Archive for November, 2007

The university in Mexico in 2030

11/30/2007

I leave this weekend for Mexico City, where I will participate in the La Universidad en México en el año 2030: imaginando futuros conference at UAM-Cuajimalpa. I will present a paper (see draft submitted) based on my doctoral dissertation, and, with Arthur Harkins and Cristóbal Cobo, will also engage in discussions with academic, high tech/business, [...]


Open Seminar 2.0: A hemisphere of innovative knowledge

11/29/2007

“Version 2.0″ of the open seminar “From Information to Innovation Knowledge” will kick off on January 24, 2008. Partnering institutions include the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, FLACSO-México, FLACSO-Ecuador, and FLACSO-Chile. Confirmed guest lecturers include Dr. Nora Sabelli at SRI International and Ismael Peña-López at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. [...]


Planet Web 2.0 presentation online

11/28/2007

Cristóbal Cobo notes that a video of his University of Minnesota presentation on his book, Planeta Web 2.0, is now available for viewing online. The event was held in collaboration with the Institute for New Media Studies and the Digital Technology Center at the University. (You can also watch me provide an introduction.) Play the [...]


Blackboard announces SafeAssign is safer now

11/28/2007

Blackboard Beyond‘s Greg Ritter sent me a note announcing that “the issue [I] experienced with SafeAssign that enabled [me] to gain access to a SafeAssign user’s paper has been resolved. Blackboard released a new version of the SafeAssign central service as well as a new version of the SafeAssign Building Block last Tuesday, November 20.” [...]


“So, uh, what should I write about?”

11/25/2007

As guest blogger coming off a Thanksgiving-typtophan stupor, I found myself asking the very question many of my English students have posed over the years.  A recent posting on Insidehighered.com  told about a curriculum redesign of  writing for frst-year students.  Scott Warnock of Drexell University says about the redesign: “The conventional way that assignments are presented to [...]


Florida Virtual School Report

11/23/2007

The following is a brief excerpt from an article in the Orlando Sentinel regarding a study of Florida Virtual School. The Florida Virtual School is a good deal for Florida taxpayers. That is the view of Florida Tax Watch, which recently did a study on student performance and cost effectiveness at the virtual school. The [...]


Leapfrog Asia!

11/21/2007

I’m still in China, so this is just a quick note that CNN.com published a special report labeled “Just Imagine,” a vision of what life would be like in 2020. The learning section is quite good, and contains an interview with Yasuaki Sakyo, who founded Shibuya University Network — and implemented a lifelong learning approach [...]


If Shakespeare had been in my English class…

11/20/2007

I shudder to think.  This notion came to mind as I watched this video, Do Schools Kill Creativity,  delivered by Sir Ken Robinson at a TED Conference in Monterey, CA. where he again raises the concern that our educational system is about the business of educating people out of their creativity.   Over the years, I’ve inspired many a [...]


The Virtual Teacher

11/18/2007

Sometime ago, I had heard Thomas Friedman suggest that we often have 21st Century students and 20th Century teachers.  I felt indicted by this statement and hope that on my better days, that might actually be true. I taught for years in an urban setting, teaching for St. Paul Public Schools, and I began to question [...]


A positive nod to Blackboard

11/16/2007

I received a call this afternoon from a third-party developer who confirmed the Blackboard Beyond Initiative is working aggressively on a fix for the critical flaw in its SafeAssign product reported at EF on Tuesday. The good news is that student data is no longer being distributed into the wild. This is a huge gain [...]


Related posts

A new hope for e-learning

Desire2Learn‘s challenge of Blackboard‘s e-learning patents have resulted in an initial action by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that invalidated all 44 of the Blackboard patents questioned. The action is not final, yet, and both parties have 60 days to respond. But, as eSchool News points out, the ruling raises questions about the validity [...]


Another critical security flaw with anti-plagiarism software

I’ve found a second critical security flaw with anti-plagiarism software.  This time, it’s with MyDropBox, and the problem is arguably more severe.  Again, private student data and student work are being made available to third parties. I’ve reported the problem to MyDropBox, and will provide more details on this after I hear back from them.


Blackboard announces SafeAssign is safer now

Blackboard Beyond‘s Greg Ritter sent me a note announcing that “the issue [I] experienced with SafeAssign that enabled [me] to gain access to a SafeAssign user’s paper has been resolved. Blackboard released a new version of the SafeAssign central service as well as a new version of the SafeAssign Building Block last Tuesday, November 20.” [...]


Redacted post … unredacting next week

After reading yesterday’s post on SafeAssign at least 31 times today, Blackboard Beyond Initiative product director Greg Ritter (who also blogs) called me to voice Blackboard’s objections over sharing information on the software flaw that broadcasts submitted students’ papers across the Internet. I thought a personal call from the company was much better than receiving [...]


SafeAssign isn’t safe for students

The cheerfulness among undergraduates at my institution has transformed suddenly into overt displays of despair and depression. This can only signal one thing: midterm grades are coming in. Another sign midterms are being graded: the Education Futures access.log has been receiving many referral hits from websites claiming to thwart plagiarism. Students, please note that submitting [...]


About

Education Futures explores a New Paradigm in human capital development, fueled by globalization, the rise of innovative knowledge societies, and driven by exponential, accelerating change. Education Futures is owned and published by Education Futures LLC.