Blackboard news prompts blog notice

It's all the rage in the discussions today, so I thought I would let you know here. Blackboard has purchased Wimba and Elluminate, two competing synchronous learning environments. (Competing each other, not Blackboard.) Despite what Blackboard says, I would agree with those with whom I've talked that buying either Wimba or Elluminate would be a "strategic move"; to buy both is to play smackdown on smaller Blackboard competitors who have partnerships with the tools. Here's a few links to peruse

• Inside Higher Ed Piece
• Barry Dahl's blog
• Wimba Press Release
  

Spaced Education.

SpacedEd is a learning environment that focuses on using questions to facilitate the learning of content.

From the Website:

It is based upon two core psychology research findings: the spacing effect and the testing effect. In more than 10 randomized trials completed to date, spaced education has been found to:

• Improve knowledge acquisition;
• Increase long-term knowledge retention (out to 2 years);
• Change behavior; and
• Boost learners' abilities to accurately self-assess their knowledge.

The system sends questions to e-mail two times a day. If the questions are answered incorrectly they are redelivered after a week. I'm currently testing it out on the "Philosophy" class which focuses on the philosophy of education. I've only answered two questions, but have already started to see some potential use for the classroom (especially if SMS is allowed.)

You Can Give a Man a Fish...

Gardner Campbell, in an article in the September/October Educause Review, wrote an article about the need to understand the media of all this instructional technology we've been implementing. His suggestion: Quit limiting the creativity of the students, and open up the possibilities. He's got some interesting ideas about how to create environments that might foster commitment from students, but would require commitment from faculty and IT in order to implement. Notes 1, and 4 - 6 are especially interesting.

Fraud In A Distance Learning Office!

See what happens in a distance learning office located at the University of Texas-Brownsvillle when too many people have administrative rights to CMS.