"Hot and Trendy": Social Software: Blog, Wiki, RRS, Moodle...
Posted 12:20 PM by Minjuan
This topic has really got me hooked. A blog Many-to-Many is dedicated to social software.
“Well, nobody's sure exactly what social software is, exactly, but it sure is a hot topic these days.”-- http://topicexchange.com/t/social_software/about

A group of scholars in China just held a symposium about social software, what it is, its impact, and how can it be used in teaching and learning. This will make a great dissertation topic!

Here is an article to start with:
Kaplan-Leiserson, E. (December 2003). We-Learning: Social Software and E-Learning. Retrieved, from the World Wide Web: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/dec2003/kaplan.htm

The encyclopedia constructed by volunteers
Posted 9:12 PM by Minjuan
This is striking. Hope you find it interesting, arguable too.

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedians
--An introduction to wikipedia
Wikipedia:Wikipedians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wikipedians are the people who write and edit articles for Wikipedia. There are currently more than 800 confessed contributors (although there are over 34,000 user accounts and an unknown number of anonymous contributors). This arguably makes a community - see m:The Wikipedia Community. To understand how we cooperate (and fail to or refuse to), please read meta.wikipedia.org. To read testimonies or theories about what motivates different people to participate in the project, see Wikipedia:Who, Why?
Here are different listings of all the contributors who have chosen to put their names. There are no particular requirements for Wikipedians' personal pages; some people write up a biography, some don't; some Wikipedians maintain a private catalogue of their work, some don't. Different listing methods have been created due to demand. If you put your name on a geographical listing such as Wikipedians/Australians, please don't neglect also to include your name on the alphabetical list.

Weblog in China
Posted 8:42 PM by Minjuan
Amazing! A group of Chinese scholars (who knows how many) are compiling a WeblogPedia at: http://www.cnblog.org/wiki/
It's quite bilingual but in an unusual way--Chinese interweaving with English, the Chin-English. Languages are getting married in this age. Hope you find this site exciting too.

Response: Adkins blast (for Bill Brandon)
Posted 8:48 AM by Minjuan
>Hi, Allison -
>
>I wanted to leave a response on EdTech Beach, but couldn't see where to
>do that. So my response is on my weblog, at
>http://radio.weblogs.com/0110222/categories/elearning/2003/12/19.html#a
>900.
>
>I don't buy Sam's argument, and I am amazed at the number of people who
>just jumped in and agreed with him (evidently not understanding that he
>has an agenda).
>
>Have a good holiday, and I hope to see you at a conference again one of
>these days.
>
>Bill

Discovered a New World!
Posted 12:50 PM by Minjuan
http://blog.online-edu.org/weblog/
A group of E-learning Bloggers in China. I'll translate some of the good pieces from time to time. It's fascinating to be able to see what's going on in that big and restless country.

Board Game Designs from EDTEC 670
Posted 2:19 PM by One Trick Pony
My 670 class is a particularly creative bunch this year. As their first foray into game design, they developed Board Games, a task that at first seems simple. As they burrow more deeply into the design process they come to see that the tradeoffs between fidelity and simplicity and between educational impact and fun are interestingly complex. I was particularly impressed by:

• Paleotopia, a game based around a dinosaur dig site;
  
• Formula Trap, which brings area and perimeter to life;
  
• Culture Savvy, which makes learning Hofstede's Five Cultural Dimensions fun;
  
• Parse Game, which covers sentence parsing for linguistics students;
  
• Feed Your Face, a nutrition game; and
  
• Give & Take, a game of math facts.
  

Birth of a Blogger
Posted 1:59 PM by One Trick Pony
Multiple births, actually. It's not often you get to watch 28 people start their own blogs all at once. I'm teaching a section of EDTEC 470 just for pre-service English and Foreign Language teachers and this year I decided that blogging was a perfect technology to introduce them to. By dealing with the terror of self-disclosure and the joy and trepidation of a world-wide audience, they will experience some interesting issues that should be useful down the road. If things work out, they'll set up similar environments for their own kids a year from now.

Visit the 470 Faces page and watch the world through their eyes. Tamara Cogan, Ryan Haas and Michael Heu are particularly fun to read. Marcia Reisch, a special ed teacher, is writing her blog from the point of view of the pet turtle in her classroom. Although the class has only met twice and they've only been blogging for 6 days, I feel as though I know many of them better than I knew last year's class at semester's end. This is a humanizing technology!

DEPARTMENTS THAT WORK
Posted 8:22 AM by Minjuan
Today's posting from TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) LISTSERV is quite interesting. It introduces a review of Wergin's book, Departments That Work: Building and Sustaining Cultures of Excellence in Academic Programs. The book particularly addresses characteristics and qualities of useful departmental self-assessments. More at: http://www.AAHEBulletin.com.

