11/7/09

-- my thanks to Mr. Ed Jennings for this resource

Radar Networks makes Twine. Think of Twine as your own artificially intelligent personal web assistant. That’s the message we get from Radar Networks CEO, Nova Spivack, about his new project from Radar Networks. Twine is a semantic web application that auto-organizes all your information and media based on an auto-tagging engine. It’s been in the works for some time, but will make its public debut soon.

-- my thanks to Dr. David Klein at Capella University for this resource

Openness, Dynamic Specialization, and the Disaggregated Future of Higher Education -- from IRRODL.org by David Wiley, John Hilton III
Abstract:
Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to changes institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. There are a number of ways institutions can be more open, including programs of open sharing of educational materials. Individual faculty can also choose to be more open without waiting for institutional programs. Increasing degrees of openness in society coupled with innovations in business strategy like dynamic specialization are enabling radical experiments in higher education and exerting increasing competitive pressure on conventional higher education institutions. No single response to the changes in the supersystem of higher education can successfully address every institution’s situation. However, every institution must begin addressing openness as a core organizational value if it desires to both remain relevant to its learners and to contribute to the positive advancement of the field of higher education (emphasis DSC).

From DSC:
What are our plans here? What are your plans here? If they haven't already, the conversations better begin soon...

If you need a laugh today...check out the 10 Most Viral Videos for October

Create your customized view of the news using Google News
Go to http://www.google.com/news/ and click on the Add Section in the upper right portion of the screen

11/6/09

[Re:] The Higher Educational Bubble Continues to Grow -- from Stephen Downes
Higher education, writes Karl Kapp, is in the grip of a bubble. The signs?

• core mission and fundamentals are ignored
• disproportionate compensation at the highest levels
• product value doesn't match marketplace expectations
• prices are manipulated without regard to market supply and demand
• perception of exclusivity
• a delusion that "this market is different"

I have long affirmed that such a crisis is coming and that it would arrive very suddenly after being years in the making. It is now very close - within a matter of months. 2010 some time, maybe (at the outside) 2011, at least in North America. Funding will dry up, there will be significant staff reductions, institutions will merge or close, and administrators will be desperate for alternatives. Not just in education, but education will be very hard hit, and at all levels.

From DSC:
This is not a joke folks...I couldn't agree with Karl and Stephen more.

In Search of the Big Idea -- from InsideHigherEd.com
NEW YORK -- Nothing concentrates the mind like a fiscal crisis; or at least that's the hope of higher education leaders. Gathered here Thursday for the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership Conference, some of the nation's most prominent figures in postsecondary education wrestled with the central question of their time: What is the future of this thing called college?

What became quickly and painfully obvious in their deliberations is that the center will not hold. In something of an irony, higher education leaders acknowledged here Thursday that the very system that put them in the position to run the nation's colleges and universities is no longer fit to groom their successors or the rest of the U.S. work force. Diminishing state support, a skeptical public pressing for accountability, and dramatically shifting demographics all point toward the necessity for a serious rethinking of the way colleges educate students, according to just about every panelist who spoke at the conference.

...And therein lies the tug of war within higher education. Innovation is invariably greeted with a mix of applause and raised eyebrows, as an "industry" steeped in tradition seeks to redefine itself for the 21st century. Is the skepticism rightful protection of a system that is the envy of the world or unwarranted protectionism of a system that is built to fail? That's the question college presidents say they're now confronting every day, according to several who attended the conference.

BlackBoard, Sakai and Moodle – Point/Counterpoint at Educause 2009 -- from Mark Smithers

Pearson launches a bold new approach to online learning: Pearson LearningStudio -- from Pearson.com

Blending Learning Webinar (via Elluminate): Nov. 10th, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm (ET)
This webinar will explore the economy of scale and power of blended learning which is derived from its "elasticity": the ability to integrate a variety of synchronous and asynchronous media allowing the instructional designer to attain the most appropriate blended learning solution. Each participant will receive a FREE copy of the USDLA Instructional Media Selection Guide for Distance Learning authored by Dr. Jolly Holden and Dr. Philip Westfall.

Higher Education (Via Elluminate): Nov 9th, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (ET)
This webinar will explore a broad range of issues related to the institution's/unit's practices and procedures as new global campuses become the norm and the traditional education landscape transforms. Specific areas of interest may focus on strategic planning, accreditation, faculty workload, international programs, virtual learning communities, leadership, connecting educational institutions globally, trends, best practices and alternative education as an issue of national competitiveness.

Inspiring Teachers' Use of Curriculum Videoconferencing: What Works (via Elluminate) -- Nov 110th, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm (ET)
Teachers are the most important key to implementing any new technology innovation. So how to do you hook teachers on curriculum videoconferencing? Learn what works in Southwest Michigan and apply these principles to your own school.

