(Quoting Lockergnome) Voice Talent Catalog For Podcasting Pros.

If you are thinking about making your own podcast show available on the Internet, you may want to consider hiring some quality voice talent to create your show opening and closing audio titles, or more importantly to professionally dub your advertisers and sponsors messages. As much as it is true that podcasting, like video-blogging and blogs are very personal mediums of expressions, it is also true that your future listeners have been long trained to…

Direct and Related Links for 'Voice Talent Catalog For Podcasting Pros'

10:56:25 PM    

Browser wars.

Firefox lost market share in July to Internet Explorer. Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser halted the steady market share advance of The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser last month, according to NetApplications.com, a Web site monitoring company. [Computerworld News]

9:45:15 AM    

Tinderbox: Personal Content Management Tool (MacOS X).

Tinderbox is a personal content management assistant. It stores your notes, ideas, and plans. It can help you organize and understand them. And Tinderbox helps you share ideas through Web journals and web logs.

Tinderbox maps your notes as you make them. Build relationships by arranging notes, organizing them with shape and color, linking them. Tinderbox lets you record ideas quickly and keep them where you'll find them again when you need them.

9:43:20 AM    

Wireless iPaq palmtops.

HP preparing the next wave of wireless iPaqs. Series of devices includes features such as improved phone funcationality, Bluetooth, GPS, digital camera, updated Windows Mobile 2005, and an integrated 802.11g chip for connecting to WiFi networks. [Computerworld News]

2:42:34 PM    

Alternatives to mobile WiMax.

Qualcomm-Flarion deal may rock wireless world.

(InfoWorld) - Qualcomm Inc.'s planned acquisition of mobile broadband vendor Flarion Techologies Inc. sets up a powerful competitor to the emerging mobile WiMax technology and its deep-pocketed proponents, such as Intel Corp.

[InfoWorld: Top News]

2:40:44 PM    

wysiwyg blog editor.

pdate - Qumana (new feature). Company: Qumana Previous Profile: June 15, 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC Qumana Launches Update Feature Qumana (TechCrunch Profile) is a wysiwyg blog editor that works with virtually all blogging software. See our previous profile for more information, but you can drag and drop images, have the text look exactly like you want it to without html or formatting tags, and [...] [TechCrunch]

2:39:10 PM    

Heads up: Maxtor drives.

Maxtor Clings to Life. A new debt offering by the disk-drive maker adds a new level of risk. [The Motley Fool]

11:46:34 AM    

Blog ad risks.

Blog Advertising Comes with Risks, Benefits. After Yahoo was recently sued by the parents of a boy who said his picture was posted by a pedophile in a user-run Yahoo chatroom, some advertisers have grown wary of advertising on... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

11:44:01 AM    

RSS Advertising.

"Publishers that serve early adopter and tech markets are apparently seeing 40 percent month-over-month growth in RSS traffic, with corresponding declines in email subscriptions."

Buying (into) RSS Advertising. Pheedo CMO Bill Flitter launches a three-part series for ReveNews on "How to Buy RSS Advertising," beginning with RSS basics to set the stage for developing a media plan and measuring RSS ad... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

11:42:10 AM    

Buying (into) RSS Advertising.

Pheedo CMO Bill Flitter launches a three-part series for ReveNews on "How to Buy RSS Advertising," beginning with RSS basics to set the stage for developing a media plan and measuring RSS ad... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

11:22:44 AM    

Follow the money!

Online higher-education market to exceed $6B in 2005 - Westchester County Business Journal. The online distance education market is heating up, with enrollment expected to exceed 1 million students in 2005, representing a market of more than $6 billion, according to a recent report by Eduventures, an independent research firm. The study, Online [Online Learning Update]

11:21:43 AM    

Root causes of success in online learning.

These common denominators of success provide a framework for understanding why some initiatives succeed while others do not—and what conditions can be created to make improvements.

