Digital Med-Ed: Educational Technology in Medicine

As laptop use rises, so does virtual note-taking

By Kate Lyon, The Dartmouth Staff

Dartmouth's much-touted wireless computer network lets student use their laptop computers all over campus -- in Novack Cafe and on the middle of the Green, as well as in the classroom. These capabilities permit students to use their laptops in class not just to take notes, but also to send e-mails and instant messages and browse the Internet.

http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2004052401020

MACE - courseID

MACE-courseID, the Internet2 Middleware Architecture Committee for Education (MACE) course data elements project, exists to further the development of course data elements for higher education and adapt exisiting development for use in directory enabled infrastructures. This project will leverage the eduPerson object class (http://www.educause.edu/eduperson/) that includes widely-used person attributes in higher education and build on the standards work in IMS and OKI.

http://middleware.internet2.edu/courseid/

Content management: design for rule, not exception

By Gerry McGovern

If your website tries to be all things to all people, it will fail. It’s very easy on the Web to try to do too much. You need to relentlessly focus on what most of your readers do most of the time. Don’t let anything else get in the way.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_05_24_content_management.htm

Learn how to implement an effective web style guide

By Gerry McGovern

A style guide helps you quickly and cost-effectively publish content that is of a consistent quality. It is particularly important when there are lots of editors and authors involved in the publishing process. A good style guide takes a lot of time and effort to create. Unless its implementation is policed, it will not achieve its objectives.

Read More at
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_05_17_web_style_guide.htm

Leadership is key to meeting ed tech challenges

By Cara Branigan, Associate Editor, eSchool News
May 20, 2004

Effective leadership within the education, government, and business communities is critical to the successful integration of technology in the nation's schools, concluded panelists who spoke at Intel Corp.'s Third Annual Visionary Conference in Washington, D.C., May 11.

Among the attributes speakers used to define "effective leadership" were the recognition that ed tech is really about education, not technology; the ability to establish and communicate a clear and common vision for technology's use in schools; and the ability to change and manage change.

read more at:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5067

Learning Object Guidelines

Blog Software Breakdown

The chart on this page displays attributes of different user-installed blog software packages side-by-side for comparison. Only server-installed scripts are included. Many attributes of many different packages are listed.

PRIMO: Peer-Reviewed Instruction Materials Online

This project "is a means to promote and share peer-reviewed instructional materials created by librarians to teach people about discovering, accessing and evaluating information in networked environments." The site features a searchable or browsable database of annotated links to instructional modules. Also includes more detailed information about selected sites. A project of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section.

http://cooley.colgate.edu/etech/primo/index.htm

Instructional Design Process

This is an outline of the types of questions that can help in the instructional design process, primarily for courses involving web-based materials. It is based on the ADDIE Instructional Design Model.

http://people.senecac.on.ca/kathy.siedlaczek/id_process.html

PBL Guide Online

PBL Guide.

Here's an interesting guide to problem based learning:

"This guide is based on what Queen Mary University of London does and its context. It can be used as a guide to developing a PBL system that works in your context...."

http://www.materials.ac.uk/guides/pbl.asp

Getting RSS feeds into your website

Anyone that wants to syndicate RSS and Atom feeds on their web sites would be well-served to take a look at FeedSweep, a new free service provided by Howell Developments. The only JavaScript-based system I’m aware of that provides support for parsing Atom Feeds, and in addition, the only one I know of that will let you fully customize CSS style. Also comes with an easy configuration for novice web masters. Aggregates multiple feeds, actually caches (most of the JavaScript-based services don’t, to my knowledge) and comes with a bunch of pre-made styles! Oh, and I wrote it, but I don’t feel shameless for mentioning it because it is IN FACT, free.

http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/alan/archives/2004/05/03/feedsweep.html

Articulate Presenter

Articulate Presenter is the precursor to eHelp's RoboPresenter.

Free for Education Mark

The Free for Education mark indicates that material may be freely used for educational purposes. The mark may be applied by anyone to any material in which they own the copyright provided they agree with the conditions set out in these pages.

http://www.aesharenet.com.au/ffe/index.asp

Mono, an open-source implementation of the .NET development framework

From SitePoint's Tech Times email newsletter:

After years of pointing out the Mono project as a beacon of hope to those who want to enjoy the benefits of ASP.NET without suffering Microsoft lock-in, I had honestly given up hope of ever seeing this open source effort bear practical fruit. Imagine my surprise last week when Beta 1 of the Mono Project was released!

I haven't yet had time to install and play with the beta, but that's definitely high on my to-do list. Downloads are available for Windows and Mac OS X, as well as all popular Linux platforms.

For those who don't know, Mono is an open source project that aims to create cross-platform versions of:

- a C# compiler
- the Common Language Runtime (CLR)
- most of the .NET Framework's class library, including ADO.NET and ASP.NET

Most notably for Web developers, ASP.NET (including both Web Forms and Web Services) is advertised as being fully functional with this release! Yes, now is the time to start testing your ASP.NET applications on Mono. It'll be much easier to get any bugs fixed now, in the final push before release, than it will once 1.0 hits the streets.

The Mono project, which is sponsored by Novell (who bought out Ximian last year), have two more beta releases planned before the final release of Mono 1.0 on or about June 30, 2004.

Computer makers adapt laptops for tough school market

By David Koenig, Associated Press
DALLAS — As the superintendent of a fast-growing suburban school district, Mike Smith faces a textbook shortage every fall.
This year will be a little different at the Forney Independent School District.

Every fifth- and sixth-grader at Johnson Elementary, 100 to 150 students, will receive a $1,350 IBM ThinkPad computer loaded with digital versions of state-approved textbooks and 2,000 works of literature. If the experiment works, the program will be expanded to other grades.

"We think this is better than simply going out and buying more textbooks," said Smith, who expected a shortage of 600 textbooks in August. Enrollment is projected to rise 20% or more at the district, and it takes three months to get new books.

Forney is the first district in the country to sign up with IBM for the digital notebooks as the company tries to get an edge in the competitive school-computer market and jump-start educators' interest in using more laptops, which has lagged because of cost.

Read the story at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-04-26-school-laptops_x.htm

New Quiz Tool

EdNA has launched a new (and free) quiz builder on its global education website.

The Global Education Website is initiated and funded by AusAID to support its Global Education Program.

The objective of the Global Education Website is to increase the amount and quality of teaching of global education in Australian primary and secondary schools.

The site supports the AusAID Global Education Program which aims to raise awareness and understanding among Australian school students of international issues, development and poverty, and to prepare them to live in an increasingly globalised world and to be active citizens shaping better futures.

http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/quiz

XML-Coursebuilder

The v4.4 issue of XML Journal has an article which describes XML-Coursebuilder. This uses XML and XSLT to create a course or workshop presentation. Here is the documentation, itself a XML-Coursebuilder presentation.

http://www.techtrainingworkshop.com/coursebuilder/

The Technology Source: "The purpose

The Technology Source:
"The purpose of The Technology Source (ISSN 1532-0030), a peer-reviewed bimonthly periodical published by the Michigan Virtual University, is to provide thoughtful, illuminating articles that will assist educators as they face the challenge of integrating information technology tools into teaching and into managing educational organizations. Want to participate? Use the discussion option available in each article to respond to that article, or send your comments and suggestions about the publication to Editor-in-Chief James L. Morrison. Have a great idea? Submit an article for publication. Want to hear about each new issue? Join our mailing list. "

http://ts.mivu.org/

VT Calendar VT Calendar is

VT Calendar VT Calendar is a web-based event calendar that allows for decentralized data input and includes a central approval mechanism. It also supports calendar hosting for individual organizations and the forwarding of events from these individual calendars to the main event calendar.

