Twenty technology skills every educator should have.

"... here is a comprehensive listing of the technology skills that every educator should have. Because as computer and associated technologies continue to change and evolve, educators must continue to strive for excellence in their work. Today that includes continued time and effort to maintain and improve their technology skills (as much as some educators do not want to admit)." [T.H.E. Journal Online]

If these are skills that educators should have but apparently, by virtue of their being included in a list of desiderata, ones that educators do not have, then this is also a list of needs waiting for e-Learning entrepreneurs to fill.

I am a little disturbed to see that the only mention of online teaching skills is related to WebCT and Blackboard. There is so much more to know than just the technology for two vendors. (I was going to say "two small vendors" but then I remembered that this is a list for educators, and WebCT and Blackboard pretty much own that market.)

I'm also surprised that there are no content tools listed: where are Flash, Captivate, Breeze and a host of other easy-to-use tools that no e-Learning developer can afford to be without.

Opportunity is everywhere.

10:13:01 AM    

Make Captivate audio available for podcasting.

I am not exactly sure how you would use this tech tip in a practical way for delivering e-Learning, but Macromedia posted the procedure so the application is up to you.

The net result is that the process described will export all the audio (1 audio file per slide) from your Captivate project for podcasting.

From [Captivate TechNote]

11:18:56 PM    

Flash goodness.

setPixel, getPixel, and the Flash 8 Beta bandwagon.

while of course i'm testing all existing sites with the beta Flash 8 player, i'm also playing with all the cool stuff people are "discovering".

while there are a growing number of filter experiments floating about the web, here's one i did that demonstrates the coolness of being able to draw (and query) pixels in user-created bitmaps.

Color Picker: http://lab.artificialcolors.com/f8/color_picker.html

Source: http://lab.artificialcolors.com/f8/color_picker.zip (or .FLA if you want just that)

yup - we're actually _drawing_ the color picker area pixel by pixel, line by line, then grabbing the RGB color underneath the mouse pointer. certainly being able to grab the color values of pixels is going to be one of those "huge" features for all sorts of visualizations and effects.

of course you need the Flash 8 Beta player, and you'll need to flip the version bit in the SWF if you recompile this code.

good times.

g.

1:52:30 PM    

Atom vs. RSS.

More manuevering. Don't give up your RSS.

Tim Bray compares Atom 1.0 with RSS 2.0, Don Park comments. [Scripting News]

Alex Bosworth's view of Atom as compared with RSS. Why Atom is not a good replacement for RSS 2.0, if you are a producer rather than a consumer [via Scripting News]

1:50:14 PM    

Another reason to 86 your television.

Get a hobby. Take walks. Turn off the TV.

Skipping TV ads illegal in Japan?. Blog: Ok, everyone's joked at one time or another that the TV commercials during some show or other (probably the Super Bowl) were... [CNET News.com]

1:48:52 PM    

Sparring continues over who runs the Internet.

UN outlines future of US-less internet. WGIG provides four models [The Register]

1:46:20 PM    

Production values, content, and podcasting.

Internet Audio Craze Spurs a Land Grab . SAN FRANCISCO -- The runaway popularity of blogging, which has turned everyday people into online news outlets, caught the media establishment off guard. The industry is trying not to make the same mistake with podcasting _ which lets nearly anyone "broadcast" on the Internet. By GREG SANDOVAL. [Technology - Industry News, Policy, and Reviews]

10:03:18 AM    

Getting your feeds.

RSS Readers: Narrowing Down Your Choices.

The first thing in this article that really caught my eye was how Firefox has offered easy to use RSS aggregation since 2004. But moving on beyond that, I think it is interesting that My Yahoo is the number one way for people to get their feeds! Why? Simple. Ever since my first day at Lockergnome, I have been stating RSS will become mainstream once it is easy enough for anyone to use. It is…

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10:29:34 PM    

YAPA (Yet Another Podcasting Article).

Review: Podcasting Easy for Everyone (AP). AP - My introduction to podcasting — the convergence of iPods, broadcasting and the time-shifting that TiVo popularized — came when Apple's iTunes recently began making podcasts available for download. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

4:37:18 PM    

Java fragmentation issues and m-Learning.