Blogging Gets More Attention
Posted 6:04 AM by Minjuan
From Distance-educator.com...
______________________________
Blogging As A Course Management Tool
by Jon Baggaley

This article discusses the mainstreaming of self-publishing tools such as blogger. The community of "bloggers" is growing rapidly and educators have begun to use it as a course management tool. For instance, publishing course updates and online exchanges.
Read the full article .

Weblogs and Discourse
Posted 1:30 PM by Minjuan
Weblogs as a transformational technology for higher education and academic research
Blogtalk Conference Paper, Vienna, May 23rd-24th 2003
by Oliver Wrede

An intriguing paper, indeed! It examines the types of weblogs, the nature of weblog discourse, narrative forms of weblog posts, and the implications of weblogs for higher-ed, e-learning, and organizational changes. More at http://weblogs.design.fh-aachen.de/owrede/publikationen/weblogs_and_discourse

Educational Technology Jobs Explored
Posted 8:04 AM by One Trick Pony
SDSU's student paper, the Daily Aztec, ran a terrific piece about the department event Jim Marshall coordinated last week.


"Not many people can say they have been offered a job to work at Sea World of Florida with a $1.5 million budget to initiate any program desired along with a staff of 70 others to carry out orders.

"Debra Erickson, keynote speaker at the April 10 event titled, 'Virtually Endless Opportunities: An Exploration of Careers in Educational Technology,' has encountered several job opportunities, including this one.

"Erickson spoke before an audience of approximately 75 people in Casa Real. Attendees included the 50 students currently enrolled in San Diego State's educational technology department and an estimated 25 others who came to hear more about what the department had to offer." [...more ]

Teaching about the Holocaust
Posted 6:08 PM by One Trick Pony
Even though it was Spring Break, for the last three days we've had 170 teachers on campus for a workshop on teaching about the holocaust sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

The EDTEC part was a session on WebQuests and the Holocaust. It includes a new version of the WebQuest about WebQuests and the world premier of Refuge Denied, a WebQuest about the voyage of the SS St. Louis in 1939 written by Karla Bell. We had five labs going, with facilitation by a platoon of EDTEC people: doc students Frankie Clem and Wendy Parcel; recent Masters grad Mike Guerena; 470 instructor Jim Epler; current students Karla Bell, Jeff Thomas and Dan McDowell; and faculty spouse June Dodge. All went well. A very satisfying day!

Pulling the Plug
Posted 10:31 AM by One Trick Pony
All of us in EDTEC tend to live online, and probably feel (I may be projecting a bit here) slightly disabled when we're not in our offices or sitting in our WiFi-irradiated homes. If you've been bothered by those moments of excommunication, here's a blip on the early warning radar: EV-DO is coming to town.

In a posting this morning, a tech journalist has described his initial impressions of the service in New Orleans, and points to the announcement from Verizon that they'll be rolling it out in San Diego this fall. Huzzah! Now we can work non-stop!

ALN CALL FOR PAPERS
Posted 11:28 AM by Minjuan
The Ninth Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN): The Power of Online Learning: Implications for Teaching and Learning, November 14-16, 2003 ~ Rosen Centre Hotel ~ Orlando, Florida
The conference strongly encourages proposals that reflect the implications for the field of specific online experiences and practices. Last year's conference attracted over 500 people to more than 100 presentations and offered exhibits, pre-conference workshops, a keynote address and a variety of other special events.
Proposals must be submitted by April 18, 2003. SUBMIT ONLINE AT: www.aln.ucf.edu/submit
-----Personal Note: I attended this event last year and really enjoyed it. One of the professors I studied with at Penn State, whom I haven’t seen for 6 years, received an award at the conference for his creativity in developing online learning.

Games and Academics
Posted 12:41 PM by One Trick Pony
The Academic Summit is going on now at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, and this year I didn't go. Second best thing to being there, though, is to follow the blogs of participants. So far, I've only found one, that of GameGirl Advance. Interesting reading! I think I'll make a point of going to next year's meeting.

The ElearnChina Conference 2003
Posted 11:31 AM by Minjuan
Edinburgh 21st 22nd & 23rd July 2003 - Shanghai & Beijing
China Conferences is pleased to present the ElearnChina Conference 2003 in association with a number of Key Sponsors from around the globe. ElearnChina welcomes people from the commercial and educational sector involved in E-Learning, Distance Learning, Training, HR, IT Training, Localisation, ICT or Knowledge Management, to this world first international event. China represents the biggest target market for these sectors ever and is still largely untapped.
Check out the Call for Papers

A New Organization to Watch: ISLS
Posted 8:52 AM by Minjuan
The International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS) is a new professional society founded to help unite and support scientific and educational work in the study of learning and education. Learning Sciences is a multi-disciplinary field that focuses on the study of teaching and learning in formal and informal settings. Relevant contributions come from disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, cognitive and educational psychology, cognitive and cultural anthropology, education and curriculum studies, and educational technology.