Google releases Dashboard privacy tool -- from CNN.com by Doug Gross
Ever wonder what information Google knows about you? With a click or two, now you can find out.

GoingOn Announces First Community Platform for Education at EDUCAUSE 2009 -- from B2E
The GoingOn Community Platform leverages social web technologies to create online communities for collaboration, learning and social knowledge management
November 4, 2009/San Francisco, CA – GoingOn provider of the first open source community platform for education, will showcase its cornerstone technology, The GoingOn Community Platform at EDUCAUSE 2009, November 3-6, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

11/5/09

Educause09 opening keynote: "Good to Great"
Stages of decline:

1. hubris born of success
2. undisciplined pursuit of more
3. denial of risk and peril
4. grasping for salvation
5. capitulation to irrelevance or death

'Convergent education' comes together -- by Gregg W. Downey, Editor
Commentary: Educational transformation will come--whether entrenched interests like it or not

As I was saying last month, an avalanche of change is rumbling towards our field. I propose we call this cascading phenomenon "convergent education." [From DSC: I call it tidal waves of change.]

Here's what I mean: A new species of education is emerging that artfully aggregates up-to-the-minute instructional technology, sophisticated pedagogy, robust and standards-based educational content, and web-based delivery that requires a computer or other personal digital device but no fixed address. Under most circumstances, convergent education certainly can amplify the impact of traditional instruction, but it is not necessarily dependent on face-to-face encounters between teacher and student.

At its best, convergent education features diverse learning opportunities delivered via multiple media platforms combined with field trips (virtual or real), live streaming video, interactive archived video, educational gaming, student collaboration, animation, celebrity lectures and adventures, project-based instruction with student-managed data, virtual demonstrations and experiments, continuous monitoring of student engagement and learner satisfaction, and classic, in-the-classroom instruction.

In general, convergent education is based on developments such as distance learning and lecture-capture strategies that have been around for some time, but which are now reinforced by the completely unprecedented fact that nearly every willing learner has (or soon will have) economical access to the rich multimedia resources of the internet--access delivered by such devices as personal computers, netbooks, smart telephones, personal digital assistants, interactive whiteboards, pocket projectors, and handheld reading devices.

Convergent education has been made feasible--and perhaps even inevitable--by a unique confluence of social and technological forces that ultimately must transform the way we learn. Such forces include--but are by no means limited to--the thinning of our teaching corps by retirement, reductions in force, and classroom abandonment; the movement toward charter schools, open-courseware, and online universities; the push for school reform from government and industry; and the desire and necessity of multitudes of adults to obtain new skills and knowledge to survive and thrive in a swiftly changing job market.

Here's what's profoundly different now: This time the transformation will come whether entrenched interests like it or not.

Lecture Capture with Wimba -- Nov 9 Time: 3pm EST
In addition to using Wimba Classroom and the podcasting feature of Wimba Voice for online instruction, did you know they can also be used for capturing face-to-face lectures? Learn tips and tricks of lecture capture with Wimba. This demonstration will not only give practical tips and tricks for successful lecture capture, but will also share numerous real-life examples of how schools today are already doing this.

Using Collaborative Online Technology for Non-Instructional Use (Wimba) -- Nov 12 2pm EST
Using Collaborative Online Technology for Meetings, Disaster Preparedness, Office Hours, and other Non-Instructional Uses Across a Campus

Except re: Narrative from this article from "A List Apart"

Narrative is essential to learning. From epic films to conversations with toddlers, all human communication revolves around storytelling. We use story to convey information and to make emotional connections with each other. Writers use narrative to align what they know about the world with what their readers know about the world, and through the exchange of story a sense of trust is born. The reader identifies with the writer, and thus with the information presented.

Google Wave makes a big splash as it hits the shore -- from San Jose State University's Spartan Daily by Suzanne Yada

Apple Announces Over 100,000 Apps Now Available on the App Store -- from Apple.com

Social Isolation and New Technology -- from PewResearch.org
How the Internet and Mobile Phones Impact Americans' Social Networks

Americans Are Lonelier, but Don't Blame the Internet, Report Says -- The Chronicle

Sony shows prototype 360° 3D screen -- from Sony and news.techworld.com
Images can be viewed from any direction

How an old guy saved online music journalism -- from Wired (UK) by Warren Ellis

Which brings me around to what Morley is doing today instead of The South Bank Show. Given that print is apparently dead, or at least not paying much, Morley is putting on his own show via the good offices of the Observer Music Monthly. Buried in the OMM's web presence, once a month, is a multimedia presentation by Morley. Not just a music column, but video of the interviews he conducted in support of the month's subject or theme, music files, filmed performances, and, most unsettlingly, a Flash file that places an immense screen-filling Morley as rambling disco ringmaster. In this way, he surrounds a subject in a manner that music journalists normally just don't get to do. It is still music journalism, even as it's a music performance show and arts show.

