Einen schönen Einblick in Sachen Podcast als Werkzeug für die wissenschaftliche Bildung gibt die E-Learning Topic-Veranstaltung der Uni Zürich (dort sind streaming video Aufzeichungen hinterlegt). Die Veranstaltung geht den Fragen nach ist ein Einsatz von Podcasts in der Lehre sinnvoll? Oder löst man damit primär das Problem überfüllter Hörsäle? Sind Podcasts das Szenario der Zukunft – oder gibt es Beschränkungen? (via Mandy Schiefner)
HCI of upcoming Word 2007
Julie Larson-Green from Microsoft has held a presentation „Moving Beyond Menus and Toolbars in Microsoft Office“ (Attention: Windows Player needed – VLC or DivX-plugins won’t work.) at Stanford University Program in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) this year in January.
The presentation sports some interesting facts visualized very well. E.g. the history of Word and its functionality is put in three nice graphics. Julie has recognized an important fact: People spend more 1-on-1 time with Office than with their spouses
This is at least true for all knowledge workers using Office. The next interesting statement: You must remove to simplify This approach now lead to the latest feature added (not removed!) to Office, called the „Ribbon“. One really remarkable approach nevertheless can be recognized: Results-oriented Design which is realized through Live-Preview of actions and Template-based actions.
Click to enlarge image
Why do I blog this? I just want to put this information here to show and keep reminded, that any UI can be screwed up within three releases. If you had a look at the presentation, please share your ideas about the Ribbon-feature.
Open Courseware Consortium relaunches site
The OpenCourseware Consortium has just released its new website. (via Bazaar.org) Clicking on the Find-Button and following some links you end up on a partners‘ website where you as in case of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health can download PDF’s which contain following notice:
Copyright 2006, The Johns Hopkins University and William Brieger. All rights reserved. Use of these materials permitted only in accordance with license rights granted. Materials provided “AS IS”; no representations or warranties provided. User assumes all responsibility for use, and all liability related thereto, and must independently review all materials for accuracy and efficacy. May contain materials owned by others. User is responsible for obtaining permissions for use from third parties as needed.
The offered material is offered under Creative Commons License „Commons Deed 2.5“-Derivate as one can find out reading the „Notice and Conditions of Use“. This means „non-commercial use only“, „credits for the original author“, and an „infective licensemodel“, if you manipulate content you need to distribute it under „Commons Deed“.
To get a better and in-time glimpse at the latest OCW activities you can have a look at the Open Up!-Blog at the University of Utah.
Why do I blog this? Does this mean (e-)Learning of the future looks like „PowerPoint unordered lists transformed to PDF“ distributed via the web? I wonder if this has something to do with (e-)Learning at all. It basically looks like a rights-mangement-solution for PowerPoint Content. But anyway, who should be able to change the material if the PowerPoint is no more and instead everything is canned in an unchangeable PDF? Seems as if I miss a point here in the word „Open“ of „OpenCourseware“, do I?