West Virginia offers free online Mini Medical School

West Virginia offers free online ˜mini-medical school'

October 1, 2003

West Virginia residents can interact with medical professionals during upcoming online sessions of the Charleston Area Medical Center's Mini-Medical School, the Associated Press reports. Each of the free sessions covers a different health topic and includes a question and answer segment in which participants can e-mail anonymous health questions to doctors and pharmacists. œIt provides the community with health information from the experts when they're not sitting in the doctor's office fearful or wondering what's going to happen to them medically,� said Beverly Withrow, an education specialist at CAMC's Health Information Center. œThis provides a different venue for them " a relaxed venue and a learning venue.� The anonymous setting also lets people discuss sensitive health issues, said Adam Renfrow, a spokesman for Sonic Foundry, the company that is providing the audio and video technology for the sessions. CAMC began presenting the live online Mini-Medical School sessions in April, Withrow said. On Thursday, the medical center will present œIntestinal Diseases 101,� which will focus on detection, diagnosis, management and treatment of intestinal diseases. Another session, œThyroid Disease 101,� will be held in November (Saxton, Associated Press, 9/30). Mini-Medical School Online

NeuroLogic Exam Learning Module by

NeuroLogic Exam Learning Module by Media Solutions @ University of Utah

Client: Paul D. Larsen, MD (University of Nebraska Medical Center); Suzanne S. Stensaas, PhD (University of Utah School of Medicine); Alejandro Stern (Fundación Stern, Buenos Aires, Argentina) Lead Designers: Paul E. Burrows and Eric Carlson (Also posted to MissingLink.)

http://medstat.med.utah.edu/neurologicexam/home_exam.html

Online University Consortium Releases Learner

Online University Consortium Releases Learner Assessment Tool

A network of universities founded to help companies and employees secure a quality online education, announced a Web-based assessment tool for prospective students considering online degree programs. The Online Learner Assessment, unveiled by the Online University Consortium, helps students determine their aptitude for online education in order to choose the best source for their individual learning style. The tool helps Online UC to match learners with qualified degree programs. "The tool helps learners avoid costly mistakes by making the best education choice for their individual needs," said Greg Eisenbarth, Online UC's executive director. "This allows targeted development and enhances ROI for corporations funding employee training."

Read more: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=3157

eFolio Minnesota Achieve your education

eFolio Minnesota Achieve your education and career objectives with a personal electronic portfolio from eFolio Minnesota. Digitally document and share your education, employment history, activities, and goals with whomever you choose whenever you want. Electronic portfolios are similar to "hard copy" portfolios, except that they are much more versatile and are created in a virtual environment. No longer will you need to sort through boxes and files to find your best samples - they're all in your electronic portfolio. You can upload documents, pictures, computer graphics, audio, and video files into your electronic portfolio to give your audience an actual look at what you can do. It's easy to design portions of your site to meet the specific interests of your target audiences. Access your electronic portfolio at any time from anywhere to change or add content.
[From the same site] Following are links to resources on the use of electronic portfolios in general:
Dr. Helen Barrett's Electronic Portfolios contains her favorite sites on assessment Student Portfolios: Classroom Uses
The Urban Universities Portfolio Project: Assuring Quality for Multiple Publics AAHE's Electronic Portfolio Community of Practice

Another utility: LS File List

Another utility: LS File List Generator Generates a list of all files in a specified directory and subdirectories.

http://home.a03.itscom.net/tsuzu/programing/en/

The Wisc Online, the Wisconsin

The Wisc Online, the Wisconsin Online Resource Center is a collection of over 1000 learning objects.

http://www.wisc-online.com/index.htm

Collaborative learning environments sourcebook: This

Collaborative learning environments sourcebook: This book is a resource for academics and students who want to develop collaborative learning environments (or communities of practice) in which lecturers, students and others can work together to create new knowledge while learning new skills. See also the background info about the book.

http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/

SitePoint: What Is a Wiki?

SitePoint: What Is a Wiki? By Nathan Matias November 3rd 2003 Wikis can be used for a large variety of tasks, from personal note-taking to collaborating online, creating an internal knowledge base, assembling an online community, and managing a traditional website. What's so Good About Wikis? * Wikis Simplify Editing Your Website * Wikis Use Simple Markup * Wikis Record Document Histories * Creating Links Is Simple With Wikis * Creating New Pages Is Simple With Wikis * Wikis Simplify Site Organization * Wikis Keep Track of All Your Stuff * Many Wikis are Collaborative Communities * Wikis Encourage Good Hypertext

http://www.sitepoint.com/print/what-is-a-wiki

LMS Selection Site from Simon

LMS Selection Site from Simon Fraser University

http://www.sfu.ca/lidc/LMSSC/

Site to support the selection of a new CMS that is still ongoing at SFU. If you dig around there's some generally useful material - these results of a technical comparison between WebCT and Desire2Learn by B.C.'s Ministry of Education (though I'm not sure how they got it), as well as this latest progress report that contains a lot of interesting anecdotal feedback gather from various stakeholder sonsultation sessions on what they are actually looking for (short answer - 'better' systems that are 'easier' to use, look nicer, and are infinitely customizable ;-)

Instructive: The making of Lego

Instructive: The making of Lego bricks

Instructive: The making of Lego bricks Now this is a cool design. It's got substance and it displays it with style. This is an great Flash Module.

http://www.popandcompany.com/archive/moab/

Welcome to BMJ

BMJ Learning: Welcome to BMJ Learning

The BMA has developed an online medical learners portfolio. See http://www.bmjlearning.com/planrecord/index.jsp You can create a free demo password to review the site. The BMA has also published a 38 page document called "Appraisal: a guide for medical practitioners" and it is free at

http://www.bmjlearning.com/planrecord/documents/appraisalGuide.pdf

Pitch - a peer-reviewed online journal in instructional technology

"Pitch is a peer-reviewed online journal in instructional and learning technology. Articles in Pitch focus on pedagogical, technological, sociological, legal, and moral issues related to opening access to educational opportunity. Example topics include reusable media/learning objects, scalability issues, informal social networks for supporting learning, legal schemes for the sharing of open educational materials, and the right to education. Pitch is run by the OSLO Research Group at Utah State University." Table of Contents Open source content in education: Developing, sharing, expanding resources by George Siemens The Regina Declaration by Stephen Downes Editors' introduction: On the shoulders of giants by David Wiley & Brent Lambert

http://www.pitchjournal.org/

Free White Paper on Computerized

Free White Paper on Computerized Assessments Free White Paper: œDelivering Computerized Assessments Safely and Securely�: Questionmark's white paper outlines a systematic approach to help you match an assessment to the most appropriate technology, techniques and physical environment for its delivery. You will learn how to establish the appropriate level of security for an assessment based on its purpose, nature and consequences. Click here to download this valuable resource today: http://www.questionmark.com/a/us110302.htm

Study Shows Impact of Web

Study Shows Impact of Web Technology on Higher Ed The latest results of a four-year study by McGraw-Hill on the impact of Web technology on higher ed institutions confirmed that Web-based technology is helping instructors achieve teaching objectives and has a positive impact on student attitudes and achievement. In 1999, only 22 percent of faculty participants viewed technology as very or extremely important for achieving success; in 2002, figures rose to 57 percent. The survey indicates that technology has increased dramatically in terms of importance, with 68 percent of respondents rating training and professional development as very or extremely important and 60 percent assigning a high level of importance to course Web site use in achieving teaching objectives.

