A. Kipta's Blog

Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots: Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different operating systems and browsers. It is a free open-source online web application providing developers a convenient way to test their website's browser compatibility in one place. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to our central dedicated server for your review.

Exhibitions: The Great American Hall of Wonders / American Art

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Exhibitions: The Great American Hall of Wonders / American Art: The exhibition The Great American Hall of Wonders examines the nineteenth-century American belief that the people of the United States shared a special genius for innovation. It explores this belief through works of art, mechanical inventions, and scientific discoveries, and captures the excitement of citizens who defined their nation as a “Great Experiment” sustained by the inventive energies of Americans in every walk of life.

Education Survey: China Scores Top Marks; U.S., France Lag - TIME

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Education Survey: China Scores Top Marks; U.S., France Lag - TIME: The rise of China as an economic and political juggernaut has become a familiar refrain, but now there's another area in which the Chinese are suddenly emerging as a world power: education. In the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) comparative survey of the academic performance of 15-year-olds around the world — an authoritative study released every three years — Chinese teenagers from Shanghai far outscored their international peers in all three subject matters that were tested last year: reading, math and science.

Scribophile, the online writing group for serious writers

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Scribophile, the online writing group for serious writers: Scribophile is a respectful community of writers who’re passionate about improving each other’s writing through thoughtful critiques and the sharing of knowledge and experience. This is the place to be if you want to give and get the best critiques around. It’s serious feedback for serious writers.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/28/2012 (p.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:32:00 +0000

GrowVeg.com - The Smart Way To Plan Your Vegetable Garden

GrowVeg.com is an online Garden Planner which helps you grow fruit and vegetables to the best of their ability, whatever the size or shape of your garden or plot. With GrowVeg.com it is easy to draw out your garden plan and decide how best to plant it. The GrowVeg.com Garden Planner software shows how much space plants require and how to group them for maximum success, removing the need to look up planting distances and crop families.

tags: gardening
CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Gingerbread

CyanogenMod is an aftermarket firmware for a number of cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system. It offers features not found in the official Android based firmwares of vendors of these cell phones.

tags: android
APA Paper — LibreOffice Templates

Template for submitting papers in APA style.

tags: templates
Lost Ladybug Project

Across North America ladybug species distribution is changing. Over the past twenty years several native ladybugs that were once very common have become extremely rare. During this same time ladybugs from other places have greatly increased both their numbers and range. Some ladybugs are simply found in new places. This is happening very quickly and we don’t know how, or why, or what impact it will have on ladybug diversity or the role that ladybugs play in keeping plant-feeding insect populations low. We're asking you to join us in finding out where all the ladybugs have gone so we can try to prevent more native species from becoming so rare.

tags: science biology ecology
Bluefish Editor : Home

Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdevelopers, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages. See features for an extensive overview, take a look at the screenshots, or download it right away. Bluefish is an open source development project, released under the GNU GPL licence.

tags: html_editor
What is CKEditor? | CKEditor

CKEditor is a text editor to be used inside web pages. It's a WYSIWYG editor, which means that the text being edited on it looks as similar as possible to the results users have when publishing it. It brings to the web common editing features found on desktop editing applications like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice. Because CKEditor is licensed under flexible Open Source and commercial licenses, you'll be able to integrate and use it inside any kind of application. This is the ideal editor for developers, created to provide easy and powerful solutions to their users.

tags: html_editor
KompoZer - Easy web authoring

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

tags: html_editor

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Free HTML Editor, Visual Web Page Editor: PageBreeze Freeware

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:44:00 +0000

Free HTML Editor, Visual Web Page Editor: PageBreeze Freeware: PageBreeze Free HTML Editor is an award-winning HTML Editor which has both visual (WYSIWYG) and HTML tag/source modes. PageBreeze Free HTML Editor's design emphasizes simplicity and ease-of-use. You'll find that you'll be creating great looking websites almost instantly--with virtually no learning curve! PageBreeze Free HTML Editor is a completely free download for personal use and will never expire.

Free Online HTML Editor

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:41:00 +0000

Free Online HTML Editor: Need to use HTML code for your shopping cart product descriptions, newsletter or other part of your website? Use our free HTML editor to get the HTML code you need. Just enter your content below and format it as desired using the tools provided. When you are done, click the 'Source' button and it will display your HTML code. Copy and paste the code to your website.