ABC News recruits college reporters -- from eSchoolNews.com by Dennis Carter
Journalism students use laptops, advanced editing software in contributing to local and national news broadcasts

Tactics for Successful Grant Writing -- from CampusTechnology.com

The Genetic Science Learning Center -- from Jessica Overbeeke, T&L Digital Studio
...is a science and health education program located in the midst of the bioscience research being carried out at the University of Utah. Our mission is making science easy for everyone to understand.

From DSC: This is brilliant! The use of storytelling/plot in learning genetics!

236 Online High Schools -- from Online High

100 Open Courses to Learn Any New Language -- from Online Universities.com

Toyota launches user-submitted multimedia interface “Beyond Cars” -- from Innovative Interactivity by Tracy Boyer

11/4/09

Research Confirms Trend to Learning-Centered Spaces -- from Herman Miller
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) and Herman Miller, have recently partnered on a survey to add data to our understanding of just how pervasive the trend toward learning-centered space design is on campuses today. Critics of the traditional approach to learning spaces have long contended that the regimented arrangements in our educational institutions are meant for a different age than the one in which our current students must function. It's no surprise that changes in the design of learning spaces suggested by this research are being seen on more and more campuses.

Laying a Foundation for Success for New Academic Leaders -- from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart

LMS 3.0 -- from InsideHigherEd.com by Kenneth Green
In a thoughtful commentary published in Inside Higher Ed earlier this year, my friend and colleague Lev Gonick, vice president and CIO at Case Western Reserve University, proclaimed that “course management systems are dead; long live course management systems.” This was one of his eleven IT predictions for 2009.

The future of interface design -- from ux booth by David Leggett
Did you know the first “brain-tweet” was sent out this year? How about that we may someday be customizing windshields with widgets? In the not-to-distant future, we may be interfacing with computers in exciting and innovative new ways.

del.icio.us Tidbits: Mobile learning tools -- from Mary Williams

Visual Bloom's -- by Michael Fisher
I want the visual representation to be more fluid than the above, where web tools can live on different levels and change levels, depending on their usage. I'm sure we could make a case for each of the tools to live in each realm of the hierarchy but in the interest of time and space, I created the following. The arrows are meant to indicate the fluidity with which the tools can travel through the different levels. The middle line is meant to separate the higher cognitive levels from the lower ones, but only with the understanding that it would be for that particular tool on a particular level, and does not consider the multiple ways that the tool could possibly be used. Again, this is meant to be a discussion starter as we evolve the representation of web tools with visuals that are meant to help us understand the interconnectedness of technology resources.

Reverse ISBN lookups sites:

• http://www.irazoo.com/PopularSites/ISBN-Lookup.aspx 
• http://isbndb.com/
• Ottobib.com <-- from Steven Chevalia in the T&L Digital Studio
  

11/3/09

Students Unimpressed with Faculty Use of Ed Tech -- from CampusTechnology.com by David Nagel
While students and faculty seem to agree on the importance of technology in education, the two groups do not agree on how well it's being implemented. According to new research released Monday, only 38 percent of students indicated that their instructors "understand technology and fully integrate it into their classes." Students also rated that lack of understanding as "the biggest obstacle to classroom technology integration."

From DSC:
We need to move towards using TEAM-created/delivered content, as not everyone has all of the necessary interest, gifts, and abilities.

 

-- The 2009 21st-Century Campus Report: Defining the Vision

Now in its second year, the CDW-G 21st-Century Campus Report examines the current and future role of technology in higher education. CDW-G surveyed more than 1,000 college students, faculty and Information Technology (IT) staff members to understand their respective perceptions of campus technology. The 2008 report provided a baseline for campus technology use. The 2009 study examines how student needs are changing, and how campuses are –and are not – responding. This year’s survey also asks the higher education community to define the elements of the 21st-century campus. The resulting report identifies strengths and weaknesses associated with campus technology and recommends steps forward.

Using Wimba Classroom to Bridge Online and Face-to-Face Learning and Assessment -- from Wimba
Thomas Angelo's classroom assessment techniques (CATs) have long been recognized as the best approach to evaluate learning. But, these techniques were very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate in the online learning environment - until now! Wimba Classroom gives faculty several tools to engage online learners synchronously and to evaluate learning in real-time. This is a tremendous advancement to the online learning environment because faculty and students can engage one another in a give-and-take manner that replicates the spontaneity and familiarity of the face-to-face classroom. Experienced online faculty and students enjoy the enhanced learning environment, while novice faculty and students are relieved to have immediate interaction with one another.

