The corporate instructional technology battle of our time begins. Here's an article in eSchool News.

Blackboard vs. D2L

The first part of my career was driven by the contents of this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5144094928842683632

The second will be driven by this:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xni48_edu2020

Here's some other interesting video material:

Michael Wesch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM&feature=related

Others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&feature=related

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us (2007):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Did You Know 2.0 (2006)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

http://www.educommconference.com/

I need to find some time to give this an examination:

http://www.elluminate.com/vroom/

Check out http://www.programmableweb.com/

I know my colleague John Martin is reading this books so when I saw this link to an excerpt I followed my curiosity.    I don’t necessarily agree with the premise of his new book that IT as we know it will disappear, but as with his last book, “Does IT Matter?” Nicolas  Carr and can generate discussion.  I do agree that IT will change.  Always has been.    Just take a vacation .

I thought you might enjoy this quick read and kick back to give the future of IT some thought.

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2232402,00.asp

This line particularly caught my eye: 

“One of the key challenges for IT departments lies in making the right decisions about what to hold onto and what to let go.”

Yeah, I know,  that’s always been the case.   All one need do is look at the IT bone-yard,  CPM, OS2, VMS, et.al., and recognize that the shelf life of some technologies is more like a  banana then a redwood. 

Regardless,  looking forward I see a continued strong need for gatekeepers and key masters, i.e. those that control institutional knowledge.  Where the data resides though, is becoming less important.

Some materials gathering:

Moodle Presentation  -  little overview, meta numbers

Moodle Overview -  more of a how to

Upload PPT to Moodle 

Moodle versus Blackboard  - Humboldt State study

Moodle at SFSU

Issues surrounding migrating Blackboard courses to Moodle 

At one point this semester  my students and I reviewed Microsoft's new Surface Computing promotions available on youtube.  It was with pleasure that before the end of the semester an imaginative person developed this low-cost alternative.    We are also read Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat."  This example re-inforced the non-linear nature of technology innovation and that imagination is an essential skill in the flat world.

I am always impressed with the efforts of Middlebury,  here's something that was covered in The Chronicle about mapping where the food comes for their dinning services:

I'm late to this, but it's still funny nonetheless. Applachian State U. apparently did this video for a campus(alumni?) event and has since received some unexpected publicity from the effort.

ASU video

Of course, if the original wasn't enough, here's a couple variations on the theme.

Anime parody

Another parody

Good article on the admissions and institutional websites.  Provides some background on Enrollment Power Index.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7439

Here's the folks that provide the reports for about a $1k per institution:

http://www.NRCCUA.org/epireport