Phil and I don’t write a whole lot about Student Information Systems (SISs) and the larger Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) suites that they belong to, not because they’re unimportant but because the stories about them often don’t fit with our particular focus in educational technology. Plus, if I’m being completely honest, I find them to […]
Pearson, Efficacy, and Research
A while back, I mentioned that MindWires, the consulting company that Phil and I run, had been hired by Pearson in response to a post I wrote a while back expressing concerns about the possibility of the company trying to define “efficacy” in education for educators (or to them) rather than with them. The heart […]
A Weird but True Fact about Textbook Publishers and OER
As I was perusing David Kernohan’s notes on Larry Lessig’s keynote at the OpenEd conference, one statement leapt out at me: Could the department of labour require that new education content commissioned ($100m) be CC-BY? There was a clause (124) that suggested that the government should check that no commercial content should exist in these […]
Better Ed Tech Conversations
This is another follow-up to the comments thread on my recent LMS rant. As usual, Kate Bowles has insightful and empathetic comments: …From my experience inside two RFPs, I think faculty can often seem like pretty raucous bus passengers (especially at vendor demo time) but in reality the bus is driven by whoever’s managing the […]
Walled Gardens, #GamerGate, and Open Education
There were a number of interesting responses to my recent LMS rant. I’m going to address a couple of them in short posts, starting with this comment: …The training wheels aren’t just for the faculty, they’re for the students, as well. The idea that the internet is a place for free and open discourse is […]
Dammit, the LMS
Count De Monet: I have come on the most urgent of business. It is said that the people are revolting! King Louis: You said it; they stink on ice. – History of the World, Part I Jonathan Rees discovered a post I wrote about the LMS in 2006 and, in doing so, discovered that I […]
A New e-Literate TV Series is in Production
We have been quiet about e-Literate TV lately, but it doesn’t mean that we have been idle. In fact, we’ve been hard at work filming our next series. In addition to working with our old friends at IN THE TELLING—naturally—we’re also collaborating with EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) and getting funding and support from the Bill […]