-- my thanks to William Overbeeke in the T&L Digital Studio for this resource

Wimba Collaboration Suite 6.0 is now available for Moodle -- memo from Wimba
MP4, whiteboard, and assessment innovation extends learning beyond physical classroom
The Wimba Collaboration Suite™ 6.0, unveiled in April, is now available for Moodle. By creating a highly personal and dynamic environment for online learning, thousands of higher education institutions and K-12 districts around the world rely on Wimba’s technology to improve outcomes and increase student retention.

Customers now have access to innovative new capabilities of Wimba Classroom™ 6.0, Wimba Pronto™6.0, and Wimba Voice™ 6.0 - enhancements that include advanced MP4, whiteboarding and assessment functionality. For more information on how the Wimba Collaboration Suite 6.0 can impact teaching and learning at your school or campus please visit: Solutions for K-12 | Solutions for Higher Education

The use of audio in elearning with Dr. Karl Kapp and Daniel Bliton -- also see Audio in E-Learning

The Future Of The Web: Where Will We Be In Five Years? -- from Noupe by vitaly

Photo Journalism 101 (story + images + music + animation = success) -- from Rich Hoeg

October Hot List: Mobile Learning Content -- from mLearnopedia

Uncovering Steve Jobs' Presentation Secrets -- from BusinessWeek.com
For his new book, communications coach Carmine Gallo watched hours of Jobs' keynotes. Here he identifies the five elements of every presentation by the Apple CEO

Wimba Study Break: Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Online Instruction -- from Wimba
Even though most schools have transitioned some aspects of their in-classroom instruction to the online environment, there are still so many ways to do so effectively.  Learn from two customers who have successfully helped their faculty make the leap. 

Preparing Your Students for the New Era of Journalism: Backpack Journalism and Documentary Film Making -- from CampusTechnology.com > webinars

11/2/09

20 Places to Watch Free Movies Online -- from Open Culture

Video Editing Software: Comparison Guide To The Best Consumer Video Editors Under $100 -- by Daniele Bazzano

From SETDA Handouts For Today's Presentation: Living on the Future Edge -- from Ian Jukes
Let’s recap here. We started with trend 1, Moore’s Law, with processing speed doubling every 12 months
while the cost is reduced by 50%. This led to Trend 2, Photonics, with data transfer rates now tripling at 4
to 6 times the rate of Moore’s Law. The ripple effect these two trends create leads to Trend 3, the Internet,
where we are all connected to each other anywhere and all the time. The intersection of these three
trends brings about an information age and brings us to Trend 4, InfoWhelm, the access to the sum of all
human knowledge in seconds, and right in the palm of your hand. But now the Information Age has begun to converge with the life sciences. This has presented us with a global exponential trend that has, according to history, been in practice for centuries even before today’s digital age. This is the fascinating field of biotechnology...

"In this age of disposable information, our papers are out of date as soon as they arrive. Information still has value but is now more perishable."
-- The 21st Century Fluency Project

From DSC:
This is why I try to get our faculty to build their respective global academic networks within their disciplines...because if they don't, what they are teaching might not be totally accurate anymore.

Top 50 Mobile Learning Resources -- from The Upside Learning Solutions Blog

40 New Useful Web Development Tools and Resources -- from Noupe.com

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic - Individual Membership is now Free -- from Assistive Technology

How to Edit PDF Files without Adobe Acrobat -- from Digital Inspiration

Apple online seminars are available for the following topics:
Accounting | Audio | Business | Enterprise | Sci/Tech | Servers/Networks | Video

Art School -- from InsideHigherEd.com
What does it mean to be an art school today? How should art education regroup and evolve in response to changes in the art world, higher education, information technology, the art market and the broader economy -- and what should it mean to be an art school tomorrow? These are some of the many issues addressed in Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century) (MIT Press), a new book edited by Steven Henry Madoff, who is senior critic at the Yale University School of Art. The book contains essays, questionnaire interviews, and transcripts of conversations by and among prominent artists and art educators, all of them addressing the mission and means of the art school.

10/31/09

Online Education, Growing Fast, Eyes the Truly 'Big Time' -- from The Chronicle by Marc Parry

Orlando, Fla. -- Online education is a runaway best seller. Its growth rate -- 12.9 percent -- dwarfs the overall pace of academe’s student expansion. More than 25 percent of all students may have taken at least one online class this year, according to a speculative estimate suggested at a distance-education conference that wraps up here today. But the success isn’t smashing enough. Not even close.

