Not so irrelevant 018

1. Larry Ferlazzo has a fantastic post about the videos at TED Talks and a variety of supporting resources for teachers, presenters, etc. This is a must read!
2. In South Africa (and elsewhere!), “if the principal sets the lead, technology can succeed in a school.”
3. Universities mull the use of blogs instead of course management systems. I’ve been using blogs instead of Blackboard for my courses for a couple of years now. The CMS paradigm is about institutionalized hand-holding and centralized, walled-garden control. No thanks. (hat tip to @jtwetten)
4. The University of Michigan Health Sciences Library has a fascinating slideshow on the different ways that the Obama campaign used social media to get its messages out and mobilize people to action.
5. Siri, virtual assistant software for the iPhone and other smartphones, looks like an extremely useful product (particularly with the voice recognition feature). 

See also previous posts in this category!

Comments

[Larry Ferlazzo]

1.

Scott,

Thanks for the plug!

Larry

[Dan McGuire]

2.

The comparison of a centralized Blackboard system to a Wordpress blog system might be slightly useful but not nearly as useful as comparing either to a Moodle system. The Moodle system could be either a centralized system or a bunch of independent installations, which is essentially what a group of Wordpress blogs would be. There are scads of new hosting sites popping up everyday for Moodle, and you get so much more with Moodle than you do with Wordpress - it's like comparing a pair roller skates to a convoy of trucks and buses -they're both transportation on wheels. Many of us in K-12 really need the security and control that Moodle provides. There are plenty of comparisons of Blackboard to Moodle; a Google search will get you pages of them. If you have sacks full of money sitting around, have lots of patience and not much need for innovation, and have no desire to collaborate with the rest of the planet, then Blackboard will be a safe choice.