EDUCATION NEWS
================================================
OPENCOURSEWARE MAKES ITS DEBUT
With the opening
of the pilot site of MIT OpenCourseWare on Monday, Sept. 30, the ambitious
initiative took the first step toward fulfilling the lofty expectations it
prompted when it was announced in 2000. Almost 40 MIT courses in 16 academic
departments and the Sloan School of Management are now available.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/ocw.html
Related Slashdot
reactions:
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/09/30/1647213.shtml
All the World's
an MIT Campus:
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,55507,00.html
SCENARIO-BASED E-LEARNING
It’s hard to find
anyone these days who will defend page-turner e-learning as a good use of the
medium. Completion rates are low, learners don’t want to read books online, and
all the world agrees that learning-by-doing is vastly superior to learning by
reading and then answering multiple-choice questions about what you read.
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=33623&pmsid=913406
WIRELESS INTERACTIVE TEACHING SIMULATIONS
Undergraduate
lecture courses at many institutions of higher education are quite large,
making it difficult to actively involve students and maintain their attention.
Ongoing and current budget crises make it difficult to hire additional
instructors and reduce class sizes to levels that would allow for more
faculty-student or student-student interaction. Wireless interactive teaching
simulations (WITS) are seen as one solution to this dilemma. By leveraging
emerging wireless technologies and low-cost, hand-held computing devices, we
are attempting to integrate more interactive learning experiences into the very
large classroom.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6773
PERSONALIZING PEDAGOGY
New applications
of information technology have provided a variety of choices in higher
education, not only about what is taught and learned, but also about how it is
taught and learned. During recent years, there has been a lot of excitement
about new ways to use information technology to meet the needs of learners more
effectively, including new pedagogical techniques in individualization,
learner-centeredness, and anytime-anywhere education. But there has been a
fascinating oversight at the center of this movement. While it has taken
individual differences among learners as its core premise, it has largely
ignored individual differences among faculty.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6777
$3.2 MILLION GRANT TRAINS COLLEGE STUDENTS
TO DESIGN SCHOOL SOFTWARE
The National
Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $3.2 million grant to nonprofit
technology corporation SRI International to create a program aimed at
encouraging computer science students to pursue careers developing educational
software. The goal: to produce more high-quality educational software for K-12
classrooms. SRI, in collaboration with Stanford University and the University
of Colorado at Boulder, will design university courses to train undergraduates,
publish online resources, and recruit experienced mentors through a program
called TRAILS, which stands for Training and Resources for Assembling Interactive
Learning Systems.
http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=4010
CAMPUS-WIDE WIRELESS: MOBILITY AND
CONVERGENCE
One of the first
institutions to have a campus-wide network 15 years ago, Dartmouth College, is
still a pioneer– the college now has one of the first campus-wide wireless
networks. Here, Syllabus interviews Larry Levine, director of computing at
Dartmouth, for his insights into wireless networking on campus.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6770
CARNEGIE MELLON RELEASE SCORM BEST
PRACTICES GUIDE FOR DEVELOPERS
One of the main
contributors to the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)
specification, The Carnegie Mellon Learning Systems Architecture Lab, have made
a draft version of the SCORM best practices guide for developers available on
their website. The guide is neither normative, nor particularly detailed
technically, but is intended to get content developers up to speed on SCORM 1.3
instead.