ScozNews is a powerful PHP

ScozNews is a powerful PHP & MySQL news script with a complete set of features, including: - A WYSIWYG Editor for adding/editing news items - Ability to turn on/off discussion functionality for each news posting - Archving of old news posts - Printer friendly versions of news items - "Bad Word" Management - Automatic RSS-feed creation and more... You can view a demo of the software as well.

Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Web

Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003

1. Unclear Statement of Purpose
2. New URLs for Archived Content
3. Undated Content
4. Small Thumbnail Images of Big, Detailed Photos
5. Overly detailed ALT Text
6. No "What-If" Support
7. Long Lists that Can't Be Winnowed by Attributes
8. Products Sorted Only by Brand
9. Overly Restrictive Form Entry
10. Pages That Link to Themselves

BrowserSizer (Freeware) BrowserSizer is a

BrowserSizer (Freeware)

BrowserSizer is a low-fat, NOT in-your-face tool to help web developers check to see how their web pages look on screen resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and WebTV. It controls Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator from an un-obtrusive, sit in your tray, application that provides an interface to resize either browser to the standard screen resolutions. Isn't it annoying to change your development machine's resolution just to test for people who haven't figured out that they can change THEIR screen resolution?

http://www.applythis.com/browsersizer/default.asp

Apple's Web Development Best Practices

Apple's Web Development Best Practices

The Safari development team at Apple has made a dedicated effort to implement Web standards. This means that the easiest way to ensure optimal rendering of your pages in Safari is by following the standards. Doing so will also guarantee optimal rendering in Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer for Macintosh. Of course, each of these browsers has its own minor quirks or legitimate differences of interpretation, so testing your site in all of them is still mandatory. By comparison, Internet Explorer for Windows -- the most popular browser for the Windows OS -- often requires web developers to use a number of non-standard tricks or to accept layout differences. This situation is unlikely to change anytime soon, so for now, web developers have to work around these problems. This article gives some practical hints on how to create standards-conforming websites, and to work around some of issues that will arise for Explorer for Windows.

http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/bestwebdev.html

Standard Content Model for Electronic Archiving

The National Library of Medicine Defines Standard Content Model for Electronic Archiving and Publishing of Journal Articles Bethesda, Maryland - The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces the creation and free availability of a standard model for archiving and exchanging electronically journal articles. http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jun2003/nlm-10.htm

Updated jClicker- web slide show

Updated jClicker- web slide show template (free too!)

Finally got around to some revamps to a web slide show template I've been rolling for a few years, the "jClicker" (little "j" is for JavaScript). We do many many photos for our many events at work, and this has been a very handy way to organize photos into a slide show format. The main site includes a step-by-step construction guide. Basically, all one has to do is to assemble your image files (any web format), write some captions and edit one text file to control the settings and define the order of the slide show. Previously, one had to actually write incrementing numbers for the lists (arrays) manage the image files, menus names, and captions, but a email from a user generated a beautiful idea-- just have a running self-incrementing counter (javascript- "i ;) before each section that lists the next slides image file, menu name, and caption. Now deleting, adding, or re-arranging the slide order is a trivial cut and paste, whereas previously one who have to re-order all the data. A key feature since the first version is that every slide page also pre-loads the next image for a smoother slide to slide flow.

http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/alan/archives/2004/01/06/jclicker

Recent Additions to MissingLink Andreas

Recent Additions to MissingLink Andreas Vesalius: On the Fabric of the Human Body "This website presents Andreas Vesalius' Renaissance anatomical atlas ... in an exciting new way and explains the work in progress at Northwestern University to translate" this historical work from Latin into English. Includes a biography, images of the woodcut illustrations, essays, a glossary of surgical terms, and bibliography. Searchable. http://vesalius.northwestern.edu/ Subjects: Vesalius, Andreas, 1514-1564... HHMIs Biointeractive "Become a scientist in ... virtual labs, where you can identify deadly pathogens, probe heart patients, dissect a leech, or assay antibodies!" This site offers a variety of interactive learning features, along with background materials, glossaries, and teaching tips. In addition to virtual laboratories, the site features animations such as "Anatomy of the Cochlea" and interactive exhibits on topics such as biological clocks and cardiovascular disease. From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). http://www.biointeractive.org/

Pew Monographs on Learning andTechnology

Pew Monographs on Learning and Technology

The sixth and final monograph from the Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology, entitled Expanding Access to Learning: The Role of Virtual Universities, is now available in PDF format on our Center Web site at http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono6.html. The monograph assesses the current state of statewide virtual university initiatives, discusses five critical success factors derived from that assessment, and offers an alternative strategy to the predominant collaborative model that can improve current practice. Print copies may be obtained by contacting Pat Bartscherer .

Quizmaster Software From the e-Learning

Quizmaster Software From the e-Learning Guild lists.... "I've been using Quizmaster for some time now to create fun games and interactions for my internal training. It used to be web-based, but now it is also available as a standalone product for a very reasonable cost. Our employees LOVE the Millionaire-style game! These exercises are a great way to draw people into a review of dull or dry material. There are lots of other games to choose from, as well as some more traditional exercises. I use the matching exercise a lot in our external courses. Check out this resource...it's one of my favorites!" http://cybil.tafe.tas.edu.au/~capsticm/quizman/qmhome.html

Paper Define "Information Age"

A new discussion paper on the changing nature of learning in the information age is available now, on the Web or as a PDF e-Book. "There is widespread belief that society is moving from the industrial age to the information age. This paper discusses what is meant by the term information age and how society will differ from the industrial era of the previous two centuries. In particular it considers the impact upon learning, both in terms of differences in the type of learning that will be required to survive and thrive in this new era, and of the new and improved methods it brings which might enhance the learning process.

http://www.twinisles.com/dev/research/learninfoage.htm

Study looks at gaming PM

Study looks at gaming PM
ong college students By Peter Cohen pcohen@maccentral.com July 08, 2003 11:45 PM
ET The Pew Internet & PM
erican Life Project released a new report this week entitled Let the Games Begin: Gaming Technology and Entertainment PM
ong College Students. The report concludes that computer games are "woven into the fabric of everyday life" for college students, and rather than being an isolating social factor in people who would otherwise be called geeks or nerds, it's a more "social/socializing activity" than many suspected http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/07/08/gamingstudy/ Full survey can be found at: http://www.pewinternet.org/ Another survey on "Adoption of Broadband to the home:" http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_adoption.pdf

