Budding Buddy Business
This trend is already evident in the world of venture capital and it is likely to storm to the forefront in education as well: "Venture capitalists are opening up their wallets with caution to hot 'social networking' start-ups, or those companies that help you connect with friends to help get ahead in romance or work." What will people look for in education. More...

Who's Watching the Class? Webcams in Schools Raise Privacy Issue
Everyone else must live under video surveillance, argues this article, so why shouldn't school children? "It helps honest people be more honest," says district Superintendent Larry Drawdy. More...

Let's Tie the Digital Knot
This article is five years old but it is fundamentally right and well worth repeating in the context of the current debate about teachers' use of technology. In particular, as was commented to me yesterday, "most virtual classrooms and computer facilitated learning looks to education like the horseless carriage looked to the old buggies - cosmetically different." I agree. More...

Those Who Can't
I passed on this article when it came out last week, but it has since attracted a raft of commentary on the WWWEDU mailing list, so perhaps I have misjudged the mood (hey, it happens sometimes). The gist of the article is that "Teacher training is lagging the adoption of technology." The majority of posters on WWWEDU agree, citing examples where students take over the operation of projectors and other equipment. More...

Searching For the Personal Touch
This article is unfortunately vague, but the upshot is potentially important: companies have launched in 'stealth mode' that offer the potential for personalized search. Great in concept, this is hard to do well. More...

Gestalt and Typography
The concepts of proximity and similarity play major roles in my own theories of cognition and therefore of learning in general. More...

The Perils of Cutbacks in Higher Education
I don't want to sound like Chicken Little, but can you see the crisis coming? It is still far away from a break point, however, the combination of declining funding and rising tuition is creating a situation which, like that of an overflowing dam, will burst 'all of a sudden' on the higher educational community. More...

Context Referral for Authentic Assessment
This is an interesting paper with an important point. The idea is that instructors can take electronic notes about student activities as they occur. For example, "Mr. Jackson notes that Tamara is taking notes on the group’s activity but is primarily just observing her group partners do the work. He writes a brief reminder (“observer/scribe”) on his PDA alongside Tamara’s name and encourages her to work with other peers..." Now that may not seem like much, but it instantiates an important point: valuable data is created by context, by use. More...

Student Journalists Are Suing Harvard
This isn't about e-learning but it is an indication of the increased empowerment of students that comes hand in hand with greater connectivity. More...

Beautiful Minds
Via Kairosnews, this link points to an interesting discussion of the (possible) correlation between a teacher's looks and the evaluations given by the class. More...