Google is “going back to the future” (my apologies the movie writer I stole this from) and working with the Harvard libraries to develop technologies to provide access to library holdings. Harvard has about 15 million volumes so it represents a good test site.
The back to the future comment – my way of saying that students may actually rediscover the library.
See my earlier post regarding a similar project at the Library of Congress
8 total views
I am turning off the comments option on this blog. Too many spammers use this feature to add their messages and links to their sites. You do not see these comments because I must approve comments before they appear. Because nearly all comments have been spam, this review process may not be worth the effort. Maybe I will try the comment option again after some time has passed.
11 total views
This link is really for my faculty colleagues. North Dakota entered into an agreement with PeopleSoft to provide an online system to integrate all services at all institutions within the state. So student records, the library, alumni programs, grants and contracts, etc. all operate through one huge system. In the middle of this process, PeopleSoft and Oracle became involved in a controvery – not the type of thing you want to see if you have already committed millions of dollars and thousands of person-hours to moving to a system of this magnitude.
This weekend it was announced that Oracle has acquired PeopleSoft. It is hard to know what this means, but it has always been troubling to me when the options available to the public in any domain dwindle to nearly nothing.
8 total views
The Discovery Channel offers a collection of online tools –
Teaching Tools – that provide a puzzle generator, worksheet maker, etc. Some of the math activities are linked to solution pages.
18 total views
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is urging state officials to get up to date and allow digital media to be purchased as course “textbooks.” Some states evidently define how textbook money can be spent in a way that excludes digital resournces. While the interest of the SIIA is obviously self serving, the question is still valid.
13 total views
China is backing a new search engine, Accoona.com (as in accoona matata), which it claims will compete with Google.
21 total views
The question of why technology has not made more of an educational difference has been addressed many times on this site. One position has been that there is still not enough equipment available to encourage classroom teachers to commit to using technology on a regular basis. When companies selling product take this position, the argument is perceived as self-serving.
Apple has a 1 to 1 initiative (like other hardware companies). The website link provided here includes a streamed panel discussion of the benefits of 1 to 1 computing. So, if you are unfamiliar with some of the arguments, here is a reasonable source.
9 total views