Web Learning Tools Research - version J351
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Hits: 288
EU plan to spend billions on boosting (super-fast) broadband speeds
The BBC News online reported Sunday 11.10.16 that the EU plans to spend billions on boosting (super-fast) broadband speeds. All households will get 30Mbps, 50% of the population will get 100Mbps, both services fully enabled by 2020, the money is to be invested between 2014-2020.
Hits: 370
NYT: HTML-5 to change the Internet
This article is a lay-person's (non-technical person's) introduction to new Internet Technology. The advent of HTML-5 as the newest standard for Internet multi-media web pages may also threaten end-user privacy. Non-technical people ought to keep an eye on this development and stay informed, in this PI's opinion.
Hits: 383
NYT: Art Business Schools Create a Network
The New York Times of 10.11.24 reported that some private for-profit Art Business schools have created their own exclusive Internet-based network of affiliate and support schools and services. This is nothing new for medium to large sized businesses in general which have created similar business-to-business networks online for decades. However, the existence of a similar network within the community of like-functioned for-profit education partners to this PI points out the absence of such networked services for public education in the USA, UK other developed and developing countries.
Hits: 351
NYT: (USA) Schools Embrace the iPad
The New York Times of 11.01.05 reports that more USA schools with the financial means are using the Apple iPad instead of laptops or desktop computers for their students to use in class activities. The Apple iPad costs over $500 (US) per unit and lasts only 3-4 years because the rechargeable battery is not replacable. Schools with the means are paying $750/unit. Nevertheless, this expected but expensive trend has many implications for education in general and educational technology for the poor and poor schools in particular. One implication is the expectation that the students books will be stored on the tablet computer. Another is the reduction if not elimination in the market for the One Laptop Per Child (offered by the OLPC project since 200?). Since 200? the OLPC project goals has been to put a $100 (US) laptop in the hands of children in developing countries. However at this writing the OLPC costs $150 to $200 per unit. Would a tablet or pad computer be a better device? The early adopters in some USA schools seem to think so. In addition this trend also heralds the advent of many other "tablet" and "pad" computers which global manufacturers plan to present to the market in 2011.
Hits: 372
NYT: Decentralizing the Internet So Big Brother Cannot Find You
The New York Times of 11.02.16 reported on the invention of a small device that expands the power of the Internet far beyond the abilities it has today with expensive fiber optic infrastructure and software that makes it very easy to find anyone using the Internet as it is today.
Hits: 384
NYT: Egypt Switched Off The Internet
The New York Times of 11.02.16, two days before Egypt's president Mubarak abdicated his 30 rule of Egypt, reported in simple non-technical terms how Mubarak's agents turned off Internet access to all of Egypt's citizens for several days. The key words to memorize are "Internet Router". Routers are small specialized computers that connect different parts of the Internet to other parts of the Internet. They make the Internet a network. In Egypt's case there were only a very few router computers that let Internet data and phone traffic pass into and out of Egypt. Flip the off switch on them... no more Internet for the Egyptians. And that can be done by a government agent or a malicious person in almost any country.
Hits: 347
NYT: Digital Age Slow to Arrive in Rural USA
In developed countries with broadband Internet service, getting high speed service the "last mile" to older homes, rural homes and offices is very expensive undertaking. The New York Times of 11.02.18 reported how much of the rural USA does not have now and will not get soon the high speed Internet service some believe all citizens deserve to have... like Television in the 1950s and 1960s. Of course "the last mile" infrastructure is non-existent in so many developing and under-developed countries world-wide and will remain so until smart cell phone service includes low cost high speed Internet audio and video data streams.
Hits: 294
BBC: UK ISPs defend plans for two-tier Internet
The BBC News of 11.03.18 reported that UK commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are insistent that they have the right to sell Internet service at least at two levels or tiers of bandwidth. Bandwidth in this case means selling a guaranteed minimum bandwidth and a peak maximum speed of data transfer. The article surveys the various ways that ISPs are already controlling, or throttling, Internet bandwidth for different classes of devices such as mobile smart phones.
Hits: 325
BBC: Facebook Removes Intifada Page
The BBC online news of 11.03.28 reported that Facebook removed a new "Intifada" supporting page (section) because it promoted the use of violence against Israelis.
Hits: 374
NYT: Google Introduces +1
Google announces "Plus 1" (+1) social networking tool to enable search engine users to share results with friends. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says this a legal improvement over Google's "Buzz" social networking tool announced in 2010 which violated GMail users' personal privacy.
Hits: 383
SFGate: Pandora Subpoenaed
The San Francisco Chronicle online, SFGate.com, reported 11.04.04 that the ACLU of Northern California has subpoenaed the online music radio company, Pandora, to provide information about how the company acquires end-user personal information from desktop, laptop, tablets, and smart-phones. In this PI's experience, Pandora may be one of the more responsible and transparent online companies that acquires end-user information to determine which advertisers may present ads to their end-users.