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content/20020928011416
GOOD NEWS! CONGRESS PASSES THE TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION AND COPYRIGHT HARMONIZATION (TEACH) ACT
Critical distance
education legislation, the TEACH Act, has now passed both houses of Congress as
an amendment to the Justice Department reauthorization bill (H.R. 5512). The
TEACH Act expands face-to-face teaching exemptions in the copyright law,
allowing teachers and faculty to use copyrighted works in the "digital
classroom" without prior permission from the copyright holder. The law is
complex and details numerous responsibilities that must be met before
educational institutions (including their libraries) can benefit from the
exemptions.
http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn1182.html
BIG TECH FIRMS DELVE INTO E-LEARNING
One of the next
big things in corporate e-learning could be the heft of firms selling it. The
industry has come far from being a hodgepodge of start-ups. The advance of
larger tech companies deeper into the e-learning business is shaking up the
landscape. Firms such as IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp. and
others are pushing their way further into the e-learning market. Sun and IBM
introduced new products this month . The big players bring more competition to
a niche already left gaunt by tough times.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ibd/021009/tech01_3.html
MAKING THE GRADE: STUDENTS FLOCK ONLINE TO
RATE—AND RANT ABOUT—PROFESSORS
Web sites where
students can rant and rave about professors and classes have sprouted up like
daisies. And at sites such as RateMyProfessors.com, TeacherReviews.com,
WhoToTake.com, the gamut of expressions ranges from mostly praiseworthy to
downright scathing criticism. "Boring lecturer, the leading cause of
sleepy-headed attendees to class," reads one student's online review of a
computer science teacher at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/WebRatingProfs021009.html
TRAINING NEW ONLINE TEACHERS
The distance
educator is challenged by the need to foster and sustain online discussion
during courses. A quick review of distance education literature highlights the
importance of communication in the teaching and learning process. The focus of
this discussion is assisting new teachers to establish an online dialog
philosophy that include essential strategies.
http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/OCT02_Issue/article06.html
IBM BUILDS SCORM SEQUENCING ENGINE
IBM's e-learning
division has developed a sequencing engine built to support the SCORM 1.3
specification. The new sequencing engine, an application that can read and
manipulate learning content that has been flagged with sequencing markers, is
designed to manipulate all SCORM 1.3-compliant content. SCORM, or the Sharable
Content Object Reference Model, is a set of e-learning specifications compiled
by the U.S. government's Advanced Distributed Learning initiative to support
interoperability. SCORM is the de facto standard specification for e-learning
content interoperability.
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A4171.cfm
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
================================================
'BUGBEAR'
WORM CONTINUES TO BITE
The Bugbear worm continued to sprea,
threatening to become the worst virus outbreak since Klez. Most antivirus firms
raised their threat assessment of the worm, after initially suggesting it
wouldn’t spread much. One firm has already stopped over 100,000 copies of it.
Bugbear packs a treacherous payload: it installs a keylogger on infected
systems, so it can watch everything a victim types and steal information like
passwords and account numbers.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/815117.asp
SECURITY
TOOLS GO MOBILE
Recognizing the growing popularity of
mobile computing devices such as handhelds, personal digital assistants, and smart
phones, companies are rolling out a host of new products to secure data and
communications on portable devices. From disposable soft tokens to virtual
private network software for PDAs to security management software for mobile
devices, security companies are catching up to and cracking down on mobile
users. In September alone, Trust Digital, RSA Security, and ION Networks
announced security products targeted at users of cell phones, PDAs, and other
mobile devices.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105642,00.asp
TECH
FIRMS TRY TO STAY NIMBLE
In an era of pinched tech budgets,
International Business Machines Corp. has come up with a way to make its bills
seem less painful to clients of its services and consulting business. The
company calls its new strategy the "Pay as You Save" program. The
pitch, as IBM sells it, is that Big Blue will figure out how to make one part
of your company's technology more efficient, and then your company will use
those savings to pay IBM to make the next part more efficient.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35421-2002Oct2.html
HP
TO RELEASE TWO NEW IPAQS
Hewlett Packard plans to release two new
iPaq handhelds for the holidays, including its slimmest model yet and a
high-end model with built-in wireless networking.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-960522.html
VIEWSONIC
JOINS POCKET PC FAMILY
ViewSonic, best known for computer
monitors and displays, is dipping its hands into the PDA (personal digital
assistant) market with the release of a low-cost Pocket PC device due out in
November, the company announced Monday. With a price tag of $299, The ViewSonic
V35 Pocket PC is expected to the be the least expensive Pocket PC handheld on
the market.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/09/30/020930hnviewsonic.xml
THE
MAC OS THAT CAN'T BE TWEAKED
For years, one of the big attractions of
the Mac was the ability to customize the operating system. Users could
completely overhaul the machine's interface, sometimes to the point where it
was entirely idiosyncratic. But all that has changed with OS X. Apple is trying
to close the operating system to tweakers, a policy some critics think will
ultimately do more harm than good.