Let's Get Small by John

Let's Get Small by John Talanca, Jr. e-LearningGuru.com This is an interesting examination of the effect of learning modules' length (or "seat-time") on their usefulness. Think about knowledge you have recently acquired. If you're like me, the majority of the learning you completed over the last year probably occurred in small chunks: a web search here, some investigative reading there, a few minutes in a chat room, followed up with a conversation in the break room. This belief has lead my department's e-learning strategy to include the design and development of brief e-learning modules as a main staple. The majority of e-learning courses we offer our employees take less then twelve minutes to complete, and many take only eight to ten minutes of the learner's time. Sure, we have some longer courses in our catalog, but they're the exception. We constantly receive learner comments on these mini-modules to the tune of, "Exactly what I needed and no more," and "It [the module] didn't waste my time."

http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art_misc_1.htm

Largest Mobile Initiative for a

Largest Mobile Initiative for a U.S. Medical School Wayne State University's School of Medicine has begun a mobile computing project it says is the largest and most comprehensive ever planned by a U.S. medical school. The school has signed a contract with Ann Arbor, Mich.-based CampusMobility Inc. to build the network, which will supply medical students and staff with mobile devices, educational and healthcare software, and wireless infrastructure. The technology will enable problem-solving exercises and the collection of patient encounter information during clinical internships. "The ability to interact with students in real time is critical in ensuring students possess the knowledge and skills necessary to begin independent patient care," said professor Matt Jackson, Ph.D., in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.

HTML Tidy When editing HTML,

HTML Tidy When editing HTML, it's easy to make mistakes. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a simple way to fix these mistakes automatically and tidy up sloppy editing into nicely laid-out markup? Well, now there is! Dave Raggett's HTML Tidy is a free utility for doing just that. It also works great on the atrociously hard-to-read markup generated by specialized HTML editors and conversion tools and can help you identify where you need to pay further attention to make your pages more accessible to people with disabilities.

Good students go on-line Associated

Good students go on-line Associated Press "East Lansing, Mich. " Children who spend time on-line appear to perform better in school, according to a $1.5-million (U.S.) Michigan State University study."

Moodle 1.1

Moodle 1.1 is an open source course management system for creating online courses. It includes site, course, and student management functions, assignments with due dates and timestamps, forums, poll and survey functions, journals, and more. The new version adds a new backup and restore system for courses, a workshop module for peer grading, a chat module, a new course manager for handling large numbers of courses, and other improvements. Moodle is free for Mac OS X, Linux/Unix, Windows, and any system that supports PHP.

http://moodle.org/

Collaborative Platforms: Say Aloha to

Collaborative Platforms: Say Aloha to WikiWiki

What is WikiWiki? It is a collection of Web pages which can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere. Wiki is a composition system, a discussion medium, a repository, a mail system, a chat room, and a tool for collaboration...

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?AdventuresInWikiland

The UNESCO Free Software Portal

The UNESCO Free Software Portal gives access to documents and websites which are references for the free software/open source technology movement. It is also a gateway to resources related to free software. UNESCO

Free Software Portal: Courseware Tools

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/index.shtml

Canadian Learning Objects

Here's a Canadian Learning Objects Portal, "a gateway to many resources about learning objects and repositories. . . . This site is intended to serve the needs of novice and more
seasoned folks interested in learning objects." Sections: - Information - Resources - Repositories - Tools - Best Practices - Issues - Activities - Who's Who - About this site

http://ilearn.senecac.on.ca/lop/

This is the online version

This is the online version of The Instructional Use of Learning Objects, a new book that tries to go beyond the technological hype and connect learning objects to instruction and learning. You can read the full text of the book here for free.

http://www.reusability.org/read/

Some client-side quiz development tools:

Some client-side quiz development tools: - University of Utah Knowledge Weavers'

WebQuizBuilder (old, not updated) - Macromedia's CourseBuilder Extension for Dreamweaver (flexible and extensible, buggy/tricky, not for novices) - Macromedia's Learning Extensions for Flash (haven't used but looks promising) - SmartLite's WebQuiz XP (haven't used but looks potentially interesting) I'm sure there are others!

http://medlib.med.utah.edu/kw/quizmaker_fmp/

iLecture Iowa City, IA --

iLecture Iowa City, IA --

The Information Commons Productions Services in Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at The University of Iowa has released a beta edition of iLecture, the simple online lecture delivery system. http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/commons/ilecture/ Product Description: iLecture makes preparing an online lecture an easy process. Simply import your PowerPoint slides, plug in a microphone and record your narration. iLecture does the rest. It packages the images and audio, along with the individual timings for each slide, in a directory that's ready for upload to any web server. Not only does iLecture offer convenient features to any instructor narrating an online lecture, it also makes viewing and listening to that lecture simple for students. Students aren't locked in to a particular piece of software, particular file formats, or any specific computer platform (operating system). The online lectures created by iLecture can be viewed on any Internet connection in any web browser. iLecture is open ended, accessible and easy to use, unlike many products on the commercial market. iLecture makes the task of creating and viewing online lectures simple. Best of all--iLecture is free. About the Information Commons Productions Services: iLecture was developed by the Information Commons Production Services (ICPS) Team at The Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa. ICPS is an award-winning multimedia and web production services group that has been creating compelling web sites, instructional titles, CD-ROMs and interactive presentations for more than 7 years. Download: iLecture beta release is available at: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/commons/ilecture/ Contact: ilecture@uiowa.edu

Streaming Medical Rounds

Medical Rounds - Multimedia Grand Rounds By sleslie on Learning Objects Thu, 15 Jan 2004 00:44 PM

This site, in part the work of the Lion's Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, presents a large collection of talks on a variety of medical topics in the form of quicktime audio streams and slide shows. One could argue for a variety of reasons that these aren't 'proper' learning objects, but it seemed a good way of disseminating some of the knowledge, as well as some of the dialog, that is found in teaching hospitals and medical rounds across the country. The issue it did raise for me, though, was how quickly some of this scientific knowledge becomes dated, and how important it is to be clear about when a certain presentation took place. - SWL

http://www.medicalrounds.com/

Weblogs

Weblogs: "Educational Technology UpDate:Weblogs" Article on weblogs that lists some Blog software companies, specifically see Manila at http://manila.userland.com/

Reference Miner

Reference Miner searches the Internet to find and display reference information from PubMed, and the Library of Congress. Special features include the display of book cover art (Amazon) and the ability to easily perform complex searches. If you or your institution has the appropriate journal subscription, a double-click immediately opens the PubMed full-text article in your browser. Mac OS X 10.2 or later is preferred, but Reference Miner also runs in Mac OS Classic. Reference Miner is the perfect companion for Bookends: you can save references and images you find by dragging and dropping them onto a Bookends 7.7 or later database window.

