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An article about the use of social software in higher education.

This looks good -- clickable links, favicons, maybe graphics -- my account is howardrheingold\n\nMindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool, delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser - with no complex software to install or maintain.\n\nCreate, edit mind maps, and share them with your colleagues or your friends.

I located a couple of interesting examples of people using networks as a grassroots tool to help stakeholders develop analysis of the power networks they are embedded in as a strategy tool. Also great to see such a low-tech solution.\n\nThe NetMap toolkit developed for IFPRI by Eva Schiffer makes use of boardgame-like tokens which can be used to represent the various actors, their relative power, positioning, and modes of power. Relationships (drawn as lines on paper) and positioning are determined by participants as part of the discussion. The resulting maps are recorded by the researcher. (Why do I waste my time writing software? ;-)

Delivering 'Anytime, anywhere computing' was identified as the top concern in the UCISA Top Concerns survey of 2005. Delivery is a difficult balancing act - staff and students require access to office tools and applications, filestore and business applications from a variety of devices and locations (mobile phones, PDAs, laptops as well as home desktops). Service heads have to try and provide this securely to protect their institutions' assets, but in a way where authentication does not compromise ease of access and where managing connectivity does not come at the cost of a heavy demand on resources. Governance and security issues require appropriate policies for remote use of corporate information and applications, particularly on systems that may not be owned by the institution, and maintenance of security patches and antivirus software on remote systems add to the complexity. The growing use of mobile devices, increasing student ownership of 'cutting edge' devices, growth in the use of online learning and demographic changes in the student body have all contributed to systems resilience and availability becoming the major new concern for IT Directors. The expectation that services, particularly e-learning, are available 24x7 brings new demands - achieving this is a significant investment in infrastructure and maintenance and operational resource. Network security continues to be a concern - although many institutions have external antivirus and spam filter mechanisms in place, there is often a threat from within from poorly maintained systems.

Since then, the idea of the 'digital native' has gained a lot of traction and, like many memes, has evolved into a set of assumptions about what makes one person a digital native and another person a digital immigrant. I have heard the term used in all sorts of contexts, from business to media, and often it's used in a discussions about how "We must hire more digital natives", (where "we" is the company or organisation that the speaker represents), "Digital natives will change everything", or "Digital natives will expect us to use social software".\n\nBut what is a digital native? How can we tell one when we see one? For many, the assumptions about what makes a person a digital native revolve around age: The "net generation" are all digital natives because they have grown up with technology embedded so firmly in their lives that they barely recognise it as tech.\n\nThis assumption, that a given generation is automatically imbued with a natural understanding of technology in general and the web in particular, is wrong. I have spoken to many an undergraduate class, as has Kevin, made up primarily of people who did not have an interest in the web at all, who distrust it, feel it has no place in their work (and sometimes personal) lives. There is a tendency amongst each generation to believe that the generations that come afterwards are in some way fundamentally different, and it seems to be a natural part of being human to dissociate oneself from younger generations. Maybe that is why we name each generation, from Baby Boomers to Gen X to the Net Generation, so that we can talk about them as if they are 'other' to us. Is not 'digital natives' just another way to achieve that?

Too much educational software just attempts to turn these really powerful devices into the next version of the workbook.

Do you shoot video with your cell phone, digital camera, or other handheld device? Then the chances are good that you have shaky, dark, noisy, pixilated, or blurry videos. Less-than-ideal videos that obscure your life's best, captured moments. But those moments don't have to be lost to common video problems any more. vReveal has the advanced enhancement technology and "one click" touch-up tools that make it easy to dramatically improve the quality of flawed videos