Free HTML WYSIWYG Editor

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:06:00 +0000

Free HTML WYSIWYG Editor - FREE Online Editor IE Reall Graphics: After pasting your template code in, to change text, just click your cursor in the spot your want to change and type over ours in WYSIWYG mode. To change the image displayed within the template, click on the pic you want to change and then click on the tiny icon button to add in the link to where the photo/graphic is stored. Once you've made all of the changes you need to, toggle back to the HTML view and then copy the code and then paste your new file into a .htm file on your computer. To get the 'code' for you template to use here. Open the html file in Notepad (Start > Accessories > Notepad > File > Open > browse to file > File > Select All > File > Copy). Then click on the toggle above to go to HTML mode and highlight whatever we have above and the just right click paste. Then click the toggle to go back into WYSIWYG mode to see how it looks. Make your changes in WYSIWYG mode if you're not comfortable with HTML.

Free HTML Editor | CoffeeCup Software

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:57:00 +0000

Free HTML Editor | CoffeeCup Software: The CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor is a full-featured web design system. With built-in S-Drive sync and real-time preview that updates HTML5 and CSS3 as you code, your site will be ready for the web before you know it. Plus, its wizards for tables, frames, fonts, and more prove that it's a great tool for anyone who wants to design their own website. The Free HTML Editor is a trimmed-down version of the CoffeeCup HTML Editor, and does not contain the CSS Menu Designer, Image Mapper, and Website Color Schemer. If you're interested in getting your hands on these great features, download the free, fully functional trial version of the HTML Editor.

Learn AP Physics - AP Physics B

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Learn AP Physics - AP Physics B: This non-calculus, college-level physics curriculum includes Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, waves, sound, optics, electricity, magnetism, atomic physics, nuclear physics, and relativity. While there are distinct advantages to learning--either in a classroom or online--with a real physics teacher, there are a number of online references that can help supplement your instruction.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/27/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:38:00 +0000

How Sitting All Day Is Damaging Your Body and How You Can Counteract It

Do you sit in an office chair or on your couch for more than six hours a day? Then here are some disturbing facts: Your risk of heart disease has increased by up to 64 percent. You're shaving off seven years of quality life. You're also more at risk for certain types of cancer. Simply put, sitting is killing you. That's the bad news. The good news: It's easy to counteract no matter how lazy you are.

tags: health computing workplace
Waterfox | Downloads | The fastest 64-Bit variant of Firefox!

PC Mag: "Waterfox bills itself as a high-performance browser based on Firefox that's made specifically for 64-bit systems and optimized for speed. Users on older systems will find that the 64-bit browser loads faster and is much more responsive than 32-bit Firefox, the project says, while on newer hardware, Waterfox allows users to enjoy their systems' full potential."

tags: browser firefox
The GNU General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.

tags: licensing gpl3 open_source copyleft
The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA

Apple, in this EULA, is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty. As far as I know, in the consumer software industry, this practice is unprecedented.

tags: eula apple copyright licensing publishing
Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea | Video on TED.com

So there's two bills in Congress right now. One is called SOPA, the other is called PIPA. SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It's from the Senate. PIPA is short for PROTECTIP, which is itself short for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property -- because the congressional aides who name these things have a lot of time on their hands. And what SOPA and PIPA want to do is they want to do this. They want to raise the cost of copyright compliance to the point where people simply get out of the business of offering it as a capability to amateurs.

tags: intellectual_property copyright piracy sopa pipa shirky.clay
Finnix

Finnix is a self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution ("LiveCD") for system administrators, based on Debian. You can mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more. Finnix includes the latest technology for system administrators, with Linux kernel 3.0, x86 and PowerPC support, hundreds of sysadmin-geared packages, and much more. And above all, Finnix is small; currently the entire distribution is over 300MiB, but is dynamically compressed into a small bootable image. Finnix is not intended for the average desktop user, and does not include any desktops, productivity tools, or sound support, in order to keep distribution size low.

