CTL's Weblogs

This Palmtop Knows Its Place

This Palmtop Knows Its Place
Now here is a new machine that even the non-techies among us can appreciate. Garmin’s new iQue 3600 is the first palmtop that is also a Global Positioning System receiver. It comes with both a voice recorder and a program that lets you view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files when you're on the move. When using the GPS, a voice program can give you precise directions and gently tell you “Off route; recalculating."

E-mail Failure Big Stressor for IT Pros

E-mail failure big stressor for IT pros | CNET News.com
"For many information technology managers, a weeklong failure of the corporate e-mail system under their control would be more traumatic than a divorce, according to a study released Monday."

Apple Cuts Prices for Students, Teachers

News: Apple cuts prices for students, teachers
"As part of its efforts to stem a market share decline, Apple Computer is offering college students and teachers larger discounts on new Macs--up to 15 percent more off some models."

Group Posts Program that Exploits Windows

Group Posts Program That Exploits Windows
"A group in China released a program Friday that lets hackers exploit a flaw in Microsoft software and take over a victim's computer over the Internet. The program, released nine days after Microsoft Corp. announced the flaw, has turned an embarrassment for the company and inconvenience for customers into a near-emergency."

Online University Eyes Asian MBA Market

Online university eyes Asian MBA market - News & Technology - CNETAsia
"Universitas 21 Global (U21G), an e-university based in Singapore, is set to commence classes for its first batch of MBA students this week. Students who have signed up for U21G's courses will receive their entire MBA education online...The institution is a joint venture between Thomson Learning, the education arm of U.S.-based IT firm Thomson Corporation, and 16 tertiary institutions."

The Whole Picture of Elearning

elearnspace. everything elearning: The Whole Picture
Here is a site that brings us to a wealth of elearning resources. Start out with general resources and expand into program evaluation, planning, managing and delivering courses online. Each click brings us deeper into the subject. This is one model worth a look.

In the Lecture Hall, a Geek Chorus

In the Lecture Hall, a Geek Chorus
"At the University of Maryland, it started as an innocent question posed in an e-mail message to those attending WebShop, a three-week lecture series about the Internet...The next day in the auditorium, which was outfitted with a wireless link to the Internet, a group of people booted up their laptops, opened their IM programs and spent the next three hours happily exchanging notes during the presentations."

Libraries Get a Break on Net Filters

Libraries get a break on Net filters | CNET News.com
"The discounted Internet connections for libraries in question are paid for by 'e-rate' taxes. These are levied on telecommunications companies, which typically pass along the burden to telephone, cell phone and wireless subscribers in the form of higher monthly bills. In March, a U.S. House of Representatives committee stepped up a probe of the e-rate program, saying it was 'investigating the potential for and troubling reports of waste, fraud and abuse' that comes to hundreds of millions of dollars."

Times Tough for E-Learning

Times tough for e-learning
Company training budgets are often slashed in tough times including e-learning opportunities. But in times of economic hardship, workers often flock to higher education to upgrade their skills. This bodes well for college e-learning opportunities.

The Interactive Syllabus: A Resource-Based, Constructivist Approach to Learning

The Interactive Syllabus - A Resource-based, Constructivist Approach To Learning
“The advent of course management systems brings urgency to providing a truly interactive design for the course syllabus. Too often, uploading word-processed documents directly into the system is confused with ‘putting content’ into a course site…the interactive syllabus becomes the initial reservoir of course knowledge that permits students to engage in fruitful and profound study.”

Weblogs at Harvard Law

Weblogs at Harvard Law
"Launched in February 2003, Weblogs at Harvard Law allows anyone with a harvard.edu e-mail address to create a weblog. Designed by Dave Winer, author of the popular UserLand weblogging software, the site represents one of the first institution-wide forays into weblog publishing. As such, it also represents a noteworthy precedent for other institutions seeking to promote freedom of discussion and thought among their staff and students."

