Paying for Learning Objects in a Distributed Repository Model
Quote: "There then remain three problems facing the creation of a "model that would allow for fair compensation" for the use of learning resources:
1. How to ask for payment (and to specify use conditions)
2. How to actually make the payment, and
3. How to make delivery of the learning resource contingent on the payment. "
Comment: Explores the components needed for a learning object economy...One of the strengths of this article is the focus on utilizing existing resources and infrastructure to handle learning objects...i.e. existing web technology, ecommerce, security, DRM is simply applied to learning objects. As simple as this concept seems, it is uncommon (or at least when it's communicated it's made to appear far more complex). Elearning needs to see itself as part of the existing Internet...not as an add on...and as such, needs to utilize established processes.
Social Identity Distribution
Quote: "People must own every aspect of their identity...This thing has to start with the individual, and proceed out to the marketplace from there. Ownership is critical.
Comment: Nice summary of identity ownership discussion by various bloggers.
Online survey of weblogs and wikis
Quote: "As part of my research into knowledge sharing practices, I'm conducting an online survey on two Web tools that can be used for sharing knowledge, namely, weblogs and wikis."
Comment: Quick surveys...only take about 5 minutes. I use blogs extensively to gain perspective/learn/stay current. I'm just at the beginning stages of exploring wikis. Both have great potential for knowledge sharing. If wikis experience wide adoption, I think they have the potential to be a greater reference base than blogs (or for that matter - use blogs to feed content into wikis). I read blogs for news and information...not usually to research. Wikis are different. I'm looking forward to the results of Sébastien's surveys.
Computers not working in education
Quote: "Despite record investment in computers in the USA and UK, recent studies (not the ones funded by educational software companies) have shown a significant drop in core subjects (Math, English) in schools that place strong emphasis on Information Technology. Evidence also suggests that whilst information technology has great potential in the classroom, teachers have not yet found better use for computers than as a big library. Very few schools have been able to use the new technology for cultural exchange, or to build practical educational networks with other schools. Teachers do not know whether computers should be seen as an exciting but peripheral educational 'accessory', or if computers can actually be used to solve the most pressing problems of literacy and numeracy - the sorts of things that get kids through exams."
Comment: Very significant question(s): what is the role of computers in education?...and how is effectiveness measured? I hold to the view that computers are tools - used based on intended tasks/objectives. Consider books for example...by themselves they are quite nuetral, having little impact on education. However, when an instructor combines the content in books with activities, discussions, and projects, learning "happens". Books play an economic and time saving role: ensuring quality resources (ideas that have been researched and explored by professionals in the field) and freeing up instructor time to make learning come alive, rather than re-writing/exploring the concepts.
The same holds true for computers. They aren't effective/ineffective by themselves. Their value comes from proper use...and this is an issue of administration's vision for technology (versus tech for tech's sake) and instructor's skill/competence of enacting learning through the use of computers. Computers/technology do not comprise the entire education experience...they are enablers. The goal is always learning...
Connexions via EduResources
Quote: "Concept Connexions is a collaborative, community-driven approach to authoring, teaching, and learning that seeks to provide a cohesive body of high-quality educational content to anyone in the world, for free. The project involves two basic, interrelated components: (1) a Content Commons of collaboratively developed, freely-available material that can be modified for any purpose, and (2) open-source software tools to help students, instructors and authors manage the information assets in the Content Commons. Connexions provides an open, standards-based approach for sharing and advancing knowledge to benefit the global educational community."
Stigmergy and the Web
Quote: "Weblogs, Neighborhoods, and Google are all phenomena of the World-Wide Web. All of these are fairly new and they are all very powerful. Weblogs are successfully taking on large publishers on their fact checking. A minor shift in Googles ranking algorithms creates huge ripples. Warchalking swept through the web and onto street corners in a matter of days. Is there any connection between them? I want to convince you that they are all intertwingled, all the result of the same phenomenon, and that we have much more interesting and powerful phenomenon on the horizon."
Comment: Good article emphasizing the social effect of blogging...specifically stigmergy ("two individuals interact indirectly when one of then modifies the environment and the other responds to the new environment at a later time. Such an interaction is an example of stigmergy.")
When Content Management and Knowledge Management Collide
Quote: "Organizations tend to look at content management as content that's good enough for outside folks, while they refer to knowledge management as the sharing of knowledge primarily by inside folks. We think the time is ripe for a collision. A blend of content management systems and knowledge management tactics may provide just the combination a company needs.
Comment: Article lists many similarities between content and knowledge management...and concludes with "The traditional definition of content management focusing only on data meant for external people is narrow-minded, while the traditional definition of knowledge management is too all-encompassing to be truly useful. By expanding your thinking to include internal content, a corporate content structure, access to key enterprise data and expertise information, you can then leverage your organization's technology to maximum benefit." Article seems to build on many insights provided by Marc Rosenberg in his book Elearning
Many Tools of Big Brother Are Up and Running (free registration required (NYTimes))
Quote: "In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by electronically monitoring the civilian population, the most remarkable detail may be this: Most of the pieces of the system are already in place.
Comment: Aside from the (frightening) concept of the government knowing who's doing what and when the Total Information Awareness act is notable for the technologies being used: Groove and XML. I've used Groove with students (and colleagues) over the last several years with excellent results in communicating and collaborating.. It is what I think LMS' need to become.
EDU RSS
Comment: Stephen Downes has created an "RSS aggregator and seeded it with a dozen or so feed URLs from educational news sources. I've had such a tool on and off for the last few years, but this version is the fastest and most stable by far. I'll probably keep it around for a while and add to the features, so if you have other RSS feeds you'd like me to add to my list, please drop me a line."
