August 4th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew

Edublogger Review
sand are disgusting. It gives the beach a “litterbox” feel that
A "mash-up" of postings from nine engaging educational kinda doesn’t work for me.
and e-learning bloggers.
- Restaurants that don’t have children’s menus are missing
out. And the first restaurant that goes beyond the same three
Lessons from the Woods or four items on it (chicken fingers, burger, mac and cheese,
Source: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2010/08/lessons-from-woods.html pasta) wins.
By Dean Dad on August 4th, 2010

The vacation was a much-needed blessing. We were lucky in - Whoever invented Dramamine deserved the Nobel prize.
many ways: the weather cooperated, the kids were on their That’s all I’m sayin’.
very best behavior, traffic wasn’t awful, the car behaved, and I
was able to shed most of my workweek crankiness by midweek. - There’s something wonderful about being able to read
whatever you want. The gender gap in action: TW read a
Scenes from the middle of nowhere: William Styron novel, and I read Cognitive Surplus by
Clay Shirky. The last chapter is worth a blog post unto
- Kids plus large rocks equals climbing. This is true regardless itself. Somewhere, someone is going to write a brilliant essay
of the depth of the prospective fall, the depth and temperature rereading John Dewey’s notion of “organized intelligence” in
of the water below, and the relative agility of the kid. This is light of crowdsourcing. Hell, if not for the day job, I’d write it
how parents age. myself. Anyone so inclined, go for it.

- At six, bless her, The Girl doesn’t have any sense of how some - A week away from office politics is a glorious thing. It
of her words sound. In a discussion that somehow touched clears the system of bile. When overlooking some of the most
on gumballs, TG announced unselfconsciously that something beautiful vistas nature has to offer, all that silly status-jumping
“tastes like caribou balls.” I informed The Wife that her stuff just fades away. There’s a lesson in there somewhere...
daughter was talking about caribou balls. This occasioned
some philosophical musings on the nature of paternity, the
fluidity of language, and the likelihood of quoting that back to
her at, say, thirteen.. B-Schools Increasingly Look
To Corporate America For
- It’s amazing what a group can accomplish when nobody
whines. I’m just sayin’. Their Deans
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/bschools-
- Nerdiness can pay off. TW questioned why I needed to bring increasingly-look-to-corporate-america-for-their-deans.html
the laptop and aircard until the hotel lost our reservation, and By StevenB on August 4th, 2010
I was able to pull up the email receipt on screen and show Search committees at business schools are increasingly
the manager at the front desk. Note to self: bring printouts of considering chief executive officers for top administrative
reservations in the future. Still, it worked. positions, with two business schools in Boston and New York
recently tapping former CEOs to head up their schools as
- When the kids simply refused to get up, they incurred the deans. These schools are recruiting outside academia in
wrath of the Daddy Monster. The Daddy Monster used his an attempt to raise their visibility, differentiate themselves
monster-truck-rally-radio-commercial voice, combined with from competitors, and bring a more business-style approach
an apelike gait, professional wrestling language, and deadly to running the institution. Read more at:
tickling moves to move the unmovable. (“The Boy won’t stir? http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/aug2010/
(TB giggles) He’s in for a world of pain!” (TB giggles again) bs2010082_309423.htm
Then I’d blow a raspberry on his belly. Worked every time.) At
home I just sing. (My version of Katy Perry’s “California Girls”
sounds like a cross between Tom Waits and Peter Brady in that Measuring IT Performance:
episode where his voice changed. You know the one. Yes, you
do.) A CIO Perspective of One
- Hotels that offer breakfast are better than hotels that don’t.
Institution's Journey
Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/210858

- Some people smoke on the beach, apparently on the theory

that one form of cancer isn’t enough. Cigarette butts in the

1
August 4th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
By drupal on August 4th, 2010 into firing a faculty member. All because the course content
This presentation will explore one multicampus institution's "offended" the student. It's time to send those school officials
journey to assess IT performance through the development responsible for the firing to a remedial course on the meaning
of meaningful IT performance measures for productivity, of academic freedom and the idea of a university. If not that,
quality, and benchmarking. In its fifth year, STLCCs then it's time to do some housecleaning to restore academic
Technology and Educational Support Division (TESS) rigor to the state's blue chip public university. Here's what
has used data to guide process improvement, customer happened. Read more at:
satisfaction, and restructuring efforts. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-oped-0803-
byrne-20100802,0,3608746.column