That’s the case made by A. Frank Mayadas, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation program director who called on online educators gathered here to meet what he sees as a major need -- fast. And Mr. Mayadas, considered the Father of Online Learning, suggested in an interview following his speech that the government should step in with some $500-million to support traditional online courses -- not just the experimental “free” courses that have emerged as a darling of the Obama administration.

It’s Been Three Big Weeks for Online Learning, Blended Events and Mediasite -- from sonicfoundry.com

From Textbooks to Virtual Learning Villages -- from EducationWeek
According to this article in the Boston Globe, Houghton Mifflin, one of the largest textbook companies in the U.S., has signed a $40 million contract with Detroit public schools to provide not only textbooks, but also the software to create an interactive classroom network called Learning Village.

Publisher enters new chapter in textbooks
Houghton sells $40m high-tech teaching system

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the oldest publishers in the United States, plans to unveil today the biggest deal in its history: a $40 million, multiyear contract with Detroit public schools. But this is not the typical agreement to sell a textbook to every student.

Instead, Houghton will be providing a computer-based teaching system it developed with Microsoft Corp. that will connect teachers, students, and administrators. It’s a radical shift away from the classic textbook publishing model and represents an industry transformation, as technology supplants books.

“We are now in a transformational period. Everything we have has to be two worlds: print and digital,’’ Cohen said. “The future of learning is going to be high-quality online material and, to a lesser extent, textbooks.’’

MANAGING ONLINE EDUCATION
The 2009 WCET-Campus Computing Project Survey of Online Education (22 Oct 2009)

Google Wave Use Cases: Education -- from ReadWriteWeb

What Google Wave Means for Students -- from HackCollege

Nanotechnology program targets schools -- from eSchoolnews.com by Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor
NanoProfessor curriculum and equipment will be used at 2-year colleges -- and even some high schools -- early next year. The nanotechnology industry will employ an estimated 2 million people worldwide by 2015, and with President Obama calling on colleges to ready students for the field, an Illinois-based company has introduced a program designed to teach the complex subject to undergraduates.

10/30/09

Ephesians 2:8-9 -- from Bible Gateway's Verse of the Day
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Learning Environments: Where Space, Technology, and Culture Converge -- from Educause
The introduction of information technologies into higher education added new dimensions to the educational enterprise and led to investigations into how the design of learning spaces affects teaching and learning. The time has come to broaden the scope of that inquiry and consider factors beyond space, including learning culture and the changing roles of instructors, students, and other people involved in teaching and learning. The effort to understand and develop effective learning environments includes more individuals and more roles than have generally been involved in the discussion about teaching and learning, and the factors at issue include, but go beyond, technology.

The Netflix of Academic Journals Opens Shop -- from The Chronicle by Ben Terris
By opening the largest online rental service for scientific, technical, and research journals, the company Deep Dyve is hoping to do for academic publications what Netflix has done for movies: make them easily accessible and inexpensive for everyone. The Web site has been an academic-journal search engine since 2005 and unveiled its rental program this week. Now anyone can “rent” an article—which means you can view it on your computer without ownership rights or printing capabilities—for as little as 99 cents for 24 hours. Users can also subscribe for monthly passes. Currently the site has 30 million articles from various peer-reviewed journals.

2009 Ubiquitous Learning Conference
Northeastern University | Boston in December

7 Things You Should Know About Google Wave -- from Educause

Defriending can bruise your 'digital ego' -- from CNN.com by Breeanna Hare
If you harbor a bit of angst over Facebook friend requests gone unanswered, a surprise "defriending" or being deserted by your Twitter followers, you're not alone.

Digital Media and Learning Research Hub Launches -- from Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning
University of California at Irvine has launched a new research initiative, Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, and website—http://www.dmlcentral.net—to study the impact of digital media on young people’s learning.

New Millennium Learners in Higher Education: Evidence and Policy Implications -- by Eva Szalma
This document is an excerpt of Chapter 5 in the upcoming CERI volume on Technology in Higher
Education in the Higher Education to 2030 series, which takes a forward-looking approach to analysing the impact of various contemporary trends on tertiary education systems.

Smart.fm: Developing a Great Experience -- from adaptivepath.com

If a user leaves the game, either by returning to browse goals or by quitting the app then their state needs to be saved and resumed at a later time. In addition, the user’s study progress needs to be synced back to the Smart.fm web site so that they can continue learning on a PC. And wait! What if the user studied that same goal, or another one in the mean time… download that progress and figure out the user’s total progress across all goals. [emphasis DSC]. And wait! Since goals are “alive” other users might have added new items, so download them too.