Protect Fair Use via New Media Musings
Comment: Site committed to "protecting consumers' fair use rights in the digital age"
WHAT DO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OWNERS WANT? via bIPlog
Quote: "Civil libertarians and analysts in the computer field have long expected legal tensions about computer and Internet use to come to a head, but they expected it to happen over something overtly political: transmission of censored content, or software that could compromise computer security, or something related to cryptography...Why copyright? Why did this obscure branch of "intellectual property," this private concern of entertainment and software firms, become the most pressing public policy area of the computer field?"
Comment: Copyright/IP/DRM have been hot topics over the last several years (and will grow in 2003)...and the discussion has generally been antagonistic (content owners vs. content users). Content owners have to achieve their objectives by meeting the needs of the content users. The hard-line Disney approach can only be taken so far. Eventually the users get tired of the abuse.
Moblogging
Quote: "I think that "Moblogging" like "Blogging" isn't really something that technically new. It is the popularization and the impact of many people doing it that is exciting to me."
Comment: Nice collection of moblog (mobile blogging) resources...the term moblogging has come up frequently over the last several months, fueled by a rapidly developing wireless culture.
Perspective: Internet law: The year in review
Quote: "Here's a look back on how some of the most important developments in Internet law weighed before the U.S Congress and the courts this year. While headway was made on some issues, not much has changed since the beginning of 2002."
Comment: By Doug Isenberg...lawyer/editor of GigaLaw (an excellent resource for Internet legal issues). This article summarizes major legal issues in the U.S. this last year...and briefly discuss issues in 2003
Microsoft to buy Macromedia?
Quote: "Microsoft Corp is believed to have trained its acquisition crosshairs on Macromedia Inc, lining up a deal that would throw enterprise Java into a spin, Gavin Clarke writes.
Comment: This purchase would make a lot of sense for Microsoft...I like Macromedia and their products - they are one of the few companies that dominant in a market that Microsoft also plays in...
Back to basics - e-learning in 2003
Quote: "In this article, Clive argues that we have only just started to see the true potential for information and communication technology in education and training but that, by getting back to basics and doing the simple things well, we can still expect to see powerful results in the short term...The good news is that you don't need to take giant steps to make effective use of e-learning. You don't have to have the technical skills; you just need to know what computers can do. You don't need to be a highly-talented graphic designer, although you do need to understand adult learning. You don't need to have installed a giant learning management system, just make a start by getting everyone connected. The use of computers to help people learn is not such a big deal, yet at the same time could be the biggest deal you ever make as a trainer."
Hopes for Email
Quote: "The biggest problem with Outlook is that it makes it difficult to categorize/archive mail and make rules. Here's some of the attributes I would like to see:"
Comment: Some great ideas for making email more useful...many of them focused on extending/incorporating blogging ("I could view a thread of interactions with a person as a weblog"). Email as a form of communication is not keeping up with communication needs for most people...it's too isolated, too rigid, too time-consumming. Like many people, I'm finding that RSS and blogs are far more effective than email. I want to see information when I want...not when others want me to. For certain tasks email is very effective (simple communication)...but for information gathering (i.e. listservs), large group interactions...blogs are far more effective.
2, 4, 6, 8, Let's All Collaborate
Quote: "This made me consider which collaborative digital tools seem to work? What gets people to coordinate, to work together to a common goal? And my answer: dumb simple ones. Email. Instant messaging. Simple bulletin boards like bugzilla. Voice telephone calls. Weblogs. And, when stepping out of the world of business, SMS."
Comment: The key to technology adoption (for the mainstream) is to take technology (as much as possible) out of the process. Make it intuitive...make it simple. Simple social technologies...
Tiki via Ed Tech Dev
Quote: "Tiki is a CMS system based on a Wiki, it has all the features a regular Wiki application has and a lot more."
Comment: I'm completely intrigued by the concept of wikis ("A Wiki is a kind of a website, where anyone who is reading the site can also edit it" What is a Wiki). Educationally, this has great potential...since learning often involves building upon and expanding the ideas of others. My next project will be wiki based...if anyone has experience or suggestions, let me know.
What is a Controlled Vocabulary
Quote: "Human beings are natural makers of patterns. That is how we understand what our senses are taking in. When people visit your site, they will immediately begin trying to understand what they see. A well-designed and regularly updated controlled vocabulary can help connect the concepts your users have in their heads to the concepts you present on your site. That is when real communication will occur."
AOL Quietly Wins IM Patent
Quote: "In the latest example of a potentially market-defining patent being granted without fanfare, AOL Time Warner quietly has become the owner of a patent, granted in September by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that covers much of the technology behind instant-messaging services."
Comment: Interesting...could have significant implications for instant messaging (which is only recently gaining credibility as an important corporate communication tool - between staff, and between an organization and its customers). I spoke with an instructor recently who felt that instant messaging is one of the most effective (and under-utilized) teaching tools - learners react to it more positively than time-delayed email.
Shots fired in copyright cold war
Quote: "ATTEMPTS to block copying of music CDs will spark an arms race between record labels and hackers...Music companies needed to look at alternative ways of distributing music to the masses...But the music companies would be better advised to invest in solving this problem rather than in a fruitless arms race with hackers."
Comment: I fully acknowledge an artists right to be compensated for content creation. However, I just can't see how an industry can succeed with a strategy that involves conflict with your market. Figure out what your market wants...then create a means of giving it to them, while making a profit. That's economics. Currently, corporations are ignoring what consumers want...and are trying to punish them when they (the consumers) don't accept what's being offered. A brief moment of common sense would be nice...
Educational Website Awards
Comment: The usual link-rich offering from Webtools...great examples of elearning - must admit I liked the Children's sites...particularly Building Big and Coolmath. Creators of elearning for children know that learning needs to be fun and engaging in order to retain student's interest. Unfortunately, this understanding often does not extend into formal education/training.