Cell phone manufacturers, in trying to get competitive devices to market quickly, have ensured that a Java application that runs on one cell phone probably won't run on others. Cellphones, from the developer's point of view, are like snowflakes -- no two are alike.

This is yet another driving force working in favor of Macromedia's Flash Lite, at least with the new and coming generation of phones.

'Write once, run anywhere' not working for phones. Sun's Java for cell phones was supposed to let developers write a single program that could run on any handset. Wishful thinking?

"Fragmentation is the one major roadblock that could mean the difference between success and failure for developers embracing this market," Allen Lau, the chief technology officer at Tira Wireless, wrote in an article in the trade publication Java World.

[CNET News.com]

4:13:47 PM    

Privacy: A graphic model.

While searching for materials on accountability matrices for a project management article, I came across this.

1. Tools that help me see what others are up to.	2. Tools that prevent others from seeing what I am up to.
3. Tools that help other see what I am up to.	4. Tools that prevent me from seeing what others are up to.

Pretty cool idea, kind of like the Johari Window for business processes. I'm going to find a way to use this puppy, even though it doesn't have anything to do with my original search.

The "Accountability Matrix" appears in  The Transparent Society by David Brin, and I found it cited in [Phil Windley's Technometria]

4:02:05 PM    

Roadrunner culture.

Maybe it's time to switch off and slow down. Maybe even in e-Learning.

[BBC News|Technology]

2:34:47 PM    

BuddyBuzz: High-speed text for tiny screens.

Another interesting technology for m-Learning?

News.Com: Reading phone text one word at a time. The technique, known as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP, makes up for the tiny screens on mobile phones by presenting just one word at a time in the center of the screen for a fraction of a second before moving on to the next word. [Tomalak's Realm]

10:45:09 PM    

Marketing 101.

Awareness - Interest - Preference - Action. But awareness (attention) comes first. How to get the attention? As the author of the article (below) says, "What's new is the insistent voice of the blogosphere beginning to dominate the conversation between vendors and customers."

Page Views are dead - it's about attention.

Steve nails it! It's not about things that you passively search or consume. It's about what you actively pay attention to: who you subscribe to, what you blog about, what you link to, what you bookmark, what you pay for, what you actively listen to or watch, what you recommend, etc.! Go Steve go!

From Cogosphere: Information will search for you .:

2:31:28 PM    

How does podcasting fit into e-Learning?

One-Minute Tip is an example. These are mostly tutorial-type podcasts, perhaps more appropriately referred to as "workflow" learning or electronic performance support, but for the right person in the right situation, they can resolve a performance problem just by showing someone "how."

2:25:20 PM    

More on "what do we call this '-casting' stuff?"

Here is Scoble's take on it, at least as the argument rages at Microsoft.

Blogger gives incorrect data about podcasting at Microsoft.

I believe that podcasting is audio files delivered over RSS but that it's better to specifically name other things as to the type of file that gets delivered. For instance, I believe that what we do over on Channel 9 is a vlog or video blog.

Why? Cause podcasting in my mind is "Personal On Demand Casting"

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

12:08:23 PM    

The Word-of-Mouth network.

Tim Bray talks about the new PR.

Tim Bray: The New Public Relations.

The word-of-mouth network. Now more efficient than ever. If you don't participate WHILE THE CONVERSATION IS GOING ON you DO NOT EXIST!

When I say I bias toward posting fast, this is what I mean.

Other people who are slower just will get locked out of the world-wide conversation.

Are you participating?

You wanna know how to pitch an idea out there? Well, let's just put it this way: I don't send Russell Beattie email. I post.

And I read.

I post. How about you?

12:05:23 PM    

A rose by any other name.

Or, you say "podcast", I say "mediacast." What do we call these things collectively, and how do we avoid confusing the decision makers?

"The iPod is associated with audio...it may well do photos and video in the future too, but can it break its brand from the audio shackles?

In the same way ... what Channel 9 does is best described as video blogging, or vlogging (urgh!), (you were right by way, now you're wrong ;-), the act of recording your screen is what screencasting is (not just in Flash btw, any video output format)."