Implementing Best Practices in Online Learning - Rob Abel, Educause Quarterly. .... A recent study by the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness, Achieving Success in Internet-Supported Learning in Higher Education: Case Studies Illuminate Success Factors, Challenges, and Future Directions, pulled from the experiences of 21 i [Online Learning Update]

11:20:30 AM    

Royalty free photos for sale.

Looking for photos that won't cost you an arm and a leg? Looking for a place to sell your own photos? Try this. (via [MSN technology filter])

10:59:39 AM    

Evaluation: Kirkpatrick.

Why are we still messing about with Kirkpatrick? The levels are ineffective and misleading. We should just move on.

Revisiting Kirkpatrick's Level One. Whenever I am involved in an evaluation project, I advocate getting rid of the smile sheet completely, and replacing that tortured questionnaire with one closed question, plus an open follow-up to encourage respondents to reveal what really matters to them: “Would you recommend this course to a friend or colleague? Why or why not?” The response tells you unambiguously about the level of By noemail@noemail.org (Godfrey Parkin). [Parkin's Lot]

10:44:19 AM    

Why is podcasting a big deal?

1. Any one can relate their own ideas, stories, experiences, and explanations in their own voice, to anyone and everyone in the entire world who has the necessary technology and who is willing to listen. Like weblogging, this gives individuals the power to do what even a year ago required money, influence, and government permits to do.

2. Listeners can take the podcaster with them, wherever they happen to be, and they can forward the podcast in many other forms to others who were not able to access it.

3. People can listen to the podcaster at some other time than when the podcaster happens to be broadcasting.

To quote Dave Winer, "Every medium has its strengths and weaknesses. The great thing about podcasting is that you can take it with you, driving, running, walking, where ever, and just let your mind absorb ideas through your ears, which is a very nice way to get to know someone, very different from reading what they write. Where the written word only has the intonation the reader can infer (adding a lot of errors in doing so) and can be skimmed (lowers comprehension by orders of magnitude) the spoken word has great subtlety and subtext, and can seduce, cajole, wink, leer, lurk, and be lewd. Both forms of expression have their place."

10:36:11 AM    

Learning as network-creation.

This is a long essay by George Siemens on how a network-creation view of learning provides insight into learning and knowing in today's information environments. I share George's frustrations about the state of our knowledge regarding learning, but I'm having a hard time following his argument. Maybe I'll get it with more time and study.

[Connectivism Blog]

10:18:53 AM    

SoulPad?

'Virtual PCs' travel via USB. Not a religious sect, just a small miracle. [CNET News.com]

6:20:11 PM    

Why podcasts are attracting attention in e-Learning.

Susan makes some good points in this article. However, she doesn't show where podcasting actually results in learning. Agreed, many people will listen to podcasts, and may even prefer to listen to podcasts over other multimedia. But is it an effective learning strategy?

We need some research here, and comparison of podcasts with actual effective interactive e-Learning apps (not "watching a 20 or 30 minute presentation" on a monitor) .

Podcasts and E-Learning: Cognitive Theories of Multimedia vs. Actual Practice

Written by Susan Smith Nash on August 8, 2005 in Online Learning

[XplanaZine]

1:00:06 PM    

PDAs as teaching tools.

Note: this addresses use of PDAs without wireless connections.

PDAs add new dimension to distance learning - Les Chappell, Wisconsin Technology. Forget a computer on every desktop - the future of learning is a computer in the palm of every hand. It's learning that can engage diverse audiences - from uncommunicative high school students to members of the Armed Forces - in methods that can blend rea [Online Learning Update]

12:39:22 PM    

Wharton School looks at the future of learning.

From the article: "What, then, are we to make of broadband digital networks and interactive multimedia? How will these technologies affect learning in the future? Will we use IT merely to replicate traditional teaching methods—substituting Web-based documents for printed textbooks and remote "distance-learning" sessions for on-campus classrooms? Or will these technologies introduce new methods of learning that differ fundamentally from traditional classroom teaching techniques such as the teacher-directed lecture or the case-study method? The short answer is… we don’t know. While it is reasonable to believe that IT will change the nature of education to some degree, the details are much less clear."

