Opinion
- Are You Drowning in Data?
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3/8/2007
Is there a crisis in data storage? Tech analyst John Gantz estimates that in 2007 the world will for the first time generate more "data" than it has storage space for.
- The Drive to Learning Outcomes Management
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3/1/2007
Leading colleges and universities are looking for new ways to demonstrate their value to stakeholders, with learning outcomes emerging as a debated and desired endpoint.
- Valentine's Day in The Pit
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2/27/2007
Broadcasting a breakup: Was it portable cruelty or powerful social networking?
- Here Comes the Unfunded Mandate for Your IT Department!
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2/22/2007
Right now, "quality control" for higher education is basically left up to (a) the marketplace (sounds kind of right-wing) and (b) to nonprofit-based, "voluntary" procedures for accreditation (sounds kinda left-wing).
- Putting Student Communication in Con-TEXT
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2/15/2007
Colleges and universities are struggling with or are beginning to realize there is a growing problem with their communications with students.
- We Had to Destroy the Library in Order To Save It
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2/8/2007
Let's take a look into the near future and see who wins the race to digitize "the record of humanity up through 2000. The whole premodern world." The current frontrunner is Google, of course, with its Google Library Project.
- Who Owns Digital IT Collectibles: 'The Law Hasn't Caught Up Yet'
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2/1/2007
It was around 1992 when the first World Wide Web browser was created and widely shared via the Internet. Ever since, confusion has reigned in the minds of the many people who think that the Web and the Internet are one and the same, not that it really matters for them. However, even before 1992, thoughtful groups of professionals were using the Internet for communication and information sharing.
- Don't Click Until You See the #FFFFFF of Their Eyes
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1/25/2007
In modern times the phrase "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes" sounds antiquated indeed, since we usually now kill each other at much greater range, in warfare. But it makes the point that humans are among the few animals which have very distinct whites to their eyes (ravens and goats are two others), with white sclera around the iris, which itself surrounds the black pupil, in ordinary circumstances.
- A Reprieve for Net Neutrality
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1/18/2007
There was a time, less than a year ago, when a lot of us thought that the telecommunications dinosaurs were plotting against us. Net neutrality is essentially the status quo, and they wanted to change that. I don't know about you, but I pretty much wake up every morning ecstatic about the development of the Internet and the Web so far.
- A Reprieve for Net Neutrality
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1/18/2007
There was a time, less than a year ago, when a lot of us thought that the telecommunications dinosaurs were plotting against us. Net neutrality is essentially the status quo, and they wanted to change that. I don't know about you, but I pretty much wake up every morning ecstatic about the development of the Internet and the Web so far. (If we could solve the spam problem, I could drop the "pretty much" part of that statement. And, no, I don't buy that dropping net neutrality would get rid of spam. Not for a second.)
- That Clicking Sound You Hear May Be the Sound of Someone Thinking
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1/11/2007
You know that guy on your team who is always online during staff meetings? The one who, at meetings, has his laptop going and is constantly tapping keys? Even when the president is there?
- Happy Google Year!
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1/3/2007
Welcome to the Year of the Google. In 2007, Google will become the most frequently visited Web site on the Internet. In November of 2006, it passed Yahoo, briefly. Microsoft, of course, with required downloads of software upgrades, is the other major player. But Google, with the help of its new purchase, YouTube, will end Yahoo’s 10-year ride on the top of the worldwide visits charts sometime in 2007.
- A Cell to Action
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12/27/2006
Sometimes, our technology cues come from unexpected places. A recent article in The Economist declared that “mobile phones are changing world politics faster than academics can follow,” and noted that last August in violence-plagued Burundi, Africa, residents used cell phones to report fresh corpses seen in local rivers —allowing UN soldiers to investigate before crocodiles could consume the evidence. Killers could no longer rely on inaction to cover their traces.
- Does UCLA Have a Campuswide, Integrated Crisis Plan?
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12/13/2006
My heart goes out to campus IT folks who experience private data security breaches. I know, we all know, that except for a few extreme cases, each one of these could be any of us. No matter how hard we try, there is always some vulnerability.
- Getting the Money Right
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12/12/2006
A clear sign that online and distance learning is maturing is that we are struggling with how to organize and fund these programs on an ongoing basis.
- Technology and Campus Services
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12/11/2006
Can auxiliary services be mission-critical? You bet they can. With tuition on the rise, Auxiliary Services departments at a variety of colleges and universities are proving that they can innovate and still save their parent institutions cash.
- Ad It Up
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12/6/2006
Commercials on television tend to enrage me and laugh tracks are guaranteed to give me a headache. Plus, where do people find the time to watch TV?
- Teaching Sustainable Community Development Online
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12/4/2006
What does wildlife viewing have in common with online learning? Nothing at first thought; they seem to be unrelated, almost contradictory. That was my concern when Dr. Kelly Cain, a University of Wisconsin – River Falls (UWRF) professor known for innovation, approached me in 2004.
- What Is the Purpose of an Electronic Portfolio? Is the Answer the Key to Your Successful Implementation?
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12/4/2006
Among many themes, Margaret Price explores the theme of purpose in her Viewpoint. One purpose of ePortfolio is to reflect on change from a beginning to a later point in time. In a future Viewpoint, Margaret will return to the SpEl.Folio and we’ll see how her thinking and her project have evolved.
- Smashing the Shackles of Intentionally Dysfunctional Technology
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11/29/2006
Until last week, it hadn’t "clicked" inside my head that the Library of Congress could or would make specific exemptions to copyright laws.
- The Birth of Your Next Initiative
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11/20/2006
- Global E-mail Lists and Reduction of Global Carbon Emissions
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11/15/2006
At a meeting at Arizona State University in Tempe, I nearly made a suggestion that seemed at first to be a really good one, but then like a really bad one. It’s rare that I actually manage to keep my mouth shut under such circumstances, and I am proud that I did. On the other hand, I’m going to share the idea with you here, so that you can see just how bad it was, or not, so the effort did not last.
- Napping to Learn
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11/14/2006
You might think the idea of taking time to nap with so much to do is crazy. However, after living with this program for an extended period, I am going to argue that taking a nap is a great way to get more done. I even believe it is a great way to learn.
- E-mail Is for Old People
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11/8/2006
E-mail is not hacking it for me. I don’t know about you, but I am in touch with more people and information streams, and less able to manage my various communications, than ever before
- Patently Offensive
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11/1/2006
Could there be any clearer evidence that the United States patent system is dysfunctional, than the patent awarded to Blackboard?
