I have been asked by Karl M. Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll to participate in the Blog Book Tour for their new book Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. I’m actually stop #19 on the tour and the show is not expected in town until next Thursday. However, I won’t be anywhere to be found on that day because I’ll be walking in the Canary Islands enjoying a real immersive experience. Sorry, Karl, and you had such a well-planned schedule as well.
Now I’m not going to pretend that the use of 3D worlds for learning is a specialisation of mine. I’m not even much a gamer (I vowed some years ago to keep as far away as possible from games and programming, because both were so enjoyable and addictive that they threatened any chance I might have for a life that involved interaction with other human beings). However, I’ve had enough experience with 3D worlds to see how they might successfully integrate with other learning and development activities and where they stand out as the best fit for the job.
What I am determined not to do is to regard 3D as intrinsically superior to 2D just because it has 50% more dimensions, any more than I feel a Flash web site is any better than one created in HTML. I know it’s a cliché but it really is ‘horses for courses’. Just as plain old HTML does the job better than Flash in 90% for 90% of websites (with elearning a big exception, where Flash really does win out), 2D is likely to be the right choice for 90% of learning and collaborative environments. I may have exaggerated the percentages, but I doubt it.
None of this is to play down the importance of 3D environments, nor to underestimate the opportunities that we are faced with now 3D is less rocket science and more of a viable option. Just how great those opportunities may be will depend on the type of 3D experience you are looking to create and the appropriateness of this experience to your learning goals. Back in 2007, in 3D e-learning is as diverse as 2D, I set out how I felt the applications of 3D worlds could be mapped as synchronous and asynchronous or individual and collaborative, just like 2D e-learning:
So what about Karl’s and Tony’s book? These guys know much more about this subject than I do and this shows from page 1 to 416. I might feel they are over-playing the significance of 3D, but this may just be because they have explored the possibilities in a lot more depth than I have and are justifiably more excited as a result.
However much you feel 3D worlds will impact on learning and development, there is no question of their relevance and potential importance. If you want to make a really informed judgement – and you should – then this is the book for you.
In one of many lively discussions with conference participants at Learning Technologies 2010 today, that most obvious of questions arose once again: why should you have to be at Olympia in London, live and in person, in chilly January, to participate in the event. Surely for every one of the 400-odd conference participants, there must be another ten who fulfil the following criteria:
I know there are all sorts of commercial considerations. Are people prepared to pay for online sessions when so many webinars are free (my guess is yes)? How will exhibitors react to the idea that online participants who won’t get the chance to visit their booths (not great, but then conference participants are only a small proportion of the total exhibition visitors)? On the other hand, speakers will be delighted with the opportunity to reach a much wider audience. Perhaps it’s time to take the chance.
Here at Learning Technologies 2010 I chaired a fascinating session looking at the learning applications of social media, presented by Jane Hart and British Telecom’s Peter Butler. There was a lot of interest in the BT case study and we ran out of question time, but luckily there are plenty of web resources that will allow you to follow up. So, if you’re interested in a great story about how social media can take off in a major corporation, here are the links you need to follow:
Written case study at Towards Maturity
Podcast of interview on BBC Radio 4
YouTube video produced for the Becta Next Generation Learning @ Work campaign
In the past ten years I have spent a great deal of time looking at the skills and competencies required to create good quality web content, including four years participating in European projects and defining role profiles, competency frameworks and curricula for a mysterious new profession that we called 'web content specialist'. Throughout these projects we never really came to terms with what a web content specialist did and the career path that might possibly lead them to this role. There was all this content out there, and yet the vast majority of people working in web design and development seemed to be concerned with far more technical and creative issues such as information architecture, graphic design, usability and software engineering. Somebody had to be writing this stuff.
The answer, of course, is that come 2010 almost everyone is a web content creator, even if their contribution is no more than status updates on Facebook. Everyone who posts to a forum, writes a blog, tweets or maintains an online profile is making a significant contribution to the body of online content. Those who do this well make a more useful contribution than those who do not. Quality does matter.
Luckily, the rules that underly good quality web content creation are well established. Those who are professional content creators - journalists, marketing copy writers, public relations experts and so on - have, by and large, taken the trouble to come to terms with these rules. But not everyone is a professional and many who rely on their web presence cannot afford - or choose not - to employ one. These people would do well to consult Ginny Redish's excellent Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. It's packed full of easy-to-grasp and well-explained guidelines, backed up with plenty of examples. There was little here that I haven't encountered before, but that in no way reduces the value of this book to its target audience.
If you write content for the web and believe that you could do this more effectively, then you really should read it.
In a special feature on newspapers and technology in The Economist of December 19th, the following caught my eye:
"The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is that people should have access to news, not that it should be delivered through any particular medium; and, for the consumer, the faster it travels the better."
What this quote makes clear to me is how easily we get confused between the medium and the message. Yes, some of us may have become fond of a particular medium, in this case newsprint, but if it was to be replaced by another, more efficient, medium, then surely we should be welcoming the change, not mourning it. The people who should be concerned about a shift from one medium to another are not the consumers of the messages, i.e. those who consume news stories, but those who make money from exploiting a particular channel, in this case newspaper owners. And in the end, that's their problem. That's what being in business is all about.
So, is the classroom as a channel for learning analogous to print as a channel for news? In some ways it is. What learners need are reliable sources of expertise, the chance to reflect and discuss, opportunities to practice and to obtain feedback, and so on. For many years a classroom has been a convenient vehicle for these activities and a huge industry has now built up to support the use of the classroom for learning - in particular those who provide classroom facilities and those who have become expert in delivering in a classroom, i.e. teachers and trainers. However, as we all know, some pretty powerful new channels have now been developed which seem to support much of the same functionality as a classroom, except in many cases more flexibly and at a lower cost. Not surprisingly, the classroom training industry is wary of these new channels and has taken only modest steps to engage with the change. They will probably keep their distance until consumers, i.e. learners, themselves engage with new technology and begin to make this their preference. It took ten years for this to happen with online news; we cannot be that far off when it comes to learning.
If and when learners start to desert the classroom, we should shed no tears, in the same way that we should ignore the protests of the newspaper barons. They've had their day. The classroom is only a medium for learning, as was the job environment before that, and online technology in years to come. On the contrary, we should be delighted if more learning can be accomplished more efficiently. We will still need some expert practitioners to support this learning in the same way that we will still need journalists to gather and interpret news. The change will be uncomfortable but, ultimately, society will be the beneficiary.
There was some consternation on Twitter about the results of the survey that Alison Rossett and James Marshall conducted with 968 ASTD and eLearning Guild members in mid 2009. As the authors point out, if you went by the themes of most l&d conferences, blogs and magazines, then you’d believe the classroom was in terminal decline and that self-paced e-learning tutorials were being fast replaced by games, sims, 3D worlds, and all forms of social and collaborative learning, much of it mobile.