Web-Enabled Simulations: Exploring the Learning Process - Kendall Whitehouse, Educause Quarterly. The Wharton School explores whether Web-enabled simulations provide new ways of learning that are fundamentally unlike traditional methods. There is a frequently voiced belief that information technology (IT) will transform the educational process. We of [Online Learning Update]

12:35:39 PM    

News from the front: Flash 8 issues surface.

Flash 8 - what's missing....

Code Collapse - Code Collapse - Code Collapse

Dreamweaver 8 got it, but not Flash 8.

what ever happened to that "unified editors" between products in the suite?

[More ...]

12:30:49 PM    

Palm OS continues move to Linux, mobile phones.

PalmSource to partner with mobile Linux provider.

(InfoWorld) - Building on its original decision last year to move its OS to the Linux kernel, PalmSource announced Tuesday a partnership with key mobile Linux OS provider MontaVista Software. The two companies plan to promote the development of Linux-based OSes and applications for Linux-based mobile phones.

The deal does not change PalmSource's plans to use technology acquired in its December acquisition of China MobileSoft. At the time of the acquisition, PalmSource said it would use the technology that China MobileSoft had been developing around battery management and fast boot time as the foundation of Palm OS for Linux.

Diaz said that by using the Linux kernel -- the plumbing, as he called it -- as the basis for the OS, PalmSource will be able to leverage the Linux community for software development.

Use of the Linux kernel will also serve as an entry point for PalmSource into the lucrative cell phone market with a low-cost flexible OS. According to Diaz, in contrast to a Microsoft OS, Linux offers more design flexibility and, because it is open source, a guaranteed lower licensing fee.

"Linux is a built-in safeguard against higher fees," Diaz said. "Open source prevents the price from getting too high by limiting the power of any given player."

[InfoWorld: Top News]

12:23:46 PM    

Opera browser supports mobile phones.

Another development for m-learning mavens to keep an eye on.

Opera Announces Browser for Mobile Phones (AP). AP - Opera Software ASA on Wednesday announced a new version of its Internet browser that allows Web surfing from almost any mobile phone, even inexpensive ones with little built-in memory. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

12:09:44 PM    

Another view of podcasting.

This article from Yahoo! Technology News points out some of the shortcomings of podcasting as a delivery medium for information. You can't "skim" or speed-read a podcast. You can't add marginalia. You can't link out of one. If the only thing in the podcast is information, people are going to be bored to tears, they are going to hate being chained to that iPod, they are going to want to take notes (which they can't do if they listen while they drive, jog, wait in the bank line) and then they are back to a piece of paper again. What was the point?

Here's what I get from this: Don't make podcasting a solution in search of a problem. To me, the value of the human voice is in the emotion, the conviction, and the nuance it can convey.  Use podcasts to give the big picture, not the details. Use podcasts to tickle the imagination of the listener, to get awareness, to generate interest. Use podcasts to persuade or to convince, to call to action. Use podcasts to entertain. But don't use podcasts to make your lectures portable, to provide dense technical information, or to give directions.

Podcasting for Business: Next Big Thing? (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - IBM's (NYSE: IBM) announcement that it has embraced podcasting for delivering information to investors has sparked discussion in the industry over whether the technology is the next big communication medium or simply a gone-tomorrow trend. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

2:43:50 PM    

e-Textbooks.

Lots of issues here. First, the stores are only offering a one-third discount on the books. So a $30 textbook will "only" cost you $20 to rent for five months. If you have to re-take the course, you get to rent it again for another $20. If you are in a "101/201" course where the prof uses the same textbook for both parts, you are going to pay $40 for use of a $30 book. You can't sell the textbook back. etc etc etc

Not to mention that many textbooks are overpriced to begin with ... the academic version of the music CD business.