[Alex Barnett blog]

12:00:18 PM    

Better audio.

This question comes up a lot from e-Learning producers, usually in the context of making voice-overs for e-Learning. I disagree with Jon about "soundcards shouldn't add much noise." The problem frequently comes from other sources, especially if the compter in question is a laptop. In my opinion, if you are going for quality and production value, you must not cut corners on your audio production and post-production. The standard in the user's mind is always broadcast television, computer game audio, and music MP3's. If you do things on the cheap, you are going to come off as less credible than your competitors, who bit the bullet and paid for quality.

Eliminating audio hiss. Jon Udell: Eliminating audio hiss - just a comment via del.icio.us/tag/audio+hiss - if you can get the A/D conversion done away from the computer, great, but most half-decent soundcards shouldn’t add much noise. What can make a big difference is boosting the signal as close to its source as possible ... [Raw]

11:51:29 AM    

Online media: Vlogging.

aka VODcasting. Potentially useful for delivering workflow information and instruction, customer or user education/help, and marketing.

Blogging + Video = Vlogging. Got room for one more online media trend? Here come the vloggers, who have added video shorts to the user-created media mix. Part 1 of a three-part series. By Katie Dean.PLUS: The Vlog World's Greatest Hits. [Wired News]

11:44:49 AM    

Firefox security concerns.

Firefox update completes busy patching day. It's raining security updates [The Register]

11:40:53 AM    

Marketing: Keyword use.

Keyword Prices Stable, Search to Reach $5.6 Billion. Keyword advertising prices stabilized in the second quarter, according to separate surveys by investment banks SG Cowen and Piper Jaffray, reports AdWeek (via MediaBuyerPlanner). SG Cowen said... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

11:39:22 AM    

Benefits of e-Learning.

This is sort of a "gee-whillikers-Mister-Science" kind of article, at least six months to a year behind where most readers of this Weblog are. However, it may be worth clipping for your sales and marketing file, to help prospects understand how e-Learning can solve their time-and-place issues for personal professional development.

E Learning: Why Choose Online Education? - John Thompson, Web Pro News. The Internet boom is far from over, although it has been taking a slightly different slant in the past few years; hardly surprising as technologies advance and trends change. The World Wide Web is the largest resource of information in the whole world and [Online Learning Update]

11:38:31 AM    

Global peace through e-Learning?

This article mainly addresses technical issues required to support globally collaborative experiential learning. The most important issues in e-Learning (just as in any other kind of learning) have to do with change management. When we look at global collaboration between learners, conflict management between different sets of values is another area for the designers' concern. The possibility for significant conflict, misunderstanding, and irreconcilable differences is huge. Be sure that your design includes ways to productively and positively resolve such differences, or the outcome might not be so peaceful.

Globally Collaborative Experiential Learning - Takeshi UTSUMI, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. Economic interdependence among nations and cultures is spawning a global economy. Globalisation also highlights clashes of divergent cultures and belief systems, both political and religious. If global peace is ever to be achieved, global-scale education, [Online Learning Update]

11:33:48 AM    

Learning space design: virtual and physical, formal and informal.

Be careful not to assume that learning in the virtual space is simply learning in the physical space carried on by other means. Assumptions about learning are more powerful than learning design.

Design of the Learning Space: Learning and Design Principles - Chris Johnson and Cyprien Lomas, Educause Review. “Learning spaces encompass the full range of places in which learning occurs, from real to virtual, from classroom to chat room.”[Online Learning Update]

11:18:33 AM    

How do you know Bill Gates likes you?

He puts you out of business last. Heads up if your e-Learning application is open source.

Microsoft to go open source?.

(InfoWorld) - Could Microsoft's software run eventually on open source systems such as Linux? One top executive of the open source movement believes it could well come true.

11:15:09 AM    

Methanol to power mobile phones.

One of many issues that m-Learning developers face is battery life. Most hand-held devices suffer from lack of staying power. Now rechargeable fuel cells are about to offer a "green" solution to this problem.

Mobile phone fuel cells coming in 2007.