Palm Debuts Upgraded High-End Handheld

InformationWeek > Handhelds > Palm Debuts Upgraded High-End Handheld > July 23, 2003
Okay - you have the latest Palm - or do you? On Wednesday of this week Palm, Inc. launched the Tungsten T2, a high-end handheld computer - available for only $399. Who knew?

New All-In-One PC Option

InformationWeek > Tech Spending > New All-In-One PC Option > July 14, 2003
"The PC market has seen more vendors drop out in recent years than new competitors enter the fray. But United Kingdom company Pelham Sloane Ltd. last week said it will ship in September its first desktop PC, one that packs its processor, memory, and other components into a sleek flat-panel display less than 3 inches thick."

File Sharing Rocks the Enterprise

Techweb > Networking > Peer To Peer In The Enterprise > July 18, 2003
"Peer-to-peer file sharing may give your workers something for nothing—a catchy tune here, a fun game there, maybe even a full-blown movie just hours after it hits the theaters—but it’s the IT department that gets stuck footing the bill."

Creating the Instruments for a Knowledge Revolution in Rural India

The Hindu : Creating the instruments for A knowledge revolution in rural India
"Rural India is in urgent need of knowledge empowerment and the challenge before us now is to enlist technology as an ally in the movement for economic, social and gender equity. A national grid of virtual universities/colleges devoted to harnessing communication technologies and the vernacular press can play a critical role in triggering such a knowledge revolution."

Cracking Windows Passwords in Seconds

Cracking Windows passwords in seconds | CNET News.com
We have passwords to protect our work and encryption systems to keep data private over the internet – but do they work? A paper released by Swiss scientists shows that passwords can be cracked in 13.6 seconds. Go to this site to read the details. The mathematicians among us can then visit the noted LASEC URLs to study the formulas used – interesting reading. Also take a look at "Secrets to the Best Passwords" posted on July 15.

IMS and OKI, the Wire and the Socket

CETIS-IMS and OKI, the wire and the socket
Last week the alt-i-lab e-learning standards conference took place at MIT in Boston, home to some of OKI’s (Open Knowledge Initiative) main developers. OKI promises greater flexibility though not necessarily cheaper costs. OKI doesn’t replace an IMS system but allows systems to talk to one another. Take a look at what universities and standards organizations are doing to increase the use of technology in higher education.

NEW! Distance Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education
On Friday, July 18, the U.S. Department of Education held a live interactive audio webcast releasing the new statistics regarding distance education at postsecondary institutions. No surprises here - but worth a look.

National Council On Disability Says Americans With Disabilities Act Applies to Commercial and Other Private Web Sites

National Council On Disability Says Americans With Disabilities Act Applies To Commercial And Other Private Web Sites :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
"The National Council on Disability today released a policy paper that analyzes and answers the critical question: Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) apply to commercial and other private sector Web sites, and if so, what does it require?"

AbsoluteEncrypt Secures Mobile Data

AbsoluteEncrypt secures mobile data
"For sensitive data, it is clear passwords aren't enough, especially when mobile workers are connected to public networks. That's why Absolute Software Corp. has introduced AbsoluteEncrypt, a centrally managed security solution that protects desktop data on notebooks and PCs operating from remote locations such as satellite or home offices."

Michigan Winning the Broadband Race

Michigan winning the broadband race | CNET News.com
"Michigan leads the nation in stimulating demand for broadband, according to a new report on state broadband policies...The top five states in TechNet's State Broadband Index were Michigan, Florida, Missouri, Texas and Ohio. California, often considered the most tech-savvy state, came in at number 14. The group did not release the bottom 25 states."

Talking Computers Nearing Reality

Talking computers nearing reality | CNET News.com
"The technical kinks, high costs and application misfires that have held back the acceptance of speech recognition and activation are being ironed out, they say. As a result, companies are coming out with a variety of products that will let consumers access databases using voice commands, for example, or transform e-mails into one- or two-way verbal exchanges."

