I’ve just started setting up a Moodle site for my Computer Networking and Computer Science courses for the upcoming semester (starting on Monday). So far I am impressed! I have worked with WebCT – well, maybe struggled against WebCT is a better description. I have heard WebCT described as a programmers idea about what an online learning environment should be, and that is a very generous description. Moodle seems much gentler, especially when I’m noodling with Moodle after midnight. In fact, Moodle is downright intuitive to work with. This just might work out for me! If you want to drop by the course site (guests are always welcome, if I’ve got the settings right), you can find it at http://www.omegageek.net/courses UPDATE – the technical staff at my school division have installed a Moodle server for the division. My computer science … Continue reading »

I just read on scripting news that Viktor Yuschenko, prime minister of the Ukraine, has a blog. Not being able to read Ukrainian, I can’t tell if this is real blogging or something that someone in his office is writing. I think that the most successful politicians of the 21st century will be the ones who can genuinely connect with the populace, and I think weblogs will be an important part of that process. The early attempts have been insincere and pretentious – Paul Martin’s blog before the last Canadian election springs to mind as an example – or misunderstood by the media, as was Howard Dean’s Dean for America blog. Politicians take note – there is a lot of cynicism by many people not only about your sincerity and motivations, but increasingly about the political process itself, notably among … Continue reading »

I mentioned a couple of days ago about James Farmer’s analysis of current learning management systems versus learning communities that may be more driven by the learners and emerge out of the interaction of the learners. I still think that this is a needed conversation; more precisely, I think that this is an inevitable conversation that needs to occur between learners and education institutions. I’ve just read a reaction to James’ post by Cleve Miller, who has posted In Defense of Management on his blog. I’m glad that he has pointed out that the currently fashionable meme that management is bad and individual freedom is good needs to be examined critically. Education, as a managed activity has certainly made significant and generally desirable contributions to civil society over the centuries, and is definitely preferable to the lack of education. Its … Continue reading »

Thanks to Dave Winer for passing along a link to an article from BBC news about blogging in academic settings in England. It sounds like a number of universities in England are embracing blogging as an academic practice for faculty and students. Warwick University has even gone so far as to provide blog hosting for 2300 faculty and students on their own servers, joining other universities such as the University of Minnesota and the University of Prince Edward Island in providing University hosted blogs to all students. I hope this is a trend that continues at many other universities. BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Academics give lessons on blogs

Thanks to my ungracious ex-webhosting company, Rick Schwier’s blog, Rick’s Cafe Canadien has been down for about a week, and all the data on the site was lost! I am grateful that an earlier backup from a couple of month’s ago was available, so the loss was not complete. The Google cache was also a big help in finding a couple of lost entries. But I have learned my lesson – backup up your data!. If you care to, you can read my account of the web hosting company that screwed me over!

Oh there is a buzz in the educational technology blogosphere that is music to my ears. D’Arcy is talking about it and so is James. The topic of discussion is smallness. Like D’Arcy, James and many others, I think small may be the next big thing in learning (at least in online learning). D’Arcy raises some really good questions about how to create a learning system out of some small pieces loosely joined: What are the small pieces? How can they be tied together? What is the larger ecology that forms as the pieces learn about each other? Where are the gaps and opportunities? Why small? Because its not big. Its not a monolith. Its not the corporation. Its not all-consuming and impersonal. As James says: I reckon that through weblogs and aggregation we can un-manage OLEs, we can, dare … Continue reading »

Despite technical difficulties, here is a conversation with Rick Schwier about podcasting and education. This was recorded in Rick’s office on his Olympus voice recorder. During the course of the conversation, I somehow manage to work WKRP in Cincinatti as well as a rant about the utility (or lack thereof) of teaching cursive writing in elementary schools. If you are concerned about education, interested in technology or both, you may find this interesting. Here’s a (really quick) summary (or should I say a Really Small Summary – nah, too contentious. ;^) ): What’s the educational model for using podcasting? Comparing blogs and podcasts (including my pathetic begging for someone to send me an iPod shuffle) Content is king! (Rick and I rave zealously about CBC radio) Rick asks “Who is listening to podcasts?” Podcasts as theatre of the mind (mentioned … Continue reading »

I just finished an abortive attempt at recording a conversation with Rick Schwier for the next podcast. After a couple of abortive attempts, we deferred the conversation until Saturday when we can sit down face to face. That also means I’m back to square one for recording skype calls for podcasts. If all else fails, I can take recordings at both ends of the conversation, then patch them together in an audio editor. Any ideas?

Well, I guess its time to max out my credit cards again. Here’s why. Yep – no doubt about. After a brief flirtation with Windows, I’m going back to a Mac for my next computer.

This is the most coherent analysis of the current farcical intellectual property laws I have yet read. It was time for another Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension to keep Disney’s star property out of the public domain. Somebody’s nephew had a bright idea. Instead of telling Congress to add the standard twenty years to the length of copyright, why not go for the big time? Extend copyright by 500 years. Read the rest at it’s all one thing: The People Who Owned the Bible – a story. Thanks to Boing-boing via Jenny