Everything you ever wanted to know about distance learning.

REVEIW of the Encyclopedia of Distance Learning - Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. The topic of distance teaching and online learning associated technologies and applications covers a vast amount of ideas, concepts, issues, concerns, and opportunities. The innovations in computer and communications technologies combined with on-going ne [Online Learning Update]

1:43:30 PM    

Explaining The Open University.

Online Learning Is Open For All - Kate Watkins, FE News. If you watched primetime television over the last few months, you have probably seen those advertisements about that university where you can study from home while working at the same time. Yes, the Open University (OU) has made its mark on the UK with it [Online Learning Update]

1:42:12 PM    

University of Wyoming: Use of online courses grows.

UW online enrollment grows by 16 percent - AP. Online enrollment at the University of Wyoming grew by 16 percent during the 2004-05 academic year, school officials said. Almost 2,300 students took a total of 3,937 courses online last year, up from 3,391 online courses taken during the 2003-04 school [Online Learning Update]

1:40:30 PM    

Drupal: Security.

(Comment from Bill: Drupal is, "an open source dynamic web site platform which allows an individual or community of users to publish, manage and organize a variety of content, Drupal integrates many popular features of content management systems, weblogs, collaborative tools and discussion-based community software into one easy-to-use package.")

Drupal.org downtime and comment security issue.

Taran mentions that there's a security issue with Drupal conmments. Just to let everyone know, the comment exploit has already been documented and fixed with the Drupal 4.6.2 release (which this site is running). And drupal.org is down for the moment due to a maintenance issue at the computing center where the Drupal server is hosted.

Those that want to pick up the 4.6.2 release before drupal.org is back online will find links to download mirrors and information on the latest security issues at Ber's site, webschuur.com.

1:36:48 PM    

Radio Userland: Podcasting Powerhouse.

"We're working additions to Radio's RSS publishing to support Apple's "extensions" and podcasting ... This function is part of a larger initiative to create a dedicated "podcast" category in Radio, allowing new users an easier path to create RSS feeds and publish them to the web.  ... Finally, I'll be writing the definitive 'How to podcast with Radio' next week to go with these new changes."

[house of warwick]

10:31:41 PM    

Podcast projections.

This week in digital living. The number of people who download free audio programs known as podcasts is set to explode, according to a new report. [CNET News.com]

5:57:07 PM    

Does Podcasting pay?

Mark Cuban on podcasting. Smart guy. Right on. [Scripting News]

5:53:25 PM    

Technologies of Cooperation.

Technologies of Cooperation (.pdf) - a very useful report presenting eight clusters of cooperative technologies (including social tools, self organizing mesh networks, knowledge collectives, etc). Page 15 includes an excellent matrix displaying the eight clusters with strategic guidelines (structure, resources, identity, etc.).

11:10:09 PM    

Text-to-speech for your weblog.

Talkr.

Not sure how many elearnspace readers listen to podcasts, but I came across this site (via unmediated) - Talkr: "Talkr provides a service that allows you to listen to your favorite text-only news sources rather than read them. If you can point us to an RSS feed (a machine-readable version of your favorite blog or news source) we will convert that feed from text to speech." I've applied for elearnspace. Will post once it's approved.

11:09:19 PM    

Actually, Microsoft has patented music appreciation.

Microsoft patents music learning. Blog: If ever there was something to take the magic out of music, it's reading a Microsoft patent on teaching people to understand... [CNET News.com]

11:08:19 PM    

Another way to think about what learning is and what it includes.

MIT's Anklebot to help stroke patients. The Anklebot teaches stroke victims how to move their ankles again. A Shoulderbot may be next. [CNET News.com]

11:05:35 PM    

How to Moodle.

"Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. " [Moodle]

Moodling Around. Tomorrow is the first full day training for our Tablet PC pilot and I've been hammering away on the Moodle site I've created for the course. This is my first attempt at Moodle and I have to say I am very, very impressed. Once you get the feel for it, it's very intuitive, and it's got a very rich feature set. The wiki tool alone was enough to sell me. (No blog, however...)

Anyway, just thought I'd share a link to the site and invite anyone who is interested to take a look around. Just click on the "New Classroom Model Pilot Course" link at the lower left, and then login as a guest. It's read only. If there are any Moodle-ists out there with advice, I'm all ears.

(BTW, my favorite thing in Moodle is being able to get up to the minute logs of all the users and where they are going. I've had five or six of my "students" digging around the site already, and it's interesting (at least for now) to see the directions they go and the things they're looking at. Good stuff!) [Weblogg-ed News]

11:04:25 PM    

Will the new bankruptcy law affect entrepreneurial attitudes about risk?

When Entrepreneurs Risk It All and Lose. The bankruptcy law President Bush signed in April may have damaging ramifications for the nation's entrepreneurial culture. By LOUISE WITT. [NYT > Business]

11:00:52 PM    

Podcast audience numbers growing.

Researcher: Tenfold growth in podcast consumption. U.S. podcast audience will number 56 million by 2010, according to a new forecast. [CNET News.com]

10:58:15 PM    

Palm OS scores another one.

LG Chooses Palm Operating System for Future Smart Phone (PC World). PC World - Could be the first phone to use new Linux-based Palm software. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

10:57:16 PM    

Theft of service prosecuted.

Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal (AP). AP - Police have arrested a man for using someone else's wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

10:56:24 PM    

Fear motivates new online behavior.

