July 16th, 2010
Edublogger Review
A "mash-up" of postings from nine engaging educational
and e-learning bloggers.
I Heart This Story
Source: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-heart-this-story.html
By Dean Dad on July 16th, 2010
This piece in IHE went uncommented the day it was
published, which, I’ll admit, surprised me. It was one of the
most hopeful pieces I’ve read in a long time.
It’s about the Community College of the District of Columbia,
a new institution growing out of the University of the District
of Columbia. As many people know, the District of Columbia
has some issues with poverty, crime, and public school
performance. Just a few. Not like you’d notice. So a new
community college there makes a world of sense.
But what’s especially heartening is that, as a new institution,
it’s actually taking the (vanishingly rare) opportunity to
build all of its systems from the ground up around a
robust assessment program. Put differently, it’s building an
experimental ethic into its design.
Go, CCDC!
Too often, assessment measures are appended as
afterthoughts, which, in fact, they were. Departments
generally consider themselves the unquestionable local
experts in their fields, above being told anything by anyone
about what they teach. Accordingly, they don’t see much point
in assessment, and treat it as meddlesome busywork to be
minimized when it can’t be entirely ignored. They assume
they already know the answers, so they don’t like being asked
questions.
CCDC is reversing the order. The burden of proof is not on
the data; it’s on the programs. If the programs fall short,
presumably, they’ll have to adjust. Expertise will be in the
service of the mission.
It’s still early in the game, and I’d expect to see ‘pushback’ in
various areas gradually get stronger over time. Some people
will try, sincerely or not, to explain programmatic failures by
reference to lack of funding; if the college falls for that, it will
quickly fall into the same sinkhole that has swallowed much
of the rest of higher education. The inevitable lag between
when you need to make decisions and when the data actually
comes in will create some awkward moments. There will be
honest and real disagreements over the interpretations of
some of the findings, some of which will probably become
heated. To the extent that destination colleges make their
acceptance of transfer credit decisions based on other criteria,
Published by: philosophyandrew
there may be gaps between what the data says and what’s
politically possible. And probably some interpretations will be
unfortunate, reductionist, or otherwise flawed.
But still. This is absolutely the right way to go. The community
college exists to serve the students and the community, rather
than the faculty. That means relocating ‘truth’ from ‘he who
huffs and puffs the loudest’ to ‘what actually happens with the
students.’ Allocating resources based on data is much easier
if the data measures are built in from the beginning. The
students are too important, and too vulnerable, to trust their
fates to the way things are usually done. We know perfectly
well how they’ll fare if that happens.
If anything might help, this might. Best wishes, CCDC. I’m
rootin’ for ya!
Connectivism in the Enterprise
Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2010/07/15/connectivism-in-
the-enterprise/
By gsiemens on July 16th, 2010
I’m delivering a presentation in a few weeks to a “large
technology company that everyone knows but I can’t name
because of onerous procedures for clearing name use” on
Connectivism in the Enterprise: .doc file and Google docs
version.
The paper doesn’t really include anything new…but is an
attempt to explore connectivist learning models in business
settings.
PKM: Working Smarter
Source: http://www.jarche.com/2010/07/pkm-working-smarter/
By Harold Jarche on July 16th, 2010
In PKM in a Nutshell, I linked my various posts on
personal knowledge management to make the framework
more coherent. My ITA colleague, Jane Hart has just released
an extensive resource that correlates nicely with the PKM
framework. It is called A WORKING SMARTER RESOURCE:
A Practical Guide to using Social Media in Your Job and
includes seven sections (my annotations on how they connect
to PKM):
1. Finding things out on the Web (SEEK)
2. Keeping up to date with new Web content (SEEK)
3. Building a trusted network of colleagues (SEEK & SHARE)
4. Communicating with your colleagues (SHARE)
5. Sharing resources, ideas and experiences with your
colleagues (SHARE)
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July 16th, 2010
6. Collaborating with your colleagues (SHARE & USE)
7. Improving your personal productivity (SENSE & USE)
Here’s the a description and rationale for adopting PKM,
individually and within organizations:
• PKM is a way to deal with ever-increasing amounts of
digital information.
• It requires an open attitude toward learning and finding
new things (I Seek).
• PKM methods can help to develop processes of filing,
classifying and annotating for later retrieval.
• PKM leverages open web-based systems that facilitate
sharing.
• A PKM mindset aids in observing, thinking and using
information & knowledge better (I Sense).
• Transparent PKM helps to share ideas with others (We
Share).
• After a while, you begin to realize you’re in a community
of practice when your practice changes (We Use).
• PKM prepares the mind to be open to new ideas
(enhanced serendipity, or chance favours the prepared
mind).
Time To Crack Down On For-
Profit Higher Ed's Abusive
Practices
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/07/time-to-crack-