Hits: 361
PBS: Crisis Mapping
Is Education a Crisis? What could "Crisis Mapping" do to improve education world-wide? The (US) Public Television Service (PBS) "Need to Know" weekly news commentary program broadcast this segment 11.05.13 called "Crisis Mapping". Crisis Mapping is a service setup by Boston graduate student Patrick Myers shortly after the Haiti earthquake of January 2010. Since so many in the developing world, including Haiti, have cell phones, Myers setup a cell phone message reception service in Haiti for emergency calls for help. Assistants world wide translate the messages calling for help. The Boston headquarters of Crisis Mapping receives the English translations and updates a real-time Internet map showing who needs help in Haiti, what kind of help they need, and where they are located. Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Haiti can monitor the contents of the Haiti Crisis Map map online, locate the needy nearest to their helper people, and ensure the people in need get the help they need in 10-15 minutes after a cell phone call for help.
Hits: 398
NYT: Data Networks May Soon Replace Wireless Carriers
The New York Times of 11.05.16 reported a summary of the trend to replace all wireless (cell phone, laptop) voice and data services with the same or better services delivered over an Internet-based data network. While slow moving, this trend may result in much cheaper costs to send and receive voice, video and other data between all sorts and sizes of computerized devices. And the lower costs will help advance distance learning.
Hits: 415
NYT: When the Internet Knows You - is that good thing?
Knowing the personalities and preferences of users of distance learning web applications is a very important goal of distance learning web site builders who want to provide better learning experiences. But in the New York Times editorial section of 11.05.23 there is this cautionary observation.
Hits: 412
SciAm: Pioneer Gordon Bell on the Future of Cloud Computing
In this Scientific American article of May 4, 2011, an interviewer chats with Internet pioneer Dr. Gordon Bell about the Future of Cloud Computing. The article is fair introduction to Cloud Computing, a trend only likely to expand exponentially -- if there is enough electricity for the tens of thousands, soon to be millions, of server computers located and inter-connected in "The Internet Cloud".
Hits: 353
NYT: New Gigabit Internet on, between and around some US colleges
The New York Times of 11.07.27 announced a new consortium of US colleges and universities which will create gigabit per second higher speed Internet services. The higher speeds will exist on campus, between colleges and universities, and within some small radius in the community around each college or university. This PI must note several caveats: (1) some US colleges and universities have had such gigabit higher speed Internet connectivity since the year 2000 or so. It is or was called Internet 2. (2) Also since the late 2000s tens (10s) of gigabit and hundreds (100s) of gigabit per second Intranet connectivity has been cheaply available for minicomputers, for server computers of all kinds and sizes, and for desktop and laptop users within a home - office or on a campus. So one gigabit inter-campus Internet connectivity between colleges and universities is not that big of a gain as of 2011. Furthermore, some countries in the EU already have such "ultra-high-speed" Internet connectivity in their entire communities.
Hits: 374
NYT: Personal Calendar Wars: Paper vs. Electronic
Which is better? A smart phone or tablet PC with a calendar application installed on it or a paper-based personal organizer? This New York Times article of 11.07.29 summarizes the state of evolution and personal likes and dislikes of organizing and planning one's activities with either kind of calendar / scheduling system.
Hits: 404
NYT: Apollo Group to Buy Maker of Online Math Courses
The New York Times of 11.08.03 reported that the US company, Apollo Group is buying the private company Carnegie Learning, makers of online courses in mathematics. Carnegie Learning was founded in 1998 by professors at Carnegie Mellon University. The Apollo Group operates the for-profit online University of Phoenix. Clearly the Apollo Group and their Univ. of Phoenix want to be leaders in (if not the dominator of) for-profit education online, eclipsing any such emerging online education from existing public universities or progressive grass-roots development of free online courses.
Hits: 340
NYT: As Mobile Networks Speed Up, Costs of Data Increase
There has been a major issue in computer networking for years: should access to the Internet and it's reams of data be free like the one-way broadcast radio and tv air-waves were originally? Or should access to the Internet be monetized and controlled primarily (if not exclusively) by private for-profit businesses? In short: Shall there be Net Neutrality (defined on this web site) or the Net Mostly For Profit (of the few most wealthy owners who do no pay federal, state or local taxes)? In brief: if the latter becomes the 'norm', this will badly affect the cost of educational materials and experiences exchanged via the Internet. The New York Times of 11.08.15 reported that (in what is akin to a bid to create a monopoly) the major private wireless Internet audio and video data stream providers for wireless mobile smart phones, tablet and laptop computers want to start billing users for how much data they use and for how fast they consume it.
Hits: 355
NYT: The Future of Computing 11.12.06
The New York Times Science News section as of 11.12.06 features several articles: (1) Predicting the Future of Computing, (2) Taking Faster and Smarter to New Physical Frontiers, (3) Power in Numbers: China Aims for High-Tech Primacy, and (4) Creating Artificial Intelligence Based on The Real Thing.
Hits: 340
NYT: Creating AI Based on the Real Thing
The New York Times of 11.12.05 published this article in the Science News section. "The Real Thing" means "how the human brain (and the neurons within it) work." Also called "based on better knowledge of human 'wet ware' neural networks as of 2011."