Fear of Spyware Changing Online Habits (AP). AP - Internet users worried about spyware and adware are shunning specific Web sites, avoiding file-sharing networks, even switching browsers. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

10:55:28 PM    

Thinking about mLearning applications of distribution technologies.

Cell Phones Face the Music. Napster has big plans for digital music on cell phones. Is this the end for the iPod? By Katie Dean. [Wired News]

10:40:31 AM    

Trademark silliness.

Why doesn't the law categorize this kind of thing as an abuse of litigation?

He Says He Owns the Word 'Stealth' (Actually, He Claims 'Chutzpah,' Too). Over the last few years, Leo Stoller has written dozens of letters to companies and organizations and individuals stating that he owns the trademark to "stealth." By COLIN MOYNIHAN. [NYT > Business]

10:29:28 AM    

You can't afford sloppy emails to your customers.

Legit Emails May Look Fishier than Phishing Scams. A small study by email-marketing software firm Lyris, conducted to see whether email users could identify phishing attempts found that improperly rendered, though legitimate, emails were considered... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

10:27:29 AM    

Getting attention for your RSS feeds.

Where to Submit your RSS Feeds.

If you want to promote your RSS feeds there is only one way to accelerate the time it takes for your potential readers to find out about you: make your RSS feed information available in as many RSS directories and search engines as possible. The RSSTop55 contains over 120 RSS search engines and directories where you can immediately submit your RSS / Atom feeds. The mini-guide, which is continuosly updated provides a brief descriptipn for…

Direct and Related Links for 'Where to Submit your RSS Feeds'

10:12:39 AM    

Learning Objects -- where's the beef?

The article is an interesting read, but it is (in my opinion) just one more example of why Learning Objects as a practical technology has been a non-starter. First, no two proponents agree what a learning object is. Is it code (or maybe script)? Is it content? Must it be context-free? Is it multimedia? Is it simply a text or PowerPoint module? You will find all of these definitions and more. I still think that Learning Objects was originally a marketing concept dreamed up by someone working for a large courseware vendor, and that it was a confusion over the notion of "programming objects" and object-oriented programming.

Second, other than re-using existing text or PowerPoint, nobody seems to be able to explain in clear, concise style how to create, maintain, or re-use a learning object. Yes I know it sounds like I think there should be a "Learning Objects for Dummies" -- but you know what? I think that if the idea was really working, there would be a "Learning Objects for Dummies" on the Amazon website. And until the concept gets as clear as the topics of the Dummies books, and as useful, learning objects are going to continue to be an idea in search of a reproducible instance.

If we mean re-use or repurposing, we should just say so.

Creating Learning Objects from Pre-Authored Course Materials.

This article by Anita Petrinjak and Rodger Graham appeared in the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. The authors present an interesting XML-based method for generating LOs from existing course materials that looks very promising; their work includes the development of an LO authoring tool for users who do not have XML programming skills.

However, despite the optimistic conclusions in the Abstract and in the article,  no detailed examples of usable, transformed LOs are exhibited and no reports from users are provided--consequently it is not possible to truly evaluate the methodology. This is something like trying to evaluate the quality of a computer language translation by looking at a few sentences or phrases rather than seeing the complete document.  (An Appendix with one example, is missing from the online version of this article.)  ____JH

(Via the Distance-Educator.com Daily News for June, 29, 2005) _________ "Abstract. This paper describes work that was done at Athabasca University as part of the EduSource Canada project. This work centered around learning object development based on pre-authored educational content. The major outcomes of the work were the development of an explicit semantic structure with strong educational focus for learning objects, and the implementation of that structure, using platform/software-independent XML technology. An explicit semantic structure for educational content has some significant advantages: it enables faster publishing of material in different formats using automated processes; it allows institutions to participate in seamless content exchange with other institutions; and it enables more accurate discovery and reuse of learning objects within learning object repositories."

4:31:05 PM    

Podcasting to (make that "with") students forbidden -- followup.

No further comment from me.

Univ. to EduPodcaster: "Don't Talk to Students". Oy.

Steve Sloan at San Jose State University has been told by his boss that he can no longer include students in his podcasts. Not exactly clear what the circumstances were, but it appears to be a mix of doing it on the school's time and dime and, unfortunately, wanting to stifle the conversation, it seems. Take the time to read through the last couple weeks of posts to get the whole story.

But I love his response:

Who gave me permission to speak to students? Who gives me permission to broadcast my ideas to the world? Who gave me permission to talk about what I do and to open up about what I see both in my job and in the rest of my life?

I did. I have officially given myself permission to talk about where I work and what I do because that is where I work and what I do. I want the people I work with and work for to see what I do and know what I am thinking.

I also want them to tell me I am full of crap if they think I am. Because, I may be full of crap and not see it. If they think I am full of crap I want to know why they think that. I listen to what they say. If I am full of crap I want to be able to admit it and change. But, if I look at what is going on and see they are the ones full of crap I reserve the right to say that as well.

I want to be accountable to the people I call clients and/or customers and I want to give them the best service I know how to. I also feel that since I get a paycheck from the state of California, the people of the state are all my clients as well as my investors and they deserve the best return on their investment possible from me and the university I work for.

So, I give myself permission to speak, learn, try things and even make mistakes as long as I learn from those mistakes and I can only do that if people know what I am doing and talk to me.

4:04:33 PM