Two Items from InfoWorld re MS Office Live Meeting (ex-PlaceWare)

PlaceWare had been used by some as a synchronous e-Learning tool prior to its purchase by Microsoft. It will be "interesting" to see how the change in ownership affects its adoption, and whether it will take market share from the remaining synchronous players. Either way, expect to find Office Live Meeting used more and more by entrepreneurs for conferencing with clients and associates.

Microsoft fires Web conferencing salvo. Microsoft this week will unveil Office Live Meeting, the first service offered as part of its Office productivity suite. Although the first version will pepper only a few enhancements above the service Microsoft acquired from PlaceWare earlier this year, the move signals Microsoft's long-term aspiration to bring online meetings into the enterprise collaboration platform fold. [InfoWorld: Top News]

PlaceWare relaunches as MS Office Live Meeting. Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of PlaceWare Inc. bore fruit Monday with the launch of Office Live Meeting, an online conferencing service that pits Microsoft against WebEx Communications Inc., Oracle Corp., IBM Corp. and a host of other players. [InfoWorld: Top News]

1:58:10 PM    

The Case Method (remember that?)

Fast re-post: comments later. The Case Method has been around now for over 50 years. If you aren't familiar with it, you should be. It's the original collaborative/cooperative method in higher education, as far as I know, and it looks stronger than ever.

Making the Case for the Case Method.

For those of you who are interested in the case method as a tool for teaching and learning, David Garvin of the Harvard Business School has an excellent article in the September-October issue of Harvard Magazine. Better yet, it is available online:

All professional schools face the same difficult challenge: how to prepare students for the world of practice. Time in the classroom must somehow translate directly into real-world activity: how to diagnose, decide, and act. A surprisingly wide range of professional schools, including Harvard's law, business, and medical schools, have concluded that the best way to teach these skills is by the case method. [Making the Case: Professional education for the world of practice]

Garvin's research and writing have focused on organizational learning long before it was a popular buzzword. This article offers extensive background on the origins and history of case method teaching as well as insights into how it is evolving.

1:44:55 PM