e-Clippings 01.1(8).02

"You see, Dad, Professor McLuhan says that the environment that man
creates becomes his medium for defining his role in it. The invention
of type created linear, or sequential thought, separating thought
from action. Now, with TV and folk singing, thought and action are
closer and social involvement is greater. We again live in a village.
Get it?"
The New Yorker Magazine 1966 - The Medium is the Massage

*********************************************************************
Cool Site(s):
A team of sociologists at Columbia University interested in what is
known as the "Small World Phenomenon." This is the idea that everyone
in the world can be reached through a short chain of social
acquaintances. This claim has led to the famous phrase "Six Degrees
of Separation", but after more than thirty years, nobody knows if
it's true.
http://smallworld.sociology.columbia.edu/

The Buckeyes are also apparently interested…

The Electronic Small World Project
http://smallworld.sociology.ohio-state.edu/html/homepage.html

Kevin Bacon: You've Got Mail By Kendra Mayfield
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49343,00.html
*********************************************************************
This email is provided for information purposes only. Mention or
discussion of a product, company or person does not represent any
official endorsement or criticism of the same. All authors and
organizations retain complete copyright.
*********************************************************************
DID YOU RECEIVE THIS EMAIL FROM A FRIEND OR
COLLEAGUE?
Get your own free subscription to e-Clippings by going to:
Subscribe to e-Clippings by simply sending a blank email to:
eClippings-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe by sending a blank email to:
eClippings-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
*********************************************************************
NEWS

`Plugfests' Help Standardize Online Learning Technology
by Elizabeth G. Book
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/article.cfm?Id=672

Turn of the Century: How one man with a vision and a simple screw
launched the mass production era. A case study in standardization. By
James Surowiecki
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.01/standards.html

EDUCATION REFORM LAW PUSHES HIGH-TECH TRAINING: A sweeping education
reform bill signed into law this week by President Bush may help pave
the way for increased use of
technology in elementary and secondary schools for both curriculum
enhancement and teacher training.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafFAaaQVOKa9nkbob/

Army ups e-learning ante: The Army National Guard plans to upgrade
its defense readiness
programs with a new e-learning platform from Click2learn Inc.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0107/web-army-01-10-02.asp

Technology Source: QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR ONLINE COURSES: IMPLEMENTING
POLICY AT RMIT (Jan-Feb 2002 Issue): All online courses (no matter
how minor the online component) need to be signed off at the faculty
level by each faculty's Director of Teaching Quality (DoTQ). For sign-
off to occur and enable a course to become "live" on the DLS, the
DoTQ needs evidence of clear educational design and planning. DoTQs
ensure that an academic teacher has considered the design features of
an online system, has an overall rationale for their courses, and
complies with basic publishing standards (including copyright
matters)...
http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=issue&id=85

e-learning Magazine: DISCOVERY LEARNING: REPURPOSING AN OLD PARADIGM
(January 2002 Issue): Call it the repurposing of an old paradigm:
Constructivist learning, a revised and updated form of discovery
learning, is a student-centered learning approach that is based on
cognitive psychology. In this active learning environment, students
encounter experiences that enable them to construct personal
knowledge through problem-solving and experimentation. These
constructivist principles work particularly well in an e-learning
setting.
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/issue/issueDetail.jsp?id=467

Standards can put you in control: But what does "standard" even mean
anymore? To tech decision makers, it means everything: The
performance, reliability, cost, and security of your IT depend on
it.
http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=85-2GGoQ7KrfYIQyiw3fzU5yD_m

ASTD Launches E-learning Courseware Certification Program: Program
will evaluate and provide certification for e-learning courseware...
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?
id=6834

Learning Circuits: IS E-LEARNING RIGHT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?: The
answer depends on a company's approach and commitment to the design
and implementation of e-learning. Like any other major company
initiative, e-learning strategies require significant up-front
analysis, development time, money, and leadership support to be
successful. And like almost every major company training initiative,
there's tremendous pressure to pick a program and run with it before
understanding the full range of issues and ramifications. Looking at
the following five critical success factors--or the five Cs--will
help companies make sound e-learning decisions and, we hope,
eliminate some training failures.
http://www.learningcircuits.com/2002/jan2002/anderson.html

