Fools like Blackboard.

Blackboard Ruins College. Andrew Patterson offers an on-campus view of Blackboard. Apparently it works a little too well for his taste. [The Motley Fool]

5:14:18 PM    

m-Learning platform: Microsoft Windows Mobile dominates PDA shipments.

If you are a developer interested in m-Learning on PDAs, the operating system figures in this article will likely be of more interest to you than the number of units shipped. It's Microsoft, RIM, and then Palm in last place. Of course, Palm is encouraging its users to upgrade to Treo, rather than to the LifeDrive, and will probably ship more Treos than PDAs this year --- so watch for the figures on mobile phone operating systems (will it be Palm? will it be EPOC? who knows?).

PDA Shipments Hit Record Levels (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - Depending on which analyst group one credits, recent PDA shipments are destined for the record books or are dropping like rocks. According to a report from Gartner (NYSE: IT) released this week, PDAs shipped over the last three months jumped 32 percent over last year's figures. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

10:45:50 AM    

"Cognitive fitness": The next craze?

Here's a trend for you. But consider what one researcher ponders in the article: "She wonders whether workbooks that ask adults to do pages of math problems to get their brains in gear might be unnecessarily torturing people in their twilight years."

Brain Workouts May Tone Memory. Keeping your gray matter in great shape won't prevent age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's. But proponents of 'cognitive fitness' say mental exercises can reduce the likelihood of such diseases. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]

10:31:47 AM    

Accessibility: More than technology, more than Section 508.

This is an article with pretty wide scope. It addresses all of the problems in design, information technology, and assistive technology that get in the way of online learning. For example, talking about "learning styles" (a theory I personally am very skeptical about), the authors found:

"We had originally assumed that extroverted students would report preferring Internet courses, citing the chat and discussion boards as great places to interact. However, we found instead that most of the extraverts did NOT prefer online courses ... Contrary to this finding, was the preference of introverts for the discussion board and virtual chat. We received many reports saying things like: “I’m usually too shy to join discussions, but on the Internet I do it much better.”

Another interesting finding was that the learning styles and personality preferences of most of the course participants were the opposite of my own. We would need to look again at this course, re-developing it with more concreteness, and more sequentially arranged directions. We also needed to re-think student interaction assignments to make them more meaningful to the extroverts."

This could really help shape your thinking about design. 

Addressing On-line Accessibility Issues at East Carolina University - Melissa D. Engleman, Campus Technologies. Like many universities, East Carolina University (ECU) has seen an overwhelming increase in demand for online courses.... First, there was the accessibility of current technology to our faculty and students. We found that we would implement some really wo [Online Learning Update]

10:18:50 AM    

Points to think about as you plan your marketing.

RSS poses not so simple problems for online ads.

This article really hits a number of key points right on the head. Not only does this Deborah Branscum seem to truly understand the mechanics behind RSS, but she also sees the inherent problems with current attempts at attaching advertising to it as well….

Direct and Related Links for 'RSS poses not so simple problems for online ads'

10:10:42 AM