Bruce Landon: landonline

open source

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:15:05 GMT

Beef Up Your Wireless Router. Doctor High writes "Josh Kuo's article Beef Up Your Wireless Router talks about the OpenWRT embedded Linux distro for the the Linksys WRT series wireless routers (and more). The article lays out some of the amazing things you can do with your Linux-enabled wireless router such as using it as a VoIP gateway, a wireless hotspot, or even an encrypted layer 2 tunnel endpoint for remote troubleshooting."[Slashdot]

ePortfolio

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:39:23 GMT

EPAC March 2007 Chat: The Reflection Fad.

Kicking off the EPAC online chats again, 11 community members discussed a piece from the New York Times, "Upon Further Reflection, A Few Random Thoughts," that reports on critiques within the educational research community of the lack of rigor in definitions and methods associated with "reflection." Reflection in practice, according to the author, is simply a way of added fancy theoretical labels to common sense and an excuse for failing to act on genuine research on how to teach well. Are electronic portfolios susceptible to a similar critique? View the chat transcript below and as an Elluminate recording at https://sas.elluminate.com/mr.jnlp?suid=M.44263AE97E3E490A1463C315C9F0D9

[Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research blogs]

eContent

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:38:28 GMT

VideoLectures.Net.

The stated goal of theVideo Lectures site is to provide "free video lectures from the world's leading and prominent scientists." The site is searchable by key words and also displays a browsable listing of the most popular and latest lectures. The site currently contains 1238 lectures by 1042 authors. ____JH

[EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online]

apple

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:15:10 GMT

US University Dumps Windows to go All Mac. MacKeyser passed us a link to a MacWorld article about a University doing things a little differently. Instead of sticking with their inefficient mix of Apple and PC systems, the college is doing a 'total technology refresh', and adopting an all-Mac policy on the campus. Previously, a class at Wilkes University would be outfitted with something like 20 Macs and 20 PCs, to allow for individual preferences in software and OS use. With Boot Camp students at the Pennsylvania liberal arts college will be able to switch between Windows and OSX, choosing which applications and OS to use at any given time. "[Scott Byers, vice president for finance and the head of campus IT said] 'We think it will save $150,000 directly, in buying fewer units - even though the Macs cost more per unit than PCs.' The school, which enrolls about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, will reduce its inventory from nearly 1,700 computers to around 1,450 after the change over. Other costs savings, however, will be harder to measure. 'By standardizing, the IT department should be more productive,' Byers said."[Slashdot]

course management systems

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:11:18 GMT

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: Using CMS as Early Warning System.

In this 41-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from John Campbell, Lukas Leftwich, and Stephen Wanger in a session entitled Student Persistence: Using the CMS as an Early Warning and Intervention System. They share an analysis of data collected from the institution's course management system and explain how it was used to construct highly accurate models for predicting student success in CMS courses.

Attachments

Title ( file name )	Size
EDUCAUSE2006_Student_Persistence.mp3 ( EDUCAUSE2006_Student_Persistence.mp3 )	38.16 MB

[EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

wireless

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 04:57:55 GMT

Military System Offers Worldwide Cell Access. coondoggie writes to mention a technology in use by the U.S. military in remote regions of the world, which allows high-quality cell reception to reach troops. A portable box, called the Tactical Base Station Router, can serve as a gateway for cellular communications and VoIP network calls. Developed by Alcatel-Lucent, it allows deployment of reliable services in disasters, search and rescue operations, and (as has seen use in recent years) military encounters. "The TacBSR is available for U.S. government customers only ... Customers include the U.S. Army Reserve Command, which is using the TacBSR as a portable cellular system for forward-deployed operations and disaster recovery. The system allows U.S. Army Reserve Commands to take GSM-capable cellular systems anywhere they need to go ... Smaller than a laptop, the TacBSR can be used in a stand-alone configuration to enable communications for a small team or as part of a multibox mesh that supports a large geographical area."

[Slashdot]

networks

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 04:54:02 GMT

Cisco to Buy an Online Conferencing Company. The $3.2 billion deal to acquire the online meeting company WebEx furthers Cisco[base ']s push into the business communications market. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Technology]

second life

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 04:51:38 GMT

My life in Second Life. Based on a conversation on the CIO list, a group of us got involved in Second Life (SL) just after the new year. The discussion started out asking how it was being supported, if at all, but it quickly turned to SL as a teaching and learning tool. The AcademicCIO group was formed and has met three times. I've also heavily invested my time in creating The Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, which we refer to simpy as The Center.