Change management and blogs
Quote: "I believe that both are change management problems (known as diffusion of innovations in educational domain): we have a new idea, we believe that it will improve our work and we are trying to get others joining us."
Comment: Very nice description of innovation diffusion...and strategies for addressing people at various stages of innovation acceptance. At RRC, we recently initiated Connect!, an informal knowledge management/sharing group - with blogging at the center of our strategy. Things are progressing slowly. It'd be discouraging if I wasn't absolutely convinced that the process we have initiated (blogging + RSS, face to face sessions, monthly email) will benefit both instructor and institution.
I attended a "Cyber Plagiarism" session yesterday, delivered by John T. Harwood. Plagiarism is a huge concern for academic institutions...a problem made more complex due to the ease of access to resources via the Internet. For more information see: elearnspace: Plagiarism
Some thoughts from the session:
Top 10 Trends via Techno-News Blog
Comment: Of the items on the list, the one most relevant to education is wireless: "Until now, wireless local area networks have been just another grass roots, hobbyist technology--the purview of home-networking enthusiasts and risk-taking IT managers. But all of that will change in 2003."
In a recent article, (The Art of Blogging - Part 1) I made the statement that: "Fostering the fringe - ideas are evaluated based on merit - not on source of origin". Azeem Azhar didn't quite agree...and sent me an email making a solid case why: blogging has developed its own leaders whose voices are heard more loudly than others...and "Right now the emerging social networks, and the commentary around them, is dominated by those who enjoy significant traffic and activity and connectedness. Blogging is one of these networks and is far from the case that the "source of origin" doesn't matter.
What is true is that if you can generate a lot of good ideas consistently and market it well, you can establish yourself as a hub. Once you are a hub, you are a hub, regardless of the quality that you provide. The blogosphere is still to young to establish how quickly a blog loses its reputation. (Especially as reputation is a function of frequency of posting and penetration of other people's blogrolls)."
I agree...and replied: "Ideas are still evaluated largely based on who says it. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that blogging creates a forum where no one can shut out someone else. For example, with newspapers, you have to have a printing press to even compete in the field...rather cost prohibitive for most entrants. In blogging - anyone can start...everyone has the opportunity to have a voice. The only question is how many hear that voice."
Navigation: Keep it Simple
Comment: Quick discussion of major navigation formats: main (linear, hierarchical, web) and subtypes (breadcrumbs, sitemap, text)
What is RSS?
Quote: "RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS..."
Comment: Good overview...including a nice chart of various RSS versions. Article moves to technical details and explanations rather quickly (only the first several paragraphs are ideal for beginners...after that, some understanding of XML and Python is needed).
IAnything Goes
Quote: "Persuasive navigation is one aspect of a site built on persuasive architecture. A site built to be persuasive needs persuasive navigation but also needs persuasive copywriting, labeling, visual design, and structure. Rearchitecting a site to be persuasive is a large task and, in many cases, may not be possible. Persuasive navigation can be added in quickly and easily, however, and still have a big impact on the effectiveness of the site."
Comment: Article rambles a bit...but makes a good point at the end: "People can be persuaded in different ways, making it even more important to do user research and task analysis, and to develop appropriate personas. After some preliminary research, it might become clear that the wrong techniques are being used on a certain set of users, or, even worse, users are actually being dissuaded. The common mantra of "know your users" is all the more important when trying to persuade them."
When designing online courses, the issues listed above need to be evaluated. What do learners want? need? How are students "directed" through the course? How are they 'persuaded' to complete learning activities? What thought has gone into selecting the techniques to involve learners?
Learning/technology blog that's new to me: Participo...nicely organized and designed.
Personal Knowledge Publishing
Quote: "Personal knowledge publishing has its roots in a practice known as "weblogging" that has been rapidly spreading on the World Wide Web over the last three years. It is a new form of communication that many expect will change the way people work and collaborate, especially in areas where knowledge and innovation play an important role."
Comment: Two-part article...great discussion of blogging as a means of sharing knowledge. Last two sections of Part 2 are particularly interesting: the role of personal knowledge publishing (PKP) in research...and limitations of PKP - a subject not often explored (I can relate well to the limitation of "finding weblogs that one likes").
Elearning Framework by Badrul H. Khan via e-learning Guru
Comment: Nice, comprehensive framework that addresses the multiple facets of elearning.
You are Here
Quote: "Good ideas tend to precede good technology. Search engines are a classic example. What many old-fangled engines often give is a feast that feels like a famine-a giant plate of options that often fails to deliver what you need."
Comment: Great article on various Internet search options
One of my favorite themes is the role of education theory in online learning. This is what initially drew me to elearning. As I started exploring, the theme seemed to focus on technology, not learning...the tools, not the learner...learning objects, not learner needs...cost effectiveness, not the greater role of learning in a society...etc. This is not to say that components like technology and learning objects are not relevant...simply that the learner, the purpose of learning, and the process of learning should be central. A sustainable, effective model must be built from the learner outward. Some things to consider in designing and developing elearning:
H2O Project from Nancy White
Quote: "The Rotisserie implements an innovative approach to online discussion that encourages measured, thoughtful discourse in a way that traditional threaded messaging systems cannot. In contrast to the completely asynchronous, broadcast-to-broadcast mode of existing threaded messaging systems, the Rotisserie adds structure to both the timing and the flow of the discussion."
Comment: Looks interesting...discussion forums are very effective...and untouched by innovation. This could be a start.
Creative Types: A Lot in Common
Quote: "...many artists are turning to the Web to maximize exposure, yet retain some control over their work. McGuinn is just one of the artists who will publish works under a new set of licenses that offer an alternative to conventional copyright."
Comment: Introduces Creative Commons. An excellent attempt to create a content model for the Internet. Various licenses can be assigned to author/artists work, including: attribution, no commercial, share-alike, no derivative works, etc. This could be significant if it receives the adoption it deserves.
