My del.icio.us...

Grief... I've been adding stuff to Delicious and then some these past few days!

Links for 2008-08-21 [del.icio.us] Posted: 22 Aug 2008 12:00 AM CDT Top 10 Online Note Taking Applications shortText.com - Twitzer Firefox extension Main Articles: 'Wiki or Won't He? A Tale of Public Sector Wikis', Ariadne Issue 49 Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE CONNECT Defining “Creepy Treehouse” | Flexknowlogy ERM0811.pdf (application/pdf Object) The coming functionality mash-up in Personal Learning Environments - Study skills - effective reading Notes on how best to approach skim reading academic articles

delizzy - del.icio.us Bookmarks Search Engine

delizzy - del.icio.us Bookmarks Search Engine: "What is del.izzy?

del.izzy is a free service that lets you search through your del.icio.us bookmarks.

Wait a second, doesn't del.icio.us already let me do that? What's different about del.izzy?

del.icio.us is a great service, but when you search through your bookmarks, you are only searching through tags, titles and descriptions, not the page content.

del.izzy lets you search through all content, including title, description and page content, for all your bookmarks."

Looks like a handy service to me! If your tagging isn't as accurate as it might be given hindsight and changes in approach to using Del.icio.us then this could be a great way of tracking down those 'thought that'd be useful' links you can no longer find.

University standards under threat - maybe?

Geoffrey Alderman: University standards under threat | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "But the externals were not further involved. Instead, as a result of the strange remarking exercise, a number of students were moved from a straight fail to a borderline position, permitting them to be deemed to have passed if marks for other subjects were high enough. The net result was that students whom professor Buckland and his co-examiner had failed, and whose failures had been endorsed first by the external examiner and then by the board of examiners, were told that they had passed."

Interesting case which reached an employment tribunal after Professor Buckland resigned in protest at the way this regrading had taken place. One thing I hate is for students I've worked with to fail for reasons which are trivial (submitting work in the wrong format, missing the deadline by minutes etc)... but one thing I really, really hate is to see students pass whose work should not represent the quality of the course teaching were it allowed to pass. Limping students over the line who don't deserve to get over the line does them no favours in the long run and does institutions no favours either. I cringe at instructions in marking guides which say 'mark generously' (which I've come across in the past myself). I understand why it's being said... but I cringe nevertheless at the implication that some how the balance needs to be tipped in the favour of the 'customer' and less in favour of academic credibility...

Can universities really claim to be able to uphold their own standards any more? Tip of the iceberg or mountain out of molehill?

Interesting times ahead...

Google Insights for Search (on Youtube too…) « OUseful.Info, the blog…

Google Insights for Search (on Youtube too…) « OUseful.Info, the blog…: "It seems that Google opened up a supercharged variant of Google Trends over the last week or two: Google Insights for Search."

Interesting run through of the various Google analysis bits and bobs which have appeared recently on Tony Hirst's blog. Okay, so it always takes me at least three read-throughs of his blog entries to even manage a 50% level of understanding... but his search and data guru-ness shines through and I know that at some point I'll want to refer back to what he's written on this!

My del.icio.us...

Links for 2008-08-15 [del.icio.us] Posted: 16 Aug 2008 12:00 AM CDT Designin for Change: Mash-Up Personal Learning Environments eLearning Papers

Web 2.0 is not 100% reliable... non-shocker!!

10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far) | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET: "We have been reminded several times lately that Web 2.0 is in no way a synonym for 'reliable.' Major services have crashed. Big product launches have fizzled. Users have raised their collective fists in the air. What's going on? Is the Web crumbling? Well, no, it's not. But users' expectations are rising, and Web companies often get themselves into trouble by promising far more than they can deliver."

Interesting little article... good reminder to use web 2.0 services with a dollop of care and thought about how to cope with outages etc... but... kind of mountain out of molehill stuff, isn't it? Even the most 'reliable' in-house systems go down and those are the ones that are fully under control (having worked in IT I use that term extremely lightly!)... and... you know what... the world carries on after people have had a grouse about it all.

