eLearning/CMS
- iLinc Web Conferencing Tool Updated, Adds 'Green Meter'
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6/5/2008
iLinc released a new version of its Web conferencing tool, iLinc 10, which bolsters session management and adds a "green meter." The green meter shows cost savings, carbon emissions, and total distance not traveled by using Web conferencing versus in-person meetings. Administrators can also customize several variables in the meter to match their organization's specific policies.
- Gartner: E-learning Market Pushing Toward Open Source
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6/4/2008
With open source products maturing, Blackboard's ongoing lawsuit with Desire2Learn, and more and more functions linked to learning management systems, it can be a tough time for institutions to standardize on an e-learning platform.
- Can We Trust Students to Learn in Web 2.0?
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6/4/2008
A core debate about learning design arises from the fear that, if we allow learners too much freedom, they will not learn the right things. Web 2.0 exacerbates that fear because it is beyond the control of educators.
- Update: Blackboard Defends Patent, Files More Claims
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6/3/2008
As we reported last week, Blackboard has responded to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, urging it to rescind its rejection of the company's electronic learning patent. Blackboard has also appended new claims to the patent. Rival Desire2Learn accused Blackboard of reversing its position on the reexamination.
- DyKnow Software Suite Expands Active Directory, Blackboard Integration
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5/30/2008
Interactive classroom technology provider DyKnow this week released an update to its DyKnow Software Suite. The new release, version 5.1, includes updates to both components of the suite, DyKnow Vision and DyKnow Monitor, along with general administrative enhancements.
- Smart To Update Classroom Response System in July
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5/29/2008
Education technology developer Smart Technologies this week announced a new version of its Senteo interactive response system, Senteo 2.0. The free upgrade is expected to be available in July.
- Blackboard Defends Patent, Files More Claims
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5/28/2008
Blackboard this week defended its e-learning patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO in March rejected all of the claims in Blackboard's patent following a reexamination prompted by requests from open source advocate the Software Freedom Law Center and commercial rival Desire2Learn. But the patent rejection was not final, allowing Blackboard a window of time to respond to the decision.
- Social Networking: Learning Theory in Action
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5/28/2008
There has been a lot of recent debate on the benefits of social networking tools and software in education. While there are good points on either side of the debate, there remains the essential difference in theoretical positioning. Can social networking both as an instructional concept and user skill be integrated into the conventional approaches to teaching and learning? Do the skills developed within a social networking environment have value in the more conventional environments of learning?
- Frankenstein in the University
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5/28/2008
In our day-to-day encounters with new media, online education, and vendor software products, we may sometimes be tempted to believe that encroaching technology is controlling the way people teach and learn. Is there a monster in our midst, determining our actions?
- Angel LMS To Integrate with Classroom Response System
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5/27/2008
Angel Learning has teamed up with eInstruction to integrate the Classroom Performance System into Angel's learning management system. The integration will bring real-time gradebook input to Angel LMS, including attendance, assessments, and grade posting.
- Office Live Workspace Beta Released Internationally
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5/23/2008
Microsoft this week released an international beta of its Office Live Workspace (OLW) suite of productivity tools. The company also quietly launched an Office Live Update last week that takes on performance issues and brings in some additional functionality when working with Office 2007, XP, and 2003.
- Moodle 1.9.1 Gets Performance Improvements, Minor Fixes
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5/23/2008
Moodle has released Moodle 1.9.1, the first maintenance update to the popular open-source learning management system since the 1.9 launch in March. The new version includes a number of minor fixes, as well as performance improvements and some new functionality.
- American and Brazilian Students Collaborate via Virtual Classrooms
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5/21/2008
Four universities--two in the United States and two in Brazil--are testing inter-continental distance learning in a program facilitated by technology from Wimba. The U.S.-Brazil Consortium enables global collaboration among teachers and learners at The University of Georgia in Athens, Utah State University in Logan, Universidade Federal do Ceará and Universidade Estadual Paulista, Bauru.
- Adobe Launches Bundles for Online Learning
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5/20/2008
Adobe this week launched a new slate of bundles and resources for educators looking to use Acrobat Connect Pro in their online teaching efforts. Adobe just introduced the new version of Acrobat Connect Pro about two weeks ago.
- Plagiarism Tool Scans 1 Million Papers
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5/19/2008
CMS/LMS provider Blackboard reported Monday that its plagiarism detection service, SafeAssign, has now been used to scan more than 1 million student papers. Blackboard debuted SafeAssign about nine months ago.
- Angel Rolls Out LMS 7.3, Strikes Integration Deal with Elluminate
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5/16/2008
Angel Learning has released version 7.3 of the Angel Learning Management Suite, adding new capabilities in the areas of assessments, forums, and customization. The company also announced a deal with Elluminate to integrate the Elluminate Live! environment within Angel LMS.
- New Blackboard Sync Application Leverages Facebook
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5/14/2008
Blackboard Inc. today announced Blackboard Sync, an application that allows students to receive course updates and communicate with classmates while logged on to Facebook.
- Standards: The Sooner the Better
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5/14/2008
Technology solutions work best when they well together. That is why the nonprofit group IMS Global Learning Consortium is developing learning tools interoperability standards for the education technology community...
- Wikis Get Users Talking at MIT, Johns Hopkins
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5/14/2008
In many ways, college campuses are an obvious implementation for a wiki tool. The decentralized nature of the technology and its ability to allow a wide range of individuals or groups to contribute ideas into a single area through Web browsers make wikis simple and compelling for higher education uses.
- College Coaches Use Webcams To Stay in Touch with Recruits
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5/14/2008
College coaches are turning to webcams as a way to stay in touch with potential recruits to bypass new National Collegiate Athletic Association restrictions that forbid in-person visits to high school campuses during the spring evaluation period, according to a report from AP.
- Kentucky School System Extends CMS Collaboration Functionality
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5/12/2008
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) said it will deploy the Wimba Collaboration Suite across 16 colleges to connect students and educators through online video, voice, text, application sharing, polling and whiteboarding.
- Aplia Launches Web-based Interactive Homework System
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5/9/2008
Cengage Learning's Aplia division has launched a new Web-based homework system called Grade It Now. The system combines aspects of practice problems with graded problems to encourage students to improve results as they work.
- Graduate School, USDA Standardizes on Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro for E-learning
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5/8/2008
The Graduate School, USDA has standardized on Acrobat Connect Pro, a Web conferencing and e-learning platform from Adobe Systems. The school is a self-sustaining government entity created 87 years ago by the United States Department of Agriculture to provide adult continuing education.
- Texas A&M System Signs Distribution Deal for Virtual Clinical Learning Lab
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5/8/2008
Texas A&M University has signed a license agreement with BreakAway Ltd., a developer of game-based technology, for the worldwide rights to Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab. Pulse is a federally funded project in development at the Corpus Christi campus that allows medical professionals to practice decision-making protocol and experiential skills on PCs in a virtual hospital setting. The agreement grants BreakAway the rights to develop, market and distribute Pulse.
- Tegrity Records 325,000 Hours of Lectures
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5/8/2008
Ed tech developer Tegrity reported this week that usage of its Campus 2.0 classroom capture system hit record levels last year, including, among other things, capturing 325,000 hours of faculty lectures on Tegrity servers in a 12-month period.