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,55395,00.html
PALM
UNVEILS CHEAP PDA FOR MASSES
Palm, the pioneer of the handheld
computer, is reinventing itself again. In a move industry observers are
praising, the company will roll out a new line of redesigned products beginning
with Zire, a personal digital assistant aimed at first-time buyers.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55555,00.html
TEN
PREDICTIONS TO SHAKE YOUR WORLD
Gartner analysts took out their crystal
balls and came up with a list of ten predictions that will impact enterprise
businesses. The predictions cross over technology, economics, and social
boundaries over that will morph during the next eight years.
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2885192,00.html
PARTNERS
BET ON MICROSOFT TABLET
Microsoft isn't the only tech company rooting
for a successful debut of the Tablet PC next month. A host of vendors, from
chip producer Transmeta to computer maker Acer to software developer ScanSoft
are hopeful the sleek platform can jump-start the stalled PC market. About the
size of a legal pad, and based on the Windows XP Professional operating system,
the Tablet PC allows users to input and retrieve data by keyboard, stylus, or
voice commands.
http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/1480551
DELL'S
HANDHELD PLANS SLIP OUT ON THE NET
A rumor Web site in France has let the cat
out of the bag over Dell Computer Corp.'s plans to offer a handheld computer.
The Web site PDAFrance.com this week posted images and internal Dell documents
that provide details about the company's yet-to-be unveiled handheld.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/08/021008hndellplans.xml
MICROSOFT
READIES XML EDITOR
Microsoft is introducing a new member into
its family of Office products, for designing, editing, and viewing XML
documents, the company's chief executive officer will announce. Called XDocs,
the application is being described as a word processor for XML (Extensible
Markup Language) content, says Scott Bishop, a product manager with Microsoft's
Office group. It will support industry-standard XML, not a Microsoft flavor of
the technology. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will detail XDocs during a keynote
presentation at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference in Lake Buena Vista,
Florida.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105762,00.asp
INTERNET RELATED NEWS
================================================
HOW AND WHY THE INTERNET BROKE
The Internet was
very confused on Thursday. But cyberspace hasn't gone senile. Those massive
e-mail delays, slow Internet connections and downed e-businesses were all
caused by a software upgrade that went horribly wrong at WorldCom's UUNet
division, a large provider of network communications.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55580,00.html
MARYLAND LAW TARGETS SPAMMERS
A new state law
is intended to limit unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, which accounted
for almost half of all electronic messages last year. Despite the legislation,
politicians, e-mail marketers and Internet service providers (ISP) who support
reining in spammers believe that stopping the electronic junk mail will be
difficult.
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20020930-5773480.htm
DEATH OF A META TAG
Traffick.com's
Andrew Goodman wrote recently in an essay about meta tags, "If somebody
would just declare the end of the metatag era, full stop, it would make it
easier on everyone." I'm happy to oblige, at least in the case of the meta
keywords tag. Now supported by only one major crawler-based search engine --
Inktomi -- the value of adding meta keywords tags to pages seems little worth
the time. In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead. And like
Andrew, good riddance, I say!
