Konfabulator
There's a bit of a story here. Part 1. Let's begin by introducing Konfabulator, "a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. More...

CARL Institutional Repository Project: Online Resource Portal
Launched about a month ago (sometimes the news just trickles in), the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Online Resource Portal will "enhance public access to scholarly journal articles through the use of 'pre-print' servers." The service harvests e-prints from six Canadian university libraries. More...

Down with Boring E-Learning!
Interview with Michael Allen, CEO of Allen Interactions. According to Allen, "although it’s sometimes denied, an effective and practical approach for e-learning must differ greatly from traditional ISD." Specifically, e-learning must be meaningful, memorable and motivational. More...

Springer Open Choice
Peter West sent me this link last night and so I've had all day to think opf it. Essentially, the deal is this: when your paper is accepted by a journal published by Springer, you as an author have the option to make it open access by paying $3,000. This link fills in the details of the program. More coverage is available at Information World Review, including some naysaying from Oxford University Press. More...

Scriptometer Overall Scores
I do most of my programming in a computer language called Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language). Maybe one day I'll switch; I used to program in C and before that in Basic and never thought I'd put either aside. And people are always urging me to write code in Java. But I detest Java. More...

Speak Up Day for Teachers 2004 Results
Don't know whether this will generate headlines outside our field, but it might. NetDay, a non-profit organization helping "educators meet educational goals through the effective use of technology," ran this survey during Speak Up Day in May. More...

Open Source 2007: How Did This Happen?
The author describes two possible futures for open source software in academic, one in which it becomes mainstream, the other in which it becomes marginal. More...

Who Are All These People, and What Are They Doing in My Classroom?
The new EDUCAUSE Review is out and I carry three articles in today's newsletter beginning with this one, a look into one of those odd problems caused by technology: non-students inhabiting the class online workspace. More...

Academic Exchange Quarterly
Academic Exchange Quarterly features fiction and the novel this month. But I'm linking because I love this page. Now if it were only in RSS format. Then I could get my articole links and never worry about remembering to go to this page again. More...

UK Independent Private Schools
Sparticus links to this site with the following comment: "Recent research suggests that the average cost of a private education is £7,500 a year. This is three times what is spent on the child receiving a state education. If they gain power the Conservative Party have claimed that they will encourage parents to take £5,500 out of state coffers to pay for private education. The plan forbids its use on any school with fees higher than this. It is difficult to see how this will work. With private schools costing up to £9,000 a year and new ones needed capital to set up, few new schools would emerge to take up the offer." What I wonder is, with costs ranging at three times that of a public education, where do private schools get a reputation for efficiency. More...