Real Networks Announces Helix DRM

This was announced as being in the works when Real Media released Helix and now is available: digital rights management (DRM) for multiple media formats. More...

Retinal-scans to Remove Social Stigma From English School

There's nothing like announcing, "I'm poor!" every time you line up for lunch in the school cafeteria. More...

Adult Learning in Cohort Groups
Short paper that describes the value of cohort groups in adult education and, more importantly, identifying some key practices: the need to spend time at the beginning developing group relationships, the need to balance both group and individual development, an environment that both supports and challenges, and a way to address tensions within the group. More...

What's Wrong With Distance Learning?
Let's start our look at this article in the middle: "The ultimate goal of our discipline is enhanced performance, not increased knowledge." What? Do you think learners have as their ultimate goal "enhanced performance" instead of, say, knowledge? or promotions? Or pay raises? Or maybe just something that makes their job easier? The same with corporations: it's not "enhanced performance" that corporations are after, but rather, improved earnings. More...

Where oh Where is Plug & Play?
"A layman reading the sales literature from major suppliers of e-learning courseware, authoring tools, and LMS systems might be excused for assuming the industry already has arrived at plug-and-play... That layman, however, would be wrong." Yup, that's about the size of it. So what has gone wrong? Here's my take. More...

What Is Public About Public Education?
There are several ways to read this article. It asks the reader to ponder what is "public" about public education, and then suggests that the distinction between public and private education is a lot less clear than some might think. More...

How New York Exams Rewrite Literature (A Sequel)

If you are wondering why this item has an impact on online learning, read it in conjunction with the story about scientific papers being removed from online archives. More...

BlogStreet

Interesting and useful utility that allows readers to locate blog RSS feeds and that ranks them in order of their blogrolls. More...

In a Digital World, Encyclopedias Strive for Relevance
Interesting look at the role of enclyclopedias in the digital era. The main point of the article is that such publications remain relevant, despite the information glut, especially as a "safe" reference for children (an interesting marketing ploy). It also argues that the market for paper-based versions remains strong. More...

Educationalists
Still in pre-launch mode, the purpose of Educationalists is to "connect education specialists with the schools that need them." It looks like an appealing idea, and the interface seems easy to use. More...