Picking Up the Pieces

Picking Up the Pieces
"Advanced scanning technology makes it possible to reconstruct documents previously thought safe from prying eyes, sometimes even pages that have been ripped into confetti-size pieces. And although a great deal of sensitive information is stored digitally these days, recent corporate scandals have shown that the paper shredder is still very much in use."

World's Poor Will Get Their Own Search Engine

BBC NEWS | Technology | World's poor to get own search engine
"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a search engine designed for people with a slow net connection."

Teaching Computers to Work in Unison

Teaching Computers to Work in Unison
"The grid is widely regarded as the next stage for the Internet after the World Wide Web. The Web is the Internet's multimedia retrieval system, providing access to text, images, music and video. The promise of the grid is to add a problem-solving system."

Secrets to the Best Passwords

Secrets to the best passwords - Computerworld
"The use of good, hard-to-guess passwords can make it difficult for a malicious hacker to break into your computer account. Avoiding predictable keywords and using different methods to introduce variety into your passwords makes it easy for you to remember them but virtually impossible for others to guess them."

Walk-By Hacking

Walk-By Hacking
"Not long ago, a network meant wires strung between computers. Then the wireless network was invented. Special radio transmitters and receivers let people connect equipment without coaxing a single strand of cable through a wall. Instead, the computers can send data to destinations by broadcasting through the air. That is one reason that wireless networks have become all the rage... But convenience has its price. Physics dictates that the radio signals will reach not only their intended recipients but also any compatible equipment within a several-hundred-foot radius."

Led by Intel, True Believers in Wi-Fi Say It Will Endure

Led by Intel, True Believers in Wi-Fi Say It Will Endure
"Critics argue that there are too many competitors trying to deliver high-speed wireless connections to the Internet. Prices for most commercial Wi-Fi services are too high, they say, and free or subsidized operations abound, including those like the one McDonald's started rolling out last week at its fast food restaurants in San Francisco. All this will make it practically impossible, the skeptics insist, for anyone to build a profitable business in Wi-Fi, a short-range wireless radio technology that frees personal computers from their physical tethers to the Internet."

College Rating by U.S. News Will Now Skip a Key Factor

College Rating by U.S. News Will Now Skip a Key Factor
"Perhaps the most influential survey of American higher education is changing the way it ranks the nation's top colleges and universities, dropping from its ratings a statistic that many institutions had sought to manipulate in hopes of raising their ranking in the survey. As it prepares to release its annual rankings, U.S. News & World Report, which conducts the survey, has dropped from its formula a statistic known as the yield rate. That figure is the percentage of applicants accepted by a university who later enroll at that institution."

Sloan-C 2002 Award Winners

Sloan-C - Publications - Journal: JALN
The special July 2003 issue of JALN (Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks) features articles written by winners of the Sloan-C 2002 awards for excellence in online teaching and learning. Come explore such diverse topics as: "A Cost-Effective Model for Teaching Elementary Statistics with Improved Student Performance" or "A Web-Based Core Curriculum to Meet Certification and Training Needs for Medical Residents.” Take a look at what ten Sloan-C member institutions are doing.

Macromedia Offers Collaboration Tool

InformationWeek > Collaboration Technology > Macromedia Offers Collaboration Tool > July 10, 2003
"Macromedia Inc. has unveiled an addition to its Breeze content-creation software that lets corporate trainers and business experts share their knowledge through common business tools."

Ambitious Vision, Limited Resources

Ambitious Vision, Limited Resources - A Flexible Approach to Distributed Learning
"This article is an account of the challenges faced by the department in its brief but intensive exploration. The DRD experience is likely to be relevant to other educational institutions where DL is strategic to program survival and growth, and where institutional support is not yet in place or assured."

Diploma Mills: A for Enterprise, but F for Ethics

DenverPost.com - BUSINESS
"As many as 481 diploma mills sell bogus degrees online. That's up from 320 two years ago, said John Bear, author of 'Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning' and a self-styled expert on diploma mills. An individual operation may sell degrees from as many as 30 fake schools."

