Wednesday, June 08, 2005

New Internet Tutorials from Resource Discovery Network's Virtual Training Suite I've previously cited the UK's RDN Network Virtual Training Suite in both the EduResources Weblog and the EduResources Portal. The VTS continues to add useful guidelines to learning resources for online students and instructors. ___JH New Internet Tutorials from Resource Discovery Network's Virtual Training Suite Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Internet--Tutorials Source: RDN New Internet Research Tutorials Available the From Resource Discovery Network Virtual Training Suite "...how to find and use the best online resources to support and enhance their studies." Five new tutorials are now available online for free, aimed at adult learners, researchers and enthusiasts in the - gary [ResourceShelf] 5:27:57 PM    COMMENT []

What Makes Wikipedia So Special? This presentation by Ma Cathy for the 2005 Computers and Writing Online Conference is worth reading. Wikis provide a very special form of online open learning and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is certainly the best known of these proliferating resources. ____JH "Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that invites the participation of everyone. As long as you have internet access, you can be part of their editorial team. When most people expect the site to be flooded by vandalism given its open nature, the reverse is true. Instead of getting spammed by vandalism, the website sustains and expands in an exponential rate. Right now there are about half million articles on the English Wikipedia, which was the first language of Wikipedia until it evolved into more than 100 languages since 2001." "But what exactly makes the Wikipedia so different from other online social project? In this presentation, the distinctive features of the Wikipedia such as its social structure, mode of production, policies such as the Neutral Point of View Policy (NOPV), and its warm acceptance of anonymous users will be explored in details." (The full pdf paper is at http://cathyma.net/wikipedia/cathyma_wikipedia.pdf.) 10:02:03 AM    COMMENT []