Click2Learn Expands Deal with U.S. Army and Army National Guard: The
Aspen Enterprise Learning Platform will become the backbone for
highly targeted defense readiness programs...
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?
id=6835

Harper's Magazine: IN SEARCH OF THE EDUCATED AMERICAN: A panel
discussion on the challenges of school reform held at the National
Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. on September 25,
2001. It was co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the
Humanities and Harper's Magazine. Quote: "Well, the promise is that
you can scale. If everybody has access to the Internet and there is
high quality material on the Internet, then you have the ability to
impact many more students and teachers than ever before".
http://www.harpers.org/online/education_forum/?pg=1

SmartForce to buy Centra in $284 mln stock deal (Reuters Securities)
SmartForce Plc, a maker of electronic learning products, said
Wednesday it agreed to buy Centra Software Inc. in a stock deal
valued at $284 million. For the full story, go to:
http://rd.yahoo.com/alerts/email/news/
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020116/n16156102_1.html

Maine Students Hit the IBooks (Making the Grade 2:00 a.m. PST): In
what is believed to be the largest educational technology deal of its
kind, Maine chooses Apple to equip all of its seventh- and eighth-
grade students and teachers with wireless laptops. By Katie Dean.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,49046,00.html?tw=wn20020109

Syllabus: OPENCOURSEWARE: SIMPLE IDEA, PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS: Still,
an important and often overlooked implication of OCW is another
aspect of what it is not—it is emphatically not an MIT education.
This has been emphasized by Vest and other spokespeople for the
initiative, but it bears repeating. It is the firm tenant of OCW that
the core of an MIT education is the interaction between students and
faculty in an environment that invites and supports inquiry and
questioning. OCW makes no claim or effort to encapsulate this on the
Web.
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?ID=5913

Cybercourts Set for Tech Trials (Business 2:00 a.m. PST): Michigan
will become the first state to allow companies to sue each other over
the Internet. While proponents point to cost savings and forward
thinking, critics say the loss of face-to-face interaction will be a
detriment. By Julia Scheeres.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49689,00.html?tw=wn20020112

CETIS: NEW BSI GUIDELINES 'HERALD COMING OF AGE' OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED
ASSESSMENT: In addition to the requirements placed on the process of
assessment – to ensure that groups are not unfairly disadvantaged,
and that the assessment is carried out in a proper manner – the
guidelines also recommend the use of interoperable standards for
assessment, specifically the IMS Question and Test Interoperability
(QTI) specification.
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content/20011205145403/viewArticle

ADT: MANAGING WEB CONTENT: Corporate America has long had a mixed
response to the question of whether to buy or roll its own
applications. That debate is now being renewed in the arena of Web
content management. Some customers maintain it makes more sense to
build their own system, especially given the rich development tools
available today. But analysts generally caution against it, saying it
is a giant money pit with little real return.
http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=5948

Step Two Designs: HOW TO EVALUATE A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
Selecting an enterprise-wide CMS is often a multi-million-dollar
exercise. It is therefore critical that the new system meets your
current and projected needs. The single most important activity is to
identify your business goals and requirements. This process must
involve all relevant stakeholders. Only once you have a full list of
requirements are you in a position to compare vendor products.
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_evaluate/index.html

Webword: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE FOR THE REST OF US: The purpose of
this article is to explain information architecture in a very simple
and clear manner. If you have been confused about information
architecture and what it is all about, this is exactly the article
you should read. An analogy is used to get at the core concepts and
several useful examples are provided.
http://webword.com/moving/restofus.html

INTERNET FOUNDER SAYS HIS INVENTION IS ALIVE AND WELL: One of the
founders of the Internet said in a keynote address at the annual
Metropolitan Communications conference in San Francisco Wednesday
that Internet traffic is still growing rapidly and he predicts a
surge in high-end Internet hardware sales by the end of the year.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafLyaaQXiTa9ndSPb/
Technology standards agency plays up role in homeland security: By
William New, National Journal's Technology Daily Concurrent with the
Bush administration's increased focus on homeland security and the
high-tech sector, the Commerce Department's National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) will receive greater attention,
senior department officials said Wednesday. "What seems clear is that
NIST is playing a significant science and technology role on behalf
of the department," Benjamin Wu, deputy undersecretary for
technology, told National Journal's Technology Daily after a
department press briefing.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0102/011602td1.htm

