Looking for work?

Phil Wolff interviews Steve Rose, the author of RSSJobs. [Scripting News]

Posted for all my friends that are not ready to become entrepreneurs, and so are still looking for a J.O.B. Good luck! I hope this helps.

1:50:32 PM    

Coming soon to a life near yours.

qotd agust 03. William Gibson: "The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

12:05:18 PM    

Edu_RSS MERLOT - feed of posts from the conference. [EdTechPost]

Posted for convenience. This is one of those events I really really really wish I could have attended. (Note to self: plan for this next year.)

12:01:24 PM    

Video (and more) via RSS Enclosure.

Okay, if you don't like to think about porn, avert your eyes. There's going to be a big for-pay business around sex movies delivered via RSS, using enclosures and Adam Curry's brilliant idea for time-shifted downloads. The algorithm is implemented in Radio, and probably no other aggregator, at this time. Instead of grainy little postage-stamp-size Quicktimes that take forever to download, you'll get full-screen digital movies and no click-wait. There's real money to be made here. [Scripting News]

Potential applications to e-Learning (beyond the realm of sex education ...)

11:59:50 AM    

Why Flash indeed!.

Tim Bray describes why his company are reverting to DHTML for their flashy interface rather than using Flash. His last... [Raw Blog]

11:58:41 AM    

Why there should be more than one SCORM.

What I've never fully understood is why there's only one SCORM. Why do people talk about the SCORM instead of a SCORM? The very notion that there can be a Shareable Content Object Reference Model for learning objects would seem to suggest that there can be more than one. What's relevant to the US Department of Defense in terms of e-learning is unlikely to be relevant to, say, training doctors. There's an a priori assumption made by many that one size fits all. This isn't a claim made by those developing SCORM but it has been an assertion that's formed nonetheless. [David Davies' Weblog]

I don't think the intent was ever that there should only be one model. SCORM was originally designed for DoD contractors. Then all the "me-too" folks jumped on the bandwagon. There are a number of well-documented problems with the SCORM model, and (in my opinion) the answer is not to try to make the dog hunt but to get a dog better suited to the task. Breed your own. You might even consider asking the question, "Do I need to be worried about a Shareable Content Object Reference Model to begin with?"

The ISD (Instructional Systems Design) model survived for thirty-plus years because it took a systems approach to solving problems and didn't offer a standard answer to everything. ISD offers a toolkit for building tailored solutions. SCORM is a specification for solving a problem that existed at one time for DoD. It remains to be seen whether SCORM will survive thirty-plus years. I'm not betting on it. (The same can be said for AICC, by the way.)

Again, in my opinion, we are in the infancy of this e-Learning thing. We can't even agree on what to call it or what "it" should encompass. But as a profession, we are not going to advance until we learn to stop jumping on every idea that comes by and declaring it to be "the solution."

OK, end of rant. I feel better now.

11:56:54 AM    

Copyright caution.

Jonathan Zittrain: The Copyright Cage. "Bars can't have TVs bigger than 55 inches. Teddy bears can't include tape decks. Girl Scouts who sing Puff, the Magic Dragon owe royalties." [Scripting News]

Worth a read for the thoughts it will provoke about challenges to low-cost e-learning. There is a basic disconnect between our distribution systems and the systems created in the print age for the protection and monetization of intellectual property. It's not going to be fixed any time soon, so what can we do about it?

11:41:46 AM    

Stay Home, Highland Laddie.

Government agencies in Scotland rush to install broadband throughout the sparsely populated hinterlands. Without it, they fear, talented young people and businesses will flee. By Hector Mackenzie. [Wired News]

The Scots are doing quite a bit in the distance-education arena, or so I'm learning. Much of it is funded by government.

11:23:33 AM    

Enhanced Learning.

Gaming the learners seems to be the hot topic in some labs.  Glad to see all that code working constructively.

Educators Turn to Games for Help. Video games offer worlds for players to explore. Parents and politicians aren't always happy with what goes on in digital realms, but now universities want to use gaming technology to build better teaching tools for schools. By Brad King. [Wired News]

[Jim Flowers: Blogs and Education]

The challenge is in the design, and in keeping the game from becoming a distraction. If the point of the game becomes aiding rote memorization, then the only thing that has been done is to build a better dogcart. Interesting but still the wrong answer, or at least only a small part of the answer. I have in the past been as guilty of this as anyone in education, but I'm in a 12-step program for it (Pegagogics Anonymous). I hope somebody is doing some research before going overboard on this. In 35 years of developing, delivering and managing efforts to help people learn, I've seen too many fads come and go, and every time they went, a little more of our credibility as educators went with them.

11:17:58 AM