tags: linux livecd sysadmin
AUSpace: Home

AUSpace contains publications, articles, books, datasets, learning objects, images, blueprints, presentations, audio recordings, technical reports, videos, working papers and more. The role of this digital content repository is to preserve and disseminate Athabasca University's scholarly materials.

tags: athabasca.u publications repository
Wolfram Education Portal: Free Resources and Materials for Teachers

Wolfram has long been a trusted name in education—as the makers of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, we've created some of the most dynamic teaching and learning tools available. We are pleased to offer the best of all of our technologies to you here in the Wolfram Education Portal, organized by course. In the portal you'll find a dynamic textbook, lesson plans, widgets, interactive Demonstrations, and more built by Wolfram education experts.

tags: mathematics education lesson_plans
Cacti: The Complete RRDTool-based Graphing Solution

Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool's data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box. All of this is wrapped in an intuitive, easy to use interface that makes sense for LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with hundreds of devices.

tags: network monitoring data graphing
BusyBox

BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU fileutils, shellutils, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts. BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.

tags: embedded linux unix utilities
Udacity - Educating the 21st Century

Learn programming in seven weeks. We'll teach you enough about computer science that you can build a web search engine like Google or Yahoo!

tags: programming education
Teachers take to Twitter to improve craft and commiserate - The Washington Post

"After her first year teaching history in a public high school in the District, Jamie Josephson was exhausted and plagued by self-doubt. Teaching had been more grueling than she ever expected. Law school began to sound appealing. Then she stumbled onto Twitter. In the vast social network on the Web, she discovered a community of mentors offering inspiration, commiseration and classroom-tested lesson plans. “Twitter essentially prepared me to go into my second year and not give up,” said Josephson, now in her third year at Woodrow Wilson High in Northwest Washington. “I never would have imagined that it would have been the place to find support.”

tags: twitter teachers support
Openembedded.org

Welcome to OpenEmbedded, the build framework for embedded Linux. OpenEmbedded offers a best-in-class cross-compile environment. It allows developers to create a complete Linux Distribution for embedded systems.

tags: linux embedded open_source
OSGeo.org | Your Open Source Compass

OSGeo was created to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use.

tags: mapping software open_source
OpenClipArt

The Open Clipart Library is the largest collaboration community that creates, shares and remixes clipart. All clipart is released to the public domain and may be used in any project for free and with no restrictions.

tags: clipart graphics open_source
Oracle VM VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction.

tags: virtualization open_source
Virtual Router - Wifi Hot Spot for Windows 7 / 2008 R2

Virtual Router is a free, open source software based router for PCs running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Using Virtual Router, users can wirelessly share any internet connection (Wifi, LAN, Cable Modem, Dial-up, Cellular, etc.) with any Wifi device (Laptop, Smart Phone, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android Phone, Zune, Netbook, wireless printer, etc.) These devices connect to Virtual Router just like any other access point, and the connection is completely secured using WPA2 (the most secure wireless encryption.)

tags: wifi hotspot windows router open_source
PowerGUI.org - Free Windows Powershell Community

PowerGUI.org - a free community for PowerGUI, a graphical user interface and script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell

tags: windows script editor open_source
Zenmap - Official cross-platform Nmap Security Scanner GUI

Zenmap is the official Nmap Security Scanner GUI. It is a multi-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, etc.) free and open source application which aims to make Nmap easy for beginners to use while providing advanced features for experienced Nmap users. Frequently used scans can be saved as profiles to make them easy to run repeatedly. A command creator allows interactive creation of Nmap command lines. Scan results can be saved and viewed later. Saved scan results can be compared with one another to see how they differ. The results of recent scans are stored in a searchable database.

tags: security scanner network mapping open_source
UltraDefrag - An Open Source Defragmenter

UltraDefrag is a powerful Open Source Defragmentation tool for the Windows Platform. It can defragment any system files including registry hives and paging file. Also one of the main goals of UltraDefrag is doing the job as fast and reliable as possible.