I'm also doing research for a number of things I'm working on that are related to SL, a couple of them can be cross posted to items here. One of the things I've noticed is that there are a lot of people blogging about this - and I read many of their blog entries. So at a meeting last night in SL, somone asked me why I wasn't blogging about my experience in SL. I didn't have an answer.

So here it is.

I hope to use this blog as a sounding board, as a scratch pad, as a journal, and as a way of listening to and reaching out to, others. Feel free to comment - not only do I encourage it, I'm counting on it. [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

second life

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:00:06 GMT

SecondLife: More than just a new way of teaching. I said to someone last night, half-jokingly but half not, reallyâo[oe]that I think Massively-Multiuser Virtual Worlds (MMVWâo[dot accent]s for short, but to be honest, I wish weâo[dot accent]d pick one and stick with it, there are too many acronyms out there for this.), are going to have the most profound impact on education since the book.

I donâo[dot accent]t know what I could have been thinking when I said that. That is simply ridiculous, clearly I should have said the chalkboard.

But seriously, folksâo[oe]is this thing on? [thump thump]

I am completely convinced that SL will have an immense impact on teaching, learning, and research. I know every thing that comes out is going to âo[ogonek]replaceâo� the in-class experience âo[base "] TV, VCR, videoconferencing, LMSâo[dot accent]sâo[oe]everything has been the next big thing. But MMVWâo[dot accent]s have the potential to do just that. Well, per se.

See, the thing about what happens in class in SL is that there IS a teacher, and there IS a class, and there IS a classroom (or can be). The surroundings can be anything we want âo[base "] a glacier melting or a tsunami, like on the NOAA site, or a Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, like on my little corner of the digital world. We can âo[ogonek]beâo� anyplace we want, doing many things that are not possible in a non-virtual space, and we are experiencing it also in our real lives, which is where the learning is going on anyway. What we have to learn to deal with now, though, is a new way of teaching. Note I didnâo[dot accent]t say, new material to teach. We can begin to think about exceptional ways to deliver the content, ways in which the student is excited about being involved. [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

ePortfolio

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:08:14 GMT

EPAC Online Chat on 'The Reflection Fad'. Just a reminder that EPAC Community of Practice on e-portfolios is holding an online chat this Friday (March 16), on the topic of 'The Reflection Fad'.

Helen Chen, of Stanford's Centre for Innovations in Learning, will act as facilitator. The chat is scheduled for: 9 a.m. PDT/12 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. GMT. Contact Helen if you're not on the EPAC email list, and would like to receive instructions on how to participate.

The impact of research on reflection and reflective practice in education, in recent years, is surely undeniable. The whole movement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has been strongly influenced by the work of figures such as Donald Schön and Jennifer Moon. Yet the very notion of reflection has come under attack from certain quarters: it has been accused of promoting pointless navel-gazing, and criticised for its alleged inability to provide hard evidence of educational benefits / outcomes.

Should we be concerned? What do those of us who are actively engaged in promoting reflective practice think of the criticisms that have been made - do they hold any weight? How should we respond? How can we ensure that our engagement with this issue helps to promote, rather than prevent, dialogue between academics from different disciplinary cultures and backgrounds?

The webchat will use a recent critical piece from the New York Times, "Upon Further Reflection, A Few Random Thoughts," as the basis for discussion. It's thought-provoking stuff. [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

disruptive technology

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:56:16 GMT

Inkjet printers start cranking out microchips. Nanoident Technologies has opened a factory in Linz, Austria that produces organic semiconductors, which are chips made by spraying intricate patterns of specialized ink onto layers of foil and polymer.

The factory costs a fraction of a traditiona... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

voip

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:11:50 GMT

Microsoft Agrees to Buy Maker of Voice-Recognition Software. The deal to buy Tellme Networks was said to be worth more than $800 million, making it Microsoft[base ']s biggest acquisition since 2002. By BLOOMBERG NEWS. [NYT > Technology]

search

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:25:47 GMT

Augmented Reality. Nokia wants to superimpose digital information on the real world using a smart cell phone.