Still, worth a tootle through just so as next time someone's moaning about a lack of reliability, you can join in a nod in the right places. :o)

Twitter drops text message support in UK

Popular microblogging system Twitter has dropped text message support in the UK, leaving British users stranded without full service.The site, which allows users to send messages to individuals or friends over the web, text or instant messaging, will continue to allow people to send messages to Twitter by mobile, but will no longer deliver updates and messages to people over SMS. The move does not affect users in the US, Canada and India.In an email to users last night, co-founder Biz Stone explained that the company could no longer afford to support outbound SMS until it had made better billing arrangements with Britain's mobile phone operators."It pains us to take this measure. However, we need to avoid placing undue burden on our company and our service," he said.

Social networking: Twitter drops text message support in UK | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Two points from this article.  First of all... the problem of relying on a third party for a web 2.0 service in education rearing its head again.  Design in the use of SMS updates for mobile learning... and... poof!  One minute they're there... the next they're not... and there's not a thing you can do about it.

Secondly... are we getting to the point where SMS integration no longer matters that much?  Okay, so I'm mildly luddite-esque when it comes to using a mobile phone (note to self: find mobile phone), but that doesn't mean that others haven't found the SMS facility the sticky factor when it comes to using Twitter.  Does the advent of iPhone-ing mean that SMS is no longer the essential it used to be anyway?  Why get a lousy text-based update on your mobile phone when an all-singing and dancing one can appear on your snazzy iPhone.  Obviously after you've shelled out an arm, a leg, a kidney and half an ear lobe for the iPhone and sold your first born to afford the contract... but... SMS is a bit of a poor relation to the 'real thing', isn't it?  Wonder how long it'll be before we think 'how quaint' about SMS being even vaguely that important?

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My del.icio.us...

Links for 2008-08-12 [del.icio.us] Posted: 13 Aug 2008 12:00 AM CDT Gartner Says Enterprises Must Create Separate Marketing Strategies for Generation Virtual http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/12/television.digitalmedia?gusrc=rss Information R/evolution How tagging and web 2.0 are changing the way we store and use information A Daily Dose of Interesting Photographic Inspiration from Flickr blackr

Digging Digsby

Okay, so although I do like a good bit of social networking... it can get seriously overwhelming at times. And, because I like an easy life... I like finding things that'll make my life easier (naturally!)! The problem with social networking is that while you're only a click away from what you're friends and contacts are up to... opening up various browser windows / clients to see what's happening... well... as far as 21st Century Laziness goes... it's kinda tiresome. Basically, for a while I've wanted my own little pot to store all my social networking treasures in. Something that keeps them together, gives me a quick way of checking and updating them... and doesn't gobble up memory on my ailing laptop.

Soooo... my latest toy for making life easier comes in the form of 'digsby'.



It allows you to send 'tweets' via Twitter, chat with people on Facebook and see what's going on with people on MySpace. It'll even let you check your e-mail, use the main chat clients such as MSN, AOL, GTalk etc and having your main forms of communication in one place is handy if nothing else and it saves having to use the horribly clunky Facebook chat interface! So, even though it's not the prettiest thing out there, (it does let you customize it a bit in the style of a teenage boy's retro 1980s' bedroom)... and I don't think that Mac or Linux versions are available at the mo... and it doesn't support things like 'FriendFeed' or 'Plurk' - it supports the main big boys and no doubt others will be added as they emerge from the web 2.0 heap.

Yup, this is on my 'nice little toy' list for now. Solves my general 'fed up of flicking from this to that' issue anyway! And it hasn't made my poor laptop collapse in a sad, resource-hogged little pile either. Which is always nice. :o)

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This week I...

... knew as soon as it happened that Britain had won a gold in the Olympics... without having a TV or hearing it on the radio

... joked with colleagues without seeing them face to face

... arranged to talk through an assignment without doing any talking

... read the news without ever picking up a newspaper

... was given pointers on areas to live without going into an estate agent

... was reminded of a friend's birthday without needing to look at the calendar

Isn't social networking amazing?

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