tags: windows utilities open_source
OCS Inventory in Launchpad

Do you know all devices connected to your IT network ? Do you know which software or hardware component is installed on a computer ? Are you able to deploy softwares or configuration scripts on your computers ? No, then Try OCS Inventory NG

tags: network inventory open_source
AutoSPInstaller

AutoSPInstaller works with and now leverages enhancements in SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 (with or without the June 2011 CU)! It takes advantage of some of the cmdlet updates in SP1, while remaining backward-compatible with non-SP1 deployments.

tags: sharepoint installation open_source
Amanda Network Backup: Open Source Backup for Linux, Windows, UNIX and OS X

AMANDA, the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup solution that allows the IT administrator to set up a single master backup server to back up multiple hosts over network to tape drives/changers or disks or optical media. Amanda uses native utilities and formats (e.g. dump and/or GNU tar) and can back up a large number of servers and workstations running multiple versions of Linux or Unix. Amanda uses a native Windows client to back up Microsoft Windows desktops and servers.

tags: backup open_source
APA Style Blog: Finding (and Using) Page Numbers for Kindle Books

There’s no question that e-books make up a rapidly increasing segment of the publishing world. Amazon.com’s Kindle dominates this market, with hundreds of thousands of titles available in formats that can be read not only on the Kindle but on millions of iPads, iPhones, Blackberries, and Android devices as well. Although the Kindle (and other e-book readers) are wonderfully portable, there has been one drawback to their use in research and scholarly writing: no page numbers. Instead, the device presents a number that roughly corresponds to the amount of text you’ve read. This number varies depending on the size of your display and the font settings you use; it has no relation to the pagination of the printed text.

tags: citation apa
APA Style Blog: How Do You Cite an E-Book (e.g., Kindle Book)?

E-books come in a variety of formats (e.g., Kindle, Adobe Digital Editions, EPub, HTML, and more) and can be read on a variety of devices (e.g., e-readers like the Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader, as well as on personal computers and mobile devices through online portals such as NetLibrary, ebrary, and Google Books). This post shows how to cite any e-book in APA Style.

tags: citation apa

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Online Brainstorming and Voting

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Online Brainstorming and Voting: Ask a question and invite friends or colleagues. Collect ideas and vote for your favourite.

GDocs | AppBrain Android Market

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

GDocs | AppBrain Android Market: GDocs is a simple notepad that can view, edit and sync documents from your Google Docs account. It allows you create, import/export and send documents.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/25/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:38:00 +0000

White Box Linux Kickstart Tricks LG #105

What is White Box? White Box Enterprise Linux is just RedHat's Enterprise Server 3 recompiled from the source RPMs RH provides. Just for kicks, I ran a md5sum comparison between the RH RPMs and WhiteBox RPMs, and in almost all cases, they were identical. Most of the mismatches were related to trademark logos and such or were RPMs that WhiteBox didn't need. White Box is very good for testing and developing since it doesn't require any licenses to use. It also should be considered for production use. Please consider contributing towards the White Box. It is a great project! What is Kickstart? A means of automating Linux installations and upgrades. First, you create a single configuration file which you put on a floppy disk. Then, you boot your computer from the floppy disk, and it will be configured based on the Kickstart configuration file. If the configuration file is set up right, no questions or prompts are asked during the installation. So what are the Kickstart tricks? In this article, I'm going to talk about the experience I've gained using Kickstart during the last 6 years and in the course of my work at Nuasis as a Systems Administrator and Programmer.

tags: linux kickstart
Big Huge Thesaurus: Synonyms, antonyms, and rhymes (oh my!)

This site is based on source data from the Princeton University WordNet database, the Carnegie Mellon Pronouncing Dictionary, and suggestions from thousands of people on the internet just like you. Contains synonyms, antonyms, and rhymes (oh my!)
Also blog post ideas and story plot/logline resources for writers.

tags: thesaurus writing ideas

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/24/2012 (p.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:33:00 +0000

Distance Education in the United States, Past, Present, Future | Distance-Educator.com

Published since 1961, Educational Technology Magazine has chronicled the growth and development of the field by many leading scholars who have contributed to it. Over the years, articles in this publication has been assigned reading for courses that I taught at San Diego State University in the Department of Educational Technology as they reflected state-of-the-art thinking on instructional design, application of new technologies in teaching and learning, and leadership in educational technology.

tags: history distance_education
Distance Education in the United States, Past, Present, Future | Distance-Educator.com