Well, surprise, surprise, that seems like wishful thinking. In reality it’s very much same old, same old. According to the survey, these are the forms of e-learning that are most commonly used in practice:
And these are the least common:
Actually, it wasn’t a surprise to me. In the various workshops I run, I meet l&d practitioners every week; I know what they do, what they think and what pressures they are under. What is for certain is that the climate has changed; there is much more pressure on time, on cost and, to a lesser extent, on being as green as possible. What there isn’t, is a large groundswell of pressure to change methods or media. That’s shouldn’t be a shock, because customers are not meant to determine the solutions; their job is to specify their needs and then rely on the experts to come up with appropriate solutions. The trouble is that, in many cases, the experts, i.e. l&d professionals, are either ignorant of the opportunities now available for relieving the pressures, unsure of what to do or just plain resistant.
We have to come to terms with the fact that we work in a conservative profession. New media have exploded on to the scene so quickly that a gaping skills gap has emerged; and until that gap is bridged, it is unlikely that we will see real innovations in methods and media. The reality is that l&d has come a long way already to be using computers for assessment, to support the classroom and to deliver self-paced content – and most organisations have not come this far. There is still a long way to go and, despite the unbelievable optimism expressed in most expert predictions, we’ll see very modest progress in the short term, perhaps even the medium term.
When faced with pressures on time and cost, the l&d professional has three choices: do less of the same, do the same less well, or do the same but in smarter ways. This new ASTD survey seems to indicate that not enough are choosing the latter.
I may be living too sheltered a life, but I simply can’t fathom out how the estimates of the e-learning market are as big as they are.
Let’s take Ambient Insight’s impressively titled The US market for self-paced elearning products and services: 2009-2014 forecast and analysis, issued in October 2009. According to this report, the US market for self-paced e-learning products and services (which presumably excludes anything collaborative) reached $16.7 billion in 2009. Yes, that’s right, $16.7 billion. Not much compared with what bankers are paying themselves in bonuses this year, but massively more than I would have estimated. I know the report covers all sectors, including education (and I know little about the economics of e-learning in education), but it does claim that the majority of revenues are concentrated in the corporate sector (and that I know pretty well).
If I was to go to the websites of every listed company serving the e-learning space and total all their revenues, I don’t believe I’d get anywhere near these figures. Still, my methods are flaky in the extreme when you consider that Ambient’s efforts are based on their “Evidence-based Research Methodology (ERM)”. I’m not doubting the robustness of ERM, but I can’t validate it because my share of all these billions is not enough that I can afford to pay $4825 for the full report. Sadly, I had to make do with the executive overview.
By contrast, Learning Light’s estimate of the UK e-learning market at somewhere between £300 and £450 million ($450m - $675m) seems relatively modest, when you consider that the UK is 20% the size of the USA in population terms and not so far behind in its use of e-learning. However, I’d be amazed if anyone was able to justify this figure to me, given that I know the turnover of nearly all the players in the corporate sector and that, although some of my friends have got a few bob, they’re not all bathing in champagne.
What I would say is that, if the £300m figure is correct, less than 1% of this is spent educating and training those working in the profession, and that might explain a few things.
The Big Question for January in the Learning Circuits Blog is, rather predictably, what are your predictions for 2010? I’m happy to participate in the sure knowledge that nearly all so-called expert predictions in practically any field prove to be miles off the mark. You can judge for yourselves whether I’m any good at this game, because I offer up below last year’s predictions for workplace learning and development, with the benefits of hindsight duly appended:
In 2009 I predicted: Of all the forces for change (Gen Y, new thinking about learning, pressures to respond quickly to needs, new tools, new devices, etc.) only one will matter and that is surviving the downturn.
Certainly this is the scenario that will have been played out in many private sector organisations across the world, less so at this point for the public sector. In 2010, the pressure will reduce in many areas of the private sector, as the economy starts to recover and fear ceases to drive decision making.
In 2009 I predicted: Most of the cool stuff (informal learning, social media, games and sims, mobile learning) will have to stay on the back burner, because management will simply not be interested in experimenting. There will be enough exceptions to keep those already active in these fields going, but no big shift in corporate learning practice.
The recent ASTD study certainly bears this out. While conferences, magazines and blogs continue to be dominated by next generation learning technologies, corporate practice is more conservative than ever. This is hardly surprising as things stand. If nothing has changed in a couple of years, then we can start to worry.
In 2009 I predicted: Classroom training will be decimated. Many classroom trainers will lose their jobs, become freelance and find that there is not enough work to go round, causing daily rates to tumble.
Certainly those vendors that supply classroom training to employers have been having a torrid time over the past year and this situation is unlikely to improve – in fact it may never do. On the other hand, classroom training that is run internally is proving fairly resilient as pared-down budgets and staffing levels make it difficult to consider changing.
In 2009 I predicted: Many organisations will look to e-learning to keep the essential formal training going, but mainly out of the desire to save costs. This will keep some internal trainers (those who have embraced technology), external developers and rapid tool suppliers busy, although everyone will be looking for the cheapest and the quickest.
This has been the case. Companies providing bespoke e-learning services have been doing well enough (at least in the UK), although there continues to be a downward pressure on prices and a desire for quicker turnaround.
In 2009 I predicted: We could see a big increase in the use of synchronous e-learning using web conferencing, primarily to save travel costs.
As far as I can tell there has been quite a pick up of interest in the UK, although most trainers remain blissfully ignorant of what can be achieved in the virtual classroom.
In 2009 I predicted: Governments will run up huge deficits to stimulate the economy and so the public sector may not be hit as hard in the short term. However, in a few years' time, as the private sector recovers, the deficits will have to be repaid and there could be heavy cutbacks in public spending. So, those working in the public sector should use this time to adjust to a very different future.
Although governments will be cautious about addressing their deficits too vigorously, because they don’t want to threaten the recovery, the public sector is preparing for the axe to fall and hard. Anyone in e-learning who is relying on the public sector for business should start to shift focus and fast.
In 2009 I predicted: Those learning and development departments that are proactive in helping their organisations respond to the crisis will be rewarded by being allowed to survive. The sitting ducks will be shot.
I was probably being too melodramatic here, although I do stand by my advice. You can regard the current circumstances as a threat or an opportunity. Whichever you pick, your prophesy is likely to be fulfilled.
I was pleased to receive a complimentary copy the other day of the Economist’s Pocket World in Figures for 2010. As someone who revels in statistics, this was an irresistible read. There’s lots of great stuff in there, but I’ve pulled out a few which are of relevance to learning and technology (excuse my UK focus):
Other interesting stats:
At this point I must stop and urge you to buy your own copy.
In December of 2008 I started using Twitter on a three-month trial basis. At the end of this period I reviewed my experience and devided to continue (see Three months a-Twittering). Just before Christmas I reached the one year milestone, at the same time posting my 1000th tweet and gaining my 1000th follower. So, what has all this activity achieved?