....the [smart.fm] iPhone app has been submitted to Apple and is very close to being in your hands. Screenshots of the app are available at http://smart.fm/iphone. Early in November we anticipate seeing a smiling Smart.fm owl sitting in the iTunes app store.

10/29/09

Holy smokes! We are most definitely in a game-changing environment! Play this out and it's mind-blowing...syndicated courses...matching up buyers and sellers of courses via online-based exchanges...creating a platform for distributing one's (or a team's) work... wow.

-- resource from Ray Schroeder

Picturing the Story: Narrative Arts and the Stories They Tell -- from the NMC
Every work of art has a story to tell, either through image and symbol, or through custom and ritual. These stories can explain the unexplainable, teach a life lesson, or celebrate our common human experiences.  Picturing the Story uses works of art as a springboard for an interdisciplinary approach to culture, environment, language, and learning. Using selected narrative works of world art from the permanent collection of the Memorial Art Gallery, the Pachyderm presentation explores 7 works of art across many cultures and time periods, dating as early as 1500 BCE. The stories behind the objects are interpreted in a variety of ways and through many different digital media. You can read or listen to the story or legend told orally, or you can watch an ASL interpreter sign the story. Please take a look at this extensive resource at: http://mag.rochester.edu/PicturingTheStory/

Enhancing Student Learning with Technology | Miami Dade College -- by Ruth Ann Balla, Executive Director, Virtual College

Best of the Web - Web Design and Development
A helpful resource for researching Web design on the Internet.

Looking for Music You’ve Never Heard Before? -- from digital inspiration
Find New Music Based on Music That You Like Already

When You're not the Smartest Person in the Room -- by Dean Shareski

Though Wimba was not a part of these reviews, here's an interesting list of players:
Unique around the world: vendor-independent review of web conferencing solutions

Increasing Student Success: Redesigning Mathematics -- from National Center for Academic Transformation
From working with large numbers of students, faculty and institutions over the past 10 years, NCAT has learned what works and what does not work in improving student achievement in both developmental and college-level mathematics. The pedagogical techniques leading to greater student success are equally applicable to both developmental and college-level mathematics. The underlying principle is simple: Students learn math by doing math, not by listening to someone talk about doing math. Interactive computer software combined with personalized, on-demand assistance and mandatory student participation are the key elements of success. NCAT calls this model for success, the Emporium Model, named after what the model’s originator, Virginia Tech, called its initial course redesign.

Kent Career Tech Center launches college 3-D Animation, Game Design course for high schoolers -- from Rapid Growth
Kent County high school students now have the option to receive college credit for 3-D animation and game design at Kent Career Technical Center (KCTC).

10/28/09

Smart Classroom of the Future -- from Daniel S. Christian

Features:

• Flexible, movable, adjustable tables -- for easy, quick reconfigurations of a room -- perhaps even multiple times within the same class period
• Comfortable chairs on wheels -- for easy, quick reconfigurations of a room -- perhaps even multiple times within the same class period
• Puck-like devices -- like those featured in Steelcase's Media:Scape product -- would allow for a student to plug in a variety of devices and "play" them for the class
• Multi-touch, wall-sized "monitors" / "displays"
• Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras -- controllable via the web even -- that can be used for web-based collaboration

Example Scenarios:

• Scenario 1:
  I'm a student at Table #4. I want to show my project to the class. I click on the puck-like device that I've hooked up my laptop to...and because the professor has approved it, I am able to instantly start showing/playing my presentation up on one of the wall-sized monitors (some of which are multi-touch boards).
• Scenario #2:
  I'm a Music Major at Table #3. I want to play a piece from my recent recital that I had recorded and is now on my iPod. I hook up my iPod to the puck-like device and then I click on the puck to let the rest of the class listen to me version of Bach's Concerto Op. 13 No. 2.
• Scenario #3:
  I am the professor and I want to bring in a class from Italy. I use a web-based videoconferencing product to show the other class on one or more of the wall-sized "displays".

Enlarge image of:
"Vision of a Smart Classroom of the Future"

Tools of Engagement: Technologies and Strategies for All Learning Styles -- from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart

List of Multi-Touch Devices -- from Touch User Interface

Software Helps Music Students Collaborate Online With Crystal Clarity -- from The Chronicle by Jeff Young
Music schools have a tradition of bringing in famous musicians to hold master classes with a handful of students, but many of those visits have been cut this year because of tight budgets. Free software developed at the University of Southern California promises to make videoconferencing clear enough to hold such classes remotely over high-speed Internet connections. The software is called EchoDamp, and it was developed by Brian K. Shepard, an assistant professor of composition at Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

Guidelines for Developing Mobile Web Content -- from Gary Woodill
The W3C has published a set of guidelines for developers of content on the web that is designed to play on mobile devices. These guidelines are called Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 and are based on extensive surveys of many mobile web designers and developers. The Table of Contents looks like this...