Published since 1961, Educational Technology Magazine has chronicled the growth and development of the field by many leading scholars who have contributed to it. Over the years, articles in this publication has been assigned reading for courses that I taught at San Diego State University in the Department of Educational Technology as they reflected state-of-the-art thinking on instructional design, application of new technologies in teaching and learning, and leadership in educational technology.

tags: history distance_education

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Catch Notes - Android app on AppBrain

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Catch Notes - Android app on AppBrain: Catch is a free, feature-packed app that allows you to capture your ideas and experiences across all your devices with secure auto-syncing to the cloud. Capture photos, jot notes, record voice memos, map your location and attach reminders. And now private and shared Streams lets you gather your notes into collections which can be used as a personal private folders or shared as a private, collaborative spaces.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/23/2012 (p.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:33:00 +0000

U.S. Copyright Office - Copyright in General (FAQ)

When is my work protected? Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Do I have to register with your office to be protected? No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.

tags: copyright
Free HTML Editor | CoffeeCup Software

The CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor is a full-featured web design system. With built-in S-Drive sync and real-time preview that updates HTML5 and CSS3 as you code, your site will be ready for the web before you know it. Plus, its wizards for tables, frames, fonts, and more prove that it's a great tool for anyone who wants to design their own website.

tags: html_editor
eXe eXeLearning

The eXe project developed a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup.

tags: html_editor

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Storybird - Collaborative storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Storybird - Collaborative storytelling: Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print. Read them like books, play them like games, and send them like greeting cards. They’re curiously fun.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/23/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Times Higher Education - Use of Turnitin software does not deter cheating, study finds

Students who are aware that their work will be checked by plagiarism-detection software are just as likely to cheat as those who are not, a study suggests. Turnitin software, which is used by thousands of universities worldwide, extracts text from submitted essays and checks it against other sources, such as online documents. However, the study conducted by a researcher at California State University suggests that such measures should not be regarded as a "silver bullet" in the battle against "deviant" academic practices. Robert J. Youmans, a cognitive psychologist, says in the paper published in the journal Studies in Higher Education that he expected to find that fewer students would cheat if they were warned that their work would be scanned. This proved not to be the case.

tags: plagiarism turnitin research
More schools use services to police students for Internet plagiarism - NYPOST.com

Unscrupulous students may have to work harder to plagiarize their papers. More than 150 city public schools now use cheat-checking services like Turnitin and SafeAssign, which run student writing assignments through massive databases to look for material pilfered from the Internet or other pupils’ papers. Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan is among at least 13 of the city’s most highly selective high schools that contract directly with Turnitin. Many others get plagiarism-detecting services through textbook publishers.

tags: plagiarism turnitin
Taking Screenshots in Mac OS X - Mac Guides

There are several keyboard combinations that can be used to take screenshots in Mac OS X. The SystemUIServer process handles these commands.

tags: mac computing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/22/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:38:00 +0000

Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education

Open educational resources (OER) are materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared. These Guidelines outline key issues and make suggestions for integrating OER into higher education. Their purpose is to encourage decision makers in governments and institutions to invest in the systematic production, adaptation and use of OER and to bring them into the mainstream of higher education in order to improve the quality of curricula and teaching and to reduce costs.

tags: open_educational_resources oer
AJET: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is a refereed academic journal publishing research and review articles in educational technology, information and communications technologies for education, online and e-learning, educational design, multimedia, computer assisted learning, and related areas. AJET is published by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE). Prior to Volume 20, 2004, AJET was published under the title Australian Journal of Educational Technology. AJET invites submissions of articles in the length range 5000-8000 words. Original contributions are welcome from writers in any organisation in any country, and membership of a supporting society is not a requirement for submissions. Articles are subjected to peer review on a double blind, confidential basis by at least two referees from AJET's Panel of Reviewers. AJET is a recognised peer reviewed journal listed in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.

tags: distance_education journals
TOJET - The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology

Anyone in the profession may submit unsolicited manuscripts for publication consideration in TOJET. TOJET is an international, nonprofit, professional association for managers and users of information resources on college and university campuses. The content of TOJET relates to educational technology. TOJET is an online international electronic journal, published four times a year (January, April, July, and October). Articles may be contributed at any time for publication consideration. Potential articles are reviewed by members of an editorial review committee, and those published in TOJET are referenced in such indexing services as SSCI, ERIC, EBSCO ONLINE, and EBSCO CD ROM Database, DOAJ and AERA SEG. The reviewing process usually takes from three to eight weeks; author revision and the editorial/production cycle may take up to four months. Ideally, papers should be submitted to Aytekin ISMAN (isman@sakarya.edu.tr) electronically as a word-processed file.
Learner Support Services for Online Students: Scaffolding for success | Ludwig-hardman | The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

A critical component of an effective retention program for online students is a learner support services program. While many factors contribute to attrition, at the top of the list are level of interaction and support. To this end, some students in distance learning programs and courses report feelings of isolation, lack of self-direction and management, and eventual decrease in motivation levels. This article describes the types of learner support services strategies that can effectively address these retention challenges. Examples from Western Governors University (WGU) are provided to describe these strategies in action.

tags: student_support online_learning scaffolding
Dr. Jane Brindley

Jane E. Brindley has over 25 years of experience as a practitioner, educator, researcher and administrator in open and distance learning. She is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the development, delivery, and evaluation of support services for adult learners using alternate delivery modes. Jane has held a variety of positions in post-secondary settings, including Director of Student Services at Athabasca University in Alberta, Coordinator of Planning, Development, and Review at Cambrian College in Ontario, and Special Consultant to The Centre for Innovation in Learning at Contact North/Contact Nord in Ontario. Most recently, she served as the Director of the University of Windsor Centre for Psychological Services, a training clinic for doctoral students in Clinical Psychology. As a researcher, consultant and trainer in distance education, she has worked in Canada, England, New Zealand, Scandinavia, India, China, and South and Central America. She holds a B.A. from the University of Alberta, an M.A. in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Ottawa. Jane is a course author and faculty member in the online Masters of Distance Education program jointly offered by the University of Oldenburg and the University of Maryland University College, and is author of "Researching Tutoring and Learner Support" (a PREST/COL research methods manual for practitioners), co-author of "Learning on the Information Highway: A Learner's Guide to the Technologies", and lead editor and chapter author for "Learner Support in Open, Distance and Online Learning". Jane Brindley is a course author and instructor in the MDE program and currently teaches MDE 608 and 670.

tags: distance_education brindley.jane
EDEN in a Nutshell | EDEN

The European Distance and E-Learning Network exists to share knowledge and improve understanding amongst professionals in distance and e-learning and to promote policy and practice across the whole of Europe and beyond. With more than 200 institutional members and over 1200 members in the Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP), EDEN assists a wide range of institutions, networks and individuals to become involved in professional information and networking activities. It does so through the organisation of acknowledged European conferences, its publications and information services, and by taking an active role in a wide range of important EU projects. EDEN has also proved successful with thematic activities such as the Open Classroom Working Group (school level distance education), and by contributing to, and promoting, ‘cutting edge’ research in the field. In addition, EDEN has also provided extensive secretarial support to the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL). EDEN is the smart network for the professional community and a professional community for smart learning. Established in 1991 as an international educational association and not-for-profit organisation, EDEN is open to institutions and individuals dealing with e-learning, and – more broadly speaking – open and distance education.

tags: distance_education network resources
Christine Walti

Christine Walti is the assistant director for Distance Learning in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at Anne Arundel Community College. Her focus is on the development and implementation of distance learning courses and programs in the continuing and professional education environment. Christine is a MDE graduate and in 2008 she received the UMUC Teaching Recognition Award of the Graduate School of Management and Technology. Christine is member of the MDE Oldenburg team and teaches OMDE 601 (Foundations of Distance Education & E-learning), the program's portal course and OMDE 608 (Learner Support in Distance Education and Training) and for the UMUC side of the program she also teaches the capstone course MDE 670.