They need to do better than this. How about renting the e-version for $10 per semester? or a 90 percent discount?

Coming to campus: E-books with expiration dates. Bookstores at Princeton, University of Utah and others are offering bargain textbook downloads that expire after five months. [CNET News.com]

2:23:47 PM    

What happens to m-Learning when your mobile phone is a thin client?

Quoting from the interview:

"What about mobility?
Kish: We're working with firms that are going to be taking cell phones and turning them into thin clients. You don't need all this Flash (the software) and all of these applications here."

Oops. Hello?

Thin clients: So out, they're in?. Wyse Technology CEO John Kish says history is coming full circle and thin client computing is about to get a second chance at the big time. [CNET News.com]

2:15:38 PM    

Flash 8.

Flash 8 to begin shipping next month. Macromedia says the software offers improvements for authoring Web video and content for mobile devices. [CNET News.com]

11:43:50 AM    

More reasons to have a weblog.

comScore Study Dissects Blogosphere, Finds Ad Audience. That blog visitors "are disproportionately likely to be affluent, young and broadband-enabled" - and therefore a demographically appealing target for advertisers - is one of the major findings of a... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

10:40:08 AM    

More on losing the rights to your intellectual property.

University as Author? - David Epstein, Inside Higher Ed. The Kansas Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Kansas Board of Regents has to negotiate its intellectual property policy in the future, or whether it can simply hand down a decree – even one that asserts ownership of all faculty work. If the court [Online Learning Update]

10:38:59 AM    

Move your thinking out of the classroom box.

Schrage: Don't think of distance learning as just automation - Eric Kleefeld, Wisconsin Technology. Distance learning is about more than just doing the usual lessons away from a physical classroom, says Michael Schrage. Rather, technology is a medium that opens up whole new questions about what is taught, how it is taught, and what the relationship shou [Online Learning Update]

10:37:52 AM    

Quoting George Siemens: Internet Literacies.

I just had a chance to view Will Richardson's powerpoint presentation on New Internet Literacies. A great overview of what's happened with how we approach knowledge creation and use. Will accurately captures the shift to "end user in control" (he terms it as the read/write web), and introduces the tools that have made the shift possible.

10:36:31 AM    

Computer-on-a-Stick.

Got to wonder if this wouldn't have m-Learning potential!

The Computer-On-a-Stick (COS) is a USB Flash Drive featuring its own Onboard Operating System together with a full suite of Microsoft Office-compatible applications; Mozilla Firefox Web Browser, Evolution email, and Yahoo & MSN compatible Instant Messenger for superior Internet connectivity; plug into your PC or Laptop and instantly transform your old environment into a new and powerful secure workstation - without a hard disk! Users get all the benefits of a thin client solution without changing their existing PC hardware or software.  [FingerGear]

Update -- Alternate Point of View [MAKE: Blog]: You can do this yourself for less than $149, and the COS really isn't a computer.  GeekBlog.nl explains how here.

Or: Get an Ubuntu H2 bootable USB 3GB hard drive with Ubuntu Linux and Open Office pre-installed. 135 EUR here.

What any of these three alternatives do is to give you a dedicated environment that you can plug into any USB-bootable PC. The OS on the PC doesn't matter -- when you boot up from the device, you will be in a Linux environment.

But I still wonder if it doesn't have some potential for m-Learning applications.

10:24:56 AM    

Podcasting with QuickTime 7.

How to create an audio podcast by using Apple's own Quicktime.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/... [Robin Good]

10:17:55 AM    

WigiWigi.

WigiWigi is the first public release of a video over IP application that is built on a completely new and unique protocol. Unlike other desktop videoconferencing applications, WigiWigi one does not require any specific DLLs, drivers, codecs, DirectX or dedicated third-party libraries. It doesn't even require an installation. WigiWigi has just entered its beta-testing phase and the GUI (user interface) is still crude and semi-functional - but the results on your screen may indeed surprise you very positively. Download WigiWigi here. http://www.wigiwigi.com/ [Robin Good]

10:15:41 AM    

WPanorama.

