ICTlogy

A project we‘d like to join: E-LANE

The E-Lane project proposes the integration of solid applications already used in the context of elearning as an open software elearning platform, the design of an innovative teaching methodology oriented towards this platform, and the integration of course content from some of the most prestigious educational institutions in Europe and Latin America with the objective of providing the society with low cost educational material.

The aim is to maximize the impact of this project both at the level of academic and non academic training and to promote a solid environment for long life learning in the future information society.

Some more information about the project (tip by Llu

I’m happy I found Barbara Fillip’s blog, Knowledge for Development , and the site she’s president of, Knowledge for Development, LLC. Both are full of useful information, resources and courses.

One of these courses, ICT4D – Information and Communication Technologies for Development, has its training materials available online.

The modules of the course are:
1. What is ICT4D?
2. What is the Digital Divide?
3. Addressing the Digital Divide
4. ICTs and Learning
5. ICTs for Better Health
6. ICTs and Agriculture
7. eCommerce
8. eGovernance
9. Telecenters
10. Knowledge Networking

All of them have a first part explaining concepts, theory and experiences and after there’s a second part including readings, exercises, a quiz, and external resources. I’m really impressed with the huge amount of good information there and hope I have time these holidays to read all of it. Promise I will.

By the way, all contents are licensed under a Creative Commons License

Anne H. Margulies, Executive Director of the MIT’s OpenCourseWare explains in a video what the whole thing is all about.

The video’s lenght is 37:35 and you can choose different qualities depending on your connection (including an audio-only version).

[Hat tip: César]

Top 10 Open Source Tools for eActivism

Dan Bashaw and Mike Gifford have put together a terrific list of Open Source tools that can be used by activists to spread the message and promote interaction by enewsletters, forums, blogs, wikis and epetitions.

(cleaning my bloglines’ clippings – I’d rather have it posted here than there as a clip)

[via Sierto]

I’ve read quite a bit about Sakai Project, a Managed Learning Environment with course management, assessment tools, portal functionality, etc.:

• A framework that builds on the recently ratified JSR 168 portlet standard and the OKI open service interface definitions to create a services-based, enterprise portal for tool delivery
• A re-factored set of educational software tools that blends the best of features from the participants’ disparate software (e.g., course management systems, assessment tools, workflow, etc.)
• A synchronization of the institutional clocks of these schools in developing, adopting and using a common set of open source software.

The technical barriers can now be overcome [thanks to:]

• Service Interface Definitions
• Standard Portal
• Tool Interaction Framework
• Localized User Interface

Let me suggest some further reading I’ve found of value:

• The Sakai Project
• The Sakai Project FAQs
• More Sakai details revealed and partner programme presented, an article by Wilbert Kraan at CETIS, info on Sakai.
• Same area, different goals; Sakai and the JISC Framework Programme, also by Wilbert Kraan, comparing Sakai and the JISC TFP. Very worth reading it.
• US universities consortium starts OKI and Portlet implementation project, by Wilbert Kraan too, when Sakai was presented as a project (old post but worth reading too).

I’d like to share something my colleague Marc L