tags: distance_education walti.christine
Lisa Blaschke

Lisa Marie Blaschke is head of a communications consulting firm, Kreative Kommunikation, which offers a wide range of distance education and technical writing services, from e-learning design and development to project management. Lisa has over 20 years experience working within international corporate environments, leading and implementing enterprise-wide knowledge management and training solutions. Her career experience has been varied, ranging from hands-on practical technical writing and instructional design to global management of e-learning and blended learning projects. Lisa is one of the early graduates of the Master of Distance of Education & E-learning (MDE) program and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota. She is a member of the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) and a senior member of the Society of Technical Communication (STC) and has published numerous papers/workshops through the organizations. Lisa was born and raised in Wisconsin, then moved to Germany in 1990 to work for a small software company called SAP. She currently lives with her family on the edge of a forest in the German Odenwald.

tags: distance_education blaschke.lisa
Dr. Torstein Rekkedal

Torstein Rekkedal has worked in distance education research since 1970. His thesis on recruitment, student achievements and completion was the first published research on distance education in Norway. From 1972 he has worked at NKI (Norwegian Competence Institute) as director of research and development. He is also professor of distance education at the Norwegian School of Information Technology. Torstein Rekkedal has published extensively in areas such as recruitment and drop-out/completion, student support, following-up systems, quality assurance and program evaluation, both as research monographs, articles in the major international periodicals, book articles and conference proceedings. During the last years his interests have naturally also included technology issues, online learning and mobile learning. During the last 10 years he has been actively involved in a large number of EU projects. From 2005 till 2007 he coordinated the EU supported Megatrends Project that analyzed large-scale sustainable e-learning operations.

tags: distance_education rekkedal.torstein
AUSpace: Dr. Terry Anderson

As a Canadian Research Chair Dr.Terry Anderson, is involved as Principle Researcher in a variety of research and development initiatives including: Editor of International Review of Research in Distance Education; EduSource Pan Canadian Network of Learning Object Repositories; Campus Alberta Repository of Education Objects (CAREO); and Alberta Supernet Research Network. He teaches and advises students in the world's largest Masters of Distance Education program at Athabasca University. He also serves on advisory committees with the Alberta and Canadian Governments, and serve on editorial boards of the following Journals: Journal of Distance Education, Internet in Higher Education, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Canadian Journal of Educational Communication, and Journal of Interactive Media in Education.

tags: distance_education anderson.terry
Install Windows over network with PXE « Lockstockmods

You may have read in a previous post how i installed Ubuntu on my sisters laptop with PXE, well this worked great, but i couldnt for the life of me get WPA to work on the wireless card, so after about a week of trying i decided to try and PXE boot windows as the laptop had no floppy drive, no CD drive and couldnt boot from USB, what follows is the result of the trials and tribulations of that experience…. enjoy.

tags: windows installation system_administration

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/21/2012 (p.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Peters: Distance education and industrial production

Peters' first theoretical analysis of distance education was published as a 45-page monograph in 1967 entitled Das Fernstudium an Universitaten und Hochschulen: didaktische Struktur und vergleichende lnterpretation: ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Fernlehre (Distance education at universities and higher education institutions: didactical structure and comparative analysis - a contribution to the theory of distance teaching). The second half of this monograph is translated here and is also to be found in D. Sewart, D. Keegan and B. Holmberg (eds) (1983) Distance Education: International Perspectives, London and New York: Croom Helm Routledge, pp. 95-113.

tags: distance_education peters.otto
Supreme Court Upholds Law That Pulled Foreign Works Back Under Copyright - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

A professor lost his long legal fight to keep thousands of foreign musical scores, books, and other copyrighted works in the public domain when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him on Wednesday in a case that will affect scholars and artists around the country. The scholar is Lawrence Golan, a music professor and conductor at the University of Denver. He argued that the U.S. Congress did not have the legal authority to remove works from the public domain. It did so in 1994, when the Congress changed U.S. copyright law to conform with an international copyright agreement. The new law reapplied copyright to millions of works that had long been free for anyone to use without permission.

tags: copyright

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A. Kipta's Blog 01/21/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Research Guides | Newberry

Welcome to the Newberry’s Research Guides. Librarians have compiled these bibliographies, checklists, collection descriptions, and links to articles about our holdings to assist you in your exploration of the Newberry’s rich collections.

tags: research library
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education | Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

