http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/ Keith Russell's Weblog Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:12:39 +0100 Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:12:39 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss phpblogger http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1163434359 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1163434359 I have just started up a new blog using a blogger blog. You can find it at: http://keithrussell.blogspot.com

The RSS feed can be found at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/KeithRussellsBlog

This blog will be online for a while but I will not be posting any new items...]]> Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:12:39 +0100 news 1163434359 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1162682728 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1162682728
For all phpblogger users that might be interested:
I have disabled the comment action in the code. Simply turning of the comment function through the admin interface still leaves the commenting open through the urls. There were so many comments I ended up removing all comments files in the data directories from the command line... Long live Unix commands :-)

This does mean I am afraid I will probably be shifting blog soon. I am now snooping around (and I expect it will be a blogger blog, but only if I can do some mashups :-) If anybody has any suggestions, please send me an e-mail...]]> Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:25:28 +0100 news 1162682728 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1161287452 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1161287452 SAKAI foundation. It was a very interesting interview and was great to a chance to speak to Chuck.
» Listen to the interview

It was good to hear the sensible stance SAKAI is taking on its development. They are continuing the steady planned approach to their development. I am also pleased to hear they now working in a more service oriented approach. I have the feeling this will slowly start to pick up on more fronts, although by no means as fast as some people expect it to work.
If I look at the big bonusses we have and desire in our Blackboard installation these are almost all related to links between services and databases. So I suppose SOA is not all that new at all (except that it is the new buzzword of course ;-)

]]> Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:50:52 +0200 news 1161287452 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1161286700 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1161286700
Later in the week Blackboard organised a small meeting specifically for the Dutch delegation in which Mat Small gave an explanation on the patent. The general feeling among the Dutch delegation was not much different to the reactions during the town hall session, although it is not yet an issue on the Dutch market. You can read my careful report (watch out for legalspeak) on the Educause weblog. ]]> Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:38:20 +0200 news 1161286700 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1161285723 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1161285723 First of all I would like to thank my fellow 'Edutrippers' for all their contributions, it should be a good basis for my report.

Before I get that written down there are a number of things I can mention already. This year there was not a new big hype. A small hype appeared to be recording lectures and offering these in a streaming format and of course as a podcast. Open Source was not the hype it was last year. On the other hand, there were a few sessions on switching VLE (or CMS if you are from that side of the pond). They was unease about the Blackboard patent, but more about that later. Open source seems to be a quiet flow underneath. The question will be if large numbers of institutions will adopt it in time.
I was surprised to find the traditional style of teaching at American universities. The coming of a net-generation is starting to get institutions thinking about a new pedagogy. A lot of people in the Netherlands have already been using aspects of this new pedagogy for a while: student centred learning, group based learning, coupling real life problems to learning, etc. I am not sure how representative the pictures portrayed at Educause were, but if this is the case I can better understand why certain tools (group tools for instance) are so underdeveloped in many VLEs.]]> Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:22:03 +0200 news 1161285723 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1160136631 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1160136631 » The WIKI of the Edutrip which will be maintained by the Dutch delegation
» The Edutrip weblog which also contains narratives, photos and podcasts of interviews and much more...

And just to give an idea how we are getting on: the weather and time in Dallas can also be found on the weblog.
]]> Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:10:31 +0200 news 1160136631 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1160080305 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1160080305 I now proudly present www.mylife.com (sadly somebody has already claimed the domain).

What it is: it is a complete, customisable web environment in which every user can create tabs for the various aspects of their life: family, friends, sport, weblog, portfolio, learning, etc. Under each tab the owner can add any service he or she wishes to subscribe to. When I say services I mean every single service that is around and a lot more which are still to come: rss feeds, podcasts, list of friends, messages, discussion boards, lists of who's online and the possibility to chat, favorites, photos, video's, music, calendar (birthdays!), weather forecast, etc. Storage is getting cheaper every day, so why not.
You can structure your services under tabs but everything will be instantly accessible for the net-generation to use. Commenting and tagging is of course available.

The system does not necessarily offer the services itself, but is a single place in which the user adds services which can be accessed from this spot.