But I do have some misgivings:
So let’s give it another go for another year and another 1000 tweets. One thing’s for sure, the way we all use Twitter will have moved on again and quite unpredictably.
My conclusions in the previous post still stand: 1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market; and 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009/2010 due to Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, Firefox bookmarks, and more. However, a lot of commenters wrote that they still use RSS Readers each and every day. Here are the main reasons why:
1. Control over Information Flow
RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information, whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. Mathew Ballad (comment 11) put it well:
"I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter, I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over."
It's not just about controlling your stream of daily news. Many people have feeds that they just don't want to miss. Tim Bray has a folder of feeds in NetNewsWire that he feels is "unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say."
Some people would argue that it's a thankless task trying to control your RSS Reader. I am one of those people and I long ago gave up trying to keep my 'unread' count at zero. Indeed nowadays I don't even try to mark as 'read' my email - using Gmail, I just let it all flow in and mark the ones I should reply to with stars.
On a similar point, RSS pioneer Dave Winer remarked (comment 80) that Google Reader "has the wrong view of RSS." In a follow-up post, he wrote that "fundamentally, Google Reader views RSS as email," by which I think he means users feel compelled to read everything in it. His view is that "reading every story is a meaningless concept" and that RSS Readers need to find a way around this issue.
2. Evolving User Interfaces
Some readers are expecting RSS Readers to transform their UIs in 2010, in particular for "processing life and news streams in the same interface." (Marco A Torres)
This has already happened to a degree in Google Reader, which has many nice social sharing features. @businessquests (comment 57) called Google Reader "a monitoring and intelligence tool enabled by tagging and publication of tag-based RSS feeds."
Eric (comment 19) agreed, commenting:
"I use it [Google Reader] not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me."
Eric also noted that he gets breaking news in Google Reader, thanks to its support of the real-time standard PubSubHubbub.
However a number of people complained that Google Reader isn't evolving fast enough in terms of user experience. I would put myself in that camp too. So, like me, you may want to check out some new feed reading innovations. Feedly (one of our Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009), Fever (one of our Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009) and my6sense (an iPhone app - our review) are 3 apps that received multiple mentions from our readers.
We use Fever internally at ReadWriteWeb and I just today downloaded my6sense onto my iPhone. As an aside, note that two of those apps (Feedly and my6sense) integrate Twitter as well as RSS feeds.
3. Tracking Twitter
It's not necessarily an either/or situation between RSS Readers and Twitter. Lynne Pope from New Zealand pointed out (comment 44) that she uses Google Reader to track some Twitter accounts:
"Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available."
4. Mobile News
A number of people remarked that they commonly read their feeds via a mobile version of an RSS Reader. Something for those of us who are sick of being tied to PCs to do more of, perhaps. Bill (comment 46) wrote:
"I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep."
5. Categorized News
Perhaps some of us are finding RSS Readers difficult to use nowadays because we don't use them efficiently. If you spend some initial time setting up your Reader and categorizing your feeds, then chances are you will get a lot more out of it. Randy Orrison (comment 78) described a good use case that you may want to emulate:
"I have folders in Google Reader for the blogs that I check every day, new release feeds for software I use (I could never remember to check all 20+ websites regularly), and down at the bottom of the folder list feeds from busy aggregators (like TechMeme) and news sites (like the BBC)."
Conclusion
Reading through all 160+ comments on my post restored some of my faith in RSS Readers. Viva la read/write Web! I'm going to test out some of the tools people suggested, find new ways to integrate Twitter streams with my RSS feeds, read more on my iPhone using my6sense and other services, and do some re-ordering in my Google Reader.
What are your thoughts now about RSS Readers, given the discussion summarized here?
Great post. I reduced the number of feeds I monitor, use Feedly and Posterous now and really have started to enjoy reading my RSS feeds again.
Very interesting idea on new way to interface with your computer or device.
Great video on 2009. I really think Orli captures the core technologies and trends of 2009.
Image via CrunchBase
RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline
Written by Richard MacManus / December 20, 2009 8:04 PM / 74 Comments
One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don't check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me.
Frankly I'm more likely to use Google Reader to search for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what's happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?
In February 2007 we reported on the state of the RSS Reader market, based on statistics from Feedburner and Pheedo. At that point Google had 59% market share amongst web-based RSS Readers, followed by Bloglines with 33%, then Newsgator and Netvibes with 3% (note: this didn't count Newsgator's desktop apps, like FeedDemon). Pheedo's stats in February 2007 were somewhat different: Newsgator Online had 27% share, followed by MyYahoo! with 20%, Blogines 19% and Google Reader 13%.
The first time ReadWriteWeb looked into market share for RSS Readers was 5 years ago, in December 2004. At that point, very early in the web 2.0 era, Bloglines was the clear leader and Google Reader wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye.
2009 Update on RSS Reader Market
Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. The product has been infrequently updated since Google acquired it in June 2007 and it no longer even has a proper blog (a Google blog called Adsense For Feeds was the closest I could find).
Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective - its last blog post was January 2009. Tellingly though, it has an active Twitter account.
The best data we have then is ReadWriteWeb's own Feedburner account. Here is the top 10 for Dec 09:
1. Google Feedfetcher 85665 (includes both Google Reader and its start page iGoogle)
2. Bloglines 38797
3. Netvibes 34894
4. FriendFeed 16269
5. NewsGator Online 6753
6. Firefox Live Bookmarks 2999
7. PostRank 2454
8. Windows RSS Platform 1587
9. Mac OS X RSS Reader 1307
10. Zhuaxia 1127 (a Chinese RSS Reader)Feedburner's numbers always need to be taken with a large grain of salt, nevertheless we can see that Google is now over twice the number of Bloglines. There's little sign of life on Bloglines' blog either and its Compete.com traffic numbers show a decline since June 2009.
Netvibes, FriendFeed, Newsgator and PostRank are the only other english language competitors showing in our Feedburner numbers. The others are either browser (Firefox) or operating system readers.
Also note that Newsgator shut down its online RSS Reader at the end of July this year.
Conclusion: Google Dominates, RSS Readers Less Relevant
These statistics are by no means the definitive RSS Reader market numbers. They do clearly show two things though:
1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market. Bloglines is hanging in there, but it seems like it's given up the fight judging by lack of activity in its blog and traffic dips.
2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009. People can monitor news and information via Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, their Firefox bookmarks, their OS, aggregators like Techmeme, and so on.
Tell us in the comments how you currently read your RSS feeds and how often you check them in an RSS Reader - if indeed you still use one...
Update: I should add that our news writers use a variety of RSS Readers daily.