Ripples - Research in Electronic

Ripples - Research in Electronic Presentation Production

The Research in Presentation Production for Learning Electronically (RIPPLES) project is investigating how to most effectively use the World Wide Web and CD/DVD-ROM to deliver lectures and course materials outside of the classroom. Our focus is on asynchronous learning environments in which students proceed at their own pace and are not assumed to be accessing the same material at the same time. Students can access lectures as digital audio or video, synchronized with slides, overheads or other materials.

http://ripples.cs.umass.edu/

Jakob on PDFs

Some strong opinions from Jakob Nielsen about PDFs...
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, June 10, 2001: Avoid PDF for On-Screen Reading Forcing users to browse PDF files makes usability approximately 300% worse compared to HTML pages. Only use PDF for documents that users are likely to print. In those cases, following six basic guidelines will minimize usability problems. * Create a gateway HTML page that summarizes the PDF file. * State clearly that the PDF file is for printing only and present the same content on other Web pages in traditional formats. * Link only to the gateway page. * Never let your search engines index the PDF file * Ensure that your PDF document format is at least one version behind the latest offering. * Format your printable documents for different sizes of paper. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, July 14, 2003: PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use it for online presentation. PDF Usability Crimes * Linear exposition. * Jarring user experience. * Crashes and software problems. * Breaks flow. * Orphaned location. * Content blob. * Text fits the printed page, not a computer screen.

Technorati allows you to enter

Technorati allows you to enter a URL and get a list of "every other page that has linked to it in the past 24 hours, ranked by freshness or AUTHORity. It shows the contextual text surrounding the inbound link, its age, and other helpful facts." You can also search by keyword. Feedster is another blog search engine.

http://www.technorati.com/

Blogging and RSS

Blogging and RSS " The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators

The internet has long been valued by teachers and librarians as a powerful research and communications tool, and in the last 10 years, it has brought about a sea change in the way students find, manage, and use information. But the promise of the Web as more than just a readable, searchable resource has been slow to be realized ... until now. Two new Internet technologies, Weblogs and RSS (Real Simple Syndication), are redefining the way students and teachers use the Internet, turning them from mere readers into writers to the Web as well, and making it easier to filter and track the ever-growing number of resources coming online each day. In fast-growing numbers, educators across the country and throughout the world are finding just how powerful this new interactive Internet can be.

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml

Projectory Projectory is a platform-independent,

Projectory Projectory is a platform-independent, web-enabled project management tool designed to track software projects through all phases of development. Where traditional project management software is primarily useful only for planning and reporting purposes, Projectory lets you track actual development effort expended by teams or individuals across multiple projects and activities. It's easy to configure for small or large software development groups, and its streamlined user interface makes it easy for individuals to enter and manage their work entries. Its comprehensive reporting capabilities serve the needs of team leads and managers alike. You can get an accurate snapshot of current development activity, track effort on planned vs. unplanned work, and compare actual effort expended to the estimates in your project plans. Its project-agnostic activity tracking functionality makes it a great tool for improving estimation on new projects, as you can mine historical data to determine real-world development metrics.

Common Scenarios of Fair Use

Common Scenarios of Fair Use Issues: Posting Materials on Course Management Systems The following scenarios encompass common examples of the application of fair use when instructors post materials on Oncourse, Angel, or other course
management system (CMS). Because fair use seldom offers simple, clean, concise rules--and every situation will have its own set of facts--these scenarios should help instructors make fair-use determinations. Fair use is based on an application of four factors set forth in the Copyright Act. For a further discussion of fair use, see: Copyright Management Center: Fair Use Issues.
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/fuscenarios.htm

Blogware Harnessed as Course Management

Blogware Harnessed as Course Management Software

Elizabeth Lane Lawley, assistant professor at the department of information technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, is experimenting with using Moving Type, an open Web content publishing system, as a course management development tool. Her efforts demonstrate the advantages blogs hold over conventional course management systems, as well as what commercial course management systems offer that blogs lack. Movable Type (MT) is a Web content
publishing system, though often difficult for beginners to implement. Here are the links I have found most useful while implementing Movable Type Weblogs. This list will grow as I continue to add features to my MT powered sites and need resources beyond that which the MT manual provides.

http://mamamusings.net/archives/2003/08/22/mt_courseware_documentation_and_templates.php

iUpload Mailby RSS generates RSS

iUpload Mailby RSS generates RSS feeds from email. "Using MailbyRSS is simple. [Users] need only to sign up to the service to receive a special e-mail address and password from iUpload and can immediately begin to
AUTHOR content for their RSS channel by sending it as an email. When MailbyRSS receives an
AUTHORized e-mail message, it automatically creates or updates an RSS channel and generates any supporting web pages required." One interesting use: Yahoo Groups to RSS in Three Easy Steps

http://www.iupload.com/product/mailbyrss.asp

The Portal for Online Objects

The Portal for Online Objects in Learning

The Portal for Online Objects in Learning (POOL) project is a consortium of educational, private and public sector organizations to develop an infrastructure for learning object repositories. The project addresses metadata, software and hardware, and bootstrapping the system with initial content. It makes tools available for download, to help set up similar infrastructures elsewhere and to connect them to POOL..... Kevin adds: A SPLASH indeed, right down to their federated search.

http://www.edusplash.net/

Test Builder Build SCORM-Based Tests

Test Builder Build SCORM-Based Tests and Quizzes

Start building online tests and quizzes today with Test Builder. Test Builder lets you
AUTHOR tests quickly and easily with a text editor. Absolutely no programming is required. Create tests and quizzes with true-false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and matching questions. Deliver your tests with a SCORM-based Learning Management System (LMS). Randomize the sequence of questions and choices. Randomly select questions from a question pool. Limit the number of attempts. Set the passing score.

Visualizing Statistical Concepts provides links

Visualizing Statistical Concepts provides links to learning modules that can be used to teach statistical concepts.

http://www.du.edu/psychology/methods/concepts/

ProjectForum is an easy to

ProjectForum is an easy to install web application, used through standard web browsers, that lets workgroups collaborate and coordinate their work on projects. Each of your groups gets its own dedicated forum for its projects, containing any number of separate web pages. In ProjectForum, your group decides what to post, what to share, what to discuss, and how to organize it all. Create whatever new pages you need for new topics. Each page is fully editable by everyone, right from the browser. No special tools are needed, nor knowledge of complicated markup languages like HTML. Its easy enough for everyone to contribute, adding their own material, commenting on existing material, or helping to organize it all. ProjectForum is centered around simple free-form text, making it easy to understand, and easy to work with - creating or modifying content within the group is as easy as writing an email message. There's no complex interface, set procedures for working, or complex web forms to navigate.

Word Processing with Microsoft Word

Word Processing with Microsoft Word 2000 Tutorial The tutorial has been divided into seven sections; a "Getting Started" section is followed by six instructional sections covering a number of related skills. The menu on the left lists all of the sections as well as the corresponding skills. For each skill that is presented you will find a textual explanation. In most cases, you will also find a link to a short animation (labeled "Show Me"). At the end of each section, you may test what you have learned by completing the corresponding "PRACTICE" exercise. You may wish to progress through the sections sequentially or focus on particular skills you are interested in learning more about. http://www.mwc.edu/training/inte/office/previous/word_processing/index.htm

Active Learning with PowerPoint An

Active Learning with PowerPoint

An online tutorial that suggests ways faculty can use PowerPoint as a medium to support active learning. The tutorial includes sections on active lecturing, active learning strategies and their delivery via PowerPoint, creating and using effective handouts, using PowerPoint to play in-class games, and using PowerPoint for formative assessment.

http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/workshops/powerp/video.html

The Virtual Lightbox is a

The Virtual Lightbox is a software tool for comparing images online. Comparison, what John Unsworth calls a "scholarly primitive," is a basic and probably intuitive operation that is nonetheless not well supported -- for images anyway -- by conventional Web browser technology; that is, users have no ability to move, juxtapose, or otherwise reposition images beyond the configuration in which they are delivered by a static page layout. As rich image collections continue to come online, it's becoming increasingly apparent that end-users lack the tools to exploit such resources to their full potential. The Lightbox is one attempt to meet this need. Though its target audience is in the academic humanities and the library and museum community, we expect the Lightbox to find users far removed from this sphere; indeed, we anticipate it will be of interest to anyone for whom images constitute an important data type.

