The e-rate has received a great deal of negative publicity because of institutional fraud and improper commercial practices associated with e-Rate resources. Critic of the e-Rate program have seized upon these improprities to argue against the program. In attempting to defend itself, the FCC is oganizing a conference to showcase some of the positive accomplishments of the program – see eSchool News description.
I am intrigued by the Open Source movement. The idea that programmers would create high quality software and give it away because they feel it is the right thing to do is very interesting. See previous post regarding Open Office.
A similar idea is surfacing regarding course experiences. The idea is that prestigous institutions will give away courses. Exactly what this means and what such resources will look like has yet to fully emerge. Will this effort result in “learning objects” that are “static” information resource (in the sense that lectures are an information source like a book) or will this be more inclusive and involve interactive experiences (scored activities, simulations)? Will the evaluation be built in and whose standards would apply?
You can experiment right now. Explore MIT OpenCourseWare. My strategy for evaluating such resources is to try to use them myself – it is not enough to read what someone else has to say or to glance through the resource. My personal experiment is based on the statistics course from Carnegie Mellon. Statistics is a content area for which my academic training provides enough expertise that I can move quickly and also compare my personal experiences with courses at my institution. I have only a couple of hours invested at this point and it would be inappropriate to generalize in any way – I do encourage others to form their own personal opinions in this way.
Take the time to examine the Carnegie Mellon research agenda which can be accessed using a link on the home page.
The Seattle Times ran a recent article on blogs and reports that Bill Gates may start his own blog. I have read other Gates works “The Road Ahead”, “Business @ the speed of thought” and he (with co-authors) does have some interesting things to say.
This is a reminder. The 2004 NECC streaming videos are now available. You will be asked to register (with Minds TV) before viewing, but access is free.
If you attended NECC, you will find that many of the keynotes are not available. I would suppose those who are paid substantial amounts for their presentations do not want their material streamed. If you have not experienced online streaming video, this may be a great opportunity to form some personal opinions.
My suggestions – Intel CEO Craig Barrett
I did experience some technical issues – try IE even if it is not your broswer of choice
The Center for Science Education offers an online manual (PDF) for educators looking for CD and Internet science resources. Educators are provided with thirteen key questionbs to use as a guide.
eSchool News ran a recent article summarizing a survey conducted by the Business Software Alliance. More than half of the young people responding admitted to downloading music and about 1/3 to downloading games. A significant proportion can provide an adequate definition for copyright and understand the content they are downloading is protected.
The survey suggests that the problem most frequently occurs at home and that parents are aware of what their children are doing.
BSA suggests a “Play it Safe in CyberSpace Curriculum it helped developed for Weekly Reader. This material offers resources for students, teachers, and parents.
Small things amaze me. I am sitting in my popup camper in a county campground a few miles outside of Madison, WI. Our daughter is an undergraduate at the UofW and we are visiting.
This is not a fancy campground and there are few special ammenities – no phone jack, no cable, and pretty much no lights. There is a shower with hot water. What amazes me is that I am on the Internet. We take a laptop with us on nearly all outings and I may write or we may watch a DVD in nearly any setting. When I turned my machine on tonight, I had a wireless connection (and it was unprotected). I actually do not know how this is possible. The only scenario I can imagine is that one of these fancy RVs around us has both a satellite connection and is using wireless within the vehicle. Must be nice. I am sitting in my camper and simply borrowing a little bandwidth.
Thanks for sharing!