Wpanorama allows smooth navigation of panoramic photographs by letting you pre-set viewing pans and zooms over them. WPanorama allows vertical and horizontal scrolling over any large standard photographic image as well as on 360° digital virtual panoramas (many available on the site).
http://www.wpanorama.com/ [Robin Good]

10:14:02 AM    

ScreenHunter 4.

ScreenHunter is a graphic utility for PC Windows computers capable of capturing your screen contents while providing lots of controls and flexible options. ScreenHunter can easily capture rectangle, window and full screen areas with or without including your mouse pointer. Screen captures can be saved in BMP, JPEG and GIF graphic file formats.
http://www.wisdom-soft.com...  [Robin Good]

10:12:27 AM    

Competencies and training for online instructors.

"The focus of this paper is to;

a. Review 51 instructor competencies deemed necessary for an effective online learning program, and

b. Outline key components of a training program to enable a traditional brick-and-mortar college to transition to a university that has a significant online component. "

Competencies of an online educator.

Fifty-One Competencies for Online Instruction (.pdf) (via Jane Knight) - While I'm generally not a big fan of checklists (I'm more fond of "guiding principles" - they are intentionally less prohibitive at the application level, giving the educator greater freedom), this is a useful paper for new online instructors. Some of the competencies are quite vague (like "harness technology"), and measurement criteria is not included.

10:06:11 AM    

In case you missed this in yesterday's announcement.

Macromedia drops FreeHand from bundle. The popular tool won't be included in the company's Studio 8 suite of products. [CNET News.com]

10:00:55 AM    

Knowledge management basics.

Sharing Knowledge.

Sharing Knowledge (.pdf) has been receiving quite a bit of attention in various knowledge management blogs. It's essentially a case study of how to create a knowledge sharing environment in smaller organizations. Most of the suggestions are basic and should be familiar to those who have been following KM developments. The document does provide a nice overview of wikis, communities of practice, and general (physical) workspace design.

12:46:21 PM    

Thinking outside the "course" box.

Theories for Informal Learning Design?. Many different theories exist which try to explain how we learn. Based on those theories, we have numerous approaches to learning design. The whole field is quite connected (inbred?)...and boring. [Connectivism Blog]

12:30:55 PM    

Group collaboration tool.

Profile - Chalk. In a short but interesting announcement, Chalk was introduced to the world. Chalk is a Ruby on Rails and Ajax-powered web application to collaborative manage your daily life. Quoting the introduction: Designers, programmers, writers, family, friends - anyone. We all want tools that make us more productive, especially when we’re working in groups. Chalk gives any [...] [TechCrunch]

12:27:14 PM    

People learn more when they enjoy the experience.

Please note: you must join in order to read the article ($15/yr) or pay $5 one time to read the document. An interesting study, but not earth-shaking and I'm not sure it's worth the five bucks to read the details not in the abstract.

Psychological Type and Asynchronous Written Dialogue in Adult Learning - Lin Lin, Patricia Cranton & Beatrice L. Bridglall, Teachers College Record. This study explores how adults learn from asynchronous written dialogue through the lens of psychological type preferences. We asked participants to discover their dominant and auxiliary psychological preferences using the Personal Empowerment through Typ [Online Learning Update]

10:51:58 AM    

Read the fine print: Have you given away your rights to your own intellectual property?

Distributed Learning Meets Intellectual Property Policy: Who Owns What? - Veronica Diaz, Campus Technologies. The rise of eLearning and technology in higher education—including distance education, digital repositories, and electronic courseware products—has changed the way faculty and institutions regard ownership and control of these materials. A new market exis [Online Learning Update]

10:49:27 AM    

A new meme: Connectivism.

