EDUCATION NEWS
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SCIENTISTS TAKE ON THE PUBLISHERS IN AN EXPERIMENT TO MAKE RESEARCH FREE TO ALL
In the highly lucrative world of cutting-edge scientific research, it is nothing short of a revolution. A group of leading scientists are to mount an unprecedented challenge to the publishers that lock away the valuable findings of research in expensive, subscription-only electronic databases by launching their own journal to give away results for free.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1056608,00.html
 
THE POTENTIAL OF PERSONAL PUBLISHING IN EDUCATION II: HOW’S IT GOING & WHAT’S WORKING?
First up, coming out of BloggerCon from Perseus is a very interesting survey regarding the use of weblogs (although see here for some reservations). Amongst various data concerning gender (more males than females blog, but more males drop out!) and age (it’s the domain of the young at the moment) is the, probably not so staggering statistic that 66% of blogs haven’t been updated in the last 12 months and thus are, pretty much, defunct. Makes you think… and makes you wonder how things have gotten on in education!
http://www.xplana.com/articles/archives/is_5
 
STUPID RESEARCH TRICKS
Which is more effective: training games or instructional videotapes? When we say training games, what exactly do we mean? At this time, I have worked on more than 60 interactive experiential strategies that fall within the popular definitions of training game. Obviously, there is an enormous difference between a simulation game that authentically reflects workplace processes and an icebreaker that requires participants to match the lines of a limerick.
http://www.thiagi.com/pfp/IE4H/october2003.html#Editorial
 
LIKE A VEIL: CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ONLINE
Once I started teaching courses totally online in 1998, I found cross-cultural learning taking place that was simply not possible without these new technologies. Although I continue to have concerns about online cross-cultural interaction substituting for face-to-face interaction, I am convinced that online technologies are important tools for teacher educators who value cross-cultural experiences, skills, and knowledge in local, national, and global contexts.
http://www.citejournal.org/vol3/iss2/socialstudies/article1.cfm
 
FUTURE OF SCORM 1.X GUIDE PUBLISHED, SERVICES TOP OF THE MENU
It's not a roadmap. It's not, in theory, exhaustive. It doesn't recommend anything in particular. It's not even from ADL itself, so it is not normative in any way. Yet Carnegie-Mellon Learning Systems Architecture Lab's "Technical Evolution of SCORM" probably is the most definitive guide to what could happen to the present form of SCORM. We talk to the author, Dan Rehak. The paper in itself presents nothing terribly new. Rather, it brings together all the different 'wouldn't it be great if SCORM supported ...' wishlists that people have published or just discussed over the years. It's a menu of options, in other words.
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20031008101246
 
THE NEW (VIRTUAL) CLASSROOM
Researchers at Iowa State University and Iowa Public Television are overhauling the design of high school computer classes in Iowa to meet those needs. Students already have access to online classes through community colleges, but "when you take a course designed for a 35-year-old woman with three kids and try to use that on a 16-year-old, it doesn't work," said Pam Pfitzenmaier, director of education telecommunications at Iowa Public Television. Teenagers "are used to video games, and they expect that kind of immediate feedback in classes," she said. "How you design a course needs to be different so you attract them."
http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c4780927/22400172.html
 
GAME–BASED LEARNING STRATEGIES
The Wisconsin Technology Network recently interviewed Kurt Squire, Ph.D, a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher about his work in games and education, and how the principles behind learning a game can be used in academics.
http://www.wistechnology.com/article.php?id=267
 
MIT FOR FREE, VIRTUALLY
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is making its course materials available to the world for free download. One year after the launch of its pilot program, MIT quietly published everything from class syllabuses to lecture videos for 500 courses through its OpenCourseWare initiative, an ambitious project it hopes will spark a Web-based revolution in the way universities share information.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5083840.html
 
LEARNING COMMUNITIES AND LEARNING NETWORKS
Humour me with these thoughts: Courses are artifacts of a learning model that is becoming obsolete. Courses work in an environment when knowledge/information is fairly static and developing slowly. The more rapidly information develops, the more quickly courses cease to serve the needs of learners. The information is outdated before the ink is dry.
http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/002278.html
 
MOVING NOTE TAKING INTO THE DIGITAL AGE
For every student, note taking is a necessity. For some, that may be easier than for others. But in any case, mobile technologies have the potential to change the process dramatically—especially when specific note taking software is developed for the Tablet PC.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8250
 
 