A prototype uses a GPS sensor, a compass, and accelerometers. Using data from these sensors, the phone can calculate the location of just about any object i... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

games

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:23:28 GMT

Microsoft to Open Its Online Gaming Service to Windows Users. Xbox Live, Microsoft[base ']s gaming network that serves some six million Xbox users, is scheduled to be opened to PC gamers on May 8. By MICHEL MARRIOTT. [NYT > Technology]

scraping

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:51:47 GMT

Heave ho, scallywags, there[base ']s events listings o[base ']er thar to liberate.

(Avast, me hearties, this is the last of the pirate postings. Just be glad they weren[base ']t podcasts

So the other [OE]mashups[base '] itch I[base ']ve been wanting to scratch recently revolves around events listings, specifically a list of ed tech conferences that[base ']s been around for a few years. Now before ye raise the topsails and give chase, hear me out - the landlubber who created and maintains this list every year is to be much praised, as I have done so in the past, as are the folks at CIDER for posting it as HTML.

But in this age of participatory media and user generated content, does it make any sense for lists like these to get created and maintained by one person, in a Word document?

Aye, you say, but it was probably the easiest tool at hand for what was a selfless act of giving back to the community. Right you are; but howseabout I shows ya how to take this page, database-enable it and allow others to add to new events to it in about 5 minutes with free, easy-to-use web-based tools. Come aboard all ye who[base ']s coming aboard[sigma]

Scrape, Clean and then[sigma]

So, much the same as the first exercise, we[base ']ll use Dapper to scrape the HTML page, and Pipes to clean up unwanted stuff. Already we have an RSS feed of ed tech conference events; problem is, it[base ']s a list that may never get updated, so having it as RSS hasn[base ']t helped much, except[sigma]

Dabble Away!

[sigma]except there[base ']s this neat service called Dabble DB that allows you to create online databases very easily. They have set it up so that to create one from scratch you don[base ']t fill in information about tables and fields, like you would normally with RDBMS software, but instead create a [base "]category[per thou] which contains [base "]entries,[per thou] and [base "]views,[per thou] and through adding attributes while describing an actual [base "]entry[per thou] you build the DB in context. Quite nifty.

Even better though - you can point Dabble DB at an RSS feed or webpage with a table in it, and it will create a database based on those. Which is what I did, pointed to the cleaned up feed of ed tech events, from which Dabble DB created this default view along with a Calendar view of the same data.

So what?

Which is all well and good except[sigma]how is this any better than what we had? Well, first off, you can easily create some other views of the data. Here[base ']s a map of the distribution of these conferences around the world (note: that feature still a work in progress; it only gives you totals, doesn[base ']t let you drill all the way down. But then it was only recently released.)

Even better, you can embed the views of this database on any webpage by copying and pasting a simple line of code, so here[base ']s a page on edtechpost with the calendar view, links to the chronological view and the geographic distribution views. Big whoop, I know, except look down at the bottom of that first page, you[base ']ll see a form to add new events to the database. That form was also copy and pasted from the Dabble DB site.

So, from static HTML page to database with multiple views, and the ability for other users to add new entries, in less time than it actually took me to type this post. Even better though might have been if the originator of the list had chosen DabbleDB (or one of the other web-based databases or online calendars on this list, itself done in DabbleDB - oy, my head hurts!) to begin with and opened it up to the community to populate and maintain. Right?

So same lessons as the last time - the goal here isn[base ']t to produce a new production version of this, but to show you another example of how these new tools can empower you, and to encourage information providers to [OE]do it right the first time.[base '] And with that, I remain yours truly, Cabin Boy Nessman of the good ship Syndication.

Tags: DabbleDB, dapper, mashups, pipes syndication [EdTechPost]

AI

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:48:45 GMT

Kurzweil issued patent for AI poetry-writing software. Ray Kurzweil has been issued the first patent for AI software capable of writing poetry.

United States Patent 7,184,949, "Basic poetry generation," issued February 27, 2007, covers "a method of analyzing an author's work, including reading a text ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

second life

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:43:01 GMT

ELI 2007 Spring Focus Session: Immersive Learning Environments. The ELI 2007 Spring Focus Session, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement, is scheduled for March 27-28 at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Speaker interviews and presentation audio for this event will be posted to the Connect site under the following tag:

ELI_07_SpringFocusSession

Any participants who blog or podcast the focus session are asked to use this tag when posting to the Connect site so we can aggregate all of the posts from the session and provide easy access to them. [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

disruptive technology

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:42:01 GMT

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: Assessing Emerging Technologies.