Simulation Software Beats Traditional Approach in Online Course

Penn State Live
"Students in an online class who learned networking through a commercially available simulation scored higher and retained more course information than students taught with a traditional network-diagramming software package, says a Penn State researcher."

E-Varsity Targets Aspirants

GN Online: E-varsity targets aspirants
"Those who cannot afford to leave their families, career or social commitments and seek top-quality higher education could register with Universitas 21 Global (U21G), a premiere e-university that opened its doors yesterday to MBA-aspirants throughout the region. Universitas 21 Global, Asia Pacific's leading online university, opened its doors for student registration in Dubai and the Middle East in a joint venture between U21G and Thomson Learning, a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers."

African Universities Go Online

eLearn Magazine: Main Page
"Students at Makerere University and nine other tertiary institutions across Africa will soon have access to the Internet, courtesy of the African Universities Initiative. Under the initiative, funded by The World Computer Exchange, schools will receive connection to the Internet at a reduced cost, free computer maintenance for a year, and free training."

Bloggers Gain Libel Protection

Wired News: Bloggers Gain Libel Protection
"The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers."

Reaching Through the Net to Touch

Wired News: Reaching Through the Net to Touch
"Researchers at the University at Buffalo, New York, announced last week they have developed a system that lets one person experience the sense of touch felt by another. They said they could transmit the sensation across the Internet."

A Laptop Powered by Fuel Cell

A laptop powered by fuel cell
"Japanese computer giant NEC Corp. Monday revealed a prototype of a laptop computer that runs on a methanol fuel cell instead of a rechargeable battery, and said it will start selling it next year."

Is the Academy Ready for Learning Objects?

Syllabus Article: Is the Academy Ready for Learning Objects?
"Are the academic culture and instructional infrastructure of higher education ready to deliver and embrace learning objects? The answer is yes, but not at a level that suggests massive institutional transformation — yet. The promise remains too tenuous, the risk-reward ratio too high, and the sense of urgency too low for the majority of faculty to change their current practices. Nonetheless, learning objects — right-sized content that may be re-used, re-contextualized, and re-purposed — bring with them small seeds of change that likely will grow vigorously in the future."

A Feature or a Bug: SCORM and Cross Domain Scripting

CETIS-A feature or a bug; SCORM and cross domain scripting
According to Jeffrey Engelbrecht, "SCORM incompatibility across multiple Web domains is not a frequently-discussed problem, but it exists, and in some organizations presents a major obstacle to enterprise-wide distributed learning." Read the CETIS June 22nd article for more information.

Google Adds Gadgets to Its Browser Toolbar

Mercury News | 06/27/2003 | Google adds gadgets to its browser toolbar
"The new software for the Google toolbar includes a feature that automatically blocks pop-up ads, as well a program that automatically fills out Internet forms seeking a customer's name and address."

A couple of big & recent Open Source Announcements

These two announcements have been long anticipated, and may be a couple of the biggest developments in moving post-secondary education's elearning efforts forward.

News about CourseWork - the Open Source CMS

"Stanford University announced today the Open Source release of its course management system, CourseWork. CourseWork is a simple-to-use, robust, scalable system for faculty to develop and present on-line course materials. With the Open Source release, the code is now available for any school to install and customize the system, enabling it to provide instructional web sites for all its courses."

CourseWork is one of Stanford's big contributions to the Open Knowledge Initative.

Shibboleth Project - Internet2 Middleware

"Shibboleth, a project of Internet2/MACE, is developing architectures, policy structures, practical technologies, and an open source implementation to support inter-institutional sharing of web resources subject to access controls. In addition, Shibboleth will develop a policy framework that will allow inter-operation within the higher education community."

Click the Shibboleth link above for details about how and why users and institutions can take some control over and actively participate in managing their own personal and institutional authentication and privacy strategies.

Syllabus Magazine: Course Management Systems Issue

Syllabus Magazine

Plamen Miltenoff, Associate Professor InforMedia Services at St Cloud State University, brought this July 2003 issue of Syllabus to our attention, with these comments:

Those of you who perused through the new Syllabus
(http://www.syllabus.com/mag.asp) issue would probably agree if I say
that it might become the "issue of the year."

