e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Author: Michael Feldstein

  • Social Media, Social Activism, and Edupatents

    Back when the Blackboard patent and lawsuit first surfaced in July of 2006, social software was still a pretty new thing. There was a fair bit of surprise in the community when the Wikipedia page on the History of the Virtual Learning Environment, created in large part to gather prior art for the suit, generated 160 entries in just a couple of weeks. As of this writing, there are 160 members of the Fans of D2L Million$Mission Facebook group just a few days after its creation. 

    It will be interesting to see how Facebook impacts the voice that ordinary teachers and students have in this drama. The barrier to entry is certainly lower that it was with the Wikipedia page; you don’t have to know wiki markup and you don’t have to have historical content to contribute in order to participate. Many more people are involved in social networks now, and the viral nature of Facebook is very different than that of Wikipedia. And finally, the people who sign up for the group on Facebook have names and profiles attached to them. It’s much less anonymous. So we’ll know more about who is voicing support than we did in 2006.

    What we won’t necessarily know is why. That’s why I have created a discussion thread in the group asking people to post their reasons. If you joined (or will join) this group, please take a minute on that thread to explain why you are supporting the Million$Mission.

  • Wikis for Teaching and Learning

    I’m enjoying browsing around YouTube’s EDU pages. Lots of good stuff, from the profound to the practical. At the latter end of the spectrum, here’s a good primer for teachers who are curious about using a wiki in their classes but don’t know where to start:

  • Vote for the D2L Million$Mission on Facebook

    Apparently, somebody started a Facebook group supporting D2L’s offer to Blackboard to donate a million dollars to schools in return for Blackboard dropping the patent suit. Facebook groups have become a way for people to express their support for an idea or an initiative. This is something that wasn’t in fashion yet when the original patent fight started, and it adds a new way to gauge the popular sentiment at universities. 

    If you support D2L’s proposal, you might want to join the group.

  • Desire2Learn Challenges Blackboard With $1 Million Charity Pledge

    There are two pieces of news here. First, Blackboard has apparently been granted a new patent and has filed suit for infringement against Desire2Learn in the East District of Texas—again. I have not read and will not read the new patent filing because to do so would put my employer in legal jeopardy, thanks to the weirdness that is U.S. patent law. I’m told that this is a “continuation patent”, meaning that it is a refinement of the original patent that Blackboard asserted against D2L and which has received a preliminary judgment of invalidation from the USPTO. (Does that make sense to you? No? Well, what did you expect? Like I said, it’s patent law.)

    Second, Desire2Learn has made a clever proposal to Blackboard in response:

    • Blackboard drop its recently-filed suit in a timely manner.
    • In return, Desire2Learn will donate $1,000,000 to non-profit schools and educational organizations. 
    • Blackboard is invited to join us with its own donation. 
    • Up to 50% of the Desire2Learn donation will be directed toward schools in need in and around Washington, D.C., the home of Blackboard.
    That’s bound to get some attention.

  • At the Higher Education Users Group Conference Next Week

    I’ll be going to the Alliance conference, which is run by Oracle’s higher education users group, next week. I’m co-presenting a half-day workshop on SAIP with my colleague Linda Feng on Sunday. After that, I’ll be around until Wednesday morning. If you’re at the conference and want to talk, ping me or track me down. My Twitter handle is @mfeldstein67.

  • Review of Oracle AES White Paper

    Ian Dolphin, the International Director of the e-Framework program, has posted a review [PDF] of the white paper that my colleagues and I recently wrote for Oracle. As usual, Ian brings fresh perspective and insight to the topic from his perch in an international organization promoting standards for education, where he gets views into multiple projects across a number of countries. His analysis about the overlap between eLearning and eResearch needs is particularly interesting. Well worth the read.

  • Looking for Advice On Creating a Second Life Simulation

    I received an email from a reader who is working on a worthy project and is looking for advice on Second Life. Since I generally avoid SL myself, I was hoping some of you might have some tips for her. 

    She writes:

    My goal is to create a simulation that can be used by a non-profit consulting firm, where I intern, to allow employees and field representatives engage in a fun and useful tool to educate themselves about the intricacies of implementing a project. Many of our employees are at field sites around the world, and we wanted to use a platform that would not require us to all sit in a room and do a tabletop simulation; instead, using the virtual world of Second Life seemed like a perfect place where individuals could learn and interact.

    We work on international health projects, primarily sponsored by USAID, and have allocated overhead money to cover the cost of purchasing an island where the simluation can take place. As many activities have input from a variety of stakeholders, our aim was to use Second Life as a place where individuals could adopt the role of the Minister of Health, a donor, a community health worker, etc. and experience what it was like to participate in the negotiations that take place in determining priorities, indicators, targets, and other necessary tenants of our projects.

    I know that explanation is laden with international health jargon, but here are a few of the questions affiliated with it…

    • Is it best to set up seperate SL accounts attached to avatars that we can give to the individuals participating in a given round of the simulation, or allow people to create their own avatars and attend the simulation, just taking on the role in the way they behave?
    • Beyond purchasing the island and the “rent”, what other costs can we expect to incur if we don’t need any particularly fancy infrastructure? We work in developing countries, so a bare-bones facility will suffice just fine.
    • What is a realistic time frame to conduct an online learning module like this?
    • Any other advice/caveats/words of wisdom?

    Well?