Posted inAnalysis, RSS & Feed Management, RSS Aggregators and tagged with
rss, rss readers
- Comment
- Subscribe
- Email This
- Print This
- Digg
Share
Related Entries
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
I've experienced this for sure. I used to be in google reader multiple times a day, now i check it a few times a week.
Posted by: Ken Warner
A few thousand geeks may be beyond Google Reader, but the rest of the world is barely beginning to notice readers. Neither of my daughters go to feed readers; one of my daughters uses her iPhone apps as a de facto RSS reader. And neither to any of my non-geeky friends. So I'm not sure being "over" Google Reader applies to any mass movement. And I also would make a bet that most people don't think consciously of Twitter as a source for news.
As for me, I maintain four Twitter accounts that I check every day, some more frequently than others. And I go to Google Reader in the morning and in the evening. Twitter is definitely my source for breaking news, but Google Reader is my way of aggregating all things I want to read but would otherwise space out
Posted by: Francine
| December 20, 2009 8:25 PM
I use Google Reader multiple times per day. Twitter is nice for current events, but I don't grok how to stay up to date with it. Like, tweets happen on their time, which isn't necessarily when I'm ready for them. RSS lets me control when.
How do people keep up with a bunch of blogs and news without a feed reader?
Posted by: JEP
I still use Google Reader, and I've found it more useful now that I've got Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed to share articles on. So, interestingly enough, though those and other social services may be making RSS readers less useful, they've actually made GReader more useful for me. But then, that's me...
Posted by: Dennis Jernberg
I still rely heavily on RSS to get news and read interesting blogs. I have used NetNewsWire from the very beginning. I would never rely solely on Twitter, nor waste my time going to websites.
Posted by: CB
I think that rss readers are now more useful than 3 years ago,given that rss is the de facto standard for social sharing, but the readers need to evolve in their GUI, that definitely looks soooo boring compared with twitter and facebook. I'm pretty sure that in 2010 we'll see a big evolution of rss readers, processing life and news streams in the same interface.
Posted by: Marco A Torres
Why is RSS reading the fragmented experience and not Twitter + fb + startpages + Techmeme?
Posted by: Kevin Donovan | December 20, 2009 9:04 PM
I can't quite figure out how to use Twitter or Facebook as a feed reader. They seem more like feed notifiers to me; a way to see that there is a new blog post or news story without getting the post or story directly. They are a way for friends to say "hey, check out this post" or for blogs to say "look at what we just posted". It's a great way to get exposed to information from unfamiliar sources, but less convenient than a feed reader for keeping up with blogs or news sources you already know about and rely on. Rather then follow a link in a tweet from a known blog, isn't it easier to read the article directly in a feed reader where it can be saved, shared, emailed, and sent to other sources, including Twitter and Facebook, usually with one click? I can't figure out how this can be done with Twitter or Facebook. Is there a how-to guide somewhere?
Posted by: almostinfocus | December 20, 2009 9:10 PM
I'm with Francine. ditto, ditto, and ditto. I'd add that I think RSS is stuck in an awkward place now, with most still in the dark that it's possible to get news without browsing. Yes, people use Twitter, but speaking of stats, seen those lately? Most of the tweets coming from 5%, and most of it in the me-statements category. So again, the Scobles of the world are getting all their news from the news providers that've learned to echo on Twitter, but most of the users are still just using it to self-cast.
So RSS is unknown by most of the pack, left behind by the earliest adopters, and the few middle-grounders like us are in its sweet spot.
And besides, why do we all have to like the same thing, Digerati? What is this, middle school? God forbid a bunch of you like something and just shut up and use it, and stop whining about what you've left behind... Oh, I'm sorry, do we all need to go to the bathroom now?
Posted by: John Eich
I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter. I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over.
Posted by: Mathew Ballad | December 20, 2009 9:17 PM
I use multiple rss readers all day, every day ;) that's how I find most of what I write here that then gets shared around Twitter
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
Hi Marshall,
Great article, we've been tracking RSS (As in having a feed meta tag in a site's homepage) at BuiltWith and it looks like it has started to decline around August 2009 -
http://trends.builtwith.com/feeds/RSS
Whilst Atom has been on the steady incline -
http://trends.builtwith.com/feeds/Atom
Been interested to know why that is.
Gary
Posted by: Gary | December 20, 2009 9:28 PM
I read magazines and they are still delivered in my mailbox.
I read several dozen blogs and they are delivered through my reader (Google Reader).
My rule is: If the author didn't spend 10x longer writing the article than it would take for me to read, then it's not worth my time to read.
Posted by: Rob
| December 20, 2009 9:29 PM
I still use rss2email (which is not surprising since I'm the project maintainer) to deliver new entries from my feed list every 30 minutes. My email client is always-on so I'm pretty much always aware of what's new.
Posted by: turbodog
I'd go further, we no longer need rss or twitter or ... specific "readers", instead we need apps that "ignore" the serialization type...
Posted by: wii recepteur | December 20, 2009 9:36 PM
It seems that because of googles dominance with google reader that there has been now noticeable evolution in news aggregator features beyond the obvious sharing features.
I think that many issues having to do with the "reliability" and "authenticity" of news could be addressed by users of feed aggregator
Posted by: william | December 20, 2009 9:50 PM
Google Reader is my primary news source and probably my favourite webapp. I use it not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me.
If you haven't used Reader's social features then I can understand why you're still thinking it's just a serialized feed.
I honestly can't understand why Twitter can be considered a news source other than as an alert that something is happening so I should go look elsewhere for details. I like it for neighbourhood gossip ("Oh, a new store opened around the corner."), but beyond that there's so much noise.
The difference to me is that there's an article behind the RSS headline in Google Reader. Not just 140 chars of fluff surrounded by a cloud of self-importance. Plus, with PubSubHub I do see breaking news in Reader.
Posted by: Eric
| December 20, 2009 9:57 PM
I use Google Reader to absorb, share, and save daily news. I'm not sure Twitter will ever replace this - but then again I probably thought G Reader would never replace nytimes.com
...
Posted by: jared zlotnick
I'm in NetNewsWire right now, so there.
I dunno, I get that there are other sources - but I just haven't totally moved on. I use Twitter in addition, but don't necessarily find anything outside of the people I follow on a daily basis.
Posted by: George Huff | December 20, 2009 10:08 PM
I don't use a RSS Reader
Why should i? I bookmark the RSS on my firefox toolbar and as and when required check the subject lines. If something appeals me i go to the actual website and read it,
Posted by: Royston Olivera | December 20, 2009 10:10 PM
I use NetNewsWire on my iPhone almost daily. It's the main place I actually find time to read feeds, when I'm standing in line for coffee or wherever I find a few minutes. Thanks to Instapaper I'm not worried about getting sucked into something as it's so easy to just read it later.
RSS is far from dead. While many geeks may have moved on, my sisters just discovered it in recent years. They have no idea what twitter is, what to do with it, or why they should care.
