Group items tagged

"I've been testing the alpha release of CaPRéT , a tool that aids attribution and tracking of openly licensed content from web sites. According to the Caprét website. When a user cuts and pastes text from a CaPRéT-enabled site: The user gets the text as originally cut, and if their application supports the pasted text will also automatically include attribution and licensing information.The OER site can also track what text was cut, allowing them to better understand how users are using their site." The attribution below was automatically added when I pasted in the text above. Interesting indeed and some good stuff happening in this space. Testing CaprétSource : http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/philb/2011/08/17/testing-capret/License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Author: Phil Barker, JISC CETIS

Crystal's relaxed style and unassuming manner are at the forefront as he discusses the impact of texts and tweets on written language use. Crystal is actually quite positive about their impact and discusses findings relating the number of texts a student sends and their attainment in formal testing - contrary to conventional wisdom texting is actually positively related to school achievement. 

Neat little tool to analyse your writing and suggest areas in a text that could be improved.

"AbstractWe present a case study to evaluate the use of a Wimba Voice Board to support asynchronous audio discussion. We discuss the learning strategy and pedagogic rationale when a Voice Board was implemented within an MA module for language learners, enabling students to create learning objects and facilitating peer-to-peer learning. Previously students studying the module had communicated using text-based synchronous and asynchronous discussion only. A common criticism of text-based media is the lack of non-verbal communication. Audio communication is a richer medium where use of pitch, tone, emphasis and inflection can increase personalisation and prevent misinterpretation."

Site to Phone is a free service designed to send links and text from your computer to your phone or tablet. Once you have a Site to Phone account you can download a selection of extensions and browser addons that let you send information to your phone. Once your phone is setup you can recieve the information by opening a homescreen app or bookmark. If you regularly type out links from your computers web browser onto your phone Site to Phone could save you a lot of time.

Moodle Tool style grid explaining live text/backchannel

A thread by Tim Hunt describing work at the OU developing tools to auto mark free text responses in quizzes. Has links to try out two approaches. In Moodle.org so will need (free) log-in to read.

The nature of the academic lecture has changed with the introduction of wi-fi and cellular technologies. Interacting with personal screens during a lecture or other live event has become commonplace and, as a result, the economy of attention that defines these situations has changed. Is it possible to pay attention when sending a text message or surfing the web? For that matter, does distraction always detract from the learning that takes place in these environments? In this article, we ask questions concerning the texture and shape of this emerging economy of attention. We do not take a position on the efficiency of new technologies for delivering educational content or their efficacy of competing for users' time and attention. Instead, we argue that the emerging social media provide new methods for choreographing attention in line with the performative conventions of any given situation. Rather than banning laptops and phones from the lecture hall and the classroom, we aim to ask what precisely they have on offer for these settings understood as performative sites, as well as for a culture that equates individual attentional behavior with intellectual and moral aptitude.

"The nature of the academic lecture has changed with the introduction of wi-fi and cellular technologies. Interacting with personal screens during a lecture or other live event has become commonplace and, as a result, the economy of attention that defines these situations has changed. Is it possible to pay attention when sending a text message or surfing the web? For that matter, does distraction always detract from the learning that takes place in these environments? In this article, we ask questions concerning the texture and shape of this emerging economy of attention. We do not take a position on the efficiency of new technologies for delivering educational content or their efficacy of competing for users' time and attention. Instead, we argue that the emerging social media provide new methods for choreographing attention in line with the performative conventions of any given situation. Rather than banning laptops and phones from the lecture hall and the classroom, we aim to ask what precisely they have on offer for these settings understood as performative sites, as well as for a culture that equates individual attentional behavior with intellectual and moral aptitude."

Hadn't paid attention to the improvements in the Diigo extension for Chrome. Just discovered that you can use it to do screen captures and mark them up at the same time with text, arrows and shapes.

Uses Text to Speech to grab the speaker notes and put a voice to your presentation

Examination of the Boundless textbooks case by asking the question, 'What is unique in a foundational text book?'

"Within a week of the emergence of Occupy Wall Street, a library surfaced in the midst of the protest. Staffed by volunteers and comprised entirely of donated materials, the People's Library offers books and media to the public, provides basic reference assistance and has built an online catalog of their holdings. In this paper, I analyze the People's Library in terms of larger discussions of libraries, technology and activism. Drawing on personal experiences volunteering at the Library as well as text from the Library's blog, I argue that the People's Library offers two counter arguments to conventional claims about the public library: first, that libraries are being existentially threatened by the emergence of digital technologies and second, that a library's institutional ethics are located solely or predominantly in the content of its collection. Using the People's Library as a kind of conceptual case study, I explore the connections between public libraries, digital technologies and activist ideologies."

Article about some work by Turnitin on sources used by plagiarised submissions.  It says 'plagiarised' but in the text says 'matched sources'. The Tii report is available on a link to check out details more fully.

Useful account of creating a wordcloud from a large amount of text.

We envision communications infrastructure that is owned and operated cooperatively, by the whole of humanity, rather than by corporations and states.We are using the power of peer-to-peer technologies to create a global network which is immune to censorship and resistant to breakdown.We promote freedoms, support innovations and advocate technologies that enhance and enable digital self-determination.

How Elsevier wants to control text mining.

This is a community of online storytellers - uses photos, audio, text (no video).

Christina Hendricks ponders the CC-BY conundrum - how open are we comfortable with? Citing the example of Apple making bucks from others CC-BY work and adjusting the text she explores the dilemmas of adding NC, ND & SA to the deed.