open source learning environment. Caution: use of this product may actually enable learning amongst an entire class of people who are otherwise discriminated against by badly designed, inaccessible technologies. - SWL [EdTechPost] [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 9:02:04 AM      .