Web

A New Website for Harper's Magazine
Study this one closely. The author describes the recently launched redesign of the Harper's Magazine website. In addition to being compliant XHTML and providing RSS feeds, etc., the website is semantical web enabled. What this means is that articles are cross referenced with elements from the taxonomy, which is in turn drawn from the aricles and the index. More...

Web services = or != distributed objects?
This is a bit technical but there is a key lesson embedded in the middle. "HTML, and HTTP headers and even much of the URI spec, have a rule that any unknown content must be ignored. So if any content appears, in any place, and the receiver doesn't know about it, it can validate as if the unknown content was 'projected' out of the instance.... Distributed object systems made a critical decision that any kind of extension required that both sides understand the extended interface. This is the fallacy of 'single administrator'..." Yes. Exactly. More...

Product Reviews
This is a neat idea, though the incompleteness of it is frustrating. From a database of 760 educational products, readers can search by keyword or product name. the idea is that this takes them to a product review. Or does it? I found no reviews in my searching, just a short description and a link to a website. More...

PEGGasus Website Gallops to the Rescue
Coverage of the learning marketplace website, PEGGAsus, that I helped develop along with Bert Einsidel of the University of Alberta and staff at APEGGA and Terra Prime. More...

Do Web Search Engines Suppress Controversy?
Interesting article that touches on distance learning by using the David Noble 'digital diploma mill' controversy as one of five examples. The author asks, do we search engines stifle controversial subjects? There is some evidence that some such issues do not show up in simple searches, but this is more a result of social factors, not technological. More...

WebTurbine Impacts Learning
Just a quick glimpse from NASA into the future: "Educators and students can become Web publishers of information that includes live, always-changing content using the limited resources available to them. Sharing this content amongst themselves, remote peers at other schools and/or becoming directly involved with NASA and its partners becomes part of the daily curriculum. The student becomes a contributor and partner, and, in doing so, gains the perspective and motivation to become an active participant in the quest for knowledge." That's it. More...

UK Schools' Websites
Somebody saw an awful lot of school websites in the last few months as all 3644 school websites in Britain have been visited, catalogued, and listed in this new version of the database. More...