Faculty/Staff Home
News
Canadian Ebook Store Offers ‘Free’ Public Domain Ebooks — Claims Copyright Says You Can Only Make 1 Copy
from the not-this-again dept
Brendan writes “Chapters/Indigo, the dominant book retailer in Canada, just recently launched their eBook store, thinly disguised as an independent 3rd party called ShortCovers. Both companies are children of the parent company Indigo Books & Music Inc.The fact that they have launched an eBook program is not a problem. It’s great, in fact. I’d like to see more action in this space, and anything to help people read more is a step in the right direction. The problem I have is with how they’ve done it.
By Mike Masnick
Read Tech Dirt
Purdue U Brings Social Networking to the Classroom
In most classrooms around the world, using cell phones to send text messages and laptops to access sites like Facebook and Twitter are very much discouraged. Considered a high-tech distraction that impedes the learning environment, such actions often end in the student being reprimanded, penalized and even having their devices confiscated.
Things are a little different at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, where some professors–especially those who teach in large lecture halls–have come to embrace social networking as an instructional aid. Using an application developed on campus, the educators who enrolled in the program have come to think of social networking via texting and online portals as a tool, rather than a distraction.
By Bridget McCrea
Read Campus Technology
HTML5: The Web Beyond Web 2.0
There are various ideas of how HTML5 has already changed and will continue to change how we view and use the Web. Scott Loganbill suggested:
HTML5 represents the biggest leap forward in Web standards in almost a decade. Unlike the specifications that came before it, HTML5 is not merely intended to present content to a Web browser. Its goal is to bring the Web into maturity as a full-fledged application platform–a level playing field where video, sound, images, animations, and full interactivity with your computer are all standardized. And it may be a long way off still, but elements of HTML5 are already reshaping the way we use the Web.
By Ruth Reynard
Read T.H.E Journal
Swapping Textbooks for E-books
For years, Northwest Missouri State University took an innovative approach to distributing instructional materials to its students. Most schools rely on a blend of on- and off-campus bookstores to outfit students with new hefty textbooks that sometimes cost hundreds of dollars per semester. By contrast, the Maryville, Mo., university launched its long-term textbook rental program in 1905; it currently charges students a flat fee of $6 per credit hour to rent a textbook for the semester. The trailblazing university was also one of the first to offer online courses back in 1995.
By Lee Copeland
ReadEd Tech
Business Software, Built by Colleges for Colleges, Challenges Commercial Giants
Managing grants often means pushing paper. But the big source of grant money, the federal government, is going digital. And this move to transmit proposals through mouse-clicks rather than mail trucks has universities shopping for better software to administer their research.
The Kuali Foundation hopes its wares will be the most tempting—and the least expensive. A nonprofit group that coordinates colleges’ efforts to produce free software that is built through a collaborative, “open source” process, Kuali is bringing out a research-administration system that it says could ultimately save universities millions.
By Marc Parry
Announcements
- MPICT Winter 2010 ICT Educator Conference in San Francisco, Jan 7-8
- K20CETC & NATIONAL DISTANCE LEARNING WEEK
- Registration Open for International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learnin
- 09 Online Teaching Conference: June 11 & 12, 2009 at Cabrillo College
- Become a MERLOT Peer Reviewer