TECHNOLOGY NEWS
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BUBBLE BURSTS FOR E-BOOKS
At the height of the Internet boom, e-books were hailed as the shining new tomorrow for publishers and paper books were heading for the scrap heap. But the bubble has burst and electronic books are still the poor relation to the printed word with consumers preferring to turn the pages themselves when they curl up by the fire with a good book.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20031010/tc_nm/arts_frankfurt_electronic_dc
 
CRYSTAL SLOWS AND SPEEDS LIGHT
University of Rochester researchers have shown that it is possible to both slow and speed light as it travels through a certain type of crystal. The work expands on research that proved it was possible to slow light to a stop, store its properties in atoms, then reconstitute the light. Slowing and stopping light could be useful for communications, data storage, and quantum computing and communications.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_100803.asp
 
'SUBVERSIVE' CODE COULD KILL OFF SOFTWARE PIRACY
Software pirates who make illegal copies of a particular computer game are finding the games companies are coming up with a radical new anti-copying strategy. Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked. As a result, the pirated discs actually encourage people to buy the genuine software, the developers say.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248
 
UK GOV AIMS FOR 'LEVEL PLAYING FIELD' WITH OPEN SOURCE PILOTS
The UK Government is kicking off nine 'proof of concept' trials of the use of open source software in the public sector with the intention of creating "a level playing field" between open source and proprietary software.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33316.html
 
APPLE TO UNCRATE PANTHER OS THIS MONTH
Apple Computer said that its Mac OS X version 10.3 operating system, dubbed Panther, will become available later this month. The company reported that Panther will be made available on the evening of Oct. 24. Apple first said in June that the operating system would go on sale for $129 by year's end. Macintosh enthusiast sites said last week that Apple had wrapped up development on Panther.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5088249.html
 
DEVICE COMPUTING: THE WAVE IS BUILDING
The proliferation of mobile computing and communications devices--from cell phones, to PDAs, to systems embedded in everything from automobiles to soda machines--this proliferation is causing dramatic change in our work, and in our lifestyles. It is forging change within the enterprise that must incorporate this new modality into the desktop, server, and networked environments from which it came.
http://www.wistechnology.com/article.php?id=264
 
TABLET PCS FINALLY TAKING OFF
After a slow start, tablet personal computers are starting to take off, fueled by Microsoft's release of its operating system Windows XP Tablet PC and manufacturers rolling out a wider variety of easier-to-use devices. Since Microsoft's launch of the Tablet PC in November, the devices have grown in popularity, benefiting from the more user-friendly software and improved handwriting recognition technology.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60623,00.html
 
WIRELESS CLASSROOMS: EVOLUTION OR EXTINCTION?
Eventually campuses discovered that wireless was more useful when it was also available outside classrooms. Students could continue to access information and collaborate in hallways, student centers, and under trees. Since the best way to collaborate on campus often was face to face, wireless access made it easier for students to avoid human contact.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8287
 
ELECTRONIC INK HITS VIDEO SPEED
Books, newspapers and posters with moving pictures—mainstays of the Harry Potter novels—could become part of the real world before long. Several electronic paper technologies are poised to deliver thin, flexible screens whose pictures rival the crispness of printed paper. Making pixels change fast enough to display video has been difficult, however. Scientists from Philips Research in the Netherlands have come up with an electronic paper scheme that works fast enough to be used for video, draws little power, and paints a bright picture. It could also be used to control fluids in other technologies like labs-on-a-chip.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_100103.asp
 
HYBRID TRANSISTOR TO SPEED WIRELESS COMPUTING
A hybrid transistor design that could mean faster and far less power-hungry wireless devices has been unveiled by researchers from IBM. Ghavam Shahidi and colleagues from IBM's Watson Research Centre in New York claim the transistor could make wireless chips three times faster than current designs while using 80 per cent less power.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994213
 
BEYOND NETWORKING: MOBILE COMPUTING ON CAMPUS
The wireless networks that connect us are becoming more pervasive, and digitized information can be accessed by a wide range of mobile devices. Here, Syllabus talks with Charles R. Bartel, Carnegie Mellon University’s director of network services and project director for Wireless Andrew about the university’s groundbreaking work with mobile and wireless technologies.
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8249
 
LIBRARY WANTS TO PUT CHIPS IN BOOKS
A civil liberties watchdog group is expressing concern over the San Francisco Public Library's plans to track books by inserting computer chips into each tome. Library officials approved a plan to install tiny radio frequency identification chips, known as RFIDs, into the roughly 2 million books, CDs and audiovisual materials patrons can borrow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41492-2003Oct3.html
 