Elearning's Unique Capability
Quote: "What does e-learning make sense for? Does e-learning have capabilities that make it unique?...Among all the learning media, e-learning is the only one that has the potential to have meaningful and renewable contact with learners over time."
Comment: Article details four learning effects (spacing, delayed feedback, relearning, and reducing the retention interval)...and asserts the characteristics of elearning uniquely meets those effects. Particularly valuable statement: eleanring as means to extend the learning timeline through us of "pre" and "post" learning event activities...as well as the learning event itself. Simple concept, but like the author states, not really being explored.
Moving Beyond the Classroom With Executive Education
Quote: "In today's fast-moving business environment, companies lose competitiveness if their executives and employees can't keep pace with advancing knowledge in their disciplines. The good news: Great strides have been taken on research and technology to deliver new levels of adult learning. The less-than-good news: There is still much debate on what works, what doesn't, and little research into how face-to-face and distance learning can be combined into an effective hybrid program."
Comment: An excellent resource that applies to fields well beyond executive education. Several articles and video clips are available (as much as I like video...I still find that its lack of "surveyability" is frustrating for online content consumption).
See: Marrying Distance and Classroom Education and Designing Hybrid Online/In-Class Learning (.pdf)
Quotes from videos:
John Seely Brown: "We spend too much time bringing the classroom out, rather than bringing reality in"
Lynda Applegate: "One of the biggest challenges is to design a learning environment that allows learners to engage at different levels and in different ways."
Chris Dede: "One of the biggest challenges...is moving beyond automating conventional instruction, to reinventing teaching and learning.
Copy protection logjam shows signs of breaking via The Shifted Librarian
Quote: "The goal is to let consumers access content from any "compliant" device on a private network, while providing end-to-end encryption security. If content is stored in a non-compliant device with no associated rights, such as a PC's hard-disk drive, SmartRight technology would block it from being displayed on a screen, Jaboulet said."
Comment: Currently, the debate of copyright and content use is framed as having content providers (i.e. Hollywood, record labels) on one side of the battle line...and consumers on the other side. Is this idiotic? Don't content creators understand who buys their products? Shouldn't the needs and desires of consumers play a role somewhere in the content use equation? Sure...you might win and secure your product so no one can use it for any purposes other than what you intended...but in the process you sever your potential audience.
Lessons tailored to fit the learner, not vice versa
Quote: "Though it may look like only a handful of students are paying any attention to their teacher, more than half of Doll's 27 students have their own individual academic plans. They are written documents that outline goals for the student and how the student, teacher and parents will work together to achieve them.
The plans are part of a larger effort to mold education to fit the student, instead of forcing the student to fit the education."
Comment: This doesn't really have much to do with technology (though the process could be simplified if it were used appropriately). Basically, each student creates a learning plan (with parent and teacher involvement) consisting of goals and strategies to achieve them. Very simple...yet apparently quite effective. It's interesting how most students never set goals - just show up at school, and do what you're told to do (at least that was my time in school - doubt it's changed much as a whole).
Sociopranos
Quote: "A new sociology/social psychology/philosophy discussion group"
Edge Power
Quote: "The Internet lowers the cost of the tools of communication and creativity, making them affordable to individuals and small businesses. This phenomenon might be called Edge Power, because it increases power around the "edges" of the network, in contrast with broadcast media, where power is centralized."
Comment: Another article extolling the value of the Internet as a user-focused medium...where power and control no longer rest in the hands of the few, but rather the many (at least in theory). Great quote: "Many studies show that innovation tends to originate on the edge, rather than in large incumbent companies. Amar Bhide points out that large incumbents have low tolerance for ambiguity. Joel Barker gives many examples of innovations that were rejected by incumbent industries, including digital watches rejected by Swiss watchmakers and photo-copying rejected by large photography firms."
XML and the Future of E-Learning
Quote: "You've probably heard of XML but may not know what it is or why you should care about it. Well, here's why: The promise of e-learning is the ability to develop content (about learners or for the actual course) that's reusable anytime, anywhere, any way you want. Unfortunately, that just isn't possible...yet. Enter XML, which according to many geeks-our own Answer Geeks included-has the potential for revolutionizing the Web...Bottom line: HTML describes how the data looks. XML describes what the data is."
Comment: Simple introductory article on XML.
I spent the day in a knowledge management (KM) workshop (delivered by James Conklin of IDT)...with a particular focus on using the process for elearning. Before you tune out...quick word about KM: the term is abused and means very little...and should be shot. The concepts of KM, however, are very relevant to helping people and organizations work more effectively...so, forgetting the term and its connotations, and focusing instead on what it actually means, here are some thoughts gleaned from the workshop:
At RRC, our grassroots KM site is now up at: Connect!. The heart of our sharing strategy is blogging...we have a few started, but hopefully more will join as we move forward. On a side note...when I talk to people about blogs, I still get looks like I've grown an extra head.
INSIDE BLOGGING via SiT
Comment: Neat dialogue...looks like someone trying to convince an audience of the value of blogging.
Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution
Comment: Interesting thoughts on piracy...including: "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy...Customers want to do the right thing, if they can...File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers...There's more than one way to do it."
All About Facets & Controlled Vocabularies
Quote: "This is the first in a series of articles that aims to correct this situation. We intend to explain both facets and the more general concept of controlled vocabularies. We want to make the subject accessible to those who don't have advanced degrees in library and information science. Furthermore, we want to show how these concepts can be applied to solve information architecture problems for the Web and other digital information environments."
Fast Buck Artistry
Quote: "All the tricky bits, all the alphabet soup, that we run into in the world of learning objects have their exact counterparts in the world of libraries (if anything, learning objects are treated *too* much like library books, but that's a separate issue for another day).