The Gorilla Illusions

Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53045
7 Things You Should Know
August 4th, 2010 About Assessing Online Team-
Nice series that makes the case that a lot of knowledge
management rests on a series of illusions:
Based Learning
Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/210831
- the illusion of memory - "the weakness of the human brain as
By ckeller on August 4th, 2010
a long-term knowledge store... even the most vivid memories
can be completely unreliable." In team-based learning, students work in groups on
- the illusion of confidence - "the way that people value outcome-based or problem-based assignments. Assessing the
knowledge from a confident person. This would be fine if work produced by teams, however, presents a significant
confidence and knowledge go hand in hand, but in fact there challenge, and this difficulty is especially prominent in online
is almost an inverse relationship." environments. Developing and implementing a transparent
- the illusion of knowledge - "he way we overestimate how assessment process that both supports and recognizes
much we know... for example, to how people think they know individual and group learning can generate a powerful
how long a project will take, and how much it will cost." Nick combination of interdependency and peer cooperation. Online
Milton , Knoco stories , August 3, 2010 1:40 p.m.. [ Link ] [ assessment tools that evaluate both individual and group
Previous ][ Next ] effort support this dynamic, fostering the reliance on
community that is becoming an increasingly important feature
Comments
of the online academic landscape.
Comment The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from
You are not logged in. [Login] the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise
information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief
Title focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where
it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use
Your comment:
these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share
Enter email to receive them with time-pressed colleagues.
replies: In addition to the "7 Things You Should Know About…"
briefs, you may find other ELI resources useful in addressing
Your comments always remain your property, but in posting teaching, learning, and technology issues at your institution.
them here you agree to license under the same terms as this To learn more, please visit the ELI Resources page.
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
be deleted.
5 Energy Efficient Office
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Gadgets
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cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
August 4th, 2010
words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to
make sure it makes sense. I think the concept of 'energy efficient gadget' is an oxymoron
(because the mere existence of the gadget is not efficient) but
I want to highlight one interesting thing here: water powered
Treatment Of Professor Puts calculators. Here's more on this. Of course, it's not the water
Academic Freedom Into that powers the battery, it's the carbon and aluminum anode
and cathode ( here's how to build one ). What's significant is
Question not the batteries - they've been around forever - but rather
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/treatment-of- electronics that will now run on the very low power outputs
profession-puts-academic-freedom-into-question.html of water batteries. I also like the solar power gadget charger -
By StevenB on August 4th, 2010 but remember, if this were truly energy efficient, we'd simply
use solar cells. But they take a lot of cost and energy to make
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - at more than $200 per 10 watts they are useful only as
recently allowed itself to be bullied by an anonymous student
2
August 4th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
camping gear (consider - it would cost $2000 to power your to students' needs to keep them engaged and learning.
100 watt stereo, $30,000 to power your 2,500 watt hair dryer). Discussion participants include:
Stephanie Marcus , Mashable , August 3, 2010 1:34 p.m.. [
Link ] [ Previous ][ Next ]
Comments Luxand Blink now lets you use
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your face to log in to 64-bit
You are not logged in. [Login] Windows 7, too
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53043
Title August 4th, 2010

Your comment: We haven't heard much from biometrics lately, but that
doesn't mean nothing is happening. A case in point is this post
Enter email to receive about a piece of software that allows you to log into Windows
replies: using facial recognition. I haven't tried it yet - but I might. Erez
Zukerman , Download Squad , August 3, 2010 1:14 p.m.. [ Link
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site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
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High Tuition Two-Year Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
Program At Full Sail University them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
Succeeds Where Others Fail site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
be deleted.
Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/high-tuition-
twoyear-program-at-full-sail-university-succeeds-where-others-fail-1.html
Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered
By StevenB on August 4th, 2010
user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users
It has done what perhaps no other commercial entity in cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain
Central Florida has been able to accomplish — weave two words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to
shopping centers and an office park into one presence. The make sure it makes sense.
place is Full Sail University, a digital arts school that has
evolved from humble beginnings to become of the Orlando's
few remaining viable real-estate engines. The school's growth What Are These College
has also been fueled in part by tuition, which runs about
$75,000 for an accelerated, two-year bachelor's degree at the
Presidents Doing On
campus. Two months ago, the school opened a 22,000- Corporate Boards
square-foot expansion featuring a 500-seat venue and space Source: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/08/what-are-these-
for video-game production and recording studios. Read more college-presidents-doing-on-corporate-boards.html
at: By StevenB on August 4th, 2010
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/breakingnews/
Dr. Jackson and Dr. Sample are part of a cozy and lucrative
os-cfb-cover-full-sail-080210-20100801,0,1164405.story
club: presidents and other senior university officials who
cross from academia into the business world to serve on
In Conversation: Student corporate boards. Some analysts worry that academics
are possibly imperiling or compromising the independence
Engagement of their universities when they venture onto boards. Others
Source: http://www.educause.edu/node/210827 question whether scholars have the time — and financial
By gbayne on August 4th, 2010 sophistication — needed to police the country’s biggest
Student engagement has changed along with the tools and corporations while simultaneously juggling the demands of
technologies in the classroom. In this discussion, you'll running a large university. Read more at:
hear thoughts on how faculty are revisiting their approach http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/
business/01prez.html?_r=1&src=busln

