Software Beats All CD Copy Protection
My first radio had the ultimate in copy protection: it had no recording device whatsoever. My first copying system, therefore, consisted of putting a tape recorder near the radio speaker and pressing 'record'. Later, I discovered I could patch the earphone output into the microphone input and improve the quality of the sound. More...

Research Insights into Interactivity
Survey artivle that looks at recent research into interaction, including Palloff and Pratt on student expectations, Garrison and Anderson on social presence, and Burge on effective interaction. More...

Feasibility of Course Development Based on Learning Objects
"This paper presents three case studies that seek to maximize the use of freely available and reusable learning objects in their course design," write the authors. "The three case studies originated in different university-level disciplines – Nursing, Business and English writing." An excellent discussion of some issues involved in the use of learning objects follows, with the cases providing solid foundation for criticism. More...

EduSource: Canada’s Learning Object Repository Network
Fairly detailed overview of the eduSource project, Canada's contribution to the world of learning object repositories. The article will still leave the reader dissatisfied, but only because they want to see and use the network being described. More...

The Rise of Learning Objects
The March issue of the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning is now available online, a little late, I am told, because of ISP issues. This first article is my own introduction (I am an Editor at Large for the Journal) and is a fairly light treatment of the idea that we are in a transitional phase in the adoption of learning objects. More...

(Mis)Leading Open Access Myths
Nice and relatively short (a dozen pages or so) rebuttal from BioMed Central to the "myths" being presented to the British House of Commons select committee investigations into Scientific Journal Publishing. More...

A Good One From April Fool's
This short description of the April Fool's gag pulled by MetaFilter is worth a read. The popular group blog, which has had to impose membership limits because of the volume of posts, replaced its front page with a Wiki. More...

Horizon Live and Wimba Announce Combination
Two providers of synchronous conferencing to the e-learning space, Horizon Live and Wimba, have merged. More...

Wireless Digital: Coming to a Theatre Near You?
The move toward video on demand moves another step forward. I hope that movie studios keep in mind that it is distribution and convenience that people pay for: the ease of selecting and viewing a movie on the day it is released. This development is a step in the right direction. More...

New Software Detects Plagiarized Passages
This is pretty funny and pretty sad at the same time. Although plagiarism is something that seems to involve colleges and universities most of all, it is apparently rampant in the work world - after all, there are no professors to remember that the paragraph you used on page 5 was previously written in an obscure essay twenty years ago. More...