 
INTERNET/WIRELESS RELATED
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MICROSOFT DROPS LOOKSMART SEARCH TOOL
Microsoft will not renew a contract to use LookSmart's Web search results on its MSN site, the search technology provider announced. The loss of the MSN deal is a severe blow to LookSmart, given that Microsoft was its largest customer. The relationship with the MSN Internet division accounted for 65 percent of LookSmart's listings revenue and all of its licensing revenue in the second quarter ended June 30, according to the search technology company. LookSmart reported revenue of $38.4 million in that quarter.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5087489.html
 
MICROSOFT TO ALTER WEB BROWSER
Microsoft Corp. said it will make technical adjustments to its Web browsing software as a result of an August ruling that the software giant infringed on a patent licensed by Eolas Technologies Inc. Microsoft, which is appealing the ruling and the $520 million federal jury award to Eolas, said the changes will be built into new shipments of Internet Explorer--which comes with the Windows operating system--starting next year.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/10/07/microsoft.eolas.ap/index.html
 
STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE, WITH PDA
A new Times Square art project lets people map their insider knowledge, memories and ideas about city landmarks with their PDAs and share those anecdotes online. Just don't confuse the project with the Zagat Survey--you might get lost in a thicket of strangers' nostalgia. Through Dec. 12, people wandering Times Square can wirelessly download a program called Personal Digital Pal, or PDPal, at a kiosk "beaming station" on 42nd Street. Once the program is loaded, users can record their wanderings by sketching the paths they took and writing commentary about the places they visited. When they get to a laptop or desktop computer, they pour all of this into a central website so others can appreciate myriad overlapping perspectives about the same sites.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60783,00.html
 
WEB SERVICES FRAMEWORK MOVES FORWARD
Wheels are in motion to develop a generic, open framework for next-generation applications that will be developed using several different web services in combination. The Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis), the industry-funded web services standards forum whose members include Sun, Oracle and Fujitsu, has unveiled plans to develop the framework.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1144207
 
PARENTS SUE SCHOOL OVER WI-FI
A pioneering elementary school district outside Chicago has been sued for installing a wireless computer network by parents worried that exposure to the network's radio waves could harm their children. According to the complaint, filed last month in Illinois state court, parents of five children assert that a growing body of evidence outlines "serious health risks that exposure to low intensity, but high radio frequency radiation poses to human beings, particularly children."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60769,00.html
 
PENN STATE, INTERNET2 TO DEVELOP AUTHENTICATED P2P SOFTWARE
A $1.1 million grant, recently awarded to Penn State by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, will enable the University to partner with the Internet2 consortium in the development of a technology called LionShare, an innovative tool that will facilitate legitimate file-sharing among institutions around the world through the use of authenticated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. Though P2P technologies are typically associated with the well-known controversial file- swapping networks recently highlighted in mainstream media, the LionShare project has been designed to promote responsible file-sharing by providing a way for faculty, staff and students to exchange academic, personal and work-related materials on an officially sanctioned P2P network.
http://live.psu.edu/story/4312
 
FLORIDA DORMS LOCK OUT P2P USERS
The University of Florida has developed a tool to help extricate the school from the morass of peer-to-peer file trading, and early results show that it's succeeding. Integrated Computer Application for Recognizing User Services, commonly called Icarus, debuted over the summer on the network that links all the residence halls on the UF campus. The open-source program was developed by campus programmers to cut off the file sharing going on among students. Housing officials say the application educates students as it restricts them from peer-to-peer services.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60613,00.html
 
PUSHING PEER-TO-PEER
The networking approach that threatens to make the recording industry obsolete could also bring about a more reliable Internet.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel100303.asp
 
P2P GROUP UNVEILS CODE OF CONDUCT
Several Internet “peer-to-peer” networks unveiled a code of conduct to encourage responsible behavior among the millions of users who copy music, pornography and other material from each others’ hard drives. The networks also asked Congress to figure out some way that recording companies and other copyright holders can be reimbursed for the material traded online and urged users to get involved.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/973620.asp
 
REPORT: FLAWS QUICKLY SPAWN NET ATTACKS
Online vandals are quickly exploiting flaws, leaving companies with little time to patch their computer systems, according to a report published by Symantec. The Internet Security Threat Report--based on an analysis of six months of data from the security company's widespread intrusion-detection network--found that two-thirds of new attacks take advantage of vulnerabilities less than a year old.
http://news.com.com/2100-7349-5084992.html
 
 
 
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[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/schoolbuys.org is using these selections with permission. The selections from the weekly summaries were selected and edited by David Stuart of collegebuys.org/schoolbuys.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