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Book Reviews Book title: Digitisation Perspectives Type: book Author: Ruth Rikowski Year: 2010 Edition: 1st ISBN: 9460912982 Publisher: Sense Publishers Publisher's Description: This book examines various views and perspectives on digitisation. As Simon Tanner, Director Digital Consultancy, King's College London says in the Foreword: "Digitisation has become a cultural, scholastic, economic and political imperative and raises many issues for our consideration." Furthermore, that the book: "...seeks to address and answer some of the big questions of digitisation... It succeeds on many levels..." There are 22 contributors in the book, all experts in their fields. The book is divided into six parts: Part 1: 'Background and Overview to Digitisation and Digital Libraries' Part 2: 'Digitisation and Higher Education' Part 3: 'Digitisation and Inequalities' Part 4: 'Digital Libraries, Reference Services and Citation Indexing' Part 5: 'Digitisation of Rare, Valued and Scholarly Works' Part 6: 'Futuristic Developments of Digitisation' Topics covered include electronic theses, search engine technology, digitisation in Africa, citation indexing, reference services, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, new media and scholarly publishing. The final chapter explores virtual libraries, and poses some interesting questions for possible futures. The book will be of particular interest to information professionals, educators, librarians, academics and I.T. and knowledge experts. Ruth Rikowski concludes by indicating that: "...hopefully, the book will provide a source of inspiration for further research, leading to some more effective ways to proceed with the digitisation process. Also, that it will be possible to do this within a framework that can be used for good rather than ill, and for the benefit of many." Reviewer: Eric Jukes (Formerly of College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London) Book Rating: 5/5 Buy this book from Amazon  Review Summary

"Online publishing, on the other hand enables you to control the length and content of your book. You have the final say, its yours. You can distribute it as you please. You won't make any money out of it, but you are making your contribution so that is enough for your own satisfaction, right? Your ideas and arguments are there for all to see."

Merrilea Mayo, a materials scientist and serious games expert, brings a wide range of public policy, research, fiscal management, and academic experience to the Kauffman Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation she was the director of the Government-University-Industry-Research Roundtable (GUIRR), National Academies in Washington, D.C. Merrilea led GUIRR in its efforts to define national strategic issues for action by federal science agency heads, industry CEOs and university presidents. During her career she has also served as the founding director of the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America, and as the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow for the Office of Senator Joseph Lieberman. Merrilea is a long-time member and past-president of the Materials Research Society and has led workshops and been an advisor for the serious games community. She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and went on to earn both her Masters and Doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. She has been an assistant professor and associate professor with Pennsylvania State University. Her work has been published in numerous professional journals, books, and conference proceedings and has earned a U.S. patent and a variety of awards in the materials science field.

The eXe project developed a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

"E-Learning and Digital Media (formerly E-Learning) is a peer-reviewed international online-only journal directed towards the study and research of e-learning in its diverse aspects: pedagogical, curricular, sociological, economic, philosophical and political. A Policy statement is available. Articles accepted for publication become the copyright of the journal, unless otherwise specifically agreed. All contributions should be original and should not be under consideration elsewhere. Authors should be aware that they are writing for an international audience and should use non-discriminatory language. All submissions to the journal are peer-refereed (anonymously) so they are published in accordance with international academic standards for research publication. For those who are refereeing articles on behalf of the journal a Referee Report form is available here."

"Illuminate is an experimental technology that uses AI to adapt content to your learning preferences. Discussions are generated with AI voices and are grounded in published academic papers. Generated content is provided for informational purposes only and may sometimes be offensive or inaccurate, so you should confirm any facts independently in the original content. AI voices are experimental and may sometimes make mistakes. Your feedback is helpful in improving the technology for everyone."

Jon Mott recently published an article in EDUCAUSE Quarterly on Envisioning the Post-LMS Era. Jim Groom captures the reactions of individuals who have been exploring the link between learning management systems and personal learning environments. There is a sense - and I'll admit I felt it as well in reading the article - that many long-time contributors to the discussion were not referenced in the article. In theory, the review process should draw attention to important omissions of literature. However, most reviewers would likely not see the spaces (blogs) where much of the conversation happens before it jumps into mainstream as good sources. I've posted below that I wrote while at University of Manitoba addressing the LMS/PLE issue. I'm not sure how long an archive of their copy will exist, so posting it here might give it a bit more of an existence.

Effective Practice in a Digital Age is designed for those in further and higher education whose focus is on designing and supporting learning: academic staff, lecturers, tutors and learning support staff, facilitators, learning technologists and staff developers, and others with an interest in enhancing the quality of learning and teaching, and a curiosity about how technology can assist them.