3
August 4th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
using OpenScholar, someone on his/her IT staff will need to
In defence of the book install the software on their university's servers." But don't
and other thoughts on the panic - looking at the code I see it's based on a Drupal core,
which means a relatively straightforward PHP install. Dan
digitalization of knowledge Colman , Open Culture , August 3, 2010 12:33 p.m.. [ Link ]
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53042 [ Previous ][ Next ]
August 4th, 2010
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If I had the time, I would write a book, and if I thought I could
make a living off it, I'd find the time. But the reality (despite Comment
the assertion that 'authors need to be paid' found in this post You are not logged in. [Login]
and many others) is that making a living off a book you write
is a longshot. So while I am well-disposed toward Tony Bates Title
and wish him all the best in book publishing, I simply don't
Your comment:
think his defense of the book really scales. That said, this post
is a nice analysis of the argument, and I especially like the way Enter email to receive
it looks at a 'defense of the book' through several dimensions: replies:
- the 'book' as a long form piece of writing, as opposed to short
- the 'book' as a print publication, as opposed to electronic Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
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Related: Blue Skunk Blog , 'Do you work for your publisher, be deleted.
or..?' Tony Bates , e-learning & distance education resources
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Title

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Applying 3D Virtual Worlds to
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Higher Education
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August 4th, 2010

Your comments always remain your property, but in posting Nice and clear Master's thesis describing the applicability of
them here you agree to license under the same terms as this 3D worlds in higher education. "A process model is developed
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will that describes the process of producing a course that uses
be deleted. 3D virtual worlds as a tool. The model covers the stages
before, during, and after the course. The model describes
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user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users creativity, and advices to avoid problems." Good synthesis
cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain of various materials, including tables of didactic approaches
words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to to environment, problem categories of using Second Life
make sure it makes sense. in education, etc. Eero Palomäki , Helsinki University of
Technology , August 3, 2010 10:13 a.m.. [ Link ] [ Previous ]
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Harvard Releases Comments
OpenScholar 2.0 Comment
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53041
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August 4th, 2010

I'm tempted to wisecrack that Harvard professors need Title

something super simple, but I think actually that this
Your comment:
software package that helps them build personal and project-
oriented web sites is a good idea. OpenScholar , which is Enter email to receive
available as open source, is in version 2.0 now. Professors replies:
can "build an online home for their 'CV, bio, publications,
blogs, announcements, links, image galleries, class materials,' Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
and even submit publications to online repositories, such as them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
Google Scholar." There is a caveat : "Before a prof can start
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August 4th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will Your comments always remain your property, but in posting
be deleted. them here you agree to license under the same terms as this
site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will
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user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users
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make sure it makes sense.
Nuts and Bolts: Brain
Bandwidth - Cognitive Load
Theory and Instructional
Design
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=53039
August 4th, 2010

There's a lot of push for cognitive load theory so it's probably

important to be familiar with it. The idea is that because we
can retain only a certain amount of information at a time,
extraneous information should be trimmed from learning
materials. Some people go so far as to suggest that cognitive
load theory favours some (ie., direct instruction) modes of
learning because these modes of learning do not involve
extraneous tasks or concepts.

For my own part, I think cognitive load theory misrepresents

how we acquire and store information. It supposes that
information is atomic and symbolic, like a string of numbers.
But our perceptions actually carry multiple meanings.
Consider a string like 'school matters' (or ' the representative
student '). This is not a single-meaning string, like a set of
numbers. It embodies two separate meanings. We 'remember'
only a single string. But we 'learn' two separate concepts.

Perceptual information is much more like 'school matters'

than it is like a string of numbers. Any given perception has
multiple meanings. The purpose of multimedia presentation
is to embed multiple meanings - senses, connotations, frames
of reference, background values, and more - into a single
representation. The 'chimes' are not just chimes - they are
telling you how you should approach this material, how you
should think of it. And it's in these multiple meanings that the
richness of our learning is embodied. Reduce that meaning to
a simple essence, and you reduce the learner to a simpleton.
Jane Bozarth , Learning Solutions Magazine , August 3, 2010
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