TRENDS SECTION

AACE-APC: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT MEDIA IN DESIGNING LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS: As a broader array of communication tools is developed,
designers of learning environments need a better understanding of
what kinds of communication each medium is best suited for. Each of
the new media have different affordances and constraints. One of our
principles for the design of learning environments is "sender unto
each medium what it does best. This paper is an attempt to state some
of what we know about what different media are good for.
http://www.apc.src.ncu.edu.tw/apc/allanmedia.htm

Online Learning Magazine: THE LEARNING FRONTIER: Clark Aldrich:
Within a few years, many of the simulations organizations use for
training will look more like computer games than Web-based courses.
To gain some insight into where this segment of the field is going, I
spoke with the following people from the computer gaming industry
whose work has already created a foundation from which e-learning
designers will draw...
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/onlinelearning/magazine/article_displ
ay.jsp?vnu_content_id=1237063

WHY PEER-TO-PEER IS MY FAVORITE STUPID FAD OF 2001: It was Napster
that got so many people hyped up about peer-to-peer networking, but
Larry says the technology is anything
but new or innovative. Still, there are a few things it's good for.
Here's what they are.
http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?/adeskb/adt0117/2839645

What's Ahead for 2002: What's next? Will 2002 be like 2001, with
unemployment going up, stock prices going down, the trade balance
worsening and tech industries in turmoil? No one knows for sure, of
course. But Knowledge@Wharton asked several Wharton professors for
their best predictions about issues and trends in four key economic
areas: the stock market, employment, international trade and
technology.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/whatshot.cfm

Kevin Kelly: THE WEB RUNS ON LOVE, NOT GREED: The answer to the
mystery of why people would make 3 billion web pages in 2,000 days is
simple: sharing.... Perhaps as more of the world wins access to it,
and more of our books, and movies, and history are added, we will
come to see it as a dream come true, a collective dream created by
people like you and me, sharing what they love.
http://www.scripting.com/stories/2002/01/09/kevinKellyTheWebRunsOnLove
NotGreed.html

Grok to UnSpun: The Real Story (Culture 2:00 a.m. PST): Media Grok,
the popular Internet newsletter that skewered the tech press is back,
with its original writers and editors but with a new name: Media
Unspun. By Brad King.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49653,00.html?tw=wn20020114

Game Theory | by Anni Layne Rodgers: The banner ad is dead. Long live
the advergame! America's addiction to video and computer games is
leading the way to a new advertising medium ith astounding click-t
rough rates, play times, and peer-to-peer potential. What's your high
score?
http://www.fastcompany.com/build/build_feature/yaya.html

World - 2002 offers a wealth of internet predictions: Predictions for
this year ran the gamut from the second rise of the internet to its
second fall.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7722

FOCUS OF THE WEEK: MICHAEL DERTOUZOS: Last August, the world lost one
of its leading technology thinkers, Michael Dertouzos, director of
MIT's Laboratory for computer science and a pioneer in the
development of computing technology. Dertouzos was a longtime friend
and contributor to Technology Review; his column, "The People's
Computer," explored the relationship between us and our machines.
This week, Technology Review focuses on Michael Dertouzos.
http://r.pm0.net/s/c?13q.1ck7.3.92c.egn

Five Thoughts: Leadership: Larry Weber, author of "The Provocateur:
How a New Generation of Leaders are Building Communities, Not Just
Companies," talks about inspiration, innovation and why leaders
should be provocateurs.
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/thoughts


EMERGING TECH SECTION

Toshiba: Small drives pack big storage
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5101810,00.html

CES 2002 PICKS AND PANS
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafHPaaQWrAa9nGBIb/

ROYAL UNVEILS LOW-COST LINUX PDA: Handheld will feature plenty of
applications and an affordable price when it goes on sale next
quarter.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,79343,tk,dn011402X,00.asp

WEAR YOUR MOUSE--OR YOUR WHOLE PC: Essential Reality's mouse-glove
and Xybernaut's PC headgear offer alternative input options.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,78884,tk,dn010902X,00.asp

