Fortnightly Mailing

AccessApps - 50 Open Source and freeware assistive technology applications on a USB stick

AccessApps

"is an initiative developed by the Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres in cooperation with JISC TechDis. It consists of over 50 open source and freeware assistive technology applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer (here is a full list of applications on offer).

AccessApps will run without needing to install anything on a computer and provide a range of e-learning solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as visual and mobility difficulties.

The type of software solution required by someone is dictated by their own individual learning support needs. Our download section allows you to choose the portable applications which best suit your individual needs and download them in a single application suite"

Always on: learning providers in a world of permanent connectivity

Long article in First Monday by Lorcan Dempsey about the impact on libraries of "always on / always connected" devices. Excerpt:

"As networking spreads, we have multiple connection points which offer different grades of experience (the desktop, cell phone, xBox or Wii, GPS system, smartphone, ultra–portable notebook, and so on). While these converge in various ways, they are also optimized for different purposes. A natural accompaniment of this mesh of connection points is a move of many services to the cloud, available on the network across these multiple devices and environments. This means that an exclusive focus on the institutional Web site as the primary delivery mechanism and the browser as the primary consumption environment is increasingly partial."

The general point made applies equally to students and to employees in their on-line relationships with their school/college/university/employer, and squares with some thinking we've been doing in a mobile learning initiative at The Sheffield College, where I am a Governor.

Specifically, what policies should govern learner's access to the Internet when in college using their own devices, and how should these differ (if at all) from the policies that apply when they are using college-provided devices? (Answer, content filtering other than by connectivity suppliers is increasingly irrelevant.)

And, if learners are using a wide range of devices to access college and other learning-related services, who is best placed to host and configure these for distribution to such devices? (Answer, surely, third parties with the expertise and above all large scale to do it well.)

Scitable - a free biology and genetics education web site from Nature

Scitable describes itself as a collaborative learning space for science undergraduates:

"Scitable an educational website offered by Nature Education for Biology and Genetics educators and undergraduate students. Scitable provides faculty with instructional articles, primary research literature, and online study tools to share with their students and help them develop a deeper comprehension and appreciation for the science of genetics."

I worked through "Breaking Down the Central Dogma" about DNA Replication.  There I learnt that the discoverers of the Double Helix won a "Novel Prize", and got irritated at some of the navigational features of the site, whilst admiring the mix of material (excellent diagrams, PDFs of original papers, etc) that is available in the different "learning paths".

Scitable has been going for only 3 or 4 days, as far as I can tell, which means that the usage it is already getting is quite substantial. You can follow Scitable from its Twitter feed.

For a previous piece about Nature's web publishing activities, see The Web is not just a better printing press.

IT People Supporting Real World Development - something to join?

Updated 25/5/2009

Dick Moore has set up IT People Supporting Real World Development on the Kiva web site, through which you can make a small or large repayable loan to a small entrepreneur in the developing world. I'd already made a loan in December and I've now joined the group. So far there are nine eight seven six five two of us. Currently, with over USD 50m raised and lent (astonishing, eh?), Kiva again has a large range of projects looking for support.

A Safer Web - David Weinberger interviews US child safety task force members

David Weinberger interviews John Palfrey and Dena Sacco, respectively chair and on of the co-directors of the US Internet Safety Technical Task Force about the findings of the Task Force. Abstract:

"An exhaustively researched report on the safety of the web is the result of a year of work for the Internet Safety Technical Task Force. The report reveals some surprises about just how safe the web and social networks really are for minors, and some recommendations for dealing with sexual predators, cyberbullying, and access to explicit content."

Ofsted survey - Virtual learning environments: an evaluation of their development in a sample of educational settings

This 13/1/2009 Ofsted report, [28 pages, 130 kB PDF], describes itself as a survey which "evaluates how VLEs are developing with a selection of providers" in the school (primary through to secondary) and FE sectors, including work-based learning providers, and adult and community learning providers.

The selection of 41 providers (all in England, where Ofsted functions, and all visited between January and May 2008) is wide and representative, and the survey is unusual in that it is issued by an organisation that takes a hard nosed possibly pedestrian line that focuses on learners and learning, with no in built enthusiasm for technology. The survey includes two case studies - one based on Havering College, and the other on the TeesLearn VLE platform.

The "key findings", which make depressing if predictable reading, and the "recommendations" are below in full in the continuation post below.

Anyone responsible for VLE use, or for policy in this area should read the report in full. (My own reaction to it is that it is slightly off the pace with what the best providers are doing, and that it could have been more explicit about the benefits of "doing VLE things" at scale - as in the Scottish GLOW initiative. And are Ofsted and its predecessors in part contributors to the basically rather dire state of affairs reported, through its failure to integrate concrete assessment of the effectiveness of VLE use into the inspection regime?)

A comprehensive carbon footprint calculator

www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint/about.html, which adds a carbon footprint calculator to your Google desktop, if you have one, is worth a look. Have your gas and electricity bills ready for the assessment. The tab that is added to your desktop is a comprehensive one and you could imagine a range of other issue-based services being made available in a similar way. An organisation's learning environment, for example.....

Never trust an expert: eLearn Magazine's predictions for 2009

[Updated 13/1/2009]

My old friend Colin Squires described an expert as a "cross between a has-been and a drip under pressure", so you will need to take with a pinch of salt the 30 predictions - mine are below - assembled here by Lisa  Neal Gualtieri in the ACM's eLearn Magazine. Last year Stephen Downes did a good review of the predictions for 2008, with gradings, with some nice observations on what makes for useful predictions, and you can now read this year's review.

1. During the coming slump the risk of relying on free tools and services in learning will become apparent as small start-ups offering such services fail, and as big suppliers switch off loss-making services or start charging for them.
2. The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement will strengthen, and will face up to the "cultural" challenges of winning learning providers and teachers to use OER.
3. Large learning providers and companies that host VLEs will make increasing and better use of the data they have about learner behavior, for example, which books they borrow, which online resources they access, how long they spend doing what.

Education not a universal 'good'

Source: British Humanist Society

Here is a timely piece by Donald Clark - Education not a universal 'good' - concerning the harm done by religious indoctrination, and its malign influence world-wide.

Inside the mind of an autistic savant - interview with Daniel Tammet

Updated 13 August 2009

Brief and interesting interview with autistic savant Daniel Tammet in the 7/1/2009 New Scientist in which Tammet explains how he thinks he learns, and in which he takes issue with Oliver Sacks's explanation of savantism in The Twins - part of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical Tales. Tammet's Embracing the Wide Sky: A tour across the horizons of the human mind is out soonnow and reviewed by Donald Clark here. Tammet's blog.