In this 38-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Joanne Dehoney and Victoria Getis in a session entitled What's Your ETA? Assessments of Emerging Technologies for E-Learning They share Ohio State University's structured process for evaluating e-learning projects, including their rationale, toolkit, and examples of the four-stage process in action.

Attachments

Title ( file name )	Size
EDUCAUSE2006_Assessments_of_Emerging_Technologies.mp3 ( EDUCAUSE2006_Assessments_of_Emerging_Technologies.mp3 )	35.25 MB

[EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs]

course management systems

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:24:21 GMT

"Abstract

Margaret C. Lohman
Penn State University [^] Harrisburg
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
mlohman@psu.edu

Effects of Information Distributions Strategies on Student Performance
and Satisfaction in a Web-Based Course Management System

The effects of three information distribution strategies in a course management system (CMS) on student performance and satisfaction were investigated. Analysis of the data found that the distribution of instructional materials in class resulted in significantly higher student performance on an end-of-the-semester technical knowledge test than when instructional materials were available to students via a CMS either at the beginning of the semester or one week before each of the class sessions in which the materials were to be covered. However, no significant differences were found among the three information distribution strategies on total points earned in the course or on student reactions toward the instructional experience. Possible explanations for these findings and implications of the findings for theory and practice as related to utilizing a CMS in instructional programs in higher education are provided."

networks

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:31:22 GMT

TV Airwaves To Deliver Internet?. roscoetoon directs our attention to a proposal from an odd assortment of tech companies [~] Google, Microsoft, H-P, Intel, and others [~] to reuse TV wavelengths to deliver first-mile connectivity. The Washington Post article is subtitled "Cable, Phone Companies Watch Warily." As well they might. One of the big content companies that the incumbent duopolists propose to soak by dismantling network neutrality, in company with some powerful allies, is striking back at the heart of their business.[Slashdot]

games

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:51:04 GMT

The Ten Most Important Games. Taking a page from the National Film Preservation Board, the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University and a group of five prestigious games industry figures have inducted ten games into a sort of 'canon'. The New York Times reports that some of these titles represent the start of weighty gaming genres, while all are laudable for their place in gaming history. "[Henry] Lowood and the four members of his committee -- the game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bittanti, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, a game journalist -- announced their list of the 10 most important video games of all time: Spacewar! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994)." Most likely, future years will see additional titles inducted into this game canon.[Slashdot]

storage

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:17:55 GMT

Intel Stomps Into Flash Memory. jcatcw writes "Intel's first NAND flash memory product, the Z-U130 Value Solid-State Drive, is a challenge to other hardware vendors. Intel claims read rates of 28 MB/sec, write speeds of 20 MB/sec., and capacity of 1GB to 8GB, which is much smaller than products from SanDisk. 'But Intel also touts extreme reliability numbers, saying the Z-U130 has an average mean time between failure of 5 million hours compared with SanDisk, which touts an MTBF of 2 million hours.'"[Slashdot]

HCI

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:34:22 GMT

Animation Tool Puts You in the Game. Matthew Sparkes writes "A new technique could take a simple body scan and allow a user to upload it and use it as an avatar or game character. Previously an animator would have to create a skeleton inside the model and describe movement capabilities manually. In tests, an inexperienced user could produce the animations in less than 15 minutes."[Slashdot]

open source

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:08:38 GMT

French Parliament Chooses Ubuntu. atamyrat reminds us that last November it was announced that the French Parliament had decided to switch to Linux. At that time the distro had not been determined. It will be Ubuntu: "[T]wo companies, Linagora and Unilog, have been selected to provide the members of the Parliament as well as their assistants new computers containing free software. This will amount to 1,154 new computers running Ubuntu prior to the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007." [Slashdot]

open source

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:07:33 GMT

Linspire To Switch To Kubuntu. FliesLikeABrick writes "The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter has stated that Linspire announced that they will be switching to base their distribution off Ubuntu. With their polished KDE desktop this makes Linspire the latest in the impressive list of operating systems based off Kubuntu. It was also announced that Linspire's Click and Run install programme would be added to the Ubuntu archive, giving users of all Ubuntu distributions easy access to a large range of free and proprietary software."[Slashdot]