The new professional society builds on the tradition developed and solidified by the International Conferences of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), the Journal of the Learning Sciences (JLS), and the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning conferences (CSCL).

To join the society, please go to the ISLS web site: http://www.isls.org. You can download a membership form or submit your membership form on line, and you will be able to pay using Paypal. Benefits of membership include being part of an organization dedicated to Learning Sciences research, reduced rates to sponsored conferences (e.g., ICLS, CSCL), the privilege of nominating and then voting on a governing board.

Nominations are being sought now until early March. You must be a member to put in nominations. You will receive a call for nominations when you join, and shortly there will be information about nominations on the web site.

CSCL: March 1st Deadline
Posted 8:50 AM by Minjuan

for the CSCL 2003 Conference (http://www.intermedia.uib.no/cscl).

Please submit your poster or demo proposal, prepared according to the guidelines below.

POSTERS
Poster sessions will give opportunities for presenters to display their work and discuss it informally with the participants. Poster sessions will be combined with social events to ensure a broad audience. We particularly encourage interactive posters with computer presentations. Poster descriptions should be 2-3 pages in the same style as paper submissions and should also have an additional cover page. Poster descriptions will not be printed in the main proceedings but in a separate volume.
The deadline for poster submissions is March 1st, 2003.
All submissions must be written in English and should be carefully edited.
For further questions, please contact one of the program co-chairs:
· Ulrich Hoppe, University of Duisburg, Germany (hoppe@informatik.uni-duisburg.de)
· Sten Ludvigsen, University of Oslo, Norway (sten.ludvigsen@intermedia.uio.no)

DEMOS
The Interactive Demonstration Lab is designed to allow conference attendees to interact with presenters and each other on an individual basis. The demo room will have a variety of workstations on which contributors and attendees can install their materials and CSCL systems for attendees' experimentation and enjoyment. The demo room will be open throughout the conference. This is a unique opportunity for conference attendees to interface directly with conference contributors. If desired by the presenter, we can distribute URLs of demos several days before the conference to allow attendees to familiarize themselves with the basics of applications and ideas prior to the demos.

Initial proposals for demos should not exceed 2 pages. Please consider that demos can also be combined with poster presentations and submissions.

The deadline for demo submissions is March 1st, 2003.
Please discuss submission ideas with the demos chair:
· Ole Smørdal, University of Oslo, Norway (ole.smordal@intermedia.uio.no)

AACE Announcements
Posted 8:36 AM by Minjuan
The International Journal on E-Learning (IJEL) has completed publication of its premiere year of articles. IJEL is published by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Journal homepage: http://www.aace.org/pubs/ijel/IJEL is a proud sponsor of the E-Learn 2003 ConferenormC/a>:
http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn

Allison Featured on SDSUniverse
Posted 5:18 PM by Minjuan
"Finding the Sweet Spot, Rossett's Knowledge Bases Translate Theory Into Practice" -- Dr. Allison Rossett was featured on SDSUniverse, a news Web site for the faculty and staff of San Diego State University. As one of the founders of the outstanding educational Technology program at SDSU, Rossett felt that the program has made big strides in the past 20 years, “We’ve added intriguing new colleagues, updated courses and approaches, and attracted wonderful students to our master’s and doctoral programs.” Please visit SDSUniverse (Monday, February 10, 2003) for more.

Posted 9:48 AM by Minjuan
International Conference of Developing Students’ Various Potentials and The Third Annual Conference of Discover in China (DIC)

July 19 – 22, 2003

www.ConferencesChina.org

The theme: the research of multiple intelligence and its application in teaching and curriculum design

Sponsors:

National Federation of UNESCO Associations of China
Chinese Association of Education: Research Project of “Research and Application of Multiple Intelligence in Developing Students Potential”

Operating sponsor: the Municipal Government of Cixi City, Zhejiang Province, P.R. China.

The conference is to provide a chance for scholars and practitioners in China and other countries to interact and exchange the results and experiences in their research and application of theory of multiple intelligence, to function as a bridge between China and the rest of the world in the field of education, and to improve the structure of curriculum design and outcome evaluation. This conference is designed to create another momentum in the reform of Chinese education system.

The activities of the conference include workshops, group discussion, poster presentations, teaching demonstration, visiting local schools, and cultural entertainment, etc.