I've been waiting for someone to come up with an open-source, non-hosted application for sharing powerpoint or desktop applications for a while. Many faculty would prefer web-based teleconferencing systems in addition to a Learning Management Software. Here's a startup called, dimdim's product.
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Laser Light and Data Chips
It's just simple amazing what's cooking up out there. Now there using laser light inside a silicon-based chip as documented in an article from the NY Times. I've recommended it before, but 
Ray Kurzweil's Singularity is a great read and puts these announcements into perspective.
Migratory Faculty, Part III
In my first post on migratory faculty I noted that faculty would use non-institutional resources to house their content, potentially side-stepping the institutional LMS and that this would be a characteristic of Higer Education 2.0. In Migratory Faculty, Part II, I shared a link to an article about a faculty member who decided that he would not use lecture hall lectures, but rather just podcast his lectures. My colleague, Zach Tirrell at nosheep.net posted an article about a professor who was charging $2.50 to his recorded lectures online at a non-university site. I thought that was a pretty interesting approach although I was certain that this would raise the interest of his school's administration. Well sure enough, looks like they asked that he shut down his service as reported in this Chronical article. Too bad. I would have like to seen how that would have worked out. From the faculty perspective, here would be a way of supplementing what are sometimes low salaries (think adjuncts), especially if the lecture material became popular beyond the instiution. I could only imagine how popular blogging and podcasting would then become for faculty if there were finanical motivators. It could motivate a student to attend the free/live lecture and provide the flexibility for the occasional missed class and of course help the student for review and study purposes. Parents of undergraduates, would probably be less than happy as the financial burden is already great without faculty setting prices for their services. Imagine $2.50 for a missed lecture, $5.00 for an assignment handed in late, and "oh, you want to take the final on online? That will be $25.00 please. Does anyone have change for a twenty?"
I am certain there will be more creative models and entreprenurial opportunities that will be examined in the months and years ahead.
What's the three hottest topics in Higher Ed IT? Security, security and security.
We making some positive steps towards mitgation of our data security risks. Here's a good article on the topic that provides a summary of the what's and why's: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/02/hack