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/10-meta.html
BILL: COPYRIGHT POWER TO PEOPLE
With talk of
preemptive war all the rage on Capitol Hill, it seems that such posturing has
extended into the world of digital copyright law. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Rep. John Doolittle (D-Calif.)
introduced the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act to preserve specific fair-use
rights to copy digital works as well as "circumvention" rights to
bypass copy protections. With no chance of passage this year, the bill's
introduction prepares the ground for battle in the next session of Congress.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55569,00.html
SWAPPING, DOWNLOADING GIVE COLLEGES
BANDWIDTH TROUBLES
Ever since
Napster appeared on the scene, students have been causing college and
university administrators headaches with their constant swapping of music and
video clips—a habit that can stall a school's computer networks. Now scores of
colleges are fighting back with technology.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-10-10-colleges-bandwidth_x.htm
MPEG ZOOMS IN ON NEW VIDEO CODEC
An international
standards team is close to approving a new compression format for digital
video, promising improvements as well as a few uncertainties for emerging
multimedia technology. Known as H.264, among other designations, the new format
is turning heads over claims that it can deliver DVD-quality broadcasts over
the Internet using considerably fewer network resources than rivals.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961707.html
IS HTML ON ITS WAY OUT?
Although HTML is
widely used, it has several deficiencies, largely stemming from its origins as
a no-frills tool rather than a power user's panacea. A mere eight years ago,
the "HT" in HTML stood as much for "hot" as it did for
"hypertext." This language of the Internet was on everyone's lips,
from bedroom coders to boardroom capitalists. Now, though, "X" is
slowly starting to mark the hypertext spot as XML, XHTML and other, more
sophisticated Internet languages nimbly supplement--and in some cases supplant--their
older and stodgier cousin.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/19623.html
THE 1 PERCENT SOLUTION? PUBLISHING: FREE
OR FEE?
Too many online
publishers indulge in quick, cheap paid-subscription fixes that risk their
online futures. Little revenue jolts make them feel good for a while, but they
get strung out on a thin 1 percent solution--the approximate percentage of
unique users publishers have converted from free to fee.
http://www.clickz.com/design/freefee/article.php/1477881
WHAT DOES THE INTERNET LOOK LIKE?
It is less random
than people thought. Few questions are simultaneously so baffling and so
significant as: “what is the structure of the Internet?” Baffling, because the
thing has grown without any planning or central organisation. Significant,
because knowing how the routing computers that are the net's physical
embodiment are interconnected is vital if it is to be used properly. At the
latest count, there were 228,265 of these routers around the world. They direct
the packets of data that make up Internet traffic.
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=1365118
================================================
[NOTE: The selections above
are from the Academic ADL Co-Lab News Report, a limited-distribution, weekly
executive summary of trends, strategies, and innovations influencing the future
of learning and technology in higher education. It is prepared by the
University of Wisconsin System Office of Learning and Information Technology
(OLIT) in coordination with the Co-Lab. Collegebuys.org is using these
selections with permission. The selections from the weekly summaries were
selected and edited by David Stuart of collegebuys.org.]
[NOTE: This information is
provided for information purposes only. Mention or discussion of a product,
company, or person does not represent any official endorsement or criticism of
the same. All authors and organizations retain complete copyright.]
[SOURCE MATERIAL: The
reference as specific as possible is provided to a source for each summary.
When using an online link, ensure the URL has not been broken with a carriage
return.]
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Judy
Brown is the Emerging Technology Analyst for the University of Wisconsin
System, OLIT. Brown conducts research and consults for the 15-institution UW
System. She is Director of the Academic ADL Co-Laboratory at The Pyle Center in
Madison, WI. Until recently she coordinated the WTCS Hardware and Software
Purchasing Consortium and other statewide technology initiatives for 16
technical college districts comprised of 47 campuses. Brown was named one of
the Top 100 women in computing by McGraw Hill's Open Computing magazine
(December 1994). She writes a business technology column for the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel and is the coordinator of eWEEK's Corporate Partner Program.]
[COMMENTS &
CONTRIBUTIONS: If you want to offer material, or if you want to comment on the
contents, contact Judy Brown at
judy@academiccolab.org