Posted by: sjs
I use Google Reader to read news everyday - there's no better way to search for a specific topic from a wide range of publications including magazine sites and smaller blogs. Google News/ Google Alerts on their own fail at this. And sending Google Alerts to Google Reader is so much more efficient than having them clog up your inbox.
Posted by: Malorie
| December 20, 2009 10:11 PM
I use Feedly several times a day, supplemented by Twitter. I've been playing with Lazyfeed lately, really dig its new interface and have discovered new sources with this new tool.
Rarely go directly to blogs anymore. I jump from feedly to blogs, instead.
For what I do, a lot of the info I consume is visual, so I still rely on flickr, youtube and tumblr for most of that.
Posted by: Rick
| December 20, 2009 10:14 PM
Google Reader, daily.
Posted by: Dirk Krause
I use Google Reader. Have tried using Twitter but miss a lot if I am not on Twitter. At least with Google Reader I know I won't miss anything
Posted by: Peter
| December 20, 2009 10:16 PM
This will go down as one of the most beaten to death topics of 2009, imo.
But I'll bite. Google Reader, couple times per day, read through Feedly. There are times when I go days without checking the feeds, but usually scroll back to any missed articles. Something twitter cannot do, the info just flys to fast to use twitter as a news reader/gatherer.
Posted by: Joseph
I check my Google Reader on pc/phone more than I do Twitter or Facebook. I feel a sense of impending doom if I haven't cleared it out.
Posted by: Alex Williams | eROI
RSS feeds and Twitter can be combined. See http://www.analyticbridge.com/group/collectiveintelligence/forum/topics/tweepsearch-to-searchrank
Posted by: Analyticbridge | December 20, 2009 10:21 PM
I live in Google Reader 3-4 hours a day. I use "Share" to add to my Shared Items list. This list is pulled into my blog site witha WP Google Reader plug-in and make a nice list, so my blog readers see what I'm interested in. Also FriendFeed gets immediate notification via PubSubHubBub and posts my shared items to FriendFeed and then FF shortens the URL and ships it off to my Twitter account. Usually faster than I can switch tabs and view the posts.
So I can browse, read and share to 4 places all within Google Reader. I can also email items to specific people if I want to. What couldn't be simpler?
Posted by: Keith | December 20, 2009 10:23 PM
I'm subscribed to RWW in Google Reader, and I just read this post in Feedly.
Posted by: Daniel | December 20, 2009 10:25 PM
RSS always has been and will be a back-end technology that powers many of the front-end services we use every day. Feed readers have always hovered around 8-12% consumer adoption. The fact that Feedburner and similar services haven't iterated much in the past few years, while disappointing, is hardly cause for hyperbolic speculation about the 'death of RSS.' Feeds aren't going anywhere any time soon.
Posted by: Dan
| December 20, 2009 10:28 PM
I use Google Reader via browser on my BlackBerry, and Firefox add-on Feedly (which is 100% in sync with Google Reader) on desktop/laptop, several times a day.
Posted by: HenkJan van der Klis
I think RSS is still essential. It's how I order and arrange my personal little newspaper-view on the world; I mean it's like my customised newspaper. I use MyYahoo from habit. Everything from Blogs, news items, comics, even some basic tools. The beauty is the selective control over your channels - sometimes twitter becomes too much of an always-on channel. With RSS it's about serious-length content, and will be ready and waiting and easily-overviewed when I'm ready.
reens
Posted by: Rino | December 20, 2009 10:37 PM
I've had hard time getting on board the Twitter wagon. Too much noise and I frankly don't care for second or third hand information. Ironically I contribute to the high volume by pushing my own RSS onto Twitter. I just don't use it as a source of information. Twitter's near real time update of course is great. Often, by the time I look at a RSS feed, it has been "liked" by a handful of people, read, by many more. Google Reader update rate is still plenty fast, after all I do have to work and tear myself away from the web at least periodically, as I imagine most people do. This post has me consider tracking Twitter accounts of the content makers to whose RSS feeds I presently subscribe, the 263 of them... Or, resist the coolness factor and remain quaintly backward. The web is unforgiving however, novelty rules - everything else withers, I am afraid that such will be the fate of RSS. What am I missing about Twitter? Or, is the face of the web a small technocratic elite and plenty of "sheep"?
Posted by: Rolling Red | December 20, 2009 10:39 PM
I started using rss through opera browser few years back, I instantly switched when google launched its rss reader.I have been using it since then , the reason I switched was I can access it from anywhere and the sharing option with friends/family through email was a plus. I live on the reader 24/7 @work plus @home for any kinda updates.Recently I have added some of the ppl from twitter to follow them in the reader, so that I don't miss any important info.
After twitter launched its lists feature ,I am slowing moving to seesmic on web , 3 tabs which are always open in my browser are gmail,google reader and seesmic.
Posted by: mdanuz | December 20, 2009 10:39 PM
I just read some interesting and important news everyday, so RSS is not necessary for me, too busy to have a rest.
Posted by: batterycentury | December 20, 2009 10:43 PM
I use Google Reader daily, and I actually just started using it this year. I love that I can just star items for later if I don't have the time to actually read the article. I like twitter for breaking news and keeping up with people, but I barely know anyone who actually uses twitter for anything but chit-chatting aside from myself, and those that I do know IRL that use twitter rank few in numbers. I don't think RSS readers are dead, obviously since i just started using one,and I think Twitter has a long way to go before people will take it seriously enough to rely on it as a main news source.
Posted by: Lianna Sharon Davis
There's no way I can read hundreds of news articles and keep up with the world each day unless I use Google Reader. With only a few buttons (and no mouse) I can scroll through hundreds of articles. I spend my morning with Google Reader similar to how my parents used to spend hours reading newspaper, but now I read more, much faster, and in more details if I want to.
I haven't found anything else that's faster and more configurable than Google Reader. My guess as to why RSS is going down is that there's way more distractions today, such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are fine for entertainment, but nothing beats good information than using Google Reader to read good RSS streams.
Posted by: Kevin
| December 20, 2009 10:53 PM
I read RWW in NetNewsWire. The difference is that if I miss a few hours or even days of Twitter, well so what. On the other hand, there is one folder of feeds in NNW that I feel it's unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say.
Posted by: Tim | December 20, 2009 10:54 PM
I have Google Reader and try to go through it at least once a week, but sometimes I leave it for 2-3 weeks
Posted by: Simon G | December 20, 2009 11:02 PM
Like what some others are saying....
I can't afford to miss any post on some sites, and Google Reader is still the best way for me to make this happen. Twitter lists of sites could work, I just like the feed-reader experience more because I can see more of the article without having to click.
Also, interestingly, I told my college-age sister about Google Reader and now she's hooked.
But even Google Reader isn't that amazing. I find the search function pretty bad given that this is a Google product. Maybe we just need better RSS readers? Maybe more people will want to start using them as they use the web for work, school research, etc.?
