Learning Technology Newsletter
The July 2004 issue of IETF's Learning Technology newsletter is now available but published only in PDF, making it impossible to link to specific articles. More...

The Devil You Don’t Know: The Unexpected Future of Open Access
Laden with snide remarks and innuendos, this article suggests that advocates of open access are promoting a simplistic solution with no regard to the long term consequences. The long term result of open access journals, argues the author, will be an increase, not a decrease, in the cost of scholarly publication. More...

Freedom in Learning Innovations
Elliott Masie has caused a flap in the e-learning world by sending a letter attacking the patent litigation campaign launched by iplearn, "a company with no products and a patent attorney." OLDaily readers will be familiar with iplearn; as reported here, the company has convinced various e-learning companies to settle rather than fight, including Saba, Skillsoft and Digital Think. More...

China - Traditional Music Sound Archives
This is the sort of thing I would much rather be covering in these pages: the UNESCO project digitizing (and hence preserving for all of humanity) traditional Chinese music has concluded. Clips are available on this website. More...

Open Access Journals: Revenue Beyond Author Charges
The author considers alternatives to the 'author-pays' model of open access journals. Most of the suggestions are tiny steps back toward the traditional model. More...

Our Education System is Lacking Competitive Assessment
I confess that I don't understand the faith that competition always produces the best result. Cooperation often makes more sense. If you and I both want to go to Adelaide, the most efficient thing for us to do is to share a car, not to race. I think education is an area where cooperation, rather than competition, is more efficient. More...

School-Based Coaching
The premise seems sound - "[Coaching] offers long-term follow-up, long-term consistency, and a sense of trust so that you can go in and be a supportive agent for the classroom teacher." But coaching programs are expensive and while there have been numerous initiatives, the research isn't there yet to prove the strategy's effectiveness or to identifybest practices. More...

MPEG LA Releases DRM Reference Model 2.0
There is no doubt a lot going on behind the scenes here as the MPEG Licensing Authority (MPEG LA) releases Version 2.0 of its DRM Reference Model "to create a pool of licensable patents on DRM-related technology, so that would-be DRM implementors can license relevant intellectual property.... to cover DRM implementations that conform to the Open Mobile Alliance's OMA DRM 1.0 specification" What this article - oddly - doesn't mention is that the OMA has based its work on the open source alternative, ODRL. More...

An Overview of the Weblog Tools Market
Very good article describing the size and distribution of the weblog tools market (where a weblog tool is a system that allows you to build a weblog). Leading the way, with about half of all blogs between them, are Blogger and LiveJournal. More...

College Tours With a Virtual Twist
It's the analogy I like. Think about how you would create a mobile digital campus tour. The old way of doing it (still widespread) involves giving people a specific route to follow and a tape or CD-ROM that is played as you follow the route. Being able to turn it on or off gives you some flexibility, but it's not much use if you don't follow the route. More...