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Google Wave Hype or Hope?
"Reading Johanna Hanes’ paper “Google Wave: A Revolutionary CSCL-tool or Overestimated Hype” (PDF)—a nice combination of personal experience with Google Wave, light theoretical foundation, and a decent suite of links and resources—and ruminating on how I might position Google Wave for my students has reminded me yet again that I’m still not sure what to make of Wave."
Don’t kill off the VLE…
"Don’t kill off the VLE, for many staff it’s their only option. For some if they didn’t have the VLE they wouldn’t use anything else."
What Intrigues Me About Google Wave
"Wave completely demolishes the line between synchronous and asynchronous communication."
LMS or SNS?
"To survive, LMS vendors will need to transform their offerings on the social network model of Facebook. ELGG is an excellent alternative to an LMS, but most organizations are not yet willing to accept a network-centric tool as an alternative to Moodle."
LMS 3.0
"Proprietary course management systems are heading for a brick wall. The combination of economic pressures combined with saturated markets and the maturing stage of the life cycle of these once innovative platforms means that 2009 may well be the year of change or a year of serious planning for change. "
5 Ways We're Diminishing Learning by Assuming Face-to-Face Instruction Is Best
"Recent studies have shown that using online technology and creating communities of learning through digital connections has proved to be more useful to learning than most face-to-face encounters. So making the assumption that face-to-face is more effective can become prohibitive for our students."
Blackboard’s Response to Open Source: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
"As I noted recently, the University of North Carolina (a Blackboard customer) reported highly favorable results of their pilot study of Sakai, with an outcome of further investigation into Sakai as a full replacement of Blackboard as their primary LMS. It turns out that this was following on the heels of a similar study done by the North Carolina Community College system favorably comparing Moodle to Blackboard."
WHY IS COLLEGE SO EXPENSIVE?
"But the high cost of college is entirely avoidable! There is one higher education institution – York College in Pennsylvania – that shows that if colleges required their faculty to work harder (approximating the work week the rest of us find normal), held down administrative spending, and reined in borrowing for capital improvements, that these institutions could charge half of what they now do in tuition and fees."
The Big 3 Bailout and Education
Our industry is in the same shape as the auto industry but because we are not market based, (we have a captive audience) we are not feeling the effects the same way the Big 3 are. They have finally hit the economic wall. It’s brutally black and white for them…change or go out of business!
Two fingered salute - VLEs and PLNs
All things considered, it is inevitable that the personal web will win in a straight fight against the institutional VLE. The VLE has had its day and will meet its demise, even though its supporters cannot see it coming. The personal web is on the rise. For me and many, many others, we’re showing our two fingers to the institutional VLE.
The VLE is not dead… yet…
There are many people out there who believe that the institutional VLE is dead and we should allow learners to use their own PLE (personal learning environment) and/or a selection of Web 2.0 tools and services.
Innovative Teaching is to Sustainable Farming as Test Prep is to _____?
The testing regime is turning our kids into a high-yield, uniform commodity. Rows and rows of competent, standardized students, that can be delivered according to employers' specifications for a "skilled workforce.”
The LMS Is Not Dead Yet
But is it all about control? Although control may be a part of the issue, there are other factors promising to keep institutionally adopted and integrated LMSs alive for years to come. Consider the following three points.
Apple Tablet - Expensive Netbook or iTouch on Steroids?
Its supposed $800 price tag would technically disqualify it as a netbook by many definitions (sub $399 devices). Will it run Mac OS X or the iPhone OS? Or is it just a giant iTouch suffering from an overactive pituitary gland problem? Frankly, I could see it going either way but two things make me think the Apple Tablet is more of an iPhone than a Mac laptop.
How to read an English department
So what tends to happen in freshman comp? The standard model is that students spend most of their class time discussing readings--rather like a standard lit course. This suits the grad student teachers just fine, because it lets them practice teaching literature, which is what they really want to teach anyhow, while also allowing them to mask the fact that they aren't generally doing very much at all in the way of teaching actual writing.
Learning Environments
This year I have been witnessing a change in thinking and common practices around learning environments. I’d like to share my point of view with you because I’m convinced that a significant shift is starting to occur. Let me start by giving a contextual overview in the form of a few tables.
Education without Communication
However, it feels as if something more is missing: Perhaps it is the ability for students to interact with each other and the teachers in the classroom. The increased use of educational technology has come between teachers and students, students and their peers.
Blogging is dying and Twitter is to blame
Amidst the Twitterfication of our lives, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend developing. Blogs are starting to fade into oblivion. OK, maybe it’s not *that* bad, but it’s a fade nonetheless.
Meet The New Boss (Comment on LMSs)
It’s been a while since I ranted on it, but after all this time the mere fact that the main organizational unit of a “learning system” not being the learning, nor the learner, but the course– is just plain programming design laziness It’s done that way because it is easier to put learning into neat mailbox slots, ones that can be tidily emptied at the end of a term.
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