Think about it...
learning object = book (or more precisely, book chapter, or journal article) learning object repository = shelf metadata repository = card catalogue metadata = card (in a card catalogue) learning management system (LMS) = reading room (or classroom, depending on the LMS) learning content management system (LCMS) = librarian (or some other means of locating content)"
Comment: Great article...the concept of learning objects communicated without too much tech talk. Learning objects have come to mean everything...and nothing. The concepts of LOs is simple and inviting...the development and use is much more complex...for some reason, the industry has moved to development and use without fully communicating concepts to end users - the reason for resisitance?
Framing Learner Personas
Quote: "E-learning designers have come to realize that the hardest part of the project life cycle is the analysis phase. It is in this phase that the performance requirements are gathered and analyzed to find the best solution, or rather the best solution under the specific contexts (constraints). But more often than not analysis is too focused only on the problem-at-hand...According to Cooper, " [Personas] are a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish." Usually it's a short narrative describing the user and the goals he's pursuing under a specific context."
Comment: Introduces the use of personas in elearning development. Great idea...will be very difficult to build into the design process, however. The use of personas needs to highlight: a) the content a user needs b) goals the user is pursuing, and c) the context (article lists it as life situations) in which the user will use the content. I think much of what can be classified as personas can be met through the personalized learning...courses are designed in a manner that assesses students at the start of a course...and then "custom builds" a course based on the assessment. This allows a user to get to his/her goals for learning much quicker, without having to go through unnecessary content...and partially addresses the learner's life situation by allowing them to move through materials in the manner (pace, quantity) they choose.
The Day the Music Died vai Paid Content
Quote: "Common sense - and physics - dictates that any sound can be copied, but the goal must be to make copying pointless. Why bother cracking codes and databases if you can get all the music you want as part of your phone, electricity or ISP bill? Music then becomes a utility, or a service. It doesn't matter if music is free, so long as it isn't. That is, music can still feel free and content owners can still get paid."
Comment: Fascinating article exploring how content producers are trying (unsuccessfully) to reproduce traditional content revenue streams online. Also explores DRM: "Digital rights management is crucial to this process to identify who needs to get paid, but going too far down this path can lead to the seventh cavalry riding abstinent white elephants that nobody wants to be rescued by. The need for DRM always has to be balanced with the need for the consumption of music not to be a chore. In short, music use has to be easy."
See also: A Question of Rights
The Rebirth of E-publishing
Quote: "E-books bombed a few years ago, but they're back, and now e-periodicals may be the next big thing... Major publishers like AOL Time Warner, Random House and McGraw-Hill all reported that their electronic editions...were showing sales growth in double digit percentages."
Comment: First - I'm sick of hearing anything new being described as the 'next big thing'. There's a limit to how many things can be big...and I think we passed the threshold several years ago. With that said, this article highlights something that we'll see much more of: discussion on the impact of tablet PC's (everyone I talk to would love one, but no one actually has one). "The Tablet PC is their new computer, sans keyboard, that is shaped more like an 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper notepad than the traditional laptop-and hence a more natural electronic platform for books and magazines."
The Electronic Portfolio Boom: What's it All About? via SiT
Quote: "The term "electronic portfolio," or "ePortfolio," is on everyone's lips. We often hear it associated with assessment, but also with accreditation, reflection, student resumes, and career tracking. It's as if this new tool is the answer to all the questions we didn't realize we were asking."
Comment: E-portfolio sounds like a concept I've heard both Jay Cross and Stephen Downes discuss: a system for collecting course/learning experiences that is controlled by the learner. For example, if I take a series of courses at RRC, the College tracks and records my activities. If I leave the College, my learning record doesn't typically go with me. The learning process should be controlled and owned by the learner...in an age of continual education, a personal learning portfolio may be the most valuable asset a person has in finding employment and proving competence. Interesting quote in the article: "How do we deal with long-term storage, privacy, access, and ongoing vendor support? What about the challenge of interoperability among platforms so student work can move to a new campus upon transfer?"
Foothill College Will Build Its Own Next-Generation Courseware, and Offer It to Others
Quote: "Foothill College will build rather than buy its next generation of software for managing online learning, and it is creating an alliance of other colleges that are willing to share some of the costs in exchange for free use of the software and its source code...are confident that an alliance of institutions can create the kind of learning-management system that their faculty members want -- and can avoid the unpredictable price increases that colleges encounter in the commercial market. Currently, says Ms. Sinou, colleges are "being held hostage to the industry, and the costs are only going up." "
Comment: Several colleagues who attended recent online learning conferences have reported a conference-floor level reaction to platforms like WebCT and Blackboard: The end user is dissatisfied with the functionality...and administrators are unable to justify costs. Horrible combination. I think the LMS industry (at least in education) is at the beginning stages of significant change...open source products, new lower-cost offerings, and in house/consortium development. The market has been misjudged by LMS providers...it seems that they want to take over the education process rather than support it...and their pricing structure indicates this perspective. Sure, if an LMS is the center of elearning (which it isn't)...then $350,000 a year is justified. If an LMS enhances and supports education (which it should), then costs need to be much lower, functionality and versatility much higher.
Flight for Survival: A New Operating Model for Airlines
Quote: "One traditional company after another - manufacturers and service providers alike - is facing a vexing problem: Their business models have become so complex that it is harder and harder to generate profits. Over the years, these companies have added layers of product and process complexity to their business models in order to grind out incremental returns. Although each incremental decision can usually be justified on its own, the aggregate revenue benefits often fail to compensate for the overall costs of complexity.
As these companies struggle to remain profitable while serving a broad set of customers with complicated and varied needs, they're frequently undermined by smaller, nimbler competitors that supply a more focused product, usually to a specific set of customers, at a lower cost. In these situations, a company may know the cost of complexity is dragging it down, but changing its business model is easier said than done."