Hits: 338
Reuters: Will Newspaper Paywalls Be a Model for Distance Learning?
Print newspapers presenting their news content via the Internet have experimented with "paywalls" to get the digital readers to pay since the mid 1990s. At a certain threshold, like 20 articles-read per month, the reader has to pay a monthly fee; they can read no further content until they pay the fee. Clay Shirky writing for Reuters news service Friday 12.01.06 summarizes the net failures of "paywalls" for the newspaper business in 2011. The problematic "paywall" business model bodes ill for those who would "monetize" distance learning.
Hits: 379
NYT: Revising Limits on the Unlimited (Internet)
The New York Times of Friday, March 12.03.02 brought this latest effort to privatize the Internet to light. In the 1990s small Internet Service Providers charged you for how fast you could send and receive data over a dial-up connection, your computer's telephone connection to the ISP's telephone. If you had a "primitive" 1990s-style web site, you paid your ISP who was also your web hosting service, a fee proportional to how many megabytes your server and any database took up on their server. 20 years later a few large corporations like AT&T, Spring, etc. have bought up almost all small the ISPs. Large corporations like Google, Amazon, and a few others have so many data centers world-wide with so much computing power and so much data storage capacity, they have created "The Cloud," a privatized exclusive sub-set of the Internet. Internet using customers can now have all their computing and data storage needs taken care of -- for a fee -- in The Cloud. Now some of these super-large corporations want to again charge you and me for how fast or slow our Internet data gets to or from your smart phone, tablet or laptop, for how much data storage in The Cloud we use, and which and how much we use software applications that only exist and run "in The Cloud."
Hits: 328
Reuters: US Justice Dept warns Apple, other eBook publishers
Reuters news service reported Monday 12.03.19 that the U.S. Justice Department will sue Apple and five other "big name" (private) eBook publishers, "accusing them of colluding (conspiring) to raise (the) prices" of eBooks.
Hits: 347
The Cloud Expands! a criticism
xxx of Remository.com, a Joomla extensions developer, wrote this reality check criticism of the hype (hyperbole) surrounding "The Cloud." "The Cloud" is a system of distributed (could exist anywhere in the world) file storage and application services existing on the Internet since about 2007. Cloud service providers seem to hope to replace most naive computer users' data storage, management and computer applications services from those on their desktop, laptop, or smart phones, with similar to better services in "The Cloud." "The Cloud" is in effect a "technological reincarnation" of centralized million dollar mainframe computing of the 1960s-1980s. jgw 12.04.22
Hits: 536
NYT: Finding Alternatives to Building a [Learning?] Web Site (13.06.07)
This link goes to an "interesting" New York Times article of June 7, 2013 (13.06.07). OK, it must be said that WLTRes (this web site) attempts to address developments that improve distance learning. Also having some inexpensive Internet web-site creation service available, which this article discusses, is not a "new thing." Such semi-automated web application services have existed since the early days of the Internet (i.e. since the mid 1990s). OK, perhaps providing very small businesses a cheap, easy way to create their good-enough 1-10 web page web site is a new "speical purpose," is a bargin and a public service. But there are at least the following four "open questions" educators and educational technology builders need to consider: (1) Who has yet setup a similar service to create A LESSON, A WEEKEND OR SEVERAL WEEKS-LONG SEMINAR OR A SEMESTER LENGTH COURSE such that the effort to do so takes only a few hours, days or weeks? If such a service for online lesson or course development were to become available, and I assume it will quite soon now that top US Universities are offering "MOOCs" for college credit and for a price less than normal on-campus tuition... (2) how "good" or "appropriate" will be the educational value-added from such a smaller scaled, smaller number of enrolled student audience, for, say, a more special purpose, or ad-hoc, cheaply and quickly made courses? (I.e. for lessons or courses generated by some new to-be-developed distance (DL) learning course generation service?) (3) Are there ways, techniques between instructor or author and the online tools, especially are there DL standards that can be developed that can ensure lesson or course-content quality? (4) Can such techniques and/or standards be discussed, defined, refined and made more "mature" perhaps here on the WLTRes site, such that they might aid such less expensive course development and very effective online delivery to as many potential students who need the offered education or training?
Hits: 1279
NYT: (Sloppy) Wiring The Peruvian Amazon for Internet (14.05.19)
The New York Times reported May 19, 2014, (14.05.19) in a story and video titled "Wiring the Amazon" that projects to wire remote villages in Peru have had a "spotty" (a.k.a. only rarely successful) history in recent years. The video on the target NYT web page in 8:22 (8 minutes, 22 seconds long). There is no transcript. And the summary caption text to the video is not very informative. What may be more interesting (and needing further research and news and journal stories cited here) is why this poor S. American country, Peru, has continually failed to do what a few nearby wealthier S. Am. countries (Brazil, Chile, Argentina?) have succeeded to do to some extent. See also the Huasacaran Project that was supposed to bring the Internet, some online distance learning and virtual libraries materials, to most of Peru starting about 2002.
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