The issue is devoted to Course Management Systems (CMS).

Plamen gives a brief overview of the articles (view by clicking "more" below), including noting that David Brown's monthly column mentions his April visit with MnSCU faculty at the annual ITeach conference.

There is a great interview with Carl Berger, a professor at the University of Michigan, in the School of Education, where he specializes in science and instructional technology. The interview goes beyond discussion of Blackboard or WebCT, but rather discusses the Multimedia
Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (Merlot)
. The interview is called: "Course Management Systems in Perspective: A Conversation with Carl Berger" and can be accessed online at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7883.

From a pedagogical stand point, there is even more interesting article by Judith Boettcher: "Course Management Systems and Learning Principles: Getting to Know Each Other ...," which applies very nicely the Vygotskyian model. Article is accessible online at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7888.

There is a third great article, which recommends ways to access Course Management Systems: Better Off With or Without Your CMS? 5 Kinds of Assessment That Can Really (sic), available online at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7889.

Those of you who attended Mike Condon's presentation at the ITeach
conference this last April might find the article "Is the Academy Ready
for Learning Objects?" available at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7886.
as the natural continuation of Mike's discussion.

Last but not least, at the very same conference in Minneapolis, guest speaker was David Brown, the vice president and dean of the International Center for Computer Enhanced Learning at Wake Forest University. Dave shares in his column "Computers Aid Communication" the lessons learned with us, the participants at the conference http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7897.

Online Business Program at Metropolitan State University

MnVU Spotlight
"Barbara Keinath,PhD. College of Management and Director of Online Learning at Metropolitan State University (noted that) Business Online, the online home for online degrees in business, launched January 1! Business Online is accepting a limited number of students to earn the B.S. in business administration at Metropolitan State University and/or the A.S. in business from Anoka-Ramsey College. (Majors in management and marketing (B.S. degrees) will be available by the end of 2003)."

Government Extends Review of Oracle's PeopleSoft Bid

Government Extends Review of Oracle's PeopleSoft Bid
"The Justice Department today extended its review of the Oracle Corporation's $6.3 billion hostile bid to acquire PeopleSoft, a rival maker of business software. The move means the proposed deal will face substantial scrutiny on antitrust questions, a process that could take months."

States Vie for $4.2M to Measure Technology's Impact on Learning

eSchool News online
"States have until July 28 to apply for a new U.S. Department of Education (ED) grant program that will provide $4.2 million in fiscal year 2003 funding for state officials to design and conduct their own 'scientifically based research' of technology's impact on learning."

CU Denver Biz School Joins Effort for Online Education

CU Denver biz school joins effort for online education - 2003-06-16 - The Denver Business Journal
"The business school at the University of Colorado-Denver is joining the newly formed Online University Consortium to compete for a different kind of market niche: adult learners whose education is funded by their employers."

EClassroomSM Selected By The American Museum Of Natural History To Support Museum's Online Professional Development Program For Teachers

EClassroomSM Selected By The American Museum Of Natural History To Support Museum's Online Professional Development Program For Teachers :: Distance-Educator.com's Daily News :: Distance education news from around the world!
" eClassroomSM ... has been selected by the American Museum of Natural History, one of the world's preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, to power the Museum's online professional development program, Seminars on Science. Through eClassroom's complete technology and service solution, teachers will gain virtual access to the Museum's scientists, laboratories and vast collections to better help them enhance curriculum in line with new national science education standards."

KZN Schools Get Cut-Rate Internet

KZN schools get cut-rate Internet
"New Cape Town company Wizzy Digital Courier has devised a way to bypass many of the costs of setting up and running a school computer LAN by using old equipment, the Linux operating system and Telkom's R7 Callmore package."

Embanet Success Letter

Embanet Success Letter
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities contracts with Embanet to provide 24x7 Help Desk Services. Embanet puts out a monthly newsletter. Take a quick look.