Comment:Excellent article...very relevant to traditional education providers. Like airlines, higher education is encountering profit-driven, agile competitors who are responsive to "customer" needs. The issue, however, is not the nature of the new competitors...it's the apparent inability of traditional institutions to innovate and respond at a speed and manner reflective of the current climate. "The new operating model for hub and spoke airlines [education?] that we suggest would greatly improve their chances of survival, as costs would be more closely balanced with customer needs... Although this transformation may seem daunting, the risk of inaction is much greater than the risk of acting and dealing with some missteps along the way."
I've been thinking about the process needed to move resources online...I took a stab at it several months ago with the article: A Learning Development Model For Today's Students and Organizations. In that article, I focused on organizational responses needed to meet a changing culture...and a sample development model. What I'm focusing on now is the actual process an instructor/teacher/trainer would utilize to move online. Here's a quick sketch of the process:
Heterarchies: A Balance for De/centralization
Quote: "Finding an optimal balance between decentralization and centralization as organizing concept for business architectures...Researching Heterarchies as an organizing concept may provide some answers."
Comment: See Doc's and Ross Mayfield's excellent coverage of the Supernova Conference (theme: the decentralized future)
Trouble in nanoland: The truth about nanotechnology via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
Quote: "Scientific journals, market research organizations and the financial and business press cover nanotechnology from every angle. Wall Street has jumped on the bandwagon: Merrill Lynch published the first nanotechnology equity report this September. Science magazine named nanotechnology the Breakthrough of the Year, and NEC has touted its nanotechnology research in corporate ads."
Comment: Quick overview of nanotechnology (science of really, really small stuff)...lists six main categories. Worth a quick read...this is a technology that will continue to grow in prominence.
How to make a CoP fly?
Quote: "First, we have identified 10 actions items to create a successful Community of Practice. There are 10 fundamental questions you need to ask before starting a CoP..."
Comment: Includes 10 questions to ask before starting...10 pointers on how to manage...and 10 pitfalls to avoid.
Overcoming Your Resistance to Distance Learning
Quote: "Often when asked to prove the value of e-learning, I am asked to provide facts that show just how effective e-learning is over traditional classroom-based instruction; time has shown me that such an approach changes few minds if any. I believe that's the wrong argument...The true debate is why students and instructors resist learning through the Internet and why many who attempt to do so fail."
Comment: I agree - the debate about online/classroom effectiveness is misguided. The real issue is one of understanding the characteristics of each medium...and then selecting the approach that best meets learning needs, budget, timelines, audience size, location, etc. Both classroom and elearning are tools - selected based on their ability to achieve solve problems (gee, have I said that before? :)).
LMS and LCMS: What's the Difference?
Quote: "In essence, an LMS is a high-level, strategic solution for planning, delivering, and managing all learning events within an organization, including online, virtual classroom, and instructor-led courses...In contrast, the focus of an LCMS is on learning content. It gives authors, instructional designers, and subject matter experts the means to create e-learning content more efficiently."
Comment: Gives a decent overview of the differences between LMS/LCMS (the best articles I've come across explaining this is: LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs]. A new technology is often defined by the things it needs to make explicit in order to be understood (i.e. - what does our product do that others don't...or why need this product). Sometimes, the benefit derived from a product is presented as being achievable only through "product XYZ" or in a particular formation. This is false...and I think this is my issue with both LMS and LCMS. These products are presented (often unspoken) as being the only/best way to "do" elearning...leaving the victims of a sales presentation to think that no other viable options exist. This, no doubt, explains WebCT/Blackboard's rapid growth - their products have been positioned as being the backbone of elearning...and now LCMS companies want a piece of the action by positioning their products as being the backbone of learning object creation/management. The functions that LMS/LCMS provide are no doubt an important element of elearning...currently, however, we are only seeing a one-sided, corporate driven picture.
I love the concept of wikis ("A Wiki is a collaboratively-edited website which many people also view as an anarchistic publishing tool. The distinguishing feature of wikis is that they typically allow all users to edit any page, with full freedom to edit/change/delete the work of previous authors"). Education, in particular, could benefit from the use of wikis...via a student created resource that is honed and expanded with each class...a true "spiraled" resource. See Wikipedia for an example of a large wiki project. I'd like to explore this as an option for creating organizational KM resource page - basically a listing of what we know. KM wiki?...hmm.
Liquid Content
Quote: "What is liquid content? The value of content is measured by how easy it is to use it. Liquidity of content is a concept that captures aspects of immediacy, flexibility and pliability of content. The more liquid content is, the easier it is to reuse, access, edit and publish. Most existing content is trapped in a proprietary format that binds the content to a particular viewer and editor. To be liquid, content needs to be free from its proprietary format and thus, free from its proprietary editors and viewers. Converting legacy content to XML makes the content liquid and therefore, easy to reuse in different contexts destined for a variety of display formats."
Comment: Written by a VP for Avultus (an LCMS provider)...The discussion rightly starts with creating XML-based content for liquid content (kinda cool term, huh?)...and then moves to content management...and then (erroneously?) moves to LCMS.
ADL & SCORM Tutorial
Quote: "The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab has developed a collection of Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) as an Introduction to the ADL Initiative and the SCORM."
Comment: Registration is simple...and at first glance, looks useful to newcomers to SCORM.
RSS Workshop
Quote: "In this workshop you'll learn how to create, validate, parse, publish, and syndicate your own RSS news channel. The emphasis will be the practical application of the two most popular varieties of RSS for dynamic publishing.
You can use RSS channels to allow customers to keep up on industry specific news, check weather, look for jobs, view upcoming concerts or university lectures, monitor specific websites, and much more.
Comment: Just stumbled across this...looks like a great resource.