Rubric for Online Instruction This

Rubric for Online Instruction This site is designed to answer the question being asked: What does a high quality online course look like? It is our hope that instructors and instructional designers will use this site to learn more about the Rubric for Online Instruction, and be able to view examples of exemplary courses that instructors have done in implementing the different components of the rubric. Peer Reviwed by MERLOT

Using Online Education To Develop

Using Online Education To Develop Graduate Portfolios

A summative portfolio is a document, either electronic or paper, that depicts attributes and corresponding competencies, artifacts, and statements of connectivity for the purposes of understanding and assessing an individual's worth for a given setting or climate. Guidelines for not only creating and managing these documents but also bringing them to closure and assessment are demonstrated using online techniques. Portfolios are classified mainly by function or purpose. The more common classifications are formative and summative portfolios. Formative portfolios are easily described as those reflecting an assessment mode for given circumstances. Consequently, they are not used to establish grades but to denote weaknesses and strengths for a particular course or situation. A formative portfolio's ultimate use is to improve or redirect rather than evaluate an individual. Summative portfolios depict an assessment mode executed ex post facto for individuals participating in given endeavors. Often related to a curriculum or degree program, they are used to denote attributes and proficiency levels for such individuals with the data being used to assign grades and/or validate certifications.

Blackboard Inc., Partners with Leading Academic Publishers

Blackboard Inc., Partners with Leading Academic Publishers to Develop Integrated e-Learning Solutions Tuesday March 9, 4:00 PM
ET WASHINGTON, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc., a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry, announced today that it has joined three of the world's leading academic publishers in a development project to integrate the companies' most popular e-Learning applications into the Blackboard Learning System. [...] The development project, titled "ChalkBox," will go beyond simple importation of textbook-related electronic content to accommodate more sophisticated integration between the publishers' hosted instructional applications and Blackboard-powered course web sites at client institutions.

EContent: eScholars of the World,

EContent: eScholars of the World, Unite!

The University of California Revolutionizes Publishing Paradigm By Marla Misek - March 2004 Issue, Posted Mar 10, 2004 The eScholarship Repository, a project of [the California Digital Library's] eScholarship initiative that launched in April 2002, offers faculty a central location for depositing any research or scholarly output deemed appropriate by their participating UC research unit, center, or academic department. Scholars may upload their work at no cost; users may download that work free of charge. [T]he repository enables the rapid creation, management, and dissemination of journals, peer-reviewed series, working papers, technical reports, research results, and other forms of scholarship generated by UC researchers. "Anyone can submit a paper and anyone can access the information on the site at no cost, but only university faculty can have a site within the repository and determine what goes into it," [Catherine Candee, director of scholarly communication initiatives for CDL] explains.

ERADC: ePortfolio Research and Development

ERADC: ePortfolio Research and Development Community This ePortofolio research and development community, ERADC, has been set up to provide a reference point for interested parties to contribute and learn about ePortfolio development and understanding. The
AUTHOR is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. ERADC blog

UC Berkeley's iNews: Educational technology,

UC Berkeley's iNews: Educational technology, student services EPortfolios: What's behind the hype? February 19, 2004

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) are creating quite a bit of hype within the higher education milieu. No question, they have become a growing trend PM
ong academic institutions, with a number of universities and colleges creating, implementing, and using them as tools for everything from institutionwide reflection and learning to assessment of student, faculty, and staff populations. And yet, the true excitement surrounding ePortfolios turns out to be not so much what they can do for administrators and faculty, but what they can do for students. In fact, some are saying that ePortfolios have the potential to transform higher education for students, by changing its most basic power dynamics.

From a SitePoint newsletter: Ten

From a SitePoint newsletter: Ten years ago this week, the first spam attack was launched against newsgroups by Laurance Canter, pitching legal services via an automated PERL script that posted to hundreds of newsgroups. Since that first attack, spam has grown in epidemic proportions, making up over 60% of all Internet email. But technology has adapted to help people cope. We now have: - Group spam filtering: Spamnet (works only in Outlook) - Bayesian Filters that you train from scratch (try PopFile, SpamBayes and Spamnix for Eudora) - Keyword based filtering, namely, SpamAssassin, which can have high false-positives rate for email newsletters - And Challenge-Response systems such as SpamArrest The biggest losers in all of this, have been legitimate companies, as outlined in a recent News.com story. RSS, though widely promoted, has less than a million users.

Facilitating Student-Centric Learning: E-Portfolios and

Facilitating Student-Centric Learning: E-Portfolios and WebCT http://hub-images.webct.com/resources/marquis/april_04_facilitating.htm Using e-portfolios with WebCT allows students to create personalized, Web-based collections of coursework and other artifacts. Students have the flexibility to control which individuals or groups can access their e-portfolios and which materials within the portfolio they would like them to see. Additionally, faculty can evaluate students e-portfolios to ensure that course learning objectives have been met and to assess student performance on individual or group projects.

Power lines set to carry

Power lines set to carry high-speed Internet http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0426/p16s01-wmgn.htm By Brad Rosenberg | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Power lines bring energy to homes all across America, but soon they could carry high-speed Internet service as well. On June 1, federal proposed rules for Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) go into effect. At that point, power companies can sell broadband services over power lines in every market in the United States. Several power companies from North Carolina to California have already launched trial programs in the past year, providing Internet service to customers through modems plugged into their electrical outlets. The companies are charging roughly $30 to $40 per month, a bit less than or equal to high-speed service from telephone and cable companies. [more]

Wi-fi and the future of

Wi-fi and the future of wireless http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0105/p13s02-wmgn.htm By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PM
erica is getting "unplugged" faster than an MTV musician as the revolution in wireless communication picks up speed. What started a century ago with Marconi's radio and became the now ubiquitous cellphone is now taking shape around a two-way radio technology called wi-fi (short for "wireless fidelity"). It promises to unplug more communications devices by making the Internet available just about everywhere and letting people talk to each other more easily than ever before.

Here's a long list of

Here's a long list of ePortfolio resources from the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction.

