Sign of the Apocalypse: MTV Announces Line of PCs

To be aimed directly at college students living in dorms, these branded PCs will focus on games and entertainment and will feature "exclusive" MTV content. More...

The Learning Frontier
Good article in which three experts in simulation game design - including the designer of Sim City - talk about what makes a good similation and how simulatioons could be used for learning. Some tidbits: the object is to create an immersive environment and to eliminate distractions from the players' belief in that environment, so save the questions for later. More...

The EDUCAUSE Program Plan for 2002
EDUCAUSE outlines its program priorities for 2002. The U.S. consortium of higher education institutions and consortiums will look at (among other things) public key infrastructure for higher education bridge certification authorities, launching a virtual communities and teams initiative, and the establishment of an institute for computer policy and law. More...

AOL's Online Campus

Your new competition in online learning: AOL Time Warner. The internet and publishing giant has "thousands of content partners" including the University of Phoenix. More...

Oxford University Press to Launch Biggest Online Reference Website

Planned for a launch in March, 2002, Oxford Reference Online will dwarf any previous online reference service. The publisher intends to make money from the site, selling subscription-based acces. More...

Blackboard Will Acquire a Competitor, Prometheus, From George Washington U.

The discussion lists are in a tizzy about Blackboard's acquisition of Prometheus, one of its competitors. More...

Education on the Internet
This useful email newsletter was launched in the U.K. in October. Currently on issue 11 (with more than 11,000 subscribers) the newsletter provides weekly links of interest in a range of topic areas including history, English, politics, sociology, music and more. More...

UNext, Hoping to Bolster Sales, Signs 2 Big Marketing Deals
Everybody's covering this one, though the story is not nearly as big as it may seem. In a nutshell, UNext has turned to Thomson Learning and Knowledge Universe to "market" its online courses. More...

Predictions for 2002
eLearn Magazine surveys the "e-learning visionaries" and comes up with a set of predictions for 2002. Not surprisingly, most of the predictions seem relatively close to the mark - wireless e-learning, for example, won't make a breakthrough (though wireless LANs will), and consumers may finally express frustration with high priced learning management systems. More...

New Virus First to Infect Macromedia Flash
You will probably see stories in the media about the first virus to infest Flash .swf files. It's a significant development but should not cause alarm at this point. The virus released - SWF/LFM-926 - simply infects the files; it does no harm (and so is known as a 'proof of concept' virus). More...