down-on-forprofit-higher-eds-abusive-practices.html
By StevenB on July 16th, 2010
Haven't we heard this story before? It features a high-pressure
sales force persuading consumers in search of the American
dream to go deep into debt to purchase a product of often
Published by: philosophyandrew
dubious value. This sounds like a description of the subprime
mortgage industry, which came crashing down two years ago.
But what I just described is the reality at many for-profit
colleges. In recent years, an absence of federal oversight has
allowed a dangerous bubble to grow in the for-profit college
industry. The challenge is to crack down on the bad actors
and abusive practices while preserving the positive options
and innovations that many for-profit colleges have pioneered.
Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-
harkin-profit-colleges-20100713,0,1016400.story
Get Out of the Echo Chamber
to Improve Innovation
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52886
July 16th, 2010
I met Ethan Zuckerman in Linz and was impressed by him as
a thoughtful and considerate person. His message, embodied
in his Global Voices website, is worth embracing. "Exposing
ourselves to a wider diversity of ideas is critical. It is especially
important in our roles as citizens, but it is also crucial for
improving innovation. We need to hear idea that don't simply
echo our own." This post links to his TED Global talk. Tim
Kastelle , Innovation Leadership Network , July 15, 2010 6:06
p.m.. [ Link ] [Tags: none] [ Previous ][ Next ]
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Web 3.0
Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2010/07/15/web-3-0/
By gsiemens on July 16th, 2010
Steve Wheeler shares a presentation Web 3.0: The way
forward?. Steve takes a three-fold view of web development:
1.0=linking, 2.0=participation, 3.0=existing data reconnected
for smarter uses. Stephen Downes responds “let me be the
first to name the new web: Web eXtended (or just Web X)…
idea of Web X is that it combines web 2.0 (social web) and
web 3.0 (semantic web) to create what I have called, in the
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July 16th, 2010
past, the semantic social web. But it’s more than just that,
because it takes these and moves them off the web and into
your hand. And more than just that, because it’s the web of
data, the geoweb, augmented media, the 3D web, and more.
The eXtended web – the web, extended from the internet, into
your life.”
The development of the semantic web, linked data, and
open data, coupled with location-awareness, recommender
systems, augmented reality, data overlays, and similar
developments is having a dramatic impact on how people
interact with information and each other. Steve and Stephen
have attempted to quantify the nature of that change and
to name it. My own interest is more focused on how to
use these developments to improve learning. This is coming
together somewhat in the emerging field of learning analytics
(conference announcement on that some time in the next few
weeks!). Regardless of name/focus, the inclusion of smart(er)
data in mobiles and learning will open new (and exciting)
doors for education and learning in general.
Men Have Higher Job
Satisfaction Than Women in
Academia
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/07/men-have-higher-
job-satisfaction-than-women-in-academia.html
By StevenB on July 16th, 2010
Differences in job satisfaction between men and women in
academia exist, but vary across disciplines, a new study
shows. Untenured assistant professors at research universities
in physical sciences and humanities reported being most
satisfied with their positions, whereas those in education and
visual and performing arts reported being least satisfied. But
greater discrepancies were seen when job satisfaction was split
between the sexes. Differences in satisfaction between men
and women were largest in social sciences.Read more at:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/07/14/women-
academics-less-satisfied-than-male-counterparts/
Connectivism in the Enterprise
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52885
July 16th, 2010
I would never be allowed to make a presentation to such a
company because there's no way in the world I would ever be
so obsequious as to promise not even to mention the name of
the company. Just saying. George Siemens , elearnspace , July
15, 2010 5:40 p.m.. [ Link ] [Tags: Connectivism ] [ Previous
][ Next ]
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Reshaping Marketing
Source: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2010/07/15/reshaping-
marketing/
By gsiemens on July 16th, 2010
Education, like news, journalism, and marketing, is
undergoing a substantial shift. Essentially, the individual
formerly known as “student” now has far greater control over
information, conversation, and access to experts outside of the
classroom. Broadcast lectures are giving way to interaction
and learner control. A great example of a similar shift can
be seen in what marks an important point in marketing and
PR: the Old Spice campaign. Basically, the campaign blends
traditional media with social and real time media. The actor in
the commercials has been responding via short videos (15-35
seconds each) to questions on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and
other services. At last count, over 180 short videos had been
posted – a wonderful, and amusing, way to waste time. Some
have called it “the best use of social media yet” and that the
campaign will “turn out to be the case study from how to
