Origin of the Term "Spam" to Mean Net Abuse

Authoritative historical record of the origin of spam, nicely written with references to original posts. More...

Get Off the Web

Fee based, subscription based, no deep linking, no ad blocking... let me clear about my poisition on this: if you aren't willing to share, you should keep your content to yourself and leave the web to those willing to use it as designed. More...

Kartoo
Way cool! Kartoo is a graphical search interface that shows not only your result but items closely related in web space - all in a nifty graphical interface (reasonably fast, too, even in 'slowed down' mode and even over the world's worst internet connection. More...

Cut-and-Paste Can Be Sticky
The point of this article is to suggest that sites that cut and paste from original content to create their listings may be skirting the edge of copyright. The discussion concentrates on site FAQs (an odd choice, because the judgement was that the copying was not a copyright violation) but it could equally be applied to all sites. More...

Elements of a Distributed Learning Object Repository Network
Powerpoint slides from my presentation at AMTEC today. I take a student's eye view of what a distributed learning object repository would look like, then describe the system architecture that supports such a system. More...

Why Dons Won't Be Logging On Today
The headline of this article is a bit miselading as the academic boycott is mentioned in one paragraph only. The bulk of the story is devoted to some high profile failures in the e-learning field, most notably Open University's withdrawal from the American market and the continuing saga of Universitas 21. More...

Twelve Principles
Sometimes I'm so conflicted. I frequently see a post on other lists - like this one, trolled in today's elearningpost. On the one hand, I don't want to leave it out of my list, because it is getting wide currency. More...

Blackboard Announces the Availability of the EasySwitch Conversion Program
This is pretty funny (well, perhaps less so if you work for WebCT): Blackboard has created a proprietary conversion kit and is directing its advertising at WebCT customers (currently themselves reeling from recent price increases). More...

Apple Unveils the eMac

Apple computer launches its education-specific desktop computer, the eMac. Most notable about the new release is the $US 1000 price tag, making it a much more affordable solution. More...

Preparing for the Coming Era of Participatory News This article is about participatory news but the analogy with education is so striking I am taking the liberty of recasting the major trends listed in the article. Here, then, ten trends that identify participatory education (clip and save):

1. Communication is king, not course content.
2. Course content is a distant fourth - behind entertainment, communication and transactions - on the learner's hierarchy of desires.
3. Learning evolves into collaborative, a participatory activity. Everyone is an instructor, or can be. Peer-to-peer learning will eclipse institution-to-learner learning.
4. The expected synergies and efficiencies associated with consolidation, centralization, and clustering prove to be overrated.
5. Convergence happens to learners, not to institutions.
6. Every company becomes a learning company. They succeed or fail on the basis of their learning.
7. Learning services replace learning products as the foundation of local, regional and global economies.
8. The decline in the traditional markets for learning accelerates. As learning become ubiquitous and pervasive, fragmentation of markets also accelerates.
9. A new group of learners - the Millennials - emerges. They have no loyalty to learning institutions. They don't read textbooks or journal articles. Their habits and behaviors have no context in traditional learning products. By sheer numbers, they have the power to transform consumer markets.
10. The learning industry fails to innovate, to change, and to create catalysts for growth.

If you ever wondered what sort of trends define what I am trying to cover in OLDaily: this is it. More...