The user will also be able to store all sorts of documents online and for every single item they can choose to share with the world, with your friends or keep it private. Because it is webbased it is the same on every single computer you wish to access it from.
What more could a user possibly wish for? So who is going to build it? And when will it be available?]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:31:45 +0200 news 1160080305 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1160079491 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1160079491 Mediasite, built by the company Sonic Foundry. I received an email promoting the new version of their software and I was pleased to see that it incorporated two important features I was looking for in their software:
- Remote management of lecture recordings
- User Management
- Improved reporting on viewing presentations
- Podcasting
For all those interested, follow this link to the presentation.
]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:18:11 +0200 news 1160079491 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1160078301 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1160078301 This was extremely apt as a number of Dutch Educausers (myself included) have been asked to comment on the concept of the Net-generation: is it an applicable concept for the Dutch situation?
I am confinced that the youth is different in many ways. I can imagine their exasperation dealing with the ambitious and 'forever young' generation X. They are much more social, they work together and are not just interested in material things but in authentic and real people. ICT is not all that interesting to them: it is there and it works. And if it doesn't: why bother using it.
So what is the difference with the net-generation? For one thing the Einstein generation is not based on technology alone, but is based on a broader perspective include social and cultural background. One aspect Inez Groen descibes is the amalgamation of cultures. Generation X was centred around self-fullfillment. For the new generation honour is more important. Not the individual development is important but the esteem you have within your social group. Is this perhaps related to the mix of second and third generation immigrants into main stream youth culture in the Netherlands?

So what does this generation want as far as ICT is concerned? According to Inez they are not all that interested in online learning, but prefer a personal authentic approach. Small scale and a teacher who is really committed to his/her subject. ICT is nothing special, they expect it to be there and they expect it to work. There are so many free, easy to use tools out there on the web why should the ICT tools offered at their institution be slow and complicated?]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:58:21 +0200 news 1160078301 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1160076790 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1160076790 Wilfred, Pierre and Willem already wrote on this meeting so I will stick to the most important points:
» View the presentations
SURF organised this meeting on the future for VLEs in Dutch higher Ed. Noticeably it was the second time this meeting was held and also noticeably in only one year's time a number of accents had changed.
SAKAI gave a serious presentation. It certainly was positioned as a serious product with a serious perspective for the future. Rather than being directed at it's own development the accent had shifted to open, service oriented. In this respect I was also pleased to hear that the teacher will also have the possibility to place resources out in the open, and not just locked away in the VLE (or CLE as SAKAI likes to call it).
The ELF has been reduced to a EF (e-framework). This also reflects a shift in perspective: a learning platform consist of a lot of services only a few of which are strictly related to e-learning.
Coming from the practical rather than the conceptual level is the PLE. ELGG was presented as an example. It was interesting but I still had the feeling the connection is not yet there.... But of course it is early days yet, people are slow to be infected by the SOA (sorry, pun for my Dutch collegues).
Moodle was absent...
]]> Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:33:10 +0200 news 1160076790 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=entry&id=1159301276 http://www.keithrussell.nl/weblog_oud2/?action=comments&id=1159301276 podcasting server which is now almost available from Apple. It was a very interesting concept, there are a number of things I do have to think about though, certainly as we are considering using the technology for straightforward recording of lectures.
The output generated is based around podcasting, you can easily create a number of different format outputs (audio, iPod ready video, streaming video). This is flexible enough to meet most demands. You can turn recordings on and off from a distance. In fact, you can even plan these in advance through a link with iCal. This is attractive from the perspective of the audiovisual department who do not have to be present to start and stop every recording. You do need a system administrator who is used to Apple or Unix servers.

The recording sets are extremely simple and cheap: a Mac Mini with a video camera and mike attached are sufficient. Recording is managed through a web interface on the podcasting server. A drawback is that you cannot check what the quality of the recording is like. This certainly is a limitation if you are using a set in a mobile setting. You cannot drop a recording set and hope for the best…

Although Quicktime movies offer multiple layers and chapters the solution offered today did not make use of these facilities. This definitely is a limitation as lectures are almost always accompanied by Powerpoint presentations. If the titles of the slides can be added automatically as chapters and the slides are available as a parallel stream this would certainly make the output a lot more valuable for students.

» View the presentation]]> Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:07:56 +0200 news 1159301276