Posted 8:01 PM by George Siemens
All About Facets & Controlled Vocabularies
Quote: "This is the first in a series of articles that aims to correct this situation. We intend to explain both facets and the more general concept of controlled vocabularies. We want to make the subject accessible to those who don't have advanced degrees in library and information science. Furthermore, we want to show how these concepts can be applied to solve information architecture problems for the Web and other digital information environments."

Posted 7:56 PM by George Siemens
Fast Buck Artistry
Quote: "All the tricky bits, all the alphabet soup, that we run into in the world of learning objects have their exact counterparts in the world of libraries (if anything, learning objects are treated *too* much like library books, but that's a separate issue for another day).
Think about it...
learning object = book (or more precisely, book chapter, or journal article) learning object repository = shelf metadata repository = card catalogue metadata = card (in a card catalogue) learning management system (LMS) = reading room (or classroom, depending on the LMS) learning content management system (LCMS) = librarian (or some other means of locating content)"
Comment: Great article...the concept of learning objects communicated without too much tech talk. Learning objects have come to mean everything...and nothing. The concepts of LOs is simple and inviting...the development and use is much more complex...for some reason, the industry has moved to development and use without fully communicating concepts to end users - the reason for resisitance?

Posted 1:43 PM by George Siemens
Framing Learner Personas
Quote: "E-learning designers have come to realize that the hardest part of the project life cycle is the analysis phase. It is in this phase that the performance requirements are gathered and analyzed to find the best solution, or rather the best solution under the specific contexts (constraints). But more often than not analysis is too focused only on the problem-at-hand...According to Cooper, " [Personas] are a precise description of our user and what he wishes to accomplish." Usually it's a short narrative describing the user and the goals he's pursuing under a specific context."
Comment: Introduces the use of personas in elearning development. Great idea...will be very difficult to build into the design process, however. The use of personas needs to highlight: a) the content a user needs b) goals the user is pursuing, and c) the context (article lists it as life situations) in which the user will use the content. I think much of what can be classified as personas can be met through the personalized learning...courses are designed in a manner that assesses students at the start of a course...and then "custom builds" a course based on the assessment. This allows a user to get to his/her goals for learning much quicker, without having to go through unnecessary content...and partially addresses the learner's life situation by allowing them to move through materials in the manner (pace, quantity) they choose.

Posted 10:48 AM by George Siemens
The Day the Music Died vai Paid Content
Quote: "Common sense – and physics – dictates that any sound can be copied, but the goal must be to make copying pointless. Why bother cracking codes and databases if you can get all the music you want as part of your phone, electricity or ISP bill? Music then becomes a utility, or a service. It doesn’t matter if music is free, so long as it isn’t. That is, music can still feel free and content owners can still get paid."
Comment: Fascinating article exploring how content producers are trying (unsuccessfully) to reproduce traditional content revenue streams online. Also explores DRM: "Digital rights management is crucial to this process to identify who needs to get paid, but going too far down this path can lead to the seventh cavalry riding abstinent white elephants that nobody wants to be rescued by. The need for DRM always has to be balanced with the need for the consumption of music not to be a chore. In short, music use has to be easy."
See also: A Question of Rights

Posted 10:38 AM by George Siemens
The Rebirth of E-publishing
Quote: "E-books bombed a few years ago, but they’re back, and now e-periodicals may be the next big thing... Major publishers like AOL Time Warner, Random House and McGraw-Hill all reported that their electronic editions...were showing sales growth in double digit percentages."
Comment: First - I'm sick of hearing anything new being described as the 'next big thing'. There's a limit to how many things can be big...and I think we passed the threshold several years ago. With that said, this article highlights something that we'll see much more of: discussion on the impact of tablet PC's (everyone I talk to would love one, but no one actually has one). "The Tablet PC is their new computer, sans keyboard, that is shaped more like an 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper notepad than the traditional laptop—and hence a more natural electronic platform for books and magazines."

Posted 8:24 AM by George Siemens
The Electronic Portfolio Boom: What's it All About? via SiT
Quote: "The term "electronic portfolio," or "ePortfolio," is on everyone's lips. We often hear it associated with assessment, but also with accreditation, reflection, student resumes, and career tracking. It's as if this new tool is the answer to all the questions we didn't realize we were asking."
Comment: E-portfolio sounds like a concept I've heard both Jay Cross and Stephen Downes discuss: a system for collecting course/learning experiences that is controlled by the learner. For example, if I take a series of courses at RRC, the College tracks and records my activities. If I leave the College, my learning record doesn't typically go with me. The learning process should be controlled and owned by the learner...in an age of continual education, a personal learning portfolio may be the most valuable asset a person has in finding employment and proving competence. Interesting quote in the article: "How do we deal with long-term storage, privacy, access, and ongoing vendor support? What about the challenge of interoperability among platforms so student work can move to a new campus upon transfer?"

Posted 8:14 AM by George Siemens
Foothill College Will Build Its Own Next-Generation Courseware, and Offer It to Others
Quote: "Foothill College will build rather than buy its next generation of software for managing online learning, and it is creating an alliance of other colleges that are willing to share some of the costs in exchange for free use of the software and its source code...are confident that an alliance of institutions can create the kind of learning-management system that their faculty members want -- and can avoid the unpredictable price increases that colleges encounter in the commercial market. Currently, says Ms. Sinou, colleges are "being held hostage to the industry, and the costs are only going up." "
Comment: Several colleagues who attended recent online learning conferences have reported a conference-floor level reaction to platforms like WebCT and Blackboard: The end user is dissatisfied with the functionality...and administrators are unable to justify costs. Horrible combination. I think the LMS industry (at least in education) is at the beginning stages of significant change...open source products, new lower-cost offerings, and in house/consortium development. The market has been misjudged by LMS providers...it seems that they want to take over the education process rather than support it...and their pricing structure indicates this perspective. Sure, if an LMS is the center of elearning (which it isn't)...then $350,000 a year is justified. If an LMS enhances and supports education (which it should), then costs need to be much lower, functionality and versatility much higher.