CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0028, 12/14/2007

Title: Google to Take On Wikipedia, Lights, Cameras, Lecture!, Microsoft Office Gets Cloudy

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 28, recorded December 14th, 2007.

This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.

This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Story 1 - Google Takes On Wikipedia

Google is rolling out a new product it's calling "Knol", spelled k-n-o-l, and short for "knowledge", as in "unit of knowledge". Like Wikipedia, Knol will be a collection of "units of knowledge" on a wide range of topics. But unlike Wikipedia, Knol's articles will not be written and edited by a community of anonymous authors. Each Knol article will be written by one author whose real name and photograph accompany the article. Multiple authors can submit articles on the same topic --- the community judges which is the best article on a topic through a standard rating system. The community can also attach comments to articles.

Google is clearly trying to take advantage of Wikipedia's recent issues with credibility. The anonymity of the wiki system has led to difficulties in keeping information accurate, and has caused some users to lose confidence in Wikipedia. Google is hoping to provide a more trustworthy research tool through a more restrictive and accountable system.

Knol is currently in Beta testing and will open to the public sometime in 2008.

Source: Google Develops Wikipedia Rival (NYTimes), Google’s Knol, a challenge to Wikipedia? (VentureBeat)

Story 2 - Lights, Camera, Lecture!

An article in the New York Times this week discusses new technology to bring college lectures to the Web and iPods. Many colleges including the University of Central Florida, Santa Clara University in California, and Perdue University in Indiana are investing in software that records lectures and makes them available to students online and on iPods. For example, Campus 2.0 software from Tegrity captures lecture audio, video, and presentation slides and compiles them together in a file that can be downloaded by students. The software also provides a search tool that allows students to fast forward to specific material. Other software from Echo 360 allows teachers to record audio and slides for playback on portable devices like the iPod. Speaking of iPods, Apple strongly supports education on iPods through iTunes U, an area of the iTunes store that provides college lectures.

The movement to take college lectures online is causing many to weigh the value of the in-class, face-to-face experience. Might virtual lectures that include rich media such as audio, video, and slides cause real time, in-person lectures to go extinct? What value does in-person lectures provide that online lectures do not? Many schools require students to attend the classes in which they are enrolled. Should those policies change for courses that provide recordings of lectures online? Should teachers be able to opt out of having lectures recorded? Many are concerned about having embarrassing moments captured and made public.

Clearly there are many issues to be sorted out as higher education embraces new technologies. The Internet is making it easier to provide students with access to knowledge anywhere anytime. It is also making it easier for students to take shortcuts to better grades without investing the effort required for real learning. Colleges must carefully select technologies that provide convenient and empowering services to students while maintaining high academic ethics and rigor.

Source: What Did the Professor Say? Check Your iPod (NYTimes), iPod U: Profs get podcast tools, students get Cliffs Notes (ars technica)

Story 3 - Microsoft Office Gets Cloudy

Microsoft® Office joined the Web 2.0 crowd this week when it rolled out the beta version of Office Live Workspace. Currently available only to early subscribers, Office Live Workspace allows users to store Office documents on a Web server where they are accessible from any Internet-connected computer. You'll recall from earlier CourseCasts that this approach is referred to as "cloud computing". Cloud computing is ideal for collaborative projects where multiple individuals need to share documents. Microsoft® Office Live Workspace will allow users to access and share Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint files online as well as calendars, to-do lists and contacts stored in Microsoft® Outlook. Cloud computing productivity software from Google, and Zoho provide a Web-based interface free for use, Office Live Workspace, requires participants to purchase and install Microsoft Office 2007 on their PCs. This provides users with more advanced functionality then the online rivals, at a higher price. Office Live Workspace is a free service for users of Microsoft Office 2007.

Source: Microsoft Office Enters Web 2.0 Era (CIO Today)

New Briefs

  • CompUSA will be closing its stores for good after the holiday season. Watch your local store for bargains over the next couple of weeks. (ars technica)
  • Facebook has decided to share its software development platform with other social-networking sites in an effort to compete with Google's new Open Social software development platform. (ComputerWorld)
  • Merriam-Webster's "Word of the Year" comes from online gamers. W00t spelled w-0-0-t is an abbreviated text expression used online as a kind of victory call. It's the first texting slang to make it into the big book. (Top Tech News)
  • It's Service Pack week at Microsoft. This week Office 2007 SP1 was released, and SP1 for Vista was released in Beta. (Top Tech News) (NewsFactor)
  • A new and sophisticated Trojan is using the PC's of unsuspecting users to loot business bank accounts in the U.S. U.K. Spain and Italy. The bank job is believed to have been initiated by a German-speaking hacker ring who have so far gotten away with more than $200,000. (ComputerWorld)
  • Speaking of hack jobs, remember the story last week about databases stolen from big U.S. nuclear weapons labs? The Department of Homeland Security believes that the attack originated in China according to a confidential memo that was leaked. (NYTimes) (CIO Today)
  • Sega and NeuroSky are partnering to manufacture "mind-controlled toys"; just clamp on a bio-sensor headset and think your toy around the room. (Wired)
  • iPhone and Vista users had better stay on their toes. Security experts are predicting that these two platforms will be the primary focus of hackers in 2008. (NewsFactor) (NewsFactor)

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Next week, CourseCasts will be offline for the holidays, but I'll be back on New Year's Eve with a special year-end edition featuring the most important tech stories of 2007. As always, links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!