News 2.0: The Future of News in an Age of Social Media -- from CBC News, original link from Stephen Downes
A look at where the News business is going, now that it's everybody's business

To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world. B. Snyder -- from Teaching & Learning Online's Quote of the Day

10/27/09

100 Best Higher Education Blogs -- from Online Degrees Hub

• News and Trends
• Admissions and Rankings
• Professor Blogs
• Academic Librarians
• Administrators and Departments
• International and Study Abroad
• Athletics and Campus Life
• Continuing Education and Distance Learning
• Innovation and Technology
• Miscellaneous

101 Book Blogs You Need to Read -- from OnlineUniversities.com

-- by Lamar Alexander, now a U.S. senator; was U.S. education secretary for George H.W. Bush, president of The University of Tennessee, and governor of Tennessee.Alexander,

Excert of misc quotes:

• "You won't be given credit for seat time -- you're gonna get credit for actually being able to do it. The faculty are going to be people who are ready to talk to you because you are ready to talk to them." -- Professor Robert Zemsky (see video) of the Penn Graduate School of Education
  
  
• Yet, as with the auto industry in the 1960s, there are signs of peril within American higher education.
  
  
• But as I discovered myself during my four-year tenure as president of the University of Tennessee in the late 1980s, in some ways, many colleges and universities are stuck in the past. For instance, the idea of the fall-to-spring "school year" hasn't changed much since before the American Revolution, when we were a nation of farmers and students put their books away to work the soil during the summer. That long summer stretch no longer makes sense. Former George Washington University president Stephen J. Trachtenberg estimates that a typical college uses its facilities for academic purposes a little more than half the calendar year. "While college facilities sit idle, they continue to generate maintenance, energy, and debt-service expenses that contribute to the high cost of running a college," he has written.
  
  
• "There is nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success." -- George Romney, President American Motors
  
  
• Meanwhile, tuition has soared, leaving graduating students with unprecedented loan debt.

E-Learning's 'Third Phase' -- from InsideHigherEd.com
Though Blackboard's critics have worried the company might monopolize the market for e-learning tools, competition continues to surface -- notably from companies that once were more focused on the administrative side of campus computing.

Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Multi-touch – Is it the Future of Human Computer Interaction? -- by Abhijit Kadle

How Does Online Education Work? -- from blog.edvisors.com

10/26/09

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education -- -- September 22, 2009 | The Committee for Economic Development Digital Connections Council -- original resource from Stephen Downes

...colleges and universities have been faced in the last decade with significant trends: the rapid increase in globalization, the arrival of students who were “born digital” and who may never have experienced an educational institution without the Internet, and a transformation of the Internet itself from a curiosity to a means for gaining access to information and now to being a fundamental element of a more “participatory” culture that encourages everyone to make their own contribution. "e research function of the university, which aims to produce and disseminate new knowledge, has become so intertwined with the Internet that it is almost difficult to recall what research was like before the World Wide Web.

For hundreds of years, personal interactions between teachers and students and printed texts have been at the heart of teaching in colleges and universities. But changes in the openness of the educational materials being used and in the vehicles for the delivery of these materials have the potential to fundamentally reshape teaching and learning.

But the development of more open digital materials known as “open educational resources” (OER), combined with our growing experience with digital materials suggest the possibility of far greater gains in the future.

With the extraordinary connectivity provided by the Internet, we can, using OER, provide free digital educational materials to millions of people in institutions of higher education and to the many millions more unable to attend such institutions. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in a global effort to improve and extend these materials, to customize, even personalize, them.

Proverbs 9:10 -- from Bible Gateway's Verse of the Day
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Google to launch site for selling books online -- eSchool News; link and quote below from Ray Schroeder
Google Inc. is launching a new online service that will let readers buy electronic versions of books and read them on such gadgets as cell phones, laptops, and possibly e-book devices. Google Editions, the company said, marks its first effort to earn revenue from its ambitious Google Books scanning project, which attempts to make millions of printed books available online. Although the scanning program has faced complaints from authors and publishers over copyright, Google Editions will cover only books submitted and approved by the copyright holders when it launches next year.