I'm not holding my breath on those last points, I just think/hope RSS readers still have a place.
Posted by: Eric
| December 20, 2009 11:03 PM
I use feeds now more than I ever have in the past. Twitter accounts I want to follow, but which are primarily just pushing information without interacting, go into Google Reader instead of being followed on Twitter. I also use Google Reader to save backup copies of my own Twitter account (this is really useful when you want to refer back & find something quickly).
I depend on feeds for news and information, and for keeping up-to-date with several blogs I read.
Being able to organise feeds into categories and having a good search function make readers invaluable tools for me.Even so, it has been Twitter that has increased my use of feeds. Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available.
Posted by: Lynne Pope
I agree. I've been using Google Reader since long time ago and I only use it as a database for searching information, along with Firefox bookmarks and Google itself.
Posted by: Christian Castelli
I'm similar to Rino (#33) and sjs (#21). For me, it's all about creating my own private magazine, tailored to my interests, on my *off-line mobile device*.
I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep.
Feeds on laptops: maybe kinda lame. Feeds on mobile: awesome.
Posted by: Bill | December 20, 2009 11:07 PM
I've got to say, this article blew me away. Not because I agree with the premise - the decline of RSS - but because of how much it missed the mark with regards to my personal habits. I (and it appears the majority of the commenters) depend on RSS readers to get my news. I check Twitter and use it to find interesting links, but as a news source it would be terrible. My use of Twitter, which may be different from the digerati that follow this blog, is only occasional and is more about monitoring trends / people. The other alternatives like Facebook or Friendfeed aren't all that appealing as substitutes either. And I can never go back to browsing individual websites.
Posted by: Brian | December 20, 2009 11:08 PM
I still use Google Reader daily. Twitter and such cannot replace the functionality of RSS readers. Some bloggers I follow dont use Twitter and even if they would I would most probably miss some of theie posts w/o an RSS reader.
Posted by: Max | December 20, 2009 11:41 PM
I agree that Twitter isn't a very good tool for keeping up with important information.
I actually read this story from one of the latest desktop communication devices called eLert Gadget which also doubles as an easy to use, straight forward RSS reader.
Unlike Google reader and feed demon its a lot easier to use:
http://www.elertgadget.com/downloadbookmark.php
Posted by: Internet Corporation
While I recognize there is not a growing market for stand-alone RSS readers, saying RSS is in disarray is like saying HTTP is in disarray. I use Google Reader many times a day, every day. When not in front of the laptop, I get my RSS on my iPhone via my6sense. The day I stop reading RSS feeds is the day I stop reading the Web (this site included).
Posted by: Louis Gray | December 20, 2009 11:49 PM
This ridiculousness about not needing RSS or readers because of Twitter has really got to stop. Twitter is great, but it's only part of the story. Blogs are hugely valuable and the best way to keep up with them is still RSS. Google is such a huge brand name they have been able to take over the RSS reader space and that's just the way it goes. The fact that there are few competitors anymore is testament to the fact that it's probably not a good business strategy to go straight up against Google, especially when their technology is free. With the new advances is realtime RSS we will see the continuation of RSS as a valuable and important technology.
Posted by: Posted via web from Lee's posterous
Firefox 3.5: The World’s Most Popular Browser
Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:34:00 +0000
Firefox 3.5 is now the most popular browser worldwide, edging past Internet Explorer 7, according to analytics site StatCounter.
The timing has favored FF3.5, however: IE7 usage has died off as people upgrade to IE8, meaning that Internet Explorer’sInternet Explorer
market share is currently spread equally across IE7 and IE8. Add together all versions of IE versus all versions of FirefoxFirefox
, and Microsoft’s browser is still leading the pack by a long way.
Nonetheless, the trend lines favor Firefox in the long run: IE’s market share continues its slow decline while Firefox has sustained steady growth.
StatCounter uses its tracking codes on 3 million websites (5 billion total pageviews) to generate the numbers.
[via Slashdot]
Firefox finally caught IE. Interesting to see the Chrome isn't on this list. I predict it will catch IE very fast and then be competitive with Firefox for years to come.
NBA Player Fined $7,500 for a Tweet
Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:07:00 +0000
Brandon Jennings [@YUNGBUCK3] has made headlines for his unconventional road to the NBA — after skipping college he played professional basketball in Europe before getting drafted by the Bucks in 2009 — but now he’s making headlines for his tweets.
Last weekend Jennings tweeted 15 minutes after the Bucks game against the Trailblazers ended. That’s a big no-no in the NBA, as the league’s social media policy spells out that players aren’t allowed to tweet post-game until the team has finished talking to the media. The cost for Jennings’ Twitter hiccup? A hefty $7,500.
The tweet in question is rather benign. It reads, “Back to 500. Yess!!! “500″ means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys.”
But that’s clearly not the point. Jennings broke an established rule, and the NBA needs to follow through with the fine in order to set a precedent and make a statement to other players who are all-a-TwitterTwitter
.
Of course Jennings was none-to-happy about the amount of the fine, and he turned to Twitter to voice his malcontent about the price of his preemptive tweet. “I understand I got fined, but 7500? For being happy over a win, you would of thought I said something bad. I mean it was a big win for us.”
He later apologized for the behavior, said it wouldn’t happen again, and even talked about deleting his Twitter account. Given that he deleted his original account after a YouTubeYouTube
incident earlier in the year, and then took to his Facebook Page to share with his fans that he had a new account, we have a feeling that Jennings will stick around on Twitter for awhile longer.
Now that we’ve seen a plethora of athletes penalized for their poor Twitter behavior — Antonio Cromartie, Larry Johnson, and members of the Texas Tech football team — these occurrences are starting to become commonplace. So who will be the next athlete to say too much on Twitter? Who knows, but we do expect some Twitter sparks to fly this weekend when the Chargers and the Bengals (Ochocinco’s team) face each other on the field in San Diego.
[via SI.com]
[Img credit: Bekah stargazing, FlickrFlickr
]
So, the NBA wants manage the flow of information and has to use a negative approach to do that. It seems this is mostly about keep the mainstream media happy and not about any kind of value creation for the league. I imagine it will go away once league officials decide that it really isn't in their interest to limit the connection between the players and fans.
State of elearning 2009
Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:01:00 +0000
State of elearning 2009
Tony Bates reflects on 2009, noting positive developments and disappointments:
Then we look at the public sector, and in particular the big research universities, and what do we see? Clickers, lecture capture, multiple screens in the classroom, learning management systems with Powerpoint slides and pdf files loaded, and a total lack of recognition that the current formal higher education system is failing, and a total lack of vision of what is needed for the future, and the role that information and communications technologies can play in formal learning.
I think there is too much focus on trying to innovate within the system rather than innovating the system itself. The latter requires vision, leadership, and experimentation/failure.
