Study Bus?

CC attribution: image by Allie_Caufield

When I ride the Red Arrow coach down to Calgary, I love the fact that there is wireless on-board. Now, a new initiative in Arizona is letting students study during their commute:

Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall

It's a nice change to see pictures of students quietly studying on their laptops -- many of the usual iPod/smartphone shots focus on excessive student multitasking (and I'm not saying they're always wrong...). It's refreshing to instead focus on the quiet study time that devices like laptops can foster.

Digital Curators

Digital curating -- sifting through the pieces of our technology puzzle...

Image from the George Eastman House Flickr Photostream

A colleague passed along an article called "The Content Strategist as Digital Curator" by Erin Scime (December, 2009). I like the term "digital curator" for people who work with digital artifacts of all kinds, since so much of our culture is now online and/or digitized.

There seems to be great possibility in using the curatorial process in our Information Age, when there is such a glut of online information -- it's difficult to sift through it all, but perhaps considering the value of how as well as what we curate as digital artifacts will help us make meaningful connections.

Open Access Concept Map, OERs

Laura Briggs has posted a comphrehensive concept map illustrating connections in Open Access initiatives. I recommend checking it out.

I'll be presenting with Richard Hayman at the upcoming Alberta Libraries Conference on Open Education Resources (OERs) and libraries -- ALC 2010 promises to have an interesting program.

Horizon Report - Where are We?

Interesting to look at the newest predictions and recommendations from the Horizon Report. Makes me wonder exactly who is really that close to full mobile computing adoption in 2009?

A recent email from EDUCAUSE describes the following:

"The 2010 Horizon Report, a joint undertaking of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) and the New Media Consortium (NMC), is nearing completion. As you know, the annual Horizon Report identifies six technologies that will be key for teaching and learning in higher education.

As a partner with NMC in the report's preparation, ELI would like to invite you to participate in one of the final stages--gathering examples of the technologies featured in the report. This work can be in almost any form: production or pilot programs, research projects, faculty undertakings, or evaluation/assessment projects. It can involve any of the six technologies listed below. The intent is to give readers a more concrete sense of how these technologies will play out in the context of teaching and learning in higher education.

Here are the six areas identified for this year's report:

* TIME-TO-ADOPTION: ONE YEAR OR LESS
Mobile Computing
Open Content

* TIME-TO-ADOPTION: TWO TO THREE YEARS
Electronic Books
Simple Augmented Reality

* TIME-TO-ADOPTION: FOUR TO FIVE YEARS
Gesture-Based Computing
Visual Data Analysis

The time-to-adoption horizon indicates how long the advisory board feels it will be until a significant number of campuses are using each of these technologies broadly. Innovative faculty and campuses are already working in some of these areas, and this is where you come in.

A preview of the 2010 report, containing more detail as well as the trends and challenges presented in the report, is available at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/2010HRPreview.pdf"

Do you think we're really that close?

Copyright in Canada: New Responses

Michael Geist, Canada's resident guru on (and, advocate for) the future of Canadian copyright law recently blogged about Project Gutenberg Canada's response that is focused on public domain issues.


You can access the Speak Out on Copyright website by clicking on this image:

For those in the education/e-learning community who are following the ongoing debate about copyright legislation in Canada, you might be interested in this response from the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education:

CNIE Response to Federal Copyright
August 2009
See the full PDF here.

After consulting with it's membership, CNIE's Board of Directors submitted the attached position paper to the Canadian government's electronic consultation on a future Canadian Copyright law. PLease feel free to share this position paper with your colleagues at work and within your networks so as to encourage others to share their views with the government. You can also share CNIE's position paper with your Member of Parliament. The more people who make themselves heard on the topic of a furture Canadian Copyright Law and it's impact in and on the education, library and research sectors, the more likely Canadians are to have a future Canadian Copyright law that appropriately and adequately responds to the needs of all Canadians.

eInfrastructure Use Cases (EIUs Project)

This eInfrastructure Use Cases and service usage models project out of the UK looks exciting. I really like the idea of sharing workflows and research objects in myExperiment -- repurposing these kinds of data and workflows will enable much richer forms of research and scholarship.

Reading about the service-oriented, shareable approach reminded me of Richard Baraniuk's inspirational talk at the 2009 Canadian E-Learning Conference. The more we can look at flexible and sustainable ways of sharing research and educational information, the more potential there is for furthering the connections between disciplines, delivery mechanisms, and content areas.

EIUs Project Videos

Archaeology : eIUS e-Infrastructure Case Study
See the YouTube video.

Bioinformatics : eIUS e-Infrastructure Case Study
See the YouTube video.

PIctorial COmmunication Language (PICOL)

I just stumbled across a neat online library of icons called PICOL; I think I'm going to experiment and give it a try. In many cases, simple visual ways of communicating just seem so much more effective, especially when there is a standard in place to help create consistency and usability.

My PICOL image:

(translation: social network + globe = full group)

According to the PIctorial COmmunication Language website, "PICOL stands for PIctorial COmmunication Language and is a project to find a standard and reduced sign system for electronic communication. PICOL is free to use and open to alter."