Open Access Threat to Reed's Publishing Empire
There has been a certain amount of buzz surrounding the release of Reed Elsevier's profit figures for 2003, as the publisher of academic journals has managed to set new earnings records despite, as it says, "difficult market conditions." FOS News links to slides and a webcast and notes, "see slide 32 for the vices of open access and slide 33 for the virtues of Elsevier." The Guardian coverage is a bit light, but suggests that the halcyon days may be over for the publisher; "storm clouds are gathering on the horizon," it writes. More...

Six Steps to Better Interviews and Simplified Task Analysis
Part of developing an enterprise learning solution is determining what knowledge is needed to perform each task in a specific job. Finding out just what a task entails can be tricky. More...

Social Capital in Virtual Learning Communities and Distributed Communities of Practice
This is a high quality paper that takes the concept of social capital, described in lavish detail in the first part of the paper, and applies it to online learning. An immediate benefit of this is approach is the drawing of a set of distinctions between virtual learning communities and distributed communities of practice. More...

Bridging Theory and Practice: Developing Guidelines to Facilitate the Design of Computer-based Learning Environments
OK, first, nobody should ever be allowed to use the phrase 'Bridging Theory and Practice' in a title again. It has been done, done to death, and adds nothing to the title. That said, let me say that the first three words of this paper were the works; what follows is the development of a modest set of three principles of online instructional design. More...

Self-Regulated Inquiry with Networked Resources
Approaching learning from the point of view of there being "extremely accessible networked resources," the authors examine "questions about how existing designs for learning activities should be revised, extended or supported with different tools." This paper sets out a "a Resource Inquiry model consisting of five stages: (1) Set resource inquiry goals, (2) Plan for resource study, (3) Search and select resources, (4) Study and assess new knowledge, and (5) Critique and recommend resources." This approach, a self-regulated learning model, is set in the context of problem based learning, collaborative problem solving, and project based learning. More...

Constructivism, Education, Science, and Technology
The fall issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology is now online. This issue represents a significant advance, providing some of the better links between online learning and educational theory seen in recent years. More...

Drum Sessions Protect Employees from Burnout
I don't know whether Yamaha sells drums, but it does sell musical instruments, and so I would be sceptical about the study cited in this paper. But that does not take away from the inherent value in even considering the idea of drum sessions in the workplace. More...

Beneath the Tip of the Iceberg: Technology Plumbs the Affective Learning Domain
The affective learning domain has always been, in my opinion, not only the murkiest but also the most controversial part of Bloom's taxonomy. More...

OddPost
George Siemens wrote of my article, The Semantic Social Network, that it was written ahead of its time. I don't think so. Oddpost, for example, is an email and RSS aggregator combined into a single platform, just released. Meanwhile on my discussion board for this item, Eurekster "shows you What's Hot with your friends" and Zopto "is building on the idea of foaf + rss + open APIs. More...

Software on the Brain
I'm not going to recommend the report itself, since you have to pay money for it, but you should read this summary, as it touches on themes I've tried to explore in these pages. More...