TL INFOBITS April 2009 No. 34 ISSN: 1931-3144 About INFOBITS INFOBITS is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning division. Each month the ITS-TL's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. ...................................................................... Technology and Lifelong Learning Are Wikis on the Way Out? Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces Internet Literacy Handbook Updated World Digital Library Launches OECD Education Report Disruptions and Breaking Points in Scholarly Publishing Recommended Reading ...................................................................... TECHNOLOGY AND LIFELONG LEARNING "Most learning does not take place in formal educational programmes. Increasingly, technology is being used for learning -- both by young people of school age and older people inside and outside work, interacting with social networks -- and is greatly increasing in its power to do so. Yet we remain largely inept at responding to this at curriculum, pedagogical, administrative or financial levels. If this situation remains, then formal education is likely to become less relevant for the everyday lives and learning of many people. Of course, lifelong learning will not cease to be, but may be increasingly disconnected from the formal provision of education. However unpredictable the longterm nature of technological change, lifelong learning will be shaped by the increasing power and adaptability of the Web and the applications that it supports." "Technological Change, IFLL Thematic Paper 2," published by the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL), focuses on adult learning in the United Kingdom. However, much of its observations and conclusions are applicable, regardless of location: "[I]ndividuals [are] becoming producers of learning content, initiating an un-owned and untethered 'curriculum cloud'." "[L]earning through communities of interest [is] being self-defined rather than institutionally defined." "[I]nformation and knowledge access [will] become increasingly unconstrained by having to make choices about where to go, what to take, or what to bring at any given time." The report is available at http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/docs/IFLL-TechnologicalChange.pdf The goal of the IFLL, established in 2007 and sponsored by the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE), is to offer "an authoritative and coherent strategic framework for lifelong learning in the UK." NIACE, founded in 1921, is "the main advocacy body for adult learning in England and Wales and probably the largest body devoted to adult education in the world." For more information, contact: NIACE, 20 Princess Road West, Leicester, LE1 6TP, UK; tel:+44 (0)116 204 4200/4201; fax: +44 (0)116 285 4514; email: enquiries@niace.org.uk; Web: http://www.niace.org.uk/ ...................................................................... ARE WIKIS ON THE WAY OUT? "Have wikis lost their mojo? Were they before their (Internet) time? Or have they been co-opted by the newer, shinier social networks?" In "Whither Wikis? The State of Collaborative Web Publishing" (LINUX INSIDER, April 29, 2009) Renay San Miguel asks if the usefulness of wikis has run its course. He speculates that the tool is too "nerdy," takes too much work, and requires too much oversight. The article is available at http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Whither-Wikis-The-State-of-Collaborative-Web-Publishing-66927.html ---- In response to San Miguel's argument, THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION asked the question "Have Wikis Run Out of Steam?" (April 30, 2009; http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3744/have-wikis-run-out-of-steam?). The resulting reader comments indicate that many college and university Instructors still continue to find wikis beneficial for their courses and students. ...................................................................... PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL LEARNING SPACES The first online-only edition of EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY (EQ)is devoted to learning spaces, both physical and virtual. Articles covering Internet tools in learning spaces include: "Virtual World Learning Spaces: Developing a Second Life Operating Room Simulation" by Stephanie Gerald and David M. Antonacci "'Where Do You Learn?': Tweeting to Inform Learning Space Development" by Elizabeth J. Aspden and Louise P. Thorpe The entire issue is available at http://www.educause.edu/eq/ The March/April 2009 issue of EDUCAUSE REVIEW (http://www.educause.edu/er/) provides a complement to EQ by focusing on the same theme. EDUCAUSE Quarterly [ISSN 1528-5324] is "an online, peer-reviewed, practitioner's journal from EDUCAUSE about managing and using information resources in higher education." Articles from current and back issues are available at http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/ EDUCAUSE Review [ISSN 1527-6619], a bimonthly print magazine that explores developments in information technology and education, is also published by EDUCAUSE. Articles from current and back issues are available at http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/ EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 1,900 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with 15,000 active members. EDUCAUSE has offices in Boulder, CO, and Washington, DC. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at http://www.educause.edu/ ...................................................................... INTERNET LITERACY HANDBOOK UPDATED THE INTERNET LITERACY HANDBOOK, compiled by Janice Richardson et al., was updated in December 2008. This third edition, aimed at parents, teachers, and students, contains a collection of Fact Sheets that provide brief, basic introductory explanations for a variety of Internet tools such as portals, email, social networks, and blogs. The Handbook is available at no cost online in HTML, Flash, or RTF formats, or it can be purchased in a hardcopy version. To access the Handbook go to http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/internetliteracy/hbk_EN.asp The Handbook is published by the Council of Europe, an organization of 47 member countries working to "promote awareness and encourage the development of Europe's cultural identity and diversity." For more information, contact: Council of Europe, Avenue de l'Europe, 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, France; tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 20 00; email: infopoint@coe.int; Web: http://www.coe.int/ ...................................................................... WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY LAUNCHES On April 21, 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) opened the World Digital Library (WDL). The Library's mission is to make "available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world" for the use of educators, scholars, and the general public. The initial collection includes about 1,200 documents and their explanations from scholars in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian. To explore the WDL, go to http://www.wdl.org/ ...................................................................... OECD EDUCATION REPORT In March 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the report "Education Today: The OECD Perspective." Based on OECD work since 2002, the report's content ranges from "student performance to educational spending and equity in education" and covers educational levels from early childhood through higher education and adult education. You can access the Handbook at http://www.oecd.org/document/57/0,3343,en_2649_33723_42440761_1_1_1_1,00.html The OECD, established in 1961, is an international organization that represents 30 member countries and collects economic and social data, monitors trends, analyzes and forecasts economic developments, and researches social changes or evolving patterns in trade, environment, agriculture, technology, taxation and more. For more information, contact: OECD, 2 rue Andre Pascal, F-75775 Paris Cedex 16, France; tel: +33 1.45.24.82.00; fax: +33 1.45.24.85.00; Web: http://www.oecd.org/ ...................................................................... DISRUPTIONS AND BREAKING POINTS IN SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING "Far from being a neutral conduit for knowledge, the publication system defines the social processes through which knowledge is made, and gives tangible form to knowledge." In "Signs of Epistemic Disruption: Transformations in the Knowledge System of the Academic Journal" (FIRST MONDAY, vol. 14, no. 4-6, April 2009), Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis provide an overview of the current state of scholarly journals and go on to discuss some of the "disruptive forces" and breaking points that are changing the scholarly journal. Some of these breaking points include -- the unsustainable costs and inefficiencies of traditional commercial publishing -- the credibility and accountability of the peer review system -- the flawed system of post-publication evaluation and impact analysis The paper is available at http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2309/2163 First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv@uic.edu; Web: http://firstmonday.org/ ...................................................................... RECOMMENDED READING "Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column. "What Is Not Available Online Is Not Worth Reading?" By Hamid R. Jamali WEBOLOGY, vol. 5, no. 4, December 2008 http://www.webology.ir/2008/v5n4/a63.html "Based on a study of physicists and astronomers, this article shows that more scientists now assume that if articles are of enough quality and significance, they must be available online and vice versa. Though still in a low minority, a number of scientists believe that what is not available online is not worth the effort to obtain it." ...................................................................... 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