By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In Some Schools, iPods Are Required Listening
While iPods are being banned in some schools, they are being given out in others, especially as an aid to language learning. This is a good idea; learning a language typically requires developing 'an ear' for the language, and a good way to acquire that it so listen to it constantly. More...
Google: Why Jaiku and Not Twitter?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google: Why Jaiku and Not Twitter?
Google has acquired Jaiku, a microblogging ste remarkably like Twitter (though as one commenter notes, "Twitter seems to essentially be a communication/microblogging tool. Jaiku, on the other hand, seems to deal in what they call presence management i.e. consolidating the multiple activities/identities that one has around the 'net and collecting them all in one place.") What Twitter has, though, is users, which is norally what makes it a good acquisition. But Twitter was co-founded by Evan Williams, the creator of Blogger, which was acquired by Google. More...