Group items tagged

"Google has unveiled plans today to allow Google Docs to store any type of files, and revealed a new tool from Memeo to enable users to access, migrate, and synchronize files between their desktop and Google Docs. " (Snc tool is for Google Apps Premium only). Getting to be a more attractive option...

Yes.. That is something I'd really like to use. My laptop warranty is out, they won't sell me any more extensions, one hard disk is loosing more and more sectors (and Maylee pulled off the right ALT key last night). Now only if Google Mail enabled me to build a number of views (filters) of my email (not just one), and Docs had inline revision viewing, I'd be ready to use it more. As it is, I use a variety of office apps because each seems to have strengths in different areas. I sometimes even move between apps with the same document. Mostly, I use OpenOffice, Google Docs, Microsoft Office, and LyX. LyX is the most philosophically advanced, I think.... but none escape the subjectivity of the matter. LyX removes any concern for how the document looks. You tell it what each information element is, not how it should look. Then you export to various formats and styles. Information search is vastly more powerful when all information elements are tagged according to what they are. And it produces just very beautiful content. OpenOffice has the broadest set of import/export capabilities and also with the best quality results, I'd say. All tables in all document types being accessible as database tables is also sometimes useful, as well as a variety of other capabilities. Google Docs is obviously best at collaboration but I find it sometimes frustrating to get formatting I want or working with revisions from others and myself. Microsoft Office is pretty high quality and full featured, as most realize, but lacks in import/export quality in comparison with some alternatives.

Video clips -- sometimes the copyright question comes up, so this green light is good news. Video clips may lend themselves to scenario-based assessments -- instead of reading a long article, students could look at a digitally presented case to analyze and critique -- might open up a lot of possibilities for assessment activities. a latest round of rule changes, issued Monday by the U.S. Copyright Office, dealing with what is legal and what is not as far as decrypting and repurposing copyrighted content. One change in particular is making waves in academe: an exemption that allows professors in all fields and "film and media studies students" to hack encrypted DVD content and clip "short portions" into documentary films and "non-commercial videos." (The agency does not define "short portions.") This means that any professors can legally extract movie clips and incorporate them into lectures, as long as they are willing to decrypt them - a task made relatively easy by widely available programs known as "DVD rippers." The exemption also permits professors to use ripped content in non-classroom settings that are similarly protected under "fair use" - such as presentations at academic conferences.

Treading lightly, ProfHacker looks at Faculty Development offices (also called centers for teaching and learning).

When President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, he'll have expanded majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress - and the support of a big grass-roots movement. Millions of people helped him beat Sen. John McCain, and Obama must be as innovative in harnessing their power postelection as he was during the campaign.

While much of the tech industry and blogosphere is pondering who President-elect Barack Obama might appoint as the nation's first Chief Technology Officer--Eric Schmidt? Jeff Bezos? Larry Lessig?--a bunch of heavy-hitting public interest groups in Washington and a couple of civic-minded techies out in Seattle have each launched promising interventions in the discussion.

"It is reading season at the Tufts University admissions office, time to plow through thousands of essays and transcripts and recommendations - and this year, for the first time, short YouTube videos that students could post to supplement their application." About 1,000 of the 15,000 applicants submitted videos. Some have gotten thousands of hits on YouTube. "

Really interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Quote: "In doing so, my students move from superficial to elegant observations about their majors. English majors, who previously said they read literature and wrote papers, come to understand that an English major is also about perspective, and is simultaneously classical and progressive. History majors, who initially discussed reading and research skills, discovered that a prerequisite to the major is being "audaciously curious" and on a search for "truth," despite its elusive nature. They ponder how different the nightly news would be if newsrooms were fully staffed with history majors instead of communication majors. Most important, my students consistently tell me it's the first time they've ever focused on their education-what they've learned and how their majors have influenced their mind-sets, perceptions, and ways of thinking. Once they've had that epiphany, it's amazing how simple it is to teach them to articulate their knowledge to an employer or graduate-school admissions officer."

The Official Google Blog reports that Google detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" originating in China against them and against at least 20 other large business. Google says they have "evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists." Google says "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

"The Office of the Inspector General (of the Department of Education) prefers auditable measures for performance. It reads the Higher Education Act with its multiple references to credit hours to demand such measures."

How far is accountability from accounting...

Another study that documents the challenge and suggests confirmation of the 50% figure of faculty who are not focused on either research or teaching.

Higher education faces many challenges in the short run. Our solutions will not stick if we do not re-examine the potential value of "Rolodex" presidents, slash-and-burn financial officers, and too many corporate leaders who could not mind their own stores.

Another way of looking at the financial crisis as an opportunity for "creative destruction".

"When Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to office, they created a $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund. The idea was to use money to leverage change. The administration would put a pile of federal money on the table and award it to a few states that most aggressively embraced reform. "

How would the State of Washington (and Washington State University) respond to such a challenge?

Reuven Carlyle suggests one answer to your question: http://reuvencarlyle36.com/2009/10/21/the-raging-glory-of-failure-race-to-the-top-funds/ He doesn't describe the proposal preparation process but I imagine that members of CTLT would make valuable contributions to the work.

the conflation of feedback with ranking confounds this. What is not done and needs to be done is to compare the motivational impact of providing constructive feedback. Presumably the study uses ranking in a strictly comparative context as well, and we do not see the influence of feedback relative to an absolute scale. Still, much in this piece to ponder....

This piece coupled with the usual commentary reveal again the profound identity crisis shaking education in this country.