turn advertising into content and how to use social media to
activate mainstream coverage”. The making of the videos is
a big shift from planned image control that most companies
exhibit. Writing and production happens in real time without
usual vetting/discussion, exhibiting strong trust between the
company and the ad agencies.
Perhaps we should model an Old Spice educational campaign:
real time learning driven by learners questions in various
distributed tools, not the instructor’s pre-planned content in a
classroom or LMS. But with shirts on.
UC Wants To Offer Elite Online
Degrees But Some Oppose
The Idea
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/07/uc-wants-to-offer-
elite-online-degrees-but-some-oppose-the-idea.html
By StevenB on July 16th, 2010
Taking online college courses is, to many, like eating at
McDonald's: convenient, fast and filling. You may not get
filet mignon, but afterward you're just as full. Now the
University of California wants to jump into online education
for undergraduates, hoping to become the nation's first top-
tier research institution to offer a bachelor's degree over
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July 16th, 2010
the Internet comparable in quality to its prestigious campus
program. But a number of skeptical faculty members and
graduate student instructors fear that a cyber UC would deflate
the university's five-star education into a fast-food equivalent.
Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/
a/2010/07/12/
MN581EAQR0.DTL&feed=rss.education#ixzz0tZhYg6sm
Fully supported hosted Eduglu
is coming! | Eduglu - Drupal
Social Learning Platform
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52884
July 16th, 2010
This is interesting - "A social network application built entirely
using Drupal and a set of modules. Eduglu Alpha 2 is available
now." D'Arch Norman writes, "Now, how to reconcile this with
my disdain for the concept of the PLN? Because Eduglu isn't
claiming to be the whole widget. It's a way to connect various
sources of content, published by various people, distributed
across the internet, and then use that in the context of a class.
Where the magic really happens." D'Arcy Norman , D'Arcy
Norman dot net , July 15, 2010 5:35 p.m.. [ Link ] [Tags: Books
, Networks , Content Management Systems , Drupal ] [
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When IHEs Start Selling Off
Their Cows You Know Times
Are Hard
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/07/when-ihes-start-
selling-off-their-cows-you-know-times-are-hard.html
By StevenB on July 16th, 2010
The University of Vermont will soon house fewer cows as
low milk prices, high costs and budget cuts have forced the
Published by: philosophyandrew
university to sell its herd. Other universities are doing the
same, or looking for other ways to cut costs, as high feed, fuel
and labor prices make it difficult to keep animals during tight
economic times. The sales are taking place despite growing
enrollment in agriculture programs. A minority of schools are
discontinuing their herds but all institutions are looking at the
costs of keeping their animals. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/
articles/2010/07/12/
agriculture_colleges_sell_cow_herds_to_cut_costs/
Report: Teens Using Digital
Drugs to Get High
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52882
July 16th, 2010
It's hard to believe, but there's a moral panic over kids "using
digital drugs." The trend, known as "i-dosing", involves lying
on your back, closing your eyes, and listening to trance-
inducing sounds such as Gates of Hades . An Oklahoma
newspaper was quick to sound the alarm, not so much because
it's harmsful but because it's a "gateway drug." "'The bigger
concern is if you have a kid wanting to explore this, you
probably have a kid that may end up smoking marijuana or
looking for bigger things,' Woodward said." I see what they
mean. After reading this item I started listening to Tangerine
Dream again - I've been hooked ever since seeing them play
Stratosfear in the 1970s in Ottawa. Ryan Singel , Wired , July
15, 2010 5:28 p.m.. [ Link ] [Tags: Schools ] [ Previous ][ Next ]
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Private IHEs Contribute To
The State Economy
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/07/private-ihes-
contribute-to-the-state-economy.html
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July 16th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
By StevenB on July 16th, 2010

Students' discretionary spending is just a small part of

the estimated $1.2 billion a year the Lehigh Valley's six
private colleges — Lehigh, Lafayette, DeSales, Cedar Crest,
Muhlenberg and Moravian — pumped into to the state and
regional economy in 2009, according a report in May from
the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of
Pennsylvania . P rivate universities as a whole remain a
growing segment of the state's economy. Statewide, private
colleges and universities paid more in wages than law offices,
restaurants or commercial banks, and contributed more than
$16.1 billion to the economy. Read more at:
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-college-
economy-20100712,0,7010182.story?track=rss

10 Free Wireframing Tools for

Designers
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52881
July 16th, 2010

Designing something? These free wireframing tools might

help. I'm noting this here for my own future reference. Grace
Smith , Mashable , July 15, 2010 5:07 p.m.. [ Link ] [Tags:
none] [ Previous ][ Next ]
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