Posted in Uncategorized.
By gsiemens – December 18, 2009
via elearnspace.orgInteresting quote via George Siemans, from Tony Bates. Many still are trying to leverage technology to make a traditional model for education better, when it is time to think about a new way to educate. I know it is hard, but the infrastructure for these new model is here. It's time to give every student a netbook or smartphone and start empowering their learning network. Give them the foundation in digital literacy they need to own their own learning.
Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half Billion Dollars Or More
Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:55:00 +0000
Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million.
Yelp was founded in 2004 as a way to let users leave reviews on local businesses. Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast – the company says it’s real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques.
Yelp has whispered that 2009 revenues will be around $30 million and are expecting $50 million or so in 2010.
Yelp last raised venture capital in early 2008 from DAG at a $200 million pre-money valuation, we’ve heard. They’ve raised a total of $31 million over four venture rounds.
On the odds of the deal happening – one source says its 80% likely. Not signed, sealed and delivered, but past the term sheet stage.
Google is building out their own directory of local businesses with its Place Pages, which can be accessed via Google Maps and local search. They are encouraging local businesses to put Google-branded stickers in store windows and recently added their own ratings summaries to business profiles. Yelp, of course, already has all of this data, along with a growing and active audience of consumers who are used to finding (and rating) businesses on Yelp.
For their part, Google is clearly on a shopping spree. They recently acquired AdMob for $750 million, and were in the running on the LaLa acquisition. Expect lots of deals to be announced by them over the next three months.
So, I don't use Yelp, but it is obvious that Google continues to integrate into local communities. It is so important the the continue to innovate around relevance (or purchase that innovation). Consumers are going to continue to demand that their information be individualized and they will go to however can do that the best.
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Choose teaching
Great thoughts about why we should CHOOSE teaching from Gail Lovely: To be a teacher — choose it as a calling, not a job. Choose it to do something meaningful and powerful, with rewards only you might notice. Choose it to be a role model. Choose to be a teacher because you love learning. Choose to be a teacher because [...]Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:07:16 +0000
Telling a story with Google Search queries
If you were watching the Super Bowl last night on U.S. television, you likely saw Google’s advertisement, “Parisian Love,” during the third quarter. What a clever way to tell a story, through a series of Google searches and some well-timed sound clips. If you missed it, here it is, on YouTube (of course.) Is your school [...]Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:54:32 +0000
Notes from a Canadien Yoda: Darren Kuropatwa at METC 2010
These are my notes from a part of Darren Kuropatwa’s METC 2010 workshop, “Extreme (web 2.0) Lesson Plan Makeover.” I was only able to attend a little of the afternoon session. WOW. If you ever have a chance to hear Darren present in person, do not miss it. I do not use the title, “Yoda,” [...]Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:42:52 +0000
Use Friendly Media
I created a wiki page for the topic “use friendly images” as part of the 3 hour morning workshop I’m co-teaching tomorrow with Karen Montgomery here at the METC Conference in St Louis. The title of our hands-on workshop is, “Powerful Ingredients for Blended Learning.” One of the most exciting finds I made for the topic [...]Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:26:09 +0000
Get ready for Sixth Sense Technologies
Yesterday at our Creative Oklahoma Education committee meeting, Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry’s demo of “SixthSense technology” at the TED conference in February 2009 was mentioned. Speakers are being considered for the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma City in November 2010, and the possibility of having Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry come share SixthSense is [...]Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:17:55 +0000
Getting started video tutorials with Wordpress
I’ve set up three different websites with Wordpress in the past year for local nonprofits, and I need to help the leaders of each organization begin using their sites to post updated information. I’m utilizing screencast tutorials from Wordpress.tv in this post to create training materials for these individuals as they start using Wordpress. I’m [...]Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:57:35 +0000
IMPACT Oklahoma Grant Workshop 2010 Notes
These are my notes from the February 4, 2010, informational meeting held by IMPACT Oklahoma at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. I’m here on behalf of our Storychasers nonprofit and the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history / digital storytelling project. MY COMMENTS AND REFLECTIONS DURING THIS WORKSHOP ARE IN ALL CAPS BELOW. According to the organization’s [...]Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:42:37 +0000
A case study on why team blog MODERATION is essential in schools
Yesterday in a full-day workshop I facilitated for CASTLE with Minnesota K-12 principals in Rochester, one of the participants told me about a very negative situation which took place in November 2009 involving a class blog in Owatonna, Minnesota. According to Curt Brown’s November 20, 2009 article for the Minneapolis / St Paul Star Tribune, “Racial tension [...]Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:20:55 +0000
Blog comment moderation: How and Why?
I posted the following as an entry on my “Technology 4 Teachers” Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) blog for Spring 2010. Question: How can I turn on comment moderation on my Blogger blog? Why is this recommended? Answer: I recommend all educators turn on comment moderation for ALL blog posts and other social media websites they setup for use with [...]Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:29:35 +0000
Crescent Public Schools: The Eyes of Oklahoma Are Upon You!
Tomorrow on Thursday, February 4, 2010, the Oklahoma State Board of Education will hold it’s monthly meeting at Crescent Public Schools. This is a BIG deal. Crescent Public Schools is one of only FIVE public school districts in Oklahoma (out of 530+) which is currently implementing a 1:1 learning initiative. That will change later this [...]Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:01:25 +0000
- Stephen's Web: OLDaily
What's the Platform of the Future for Developing Interactive Graphical Educational Software?
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:24:00 -0400
I hit a bit of a brick wall today - not always a bad thing - which makes me rethink the state of software. Could there ever be a seat-of-your-pants startup, like Facebook or Twitter or Flickr? I'm thinking not. The internet has evolved to the point where you need quite an infrastructure to create any sort of popular application, and existing applications have closed most of the niches, creating a large 'reinventing the wheel' hurdle to any new development. This will be the case for the new graphical software discussed in this post, especially as the applications favoured even by largish university projects are insufficient for the new environment.
It's hard to explain what I mean (which is the story of my day today) but I've been thinking of it like this: there was a time when you were inventing a new car where all you had to build was the car, but by the 60s or 70s you had to design not just the car but production lines, supply networks, dealerships, and a whole lot more; and moreover, the cars, with electronics and braking systems and the rest became a lot more complex. You can't just invent a new car today; it can only be done by an existing major player. The same, largely, with software.
Or - could you just build small simple things that interact? Do you have to build an enterprise system every time you want to build an application? Doug Holton, EdTechDev, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Twitter, Books, Networks, Project Based Learning, Flickr] [Link] [Comment]"The Class" - parody of The Office
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:16:19 -0400
Making the rounds today is this classroom parody of The Office (which itself is parody). Not only does the classroom ring true, in more ways than once, it's also a great example of students exercising their own creativity (in a manner exactly opposite to the classroom portrayed in The Class). Note how one act of creativity uses a prior act as a frame. This is common, and fundamental to creativity. Also, it wouldn't be a YouTube hit unless it was inspired by something people already know. Michael Wesch, Digital Ethnography, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Video, YouTube] [Link] [Comment]
Laser, 3D Printer, and an Onion, OH MY!
