Thursday, January 22, 2004

The Scout Portal Toolkit I'm pleased to see the SPT getting some attention, as I mentioned in a previous posting about the new Guide to Institutional Repository Software (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/software/) the SPT is sometimes overlooked among more highly publicized tools such as DSpace and Fedora. I've tracked the development of the SPT for several years and use it for my EduResources Portal (http://sage.eou.edu/SPT/). The experience that the creators of the Scout Archives gained allowed them to develop very effective repository/referatory construction software that they make freely available to institutions and individuals who want to develop their own local collections. JH _____ Scout Portal Toolkit. Trying to wrap my mind around the role of this project: Scout Portal Toolkit "The Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT) allows groups or organizations that have a collection of knowledge or resources they want to share via the World Wide Web to put that collection online without making a big investment in technical resources or expertise." [elearnspace blog] 9:19:47 AM    COMMENT []

The Learning Marketplace This online book by Stephen Downes links a number of essays that have appeared on the web. The book is available for downloading as an MS Word file. Stephen's OLDaily is an important presence in the field of online learning; it's helpful to have a collection of his central ideas about learning objects. JH ____ The Learning Marketplace: Meaning, Metadata and Content Syndication in the Learning Object Economy. In September, 2001, just for fun I created a 'book generator' and, for posterity, 'authored' two books using it: Knowledge, Learning and Community (a.k.a. Book 1) and Democracy and Freedom (a.k.a. Book 2). Inexplicably, because I link to them utterly nowhere (and haven't for years) they still generate about a hundred downloads a month, give or take, as you can see in my stats. And more recently, I have noticed again a need for a consolidation of my work, especially that of the last three years. Hence, I have compiled Book 3, this time in nice MS Word format suitable for printing (or publishing, should anyone want to do that, or for giving me a PhD, should anyone feel I merit one). I have even added a short introduction and thematic introductions to the articles. Caution: after you get to the web page (which is a simple launcher for people who can't download through their email client), you are looking at a 2.1 megabyte download. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, January 21, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily] 8:46:10 AM    COMMENT []