(InfoWorld) - A fuel cell technology that will offer a quick fix for dead or dying mobile phone batteries looks as if its going to be available for millions of people for the first time in the world in Japan in 2007, Japan's two biggest mobile communications carriers said Wednesday at the Wireless Japan 2005 Expo.

11:11:03 AM    

Roland Tanglao's links on podcasting.

• Beginner's Guide to Podcast Creation
  excellent howto, don't forget wiretappro if you are on a mac
  (tags: howto macosx podcast podcasting rolandtanglao wiretappro audiohijackpro)
• Kirkville - Kirk's Seven Rules of Effective Podcasting
  some decent rules of thumb
  (tags: howto podcast podcasting rolandtanglao)
• HP's 2005 OSCON Photo Contest
  cool to see them using flickr
  (tags: flickr rolandtanglao oscon hp photography oscon2005)

4:14:14 PM    

George Siemens: New learning development theory.

Learning Development Cycle.

A new article on elearnspace: Learning Development Cycle: Bridging Learning Design and Modern Knowledge Needs explores how instructional design is changing. [elearnspace]

4:12:20 PM    

Reusable Learning Objects.

Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects - Pithamber R. Polsani, Journal of Digital Information. The term Learning Object, first popularized by Wayne Hodgins in 1994 when he named the CedMA working group "Learning Architectures, APIs and Learning Objects", has become the Holy Grail of content creation and aggregation in the computer-mediated learning [Online Learning Update]

3:59:34 PM    

New RSS Metric: Average Daily Readership.

One way to guess whether what you are doing is working.

What is Average Daily Readership?.

Average Daily Readership is a new RSS metric, just recently introduced by Syndicate IQ. Dubbed as the solution to wider RSS marketing adoption, it does leave some questions open …

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3:57:43 PM    

Grabbing the long tail of media.

The vision of the long tail entails that an increasingly greater number of digital content authors, from book writers to independent musicians will soon realize that the race to be a star is finally over. There is no need to be one, to make a living while expressing and sharing your creative talent.

The long tail ushers an era in which content authors will not search anymore for a market of a million readers or listeners but for a million markets of ones.

[Robin Good: MediaNews]

11:31:59 AM    

A lazy way to download podcasts.

Del.icio.us and Podcasting. (via Graham Stanley) So this is a very cool idea to create personalized podcast feeds using del.icio.us.

[Weblogg-ed News]

11:13:17 AM    

RSS Search coming to Yahoo.

Yahoo Testing RSS Search. Yahoo provided a brief glimpse - apparently an unintentional one - into its RSS search efforts on Friday when bloggers found a test Yahoo site for searching RSS feeds, reports PCMag. Steve Rubel's... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

11:10:26 AM    

RSS Reader Usage Stats: What does this mean to your marketing?

"The RSS Reader market is still highly fragmented, which is leaving the way open for branded RSS Readers, using which strong brands can further expand their reach and communicational touch points with their consumers."

[Lockergnome]

11:09:26 AM    

Publisher's Guide to RSS.

This new online reference is free to access and it provides a five-step process to support effective RSS publishing on the Web.

[Robin Good: New Media]

11:01:06 AM    

Dude!

Dell has dropped its customer support forums.

[The Register]

10:41:07 AM    

Macromedia integrates Breeze and Captivate.

From the press release:

"By integrating Captivate and Breeze, Macromedia has created a compelling, rapid e-learning solution," said Frank Nguyen, e-learning technology manager, Intel Corporation. "Even users with no Flash® or programming experience can create, publish, and distribute engaging, media-rich content to a standard web browser, manage and control user access, and track the progress and performance of learners using industry standards such as SCORM and AICC." [Yahoo! Finance]

Current Captivate users may download the new Captivate 1.01 at no charge. Full price is US$499, upgrade is US$299.

Breeze is a more complex family of products. See the Macromedia Web site for pricing information.

10:20:24 AM    

And you thought banner ads were dead.

Internet Banner Ads Look to Get More Interesting (and Thus Less Easy to Ignore). Banner ads, the Internet's favorite petri dish, have begun yet another round of experimentation, this time as shopping assistants. By BOB TEDESCHI. [NYT > Technology]

10:47:44 PM