UCSF's Internet2 Day In case

UCSF's Internet2 Day In case you weren't able to attend UCSF's Internet2 Day event, which was held last week in conjunction with a National Internet2 Day event, we have available for downloading and viewing from our web site, recorded video of all Speakers and Presenters. You can view the streaming video at your leisure from the convenience of your desktop. Please visit the Internet2 Document Library at http://its.ucsf.edu/information/network/internet2/. There, you can download and view event presentations in PowerPoint, Visio, Word and Windows Media format. To watch the videos you will need to have Windows Media Player 9, which is freely available from Microsoft's web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player.aspx. Then, select a video title that's appropriate for your computer's bandwidth. For example: If you have Enhanced DSL, choose the inet2-video-512 link. * inet2-video-512 (Video for Broadband Enhanced DSL, or LAN. 512 kbps) * inet2-video-340 (Video for Broadband Basic DSL. 340 kbps) * inet2-video-38 (Video for Dial-up access. 38 kbps) Note: The larger kbps option results in higher quality video. "Streaming" allows media to be played almost instantly, while the rest of the media continues to be downloaded in the background. Presentations include: * Foreword by Tiki Maxwell * Network directions and Visions by Jeffrey Fritz * UCSF Internet2 (Historically Speaking) by Joseph Perez * UCSF / Internet2 (Technical Overview) by Peter Loo We hope you find the video and event presentations informative. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at tmaxwell@its.ucsf.edu. Please note that you can also visit the official Internet2 web site and view their archived NetCast presentations on National Internet2 day. http://events.internet2.edu/2004/Internet2Day =

Guerra Scale. The scale outlines

Guerra Scale. The scale outlines the range of online content that we can use. It describes an increasingly interactive user experience using a one-to-ten scale, in which œone� involves the common experience of simply reading text on a screen and œten� represents a virtual reality scenario. In addition to a more interactive user experience, each step up on the scale represents an increase in · complexity · functionality · development time · demands for programming skill · demands for instructional design versatility and · demands for more patience and attention from subject matter experts. http://www.learningcircuits.org/2004/mar2004/guerra.htm

Electronic Portfolios are defined on

Electronic Portfolios are defined on this site "as a meaningful collection of work, experiences, and thoughts that has been created in an electronic format, and can published online." To that end, E-Teaching encourages the use of online publishing of student work using PowerPoint as well as other software to create a student "digital" online presence which then serves as a portfolio. The question is posed, "How can templates be effectively used to support student and teacher web site development?" Using templates simplifies implementing digital student portfolios. While this is a commercial site offering to assist schools in the creation of portfolios aligned with rubrics for a fee, there is an offer to send various sample templates if requested. Explanations as to why and how an online presence should be developed displaying student work make a compelling argument for developing student projects that are web based. The ideas presented are valuable and to not require product purchase in order to read why educators should implement many of the site's suggestions. http://www.atlantis-webportfolios.com/eteaching/

Microsoft Sharepoint

A CNET News.com article about Microsoft Sharepoint: Sharing the love -- and data -- through SharePoint Last modified: April 6, 2004, 4:00 PM
PDT By David Becker Staff Writer, CNET News.com Microsoft wants you to start paying more attention to the "Save As" command. Instead of the usual habit of saving documents to a hard drive, Microsoft wants you to place them in server-based collaborative "work spaces" that can be accessed by multiple people. Such document sharing is one of the main ideas behind SharePoint, a critical part of Microsoft's strategy to unite business applications and processes. It's also viewed as a major motivator for getting businesses to upgrade to current versions of key Microsoft products. And one user's take on it: [...] In my experience, I've been disappointed with the product (sign in isn't direct and obvious, very little metadata support, very "boxy", no support for RSS, collaboration is basically just a threaded discussion, etc.) Given the opportunity, I would move toward a product like Plone, Groove, Drupal, or Convea. Over the next several versions, Sharepoint will certainly improve...but it's currently a product that looks like a poor duplication of the more effective collaboration tools now available (both open source and proprietary).

Rubric for Evaluation Online Course

Rubric for Evaluation Online Course Modules http://david-peter.com/papers/rubric/course_module_evaluation_rubric.htm This rubric, or instrument, should be used by course developers to develop quality online course modules. To view definitions of the terms used in Module Components, click on the linked term.

Personalizing Data with Digital Portfolios

Personalizing Data with Digital Portfolios http://www.ascd.org/publications/class_lead/200303/niguidula_3.html The term "data collection" seems to turn off many good classroom teachers: The term suggests that all of the information about a student, a class, or a school can be reduced to a few key statistics. The process of collecting data doesn't seem to fit with the flow of teaching and learning. And the presentation of data in graphs and charts seems to slight an aspect of schooling that is key to learning: the personal relationships we have with students, parents, and colleagues. -from Classroom Leadership, March 2003 | Volume 6 | Number 6

Web Site Tracks Procedures in

Web Site Tracks Procedures in California Hospitals Wondering how many thyroidectomies are done in Sacramento? Curious about how many babies are delivered at hospitals in Los Angeles? California Choice Outcomes allows you to specify a procedure and a town or zip code, then see how many of that procedure are performed at hospitals in that area and get additional information. To get to the comparison site, go to http://calchoice.sqctool.com/index.aspx, then choose whether or not you want Kaiser Permanente hospitals included. Once you've done that, you'll get procedure options in several categories including heart, lungs, and mothers & babies. You are then asked to specify a town and an area radius.

Better Living Through Bookmarklets By

Better Living Through Bookmarklets By Simon Willison April 9th 2004 Bookmarklets are a simple way of adding functionality to your Web browser, and can be a useful addition to your workflow as a Web developer. In this article, I'll point out some useful bookmarklets, provide tips on building your own, and demonstrate some advanced techniques for making the most of these powerful tools. A bookmarklet is a short piece of JavaScript embedded in a browser bookmark. The JavaScript is executed when the bookmark is selected. The magical thing is that this execution occurs in the context of the current page. The bookmarklet has access to the full document object model of the page and can modify it and use the information therein to launch new windows or redirect the browser to other sites.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education Friday, April 9, 2004 Google Teams Up With 17 Colleges to Test Searches of Scholarly Materials By JEFFREY R. YOUNG Google, the popular search-engine company, has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 16 other universities around the world to provide a way to search the institutions' collections of scholarly papers, according to university officials. A pilot test of the project is just getting under way. If all goes as planned, the search feature could appear on Google in a few months, said MacKenzie Smith, associate director of technology for MIT's libraries. She said the search would probably be an option on Google's advanced-search page.

Blogger redesign notes Blogger has

Blogger redesign notes Blogger has relaunched today, with standards-compliant templates, comments with spamblocking, streamlined blog creation, and page-per-post -- the kind of things that we've come to expect from a modern blogging tool. The redesign was executed by the arch-geniuses of Stopdesign and Adaptive Path, and it shows. This is a beautiful redesign, both in terms of look-and-feel and approachability for novices. The New Blogger The redesign includes a major reworking of Blogger's home page and sign up process, and a new dashboard for logged in users. With this redesign, we focused on making the Blogger brand and interface much more friendly and approachable. The design features rounded corners, large icons, direct concepts, and helpful directions.

Wi-fi and the future of

Wi-fi and the future of wireless http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0105/p13s02-wmgn.htm By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PM
erica is getting "unplugged" faster than an MTV musician as the revolution in wireless communication picks up speed. What started a century ago with Marconi's radio and became the now ubiquitous cellphone is now taking shape around a two-way radio technology called wi-fi (short for "wireless fidelity"). It promises to unplug more communications devices by making the Internet available just about everywhere and letting people talk to each other more easily than ever before.