HITACHI UNVEILS PLANS FOR PDA: Device, debuting later this year, will
be based on Microsoft's new Windows CE .Net OS.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,78823,tk,dn010902X,00.asp

Cell Phone Charger Gets Cranky (Unwired News Monday): Motorola goes
retro with a new hand-cranked charger. A few turns of the crank will
give users another 4 to 5 minutes of yackety-yack.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,49727,00.html?tw=wn20020115

World - Google spills secrets of its success: In the continuation of
a series of articles, Duncan Parry talks to leading search engine
Google about the com pany_s future plans.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=7747

FASTER CABLE MODEMS COMING SOON: New specification could triple the
upstream capacity of current services.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,80223,tk,dn011702X,00.asp

MICROSOFT ADDS TELEPHONY TO POCKET PC: Wireless Pocket PC expected to
ship from various vendors and service providers this year.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,78944,tk,dn011002X,00.asp

A New Wave: - The Economist: Capturing digital information may be
about to become more accurate.
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=939889

EXPERTS QUESTION COMPRESSION 'BREAKTHROUGH': (Source: ITworld.com)
ZeoSync last week achieved something that mathematicians and computer
scientists have claimed for 50 years
is impossible: multi-pass, 100:1 compression of files without osing
any data.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafNoaaQXQPa9ndSPb/

PALM RELEASES BLUETOOTH SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT: Palm's operating
system division has launched a test version of a software development
kit for Bluetooth, allowing developers to
make a start on building applications that work with the wireless
networking standard.
http://click.idg.email-publisher.com/maaafNoaaQXQZa9ndSPb/

Finally!
Jetpack Flies (Two Feet) High (Technology 2:00 a.m. PST): The jumps
for joy probably were higher than the jetpack actually flew, but a
Silicon Valley company is thrilled to have gotten its one-person
flying machine off the ground. By Farhad Manjoo.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49792,00.html?
tw=wn20020117


SECURITY SECTION

Find the Cost of (Virus) Freedom (IS/IT Infostructure 2:00 a.m.
PST): Nimda, SirCam, Code Red and friends caused more than 50,000
security incidents last year. But experts say the estimates of
billions in clean-up costs are pure guesswork. By Michelle Delio.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,49681,00.html?
tw=wn20020114

Worm Poses as Outlook Update (Technology Monday): A new computer
worm capable of deleting files is slowly making its way across the
Internet. The 'Gigger' worm is an attachment included in messages
captioned 'Outlook Express Update.'
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49726,00.html?
tw=wn20020115


HUMOR AND MISC. SECTION

Of Geeks, Fashion and Oxymorons (Business 2:00 a.m. PST): A fashion
technology show took place at the Consumer Electronics Show. To the
chagrin of fashion slaves, the designers of computer wear aren't
fashion designers at all. Elisa Batista reports from Las Vegas.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49504,00.html?tw=wn20020110

Ireland Plans Largest Wind Farm (Business Friday): A facility off
the coast of County Wicklow will generate 10 percent of the country's
energy. The $570 million project will generate 520
megawatts of electricity.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49662,00.html?tw=wn20020112

New Film: Enemy at the Bill Gates (Culture 2:00 a.m. PST): Nothing
So Strange chronicles an imaginary assassination of the Microsoft
chief, using websites as props to further explore the would- be
killing. Jason Silverman reports from the Sundance Film Festival in
Park City, Utah.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49678,00.html?tw=wn20020115


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink (Technology 2:00 a.m. PST): At the
20th annual meeting of the National Recycling Coalition, participants
are urged to rethink old solutions, particularly when dealing with so
much computer junk. Manny Frishberg reports from Seattle, Washington.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49803,00.html?
tw=wn20020117

Techno Babble Exposed: Does the hyperlinked language used to describe
technology
make your head spin? Our uncensored definitions will help restore
some equilibrium.
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/010102/babble.html
*********************************************************************
DID YOU RECEIVE THIS EMAIL FROM A FRIEND OR
COLLEAGUE?
Get your own free subscription to e-Clippings by going to:
Subscribe to e-Clippings by simply sending a blank email to:
eClippings-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe by sending a blank email to:
eClippings-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
*********************************************************************