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:12:45 -0400
What I like about this is that it's e-learning having nothing to do with screen or keyboard. Rather, it's a laser scanner and a 3D printer, and what it produces is a series of models of an onion growing, so you can see for yourself the stages of growth. If a garden is slow music, as Michael L Umphrey says, then this is the score. Wayne Hodgins, Off Course On Target, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Online Learning, Project Based Learning] [Link] [Comment]
British Library to offer free ebook downloads
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:09:34 -0400
I'm looking forward to a wealth of new reading material available for free online. This time, it's courtesy of the British Library (though of course there are some obligatory sponsorship spots built in). We'll see if it's a case of books really being available free, or whether it's a case of them being free if you buy someone else's hardware. Rocjard Brooks, The Times, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Great Britain, Books] [Link] [Comment]
How To Monitor What Is Being Said About You Online
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:06:18 -0400
I admit it - I monitor what people have to say about me online. I need to do this for Twitter, otherwise I'd never get messages. It's also pretty useful if I want to be able to respond to blog comments. But most of all, I do it to find new stuff - if someone's linking to or talking about me, then probably they also link to or talk to things that I'm interested in, which makes them a pretty good source for me. So the techniques mentioned in this post? Yes, I use them. Tina, MakeUseOf, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Twitter, Linking and Deep Linking, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]
25 places to find instructional videos
About "P"!
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:59:41 -0400
Chaouki Regoui talks about what puts the "p" in PLE. "What information to have about the learner (simply called learner profile)? Which information is provided by the learner and which is collected about him/her (through his/her learning patterns, from external sources etc. )?" Chaouki Regoui, Plearn Blog, February 8, 2010 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]
We Love xkcd
Meta Data
Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:32:22 -0400
The way music works, you use one song as a frame from which to create a new song. You need to do this - derive from existing archetypes - because otherwise you just end up reinventing songs that have already been written, and get sued, like George Harrison did, even if you did no wrong (thanks to musician Don Belliveau for explaining all this to me). So anyhow, Lady Gaga and Elton John performed a duet at the Grammys, and as this item explains, they "went meta" - "'How wonderful life is with Gaga in the world,' John sang." But it's not just that the lyrics were self-referential. Gaga's Speechless uses Elton John's Your Song as its frame, something that was evident by the way they merged, so when Gaga sings "this is your song, I hope you don't mind" she's acknowledging the song's origins. Which is why it's nice that Elton sings back, "You can tell everyone this is your song." That's how creativity and innovation works, and that's what our intellectual; property system is in the process of wrecking, and be fairly warned, once you break that chain of innovation, you can't get it back; you have to start from scratch again. Which is why the dark ages were so, um, dark. Merrill Perlman, Columbia Journalism Review, February 8, 2010 [Tags: Patents] [Link] [Comment]
RSS_PHP ERROR : The file specified appears not to be a valid xml file
- The Knowledge Tree
Exposing e-learning skills sets: The Knowledge Tree e-journal Edition 19 out now!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Likewise, you can lead students to computers, but you can’t offer them engaging courses – unless VET practitioners have developed and honed the skill sets required to effectively implement e-learning. In this edition of The Knowledge Tree we expose the vital skill sets [...]Putting the learner in the driver’s seat: The Knowledge Tree e-journal Edition 18 out now!
As anyone who has a teenager will attest, putting a first time learner in the driver’s seat of a car is a scary proposition. Edition 18 of The Knowledge Tree looks at how web 2.0 technologies, particularly e-portfolios and point of view (POV) technologies, are allowing learners to ‘take the wheel’ in the learning process. Highlights: Lead [...]Call for Contributions: October Edition of The Knowledge Tree
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) is now calling for contributions relating to current research in learning innovation for Edition 19 of The Knowledge Tree: an E-journal of Learning Innovation. This edition is due for publication on 13 October, 2009. To submit an article or to have an idea for an item, please contact the [...]Call for Contributions of KT in 2009
Dear Knowledge Tree readers We are planning two editions of The Knowledge Tree in 2009. Edition 18 is likely to be published in July and Edition 19 in October. The theme for Edition 18 is likely to be about e-assessment, RPL and e-portfolios. The theme for Edition 19 is likely to focus on case studies for mainstreaming [...]Inspiring Innovations online mini-conference
Dear Knowledge Tree readers Registrations and now OPEN for a free online mini-conference on some of the latest e-learning developments and innovations from around the Australian VET sector. You can register and find out more at - http://flexiblelearning.net.au/networksevents And at the e-events website - http://flexiblelearning.net.au/e-events Knowledge Tree editorial teamEdition 17 on Youth and E-learning out soon!
Edition 17 of The Knowledge Tree focuses on youth and e-learning: due for release on Monday 27 October 2008! Highlights Lead article: The lead writer is Bill Wade of Charles Darwin University, NT who writes about ‘Everything I Need to Learn: Engaging Youth in Online Learning’. Article: A case study on a successful partnership between Hunter Institute [...]Live conversations recordings and RSS feed
This posting is designed to alert you to: • Where you can find all the archives of ‘live conversations’ with lead writers • A correction and change to RSS feed For all recordings of live conversations go to http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/archive-of-live-conversations/ The latest recorded live conversation is with Barb McPherson on her ‘Facing the Future’ article which explores the implications of [...]Live Conversation with lead writer, Barb McPherson, 12 August 2- 3pm AEST
A ‘live conversation’ (web-conferencing session) with Barb McPherson, the lead writer of Edition 16 of The Knowledge Tree is scheduled for: Tuesday 12 August 2.00- 3.00pm AEST TOPIC: ‘Facing the Future’ - How can businesses and RTOs respond innovatively to the challenge of declining national productivity? What business and training (including e-learning) strategies need to be adopted? [...]Edition 16: Partnering with industry to embed e-learning solutions
Edition 16 of The Knowledge Tree: an e-journal of learning innovation is out now! Highlights: Lead article, ‘Facing the Future’ by Barbara McPherson on implications of the declining national productivity for workforce participation and productivity. Case study, ‘Steeling an Industry for E-learning’ by Richard Matheson on the development of an e-learning resource for the stainless steel industry. Interviews on [...]The Knowledge Tree 2008 call for contributions
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework is now calling for contributions relating to current research in learning innovation, with particular focus on successful use of e-learning for learners and within business settings, for Edition 16 published on Monday 28 July and Edition 17 published on Monday 27 October 2008 of The Knowledge Tree e-journal. Submissions close 9 [...]
Ruaje ose Shperndaje kete faqe