Staying Connected. If you're not reading the Connectivism Blog by George Siemens you should. I find his theories of learning and education as influenced by the Read/Write Web to be really interesting and in many cases profound (at least for my feeble brain.) But it's just such a mind shift when you start thinking about how these technologies are all about connections, connections to people, to ideas and to information.

As a learner, I need a way to have a connection back to the original knowledge source. Knowledge reflexivity is simply a means of ensuring that as the original knowledge source changes, we have a connection which ensures we remain current. The way most education is designed today makes this very impractical (imagine a designer emailing each learner who has taken a course informing them of a core knowledge change). The issue stems from the left over remnants of learning design from a society and era of greater stability. But reality has changed for learners. If I take a course, I should have some level of reflexivity for some period of time.

10:39:41 AM    

mLearning Introduction.

Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning.

An extremely useful introduction to the subject of mobile learning technologies.  Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning (via Smartmobs): "Newer developments in mobile phone technology are also beginning to offer the potential for rich multimedia experiences and for location-specific resources. ... The challenge for educators and designers, however, is one of understanding and exploring how best we might use these resources to support learning."

10:37:30 AM    

US only: Phone co. DSL gets a boost against cable.

FCC: DSL, Like Cable, Now an 'Information Service'. Phone companies need not provide high-speed internet lines to competitors that provide similar services, the Federal Communications Commission ruled by a 4-0 vote on Friday, saying that digital... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

10:34:26 AM    

Relayed from InfoWorld: Macromedia marks release of Studio 8.

(InfoWorld) - Macromedia on Monday takes the wraps off Studio 8. The new suite includes enhancements to Dreamweaver and Fireworks, and now houses Contribute and FlashPaper, as well.

Studio 8 includes an upgraded Flash 8 development tool with new video workflow capabilities and an easier but more powerful UI, said Jim Guerard, vice president of product management and marketing at Macromedia. Flash 8 also brings enhanced graphic effects and animation, and the capability to more effectively author mobile content, he said.

[InfoWorld: Top News]

10:28:47 AM    

Doing well by doing good.

Being able to customize is what the Internet is all about. If you aren't, you're missing the boat.

To Internet Stores, It's All About the Personal Touch. Robert Beaver, the chief executive of Zazzle.com, said that contrary to rhetoric about how customization can kill profit margins, margins at Zazzle "are very good." By BOB TEDESCHI. [NYT > Business]

10:24:42 AM    

Unstructured data is the key to understanding performance.

This kind of analysis could lead to more cost-effective human performance interventions, too.

Companies Using Tech Analysis on Themselves (AP). AP - The automated analysis of "unstructured" data is becoming remarkably agile at giving companies detailed answers to the age-old business question of "How are we doing?" [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

2:36:40 PM    

Someone else gets what drives me crazy about wikipedia.

"The Great Failure of Wikipedia" by Jason Scott, which, to put it mildly, offers a contrarian point of view:

This is what the inherent failure of wikipedia is. It's that there's a small set of content generators, a massive amount of wonks and twiddlers, and then a heaping amount of procedural whackjobs. And the mass of triddlers and procedural whackjobs means that the content generators stop being so and have to become content defenders. Woe be that your take on things is off from the majority. Even if you can prove something, you're now in the situation that anybody can change it. And while that's all great in a happy-go-lucky flower shower sort of way, it's when you realize that the people who are going to change it could have absolutely no experience with the subject whatsoever, then you see where we are.

11:39:24 AM    

Functions of mobile phones (quoting elearnspace).

Functions of mobile phones - a simple graphic detailing what people do with mobile phones. Of particular interest to educators/trainers is the second most common use - receiving location-specific information (a slight modification of this use would enable the inclusion of context-specific learning).

11:36:18 AM    

Productivity tips from To-Done for home-based entrepreneurs.

How To Be Productive Working From Home.

"... One thing I noticed is that using a system like David Allen’s Getting Things Done really prepares you to be productive in many situations, including working from home. ..."

[To-Done]

11:18:43 AM