Site fights 'stupid linking'
Quote: "Sorkin, associate professor of law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Ill., is the man behind Don't Link to Us, a Web site that exists merely to flout what it terms "stupid linking policies."
Sorkin's site was launched in reaction to recent legal decisions in which courts upheld Web site terms and conditions that prohibited or restricted links."
Gravity of Decentralization
Quote: "Designing business architectures (models & systems) is an increasing challenge. Centralized business architectures are a legacy of the industrial era. But the recent downturn has revealed new decentralized systems that promise to enable new business models and evolve the old. We are just beginning to explore the practice of decentralization and the new gravity it creates. "
Comment: I'm encountering the centralized/decentralized debate more and more often. Decentralization (the original tenet of the Internet) was largely with the development of server/client model, which has powered the Internet over the last 10 years. Recently, the financial, security, flexibility, scalability, benefits of decentralization are receiving attention...and many are finding it very attractive. Amusing in a way - it's been there all along, and now people are stumbling across it and labelling it the "next big thing".
Ten taxonomy myths
Quote: "Taxonomies have recently emerged from the quiet backwaters of biology, book indexing, and library science into the corporate limelight. They are supposed to be the silver bullets that will help users find the needle in the intranet haystack, reduce "friction" in electronic commerce, facilitate scientific research, and promote global collaboration. But before this can happen, practitioners need to dispel the myths and confusion, created in part by the multi-disciplinary nature of the task and the hype surrounding content management technologies."
Visionary Series via Emergic
Quote: "CNET News.com has assembled some of the best entrepreneurial and research minds in the technology industry to share their views on five rapidly evolving technology sectors: security, Web services, open source, personal technology and wireless communications."
Comment: Fascinating look at developing technonlogies. Big theme in the various predictions is "pushing" technology done into our daily lives - from smart cards, to smart buildings (sensing and responding to earthquakes), to embedded computing. The focus doesn't seem to be on technology for technologies sake (hey, one of the positive side effects of the dot com bubble burst!)...rather technology for improving quality of life.
I've posted a new article: Art of Blogging - Part 2. In this article I address getting started, "how to blog", tools, RSS and aggregators.
The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top
Quote: "Perhaps no technology company outside of IBM has been able to keep on top of the industry as much as Microsoft...Critics often argue that Microsoft can't innovate its way out of a paper bag-instead it has used its monopoly position to stamp out competition and force an industry to bend to its standards. But now comes a serious and much-to-be discussed study of the inner workings of the company from Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Alan MacCormack. Their take: Microsoft wins through effective management of its intellectual property and an ability to spot and react to important trends before they take hold."
Comment: Interesting article...like 'em or dislike 'em, Microsoft is a dominant force. The article highlights an important concept: organizational strength/relevance comes from recognizing and utilizing existing organizational resources. Simple...but I guess the most profound ideas usually are...
Doc Searls links to my blogging article...but the post appears to give me credit for making a statement made by Andrew Sullivan. Looking at the article, I can see why...I only listed the name with a link... I've added quotation marks around the quotes.
Rolling a New Blog
Quote: "Blogs succeed, I believe, because they are extremely native to the Web as Tim Berners-Lee conceived it in the first place..."
Comment: Blogs seem to be the topic of the month...this article by Doc Searls makes the same critical point I made in the article I posted yesterday: blogs use the Internet for what the Internet was made for: connecting and communicating.
Innovation Now! via elearningpost
Quote: "Conventional wisdom says to get back to basics. Conventional wisdom says to cut costs. Conventional wisdom is doomed. The winners are the innovators who are making bold thinking an everyday part of doing business...Yesterday's success has never mattered less. Today's success has never been more fragile. Tomorrow has never been more uncertain."
Comment: This article is very relevant to traditional education. Innovation is desperately needed...yet higher education in particular does not have a reputation for innovation...if anything, it is known for holding on to existing ways of doing things. This process of transformation will not be easy...in fact: "Most people who succeed at radical innovation inside large companies will tell you that they did it despite the system."
The Semantic Web lifts off
Quote: "The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning, enabling computers and people to work in better cooperation... The Web will reach its full potential when it becomes an environment where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people."
Comment: Presents an introductory overview of the Semantic Web...and advanced development initiatives.
Extended Faceted Taxonomies for Web Catalogs
Quote: "Which would be easier to remember: one thousand individual terms or three facets of ten terms each?...A faceted taxonomy is actually a set of taxonomies, called facets, each of which is a set of terms structured by a specialisation/generalisation relation. Using a faceted taxonomy, the indexing of objects is done by associating each object with a compound term, ie with a combination of terms coming from different facets."
An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers (.doc)
Quote: "RSS is the first working example of an XML data network. As such, and in this world of learning objects and metadata files, RSS is the first working example of what such a network will look like for educational designers. Just as news resources are indexed and distributed in the RSS network, so also educational resources can be indexed and distributed in a similar learning object network."
Comment: Nice article on RSS (Rich Site Summary)...timely as well - currently at RRC, we are trying to create a culture of bloggers...and use aggregators as a means of accelerating the reading process. RSS is already popular in the blogosphere and news sites. Stephen Downes extends the role of RSS from that of news aggregation to learning object network (which he contrasts with current LCMS models).
Information Needs Analysis
Quote: "Each user has a different type of information need depending on what he's trying to find and why he's trying to find it. If we can determine the most common information needs a site's users have, we can select the few best architectural components to address those information needs."
Future Shock: Mass Media, Editors to Vanish?
Quote: "December is a month filled with holidaze, year-end roundups -- and a time to gaze into the crystal ball. Not surprising, then, that we'd have a handful of articles in different media outlets about the future of journalism in the digital age. If there's a common thread to these stories, it's the idea that the Internet will bring more power to individuals, and lessen the power of big publishers, editors, and advertisers. While that sounds nice in an ideal, utopian, flowers-in-our-hair world, the reality is that Big Money will do its best to follow the Big Ideas if they catch on."