Power lines set to carry

Power lines set to carry high-speed Internet http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0426/p16s01-wmgn.htm By Brad Rosenberg | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Power lines bring energy to homes all across America, but soon they could carry high-speed Internet service as well. On June 1, federal proposed rules for Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) go into effect. At that point, power companies can sell broadband services over power lines in every market in the United States. Several power companies from North Carolina to California have already launched trial programs in the past year, providing Internet service to customers through modems plugged into their electrical outlets. The companies are charging roughly $30 to $40 per month, a bit less than or equal to high-speed service from telephone and cable companies. [more]

Facilitating Student-Centric Learning: E-Portfolios and

Facilitating Student-Centric Learning: E-Portfolios and WebCT http://hub-images.webct.com/resources/marquis/april_04_facilitating.htm Using e-portfolios with WebCT allows students to create personalized, Web-based collections of coursework and other artifacts. Students have the flexibility to control which individuals or groups can access their e-portfolios and which materials within the portfolio they would like them to see. Additionally, faculty can evaluate students e-portfolios to ensure that course learning objectives have been met and to assess student performance on individual or group projects.

Technology Hospitals Turn

NYTimes.com > Technology Hospitals Turn Off the Pagers and Find the Doctor Faster By BARNABY J. FEDER Published: May 4, 2004 BIG PLANS for using wireless devices to streamline business practices - by tracking things like an individual yogurt container from the factory floor to the grocery store door - keep slipping into the future. But when Brian Horton, the director of the emergency department at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Ore., needs to talk to somebody right this minute, he no longer has to have the nurse or doctor paged. He presses a button on a palm-size device, speaks the person's name and, in most cases, gets an immediate reply. So far, hospitals are the front line in the integration of wireless into the workplace.

Here's a long list of

Here's a long list of ePortfolio resources from the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction.

UCSF's Internet2 Day In case

UCSF's Internet2 Day In case you weren't able to attend UCSF's Internet2 Day event, which was held last week in conjunction with a National Internet2 Day event, we have available for downloading and viewing from our web site, recorded video of all Speakers and Presenters. You can view the streaming video at your leisure from the convenience of your desktop. Please visit the Internet2 Document Library at http://its.ucsf.edu/information/network/internet2/. There, you can download and view event presentations in PowerPoint, Visio, Word and Windows Media format. To watch the videos you will need to have Windows Media Player 9, which is freely available from Microsoft's web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player.aspx. Then, select a video title that's appropriate for your computer's bandwidth. For example: If you have Enhanced DSL, choose the inet2-video-512 link. * inet2-video-512 (Video for Broadband Enhanced DSL, or LAN. 512 kbps) * inet2-video-340 (Video for Broadband Basic DSL. 340 kbps) * inet2-video-38 (Video for Dial-up access. 38 kbps) Note: The larger kbps option results in higher quality video. "Streaming" allows media to be played almost instantly, while the rest of the media continues to be downloaded in the background. Presentations include: * Foreword by Tiki Maxwell * Network directions and Visions by Jeffrey Fritz * UCSF Internet2 (Historically Speaking) by Joseph Perez * UCSF / Internet2 (Technical Overview) by Peter Loo We hope you find the video and event presentations informative. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at tmaxwell@its.ucsf.edu. Please note that you can also visit the official Internet2 web site and view their archived NetCast presentations on National Internet2 day. http://events.internet2.edu/2004/Internet2Day =

Guerra Scale. The scale outlines

Guerra Scale. The scale outlines the range of online content that we can use. It describes an increasingly interactive user experience using a one-to-ten scale, in which œone� involves the common experience of simply reading text on a screen and œten� represents a virtual reality scenario. In addition to a more interactive user experience, each step up on the scale represents an increase in · complexity · functionality · development time · demands for programming skill · demands for instructional design versatility and · demands for more patience and attention from subject matter experts. http://www.learningcircuits.org/2004/mar2004/guerra.htm

Electronic Portfolios are defined on

Electronic Portfolios are defined on this site "as a meaningful collection of work, experiences, and thoughts that has been created in an electronic format, and can published online." To that end, E-Teaching encourages the use of online publishing of student work using PowerPoint as well as other software to create a student "digital" online presence which then serves as a portfolio. The question is posed, "How can templates be effectively used to support student and teacher web site development?" Using templates simplifies implementing digital student portfolios. While this is a commercial site offering to assist schools in the creation of portfolios aligned with rubrics for a fee, there is an offer to send various sample templates if requested. Explanations as to why and how an online presence should be developed displaying student work make a compelling argument for developing student projects that are web based. The ideas presented are valuable and to not require product purchase in order to read why educators should implement many of the site's suggestions. http://www.atlantis-webportfolios.com/eteaching/

Rubric for Evaluation Online Course

Rubric for Evaluation Online Course Modules http://david-peter.com/papers/rubric/course_module_evaluation_rubric.htm This rubric, or instrument, should be used by course developers to develop quality online course modules. To view definitions of the terms used in Module Components, click on the linked term.

Personalizing Data with Digital Portfolios

Personalizing Data with Digital Portfolios http://www.ascd.org/publications/class_lead/200303/niguidula_3.html The term "data collection" seems to turn off many good classroom teachers: The term suggests that all of the information about a student, a class, or a school can be reduced to a few key statistics. The process of collecting data doesn't seem to fit with the flow of teaching and learning. And the presentation of data in graphs and charts seems to slight an aspect of schooling that is key to learning: the personal relationships we have with students, parents, and colleagues. -from Classroom Leadership, March 2003 | Volume 6 | Number 6

Web Site Tracks Procedures in

Web Site Tracks Procedures in California Hospitals Wondering how many thyroidectomies are done in Sacramento? Curious about how many babies are delivered at hospitals in Los Angeles? California Choice Outcomes allows you to specify a procedure and a town or zip code, then see how many of that procedure are performed at hospitals in that area and get additional information. To get to the comparison site, go to http://calchoice.sqctool.com/index.aspx, then choose whether or not you want Kaiser Permanente hospitals included. Once you've done that, you'll get procedure options in several categories including heart, lungs, and mothers & babies. You are then asked to specify a town and an area radius.

Better Living Through Bookmarklets By

Better Living Through Bookmarklets By Simon Willison April 9th 2004 Bookmarklets are a simple way of adding functionality to your Web browser, and can be a useful addition to your workflow as a Web developer. In this article, I'll point out some useful bookmarklets, provide tips on building your own, and demonstrate some advanced techniques for making the most of these powerful tools. A bookmarklet is a short piece of JavaScript embedded in a browser bookmark. The JavaScript is executed when the bookmark is selected. The magical thing is that this execution occurs in the context of the current page. The bookmarklet has access to the full document object model of the page and can modify it and use the information therein to launch new windows or redirect the browser to other sites.

From a SitePoint newsletter: Ten

From a SitePoint newsletter: Ten years ago this week, the first spam attack was launched against newsgroups by Laurance Canter, pitching legal services via an automated PERL script that posted to hundreds of newsgroups. Since that first attack, spam has grown in epidemic proportions, making up over 60% of all Internet email. But technology has adapted to help people cope. We now have: - Group spam filtering: Spamnet (works only in Outlook) - Bayesian Filters that you train from scratch (try PopFile, SpamBayes and Spamnix for Eudora) - Keyword based filtering, namely, SpamAssassin, which can have high false-positives rate for email newsletters - And Challenge-Response systems such as SpamArrest The biggest losers in all of this, have been legitimate companies, as outlined in a recent News.com story. RSS, though widely promoted, has less than a million users.