These standards were reviewed by the ACRL Standards Committee and approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) on January 18, 2000, at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in San Antonio, Texas. These standards were also endorsed by the American Association for Higher Education (October 1999) and the Council of Independent Colleges (February 2004).

tags: information_literacy standards
Will Informal Learning Carry the Same Weight as College Degrees? | MindShift

When the Open Badges Project was first announced, some educators questioned whether “badges” were a form of gamification of education, just another way, they said, to force learners to think more about certification and credentialing than about the learning process itself. But participation in the Open Badge Project from businesses and agencies like the Department of Labor has given it credibility. And whether we like it or not, many learners are extrinsically motivated to pursue certain educational endeavors — they need skills and often certification in order to demonstrate their mastery to employers. But even with the Department of Labor’s involvement in the Open Badges Project and in the DML Competition, will employers recognize badges?

tags: informal_learning
Badges/Pilot programs - MozillaWiki

The School of Webcraft is a joint initiative between Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University offering free, peer-driven courses and study groups on open web development. The School of Webcraft Badge Pilot, running in the January and April 2011 course cycles, will provide an opportunity to test the open badge infrastructure and prototype by introducing assessments and associated badges into the School of Webcraft. These include skill badges (e.g., Javascript, PHP), value badges (e.g., Accessibility), and peer-to-peer badges that learners can award to each (e.g., Good Teammate, Peer Mentor, etc.).

tags: informal_learning
Research-Supported Best Practices for Developing Online Learning

An analysis was conducted of the body of research studies on best practice in asynchronous or synchronous online instruction in higher education. The analysis used specific research design criteria and categorized studies by the type of theory used, such as creation of typologies. Many studies had flaws in research design and generally were pre-experimental case studies. Those studies most closely meeting the research criteria indicate online learning is viable and identify potential best practices in four categories: student behaviors, faculty-student interactions, technology support, and learning environment.

tags: best_practices online_learning
Online Course Evaluation Rubrics - GSLIS Wiki

There are several different rubric-based online course evaluation programs run by individual universities, institutions, and for-profit enterprises. This page will provide information on exemplary rubrics from four such evaluation programs: Illinois Online Network's Quality Online Course Initiative's Rubric; MarylandOnline, Inc's Quality Matters Rubric; California State University Chico's Rubric for Online Instruction; and the Monterey Institute's Online Course Evaluation Project Rubric.

tags: online_education rubrics

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The Physics Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

The Physics Classroom: A set of instructional pages written in an easy-to-understand language and complemented by graphics and Check Your Understanding sections. An ideal starting location for those grasping for understanding or searching for answers.

A. Kipta's Blog 01/20/2012 (a.m.)

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

How to get developers to document their code | Application Development - InfoWorld

Finding top-notch developers to join your team is difficult enough. Finding ones who also document their code can seem like a minor miracle. Let's ignore user-facing documentation for now. Manuals, reference guides, and online help are probably still best left to technical writers -- professionals who specialize in translating technical specs into everyday language. That kind of documentation comes later. During the software development process, however, maintaining a good body of internal-use documentation is essential.

tags: software development documentation
Open office dilemma: OpenOffice.org vs. LibreOffice | Applications - InfoWorld

OpenOffice.org is one of the leading competitors to the Microsoft Office suite of business productivity applications. Originally developed as StarOffice in the late 1990s, the suite had been managed in recent years by Sun Microsystems as an open source project. But when Oracle acquired Sun in April 2009, the future of Sun's software offerings -- particularly free ones like OpenOffice.org -- was called into question. Before long, key OpenOffice.org developers, unhappy with the status quo under Oracle, began defecting from the project.

tags: office_applications open_source

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Printable Worksheets for Kids | Grade School & Preschool Printables

noreply@blogger.com (editor) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Printable Worksheets for Kids | Grade School & Preschool Printables: PRINT ACTIVITIES has thousands of preschool printables and worksheets for kids. They include printable preschool, kindergarten and grade school worksheets such as coloring sheets, math worksheets, alphabet letters, word searches for kids, printable mazes for kids, crossword puzzles for kids, tracing letters, color by number worksheets, crossword puzzles for kids & much more. These educational worksheets for kids help develop reading and writing skills, math skills, & logical reasoning.