Comment: Quick read...looks at several trends in the field of journalism.
I've posted a new article: Blogging - Part I: Overview, Definitions, Uses, and Implications (I'll post Part II later this week). The article is an attempt to provide an overview of what blogging is...and how it responds to the characteristics of the Internet...and altering how information is/will be handled.
Open Source in Education
Quote: "Open Source is especially useful in an education environment. Since the source is available, it's ripe for study and experimentation, and since it's free, there are no financial barriers to its deployment."
Comment: Several times over the last few months, I've whined about the lack of education's embrace of open source. I'm currently playing with Movabletype (for klogging at RRC), Plone (content management in our department), Zope and Python, and for personal web development - PHP and MySQL (which is also used for Movabletype). Education should be championing open source. In an era of increasing technology costs (think WebCT and Blackboard), simple, open source technologies can offer excellent learning tools.
Medium, Method, and Message: Why we can measure the pedagogic effectiveness of instructional technology via Technology4Teachers
Quote: "Although computers have been used for teaching purposes for over three decades, a debate has persisted in all this time over their merit and value in assisting and mediating instruction...At the core of this Thirty Year War over the merits of instructional technology is this question: can we use computer technology to effectively enhance or replace traditional instruction-that is, to teach people?"
Comment: The author details the difficulty in answering the question of medium effectiveness...largely because the media and message are intertwined...and "it has been impossible to hold the methods constant and simply test the medium." It is obviously very difficult to assess the learning effectiveness of a medium like the Internet...too many other variables play a role that are not Internet-based - student profiles, instructor teaching techniques, student support, need for student to know the content, etc.
However, as the author highlights at the end of the article, the attributes of certain media can be defined and then selected to support the learning process (i.e. - for which outcomes is video most effective? When should a software simulation be utilized? What is best instructed using audio?...). The task of media attribute analysis and learning outcome suitability falls into the lap of instructional designers...hug one today...
Faceted Metadata via Web Word
Quote: "Metadata is information about information: more precisely, it's structured information about resources. This can be a single set of hierarchical subject labels, such as a Yahoo or Open Directory Project category. More often, the metadata has several facets: attributes in various orthogonal sets of categories. This is often stored in database record fields and tables, especially for product catalogs.
Comment: Great, visual-based overview of faceted metadata...particularly for use in searching.
Nest of Pirates
Quote: "I was shocked to discover a nest of pirates yesterday, operating brazenly right here in my hometown. They were gathered in a large nondescript building, reading and talking quietly and in some cases listening to music. Some kind of social club, perhaps? Yes, but with a profoundly subversive theme: "sharing" content. This establishment houses large collections of books, magazines, audiotapes, videotapes, CDs, DVDs. And it "shares" these with its patrons. I watched in amazement as people left the building carrying armloads of these content assets, which they "borrow" without paying a nickel to the copyright holders. It's frightening, really. Who knew?"
Comment: This sarcastic post of content usage will become reality if certain organizations (RIAA) have their way.
Compliance vs. Creation
Comment: An great list of various traits in compliance/creation companies. Essential thrust: companies that are focus on rules/rigidity/order are not tomorrow's organizations. Same holds true for classrooms...
James Robertson has some thoughts on the future of content management...which seem pretty much on the mark for elearning as well. In elearning, the current concept of profit generation is still built on classroom models. Much future elearning will be free - as corporations use it as a marketing tool (Macromedia is a leader in this). In higher education, the cost of learning WILL drop (globalization)...content providers will need to revisit the business plan (learning objects will alter current activities)...management systems will be less critical to elearning (I mean, sooner or later, education has to wake up to the fact that an LMS is (can be) a great tool...but it is not the backbone of elearning)...and many current content and software providers will go out of business...and somewhere in the process we'll give up on the notion of standardization and follow the Internet model of HTML (simple/effective) vs. SGML (complex/hard to adopt).
Factors Inhibiting Change
Quote: "Technology change is not simple. Even if a change is seen as desirable, it costs little, it helps students, it makes it easier for administration, it is little effort to teachers and it is acceptable to the community - then it may still not be adopted.
What are the factors that make it hard to introduce technology change into education organisations?"
Comment: EXCELLENT! I've often stated that the issue with technology adoption is not technology...it is resistance to change. This wwwtools article clearly addresses the social component of tech adoption - linking to numerous change management resources.
Lately, I've seen an increase in the number of bloggers focusing on the education field. Two bloggers new to me: EduResources--Higher Education Resources Online and Ed Tech Dev
Learning is a Recursive, Self-Reflexive System Process (Individual Level)
Quote: "Interestingly systems thinkers, developmental psychologists and Dewey concur (though using somewhat different vocabulary) that learning occurs because of disequilibrium. Piaget, for example, mentions assimilation and accommodation as constant tidal process which influence individual becoming. One process tends to map one's expectations onto the environment until the environment no longer does 'the right thing'...even if corrected (via what some call 'negative feedback'). This mapping onto the environment is called assimilation."
Comment:The learning process sometimes defies definition...and attempts to describe learning as a system miss it's "other than" nature. Most everything that we do is an enactment of what we know/believe to be true. Learning is the process where this understanding is challenged/altered. As a result, to clearly define learning requires an understanding that it is "other than" every other activity we engage in. Learning is a shaping of who we are to become, based on reflection and understanding of who we are now...and how new information fits into that scheme - virtually impossible to systemize the outcomes (i.e. learning...), though it is possible to describe (structure?) the process. The author describes it well: "It's a constant , recurring, process, in the general sense, but its products vary. The new product becomes the basis for the new assimilative behavior only to be evolved once again at the next disiquilibrium. It's a recursive, self-reflexive process."