Cost effective ways to prepare your school or classroom for 21st century learning -- from The Innovative Educator

Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training -- from Stephen Downes
This is an entire book available for free download (or, you can order a print version). Even if you don't have time to read the whole book, be sure to see John Traxler's Current State of Mobile Learning, which outlines major categories of mobile learning, discussion of a definition of mobile learning (which excludes the current generation of laptop and Tablet PCs), the case for mobile learning (on grounds of personal, situated and authentic learning), and attributes of an evaluation of mobile learning.

Blogging –The New Model for Building Collaboration in the Classroom -- from AtomicLearning.com For students around the nation, blogs have become far more than the latest technology buzzword. For many, blogging can be a key method of communication on a social level. While many students already blog in their free time, incorporating blogging technology into the classroom can have many benefits through the use of a medium that already interests students and makes learning more interactive and engaging.

Multimedia investment checklist -- from Innovative Interactivity by Tracy Boyer
“Should we present this story as an interactive? ...

Yale Adds New Batch of Free Open Courses -- from OpenCulture.com
A quick update for you. Yale University has added its third batch of courses to its open education initiative, bringing the total number of courses to 25. (Find the complete list here.)

Duncan calls for overhaul of education schools -- from eSchoolNews.com; Teacher colleges are 'cash cows,' he charges, that must shape up their instruction if K-12 education is to improve
Duncan said he has talked to hundreds of great young teachers while serving as Chicago schools chief and later as President Barack Obama's schools chief. The teachers have two complaints about education schools, he said. "First, most of them say they did not get the hands-on teacher training about managing the classroom that they needed, especially for high-needs students," he said in his speech. "And second, they say there were not taught how to use data to improve instruction and boost student learning," Duncan said.

Augmented Reality and The Coming Tsunami of Location Learning Apps -- from electronic papyrus

Data Monday: Digital Video -- from functioning form

My life with a Smartpen? -- by Lisa Dawley, Professor & Chair of the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University
...I just found about the Pulse Smartpen. This handy little device (ok, not so little for us feminine types who prefer thin pens) allows you to take notes on real paper, and simultaneously record the handwriting and voice for later upload into an organization system called Livescribe. You can create pencasts and share them online…imagine! Please check out their videos, it’s much easier to visualize that I can describe here. As a department chair who attends a lot of meetings and conferences, I’m imagining this little device may have the potential to change how I process information at those events. It’s a toss-up, either I 1) keep carrying my 15″ laptop, 2) buy a netbook (another computer!), 3) write my notes on paper and translate essential facts when I get back to the office, or 4) use a Smartpen!

Who could use a Smartpen? Students who sit in class and need to take notes, teams who work in brainstorming sessions, people who take meeting minutes, folks who may have memory issues such as Alzheimher’s and need a way to record their conversations, artists who want to teach others their drawing techniques, child psychologists who work with kids drawing and discussing their artwork…the list goes on…

The Google Timeline in Video – Brilliant. -- from Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog by Amit

How I create and publish podcasts -- from Wes Fryer; original link from Stephen Downes

Daniel S. Christian

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Recommended sites from the T&L Digital Studio

Key areas to watch

• The forthcoming Walmart of Education
  
  
• Rising student expectations & power
  
  
• Keeping students engaged & motivated
  
  
• The move towards using more teams of specialists to create educational content
  
  
• Learning Agents, 1:1 computing, PLE's, EPT's
  
  
• Building your global network
  
  
• Mobile learning
  
  
• Global learning
  
  
• Lifelong learning
  
  
• Digital storytelling
  
  
• Cloud computing / software as a service
  
  
• The all-encompassing communications & computing device; convergence
  
  
• Open/collaborative teaching & learning
  
  
• The move towards developing consortiums & pooling resources
  
  
• Nanotechnology
  
  
• Cross-disciplinary assignments & learning
  
  
• Multimedia -- providing students with the same content but in 4-5 different ways; let them select what works for them
  
  
• Educational gaming
  
  
• Social networking/learning/Web 2.0-related items; including the growth of blogs, wikis, Twitter, other
  
  
• Multi-touch interfaces
  
  
• Virtual worlds / 3D
  
  
• The semantic web
  
  
• The developing WebOS
  
  
• Legislation requiring students take at least one 100%-online class to graduate (first from high school, then from college)
  
  
• The move towards Voice-Over-IP (VOIP)-based applications & services, often bundled in with technologies such as instant messaging, presence, desktop sharing, whiteboarding, and audio/video conferencing
  
  
• Whether Learning / Course Management Systems continue to be integral or not
  
  
• Whether Moodle and other open-source systems will continue to gain market share
  
  

Christian-based items

• Biblegateway.com
• GospelCom.net
• Leadership Network
• Minds in the Making
• 100 Most Bookmark-Worthy Websites for Christians

Training resources

• Lynda.com
• Adobe's Video Workshop
• Atomic Learning