Do Libraries Really Need Books?
Any doubt about the tone of this article is removed in the subtitle: "Controversial projects at some colleges move the printed word out of sight." This is, of course, a ridiculous way to describe the use of electronic texts instead of dead tree products. The article describes, as the title implies, the growing reliance of college libraries on electronic texts - largely at their students' urging. More...
Thomson and HIPAA Academy Launch HIPAA Certification and Learning Solutions to Healthcare Industry
Thomson and HIPAA Academy Launch HIPAA Certification and Learning Solutions to Healthcare Industry
Just a press release, this item is nonetheless an example of an emerging trend, non-standard certification. This time the certification authority is a publishing company, the Thomson Corporation, working in concert with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Authority. More...
Moodle
Moodle
From the website: "Moodle is a software package for producing internet-based courses and web sites (including this one). Moodle is an ongoing research and development project designed to support a social constructionist pedagogy. Moodle is given away freely as Open Source software (under the GNU Public License). More...
Promising Chapter in E-Book Story
Promising Chapter in E-Book Story
Here's a rare article, one predicting a positive future for ebooks. Keep in mind that the source is Wired News, an agency with a demonstrable preference for the format. That said, the author digs up some encouraging statistics from eBookWeb, a web site specializing in ebooks: 500,000 page views per month and improved ebooks sales by a number of vendors, including McGraw-Hill with an increase of 55 percent over this time last year. More...
European Administrations Should Share Software Resources
European Administrations Should Share Software Resources
A report released by Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA), part of the European Commission, argues that administrators should share software. This nothing other than anathema to most commercial software companies, since they prefer that each individual user pruchase a separate licenses. More...
Showing Up... And Other Dumb School Rules
Showing Up... And Other Dumb School Rules
I personally do not think that the measurement of days attended is really a good indication of educational performance. I say that having achieved, in my fourth year of university, a personal best year - I attended fully two thirds of all my classes. More...
The Ugly Lie About Vouchers
The Ugly Lie About Vouchers
I think that this is an important point to make. The promise of vouchers is that they enable parents to make choices about their children's education. But many parents, particularly those of low income and a poor educational background, fail to make any choice at all (much less a good choice). More...
Russians Propose International Effort to Land Crew on Mars
Russians Propose International Effort to Land Crew on Mars
Count me as among those who support the Russian initiative. And let me add another incentive to sweeten the pot. Don't think of the mission to Mars as nothing more than space exploration. Think of it as one of the best educational opportunities around, a way to captivate a generation of students and to entice them into learning esoteric disciplines such as mathematics, languages, geology and physics. More...
Software Group's Anti-Piracy Campaign Targets Students
Software Group's Anti-Piracy Campaign Targets Students
OK, this is pure propaganda, designed to support a political and economic agenda, that is being distributed as a free "curriculum". The message is that the practice that the promoters call software "piracy" is morally wrong. More...
University Funding
University Funding
An engaging discussion among five of Britain's leaders in education funding policy. From the website: "Universities are struggling to cope with the expansion of higher education. Should students pay more for the benefits? Can you have excellence in a mass system? Does Britain really need world-class universities?" As is usual in these discussions, there's nobody at the table really pushing for universal access to education. More...