UK’s Higher Education Blueprint to Become a World Class University

Via Stephen Downes

The Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy

The higher education blueprint (click above) by Higher Ambitions, sets out a course for how universities can remain world class, providing the nation (United Kingdom) with the high level skills needed to remain competitive, while continuing to attract the brightest students and researchers.

Click here to read a nice reflective summary by Derek Morrison. Unless you want to read the full report, start with the Executive Summary (1.7MB). Interestingly, the executive summary weighs literally more than the Full Report (1.1MB)! Now, that is unusual (and innovative). Though, according to page count, the Full Report (120 pages) knocks out the Executive Summary (20 pages) big time. Difficult dilemma! Your call! Be serious…!

Just read, learn, reflect, and swoosh out the gems from the report! Although, it is tailored to beefing up the higher education world in UK, I am 99.995% certain we can all learn something very valuable from it… Reading now 🙂

ShowDocument Strikes Google Wave Back!

ShowDocument

ShowDocument is a Net Meeting platform for instantaneous and spontaneous online meetings where people can work together on the same document at the same time. All the Net Meeting collaborative services can be used to work together at the same time.

Let’s see! It’s absolutely free of charge. It has tons of collaborative features in live mode (a dynamic web-conferencing software actually). Can it replace my urge for Google Wave? Here is a demo:

Alright, he mumbles with an accent from God knows where (he sounds drunk, too!), but until I get my Google Wave account, this tool is an interesting alternative solution 🙂

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

Via Ewan McIntosh (from his delicious world)

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that’s notoriously difficult to understand. This guide will help. Here you’ll learn how to use Google Wave to get things done with your group. Because Wave is such a new product that’s evolving quickly, this guidebook is a work in progress that will update in concert with Wave as it grows and changes.

This is so cool! Actually, it is really _____ ! A ‘Complete Guide’ has been developed, and I have yet to receive my Google Wave account. Anyway, if Google Wave is so notoriously difficult to understand and probably learn, what is the point? Until I get one, Google Wave will always be notoriously difficult to understand and learn. No question about that! 🙂

Twitter Lists Vs Google Reader! Why Scobleizer?

Why Scobleizer doesn’t use Google Reader anymore

Have you tried Twitter Lists yet?

Twitter Lists is a great way to organize the people you follow (e.g. Learning Kings) and discover new and interesting accounts. For sure! Also, hopefully it will slow down the ‘Followers’ mania to beef up ones image, which is especially apparent in marketing gurus, social media giants, gurus (of whatever!) and all the Twitter make me rich and famous scams (Look who’s talking)! But then again, I am pretty sure, Twitter Lists will experience it, too.

How many Twitter lists are you on?

Can’t wait to see all the innovative Twitter scam dudes guaranteeing you to be listed many times to beef up your image. Who cares! Apparently some do!

Anyway, let them rock-and-roll! Twitter lists is a great learning/discovering tool to organize your favorite people into relevant categories (or tags), enabling you to scan through for tailored learning juice.

But, should I give up my Google Reader for Twitter Lists?

First, Twitter seems to be a bit slower now than before (probably going to get worse!). Google Reader is only really slow if you want to RSS too much! Unless you are Robert Scoble, just RSS what is really necessary and everything is going to be alright.

But, Google Reader might not pick up trends as fast as Twitter Lists. True, but usually your feeds (unless you are RSS-ing Twitter dudes!) are more filtered and reflected in Google Reader, meaning that you might actually discover it or that (whatever it might be!). Unless you have tons of time, for sure you are going to miss out on a whole lot of delicious chicken on Twitter Lists, but in the meantime you might also discover why King Kong eats bananas only for breakfast.

If you are a trend hunter, then Twitter Lists will probably pick up the news faster than Google Reader. But as I said, there is a lot of crap streaming through Twitter (Lists), which might blur you away from great stuff, but that is probably more unlikely in Google Reader.

I suppose I can go on Scoble, but why not… Clean up your mess in Google Reader (filtered and juicy), so that it runs fast again (or Google, make it light and easy)! List or follow all the trends (junk) in Twitter, and get the best of both worlds. Let’s face it, I would rather open an article or blog post in Google Reader, than click on a link in Twitter, and then go to the actual site. Annoying and time consuming! I suppose it is because my Google Reader still runs fast, and I certainly don’t have problems with the interface (or user-friendliness).

I suppose again we all have our own preferences! As long as you get to what you want (efficiently!), then great! In short, why not use both to great effect 🙂

iRadio – OUM’s Official Internet Radio Station

iRadio – OUM

Open University Malaysia’s (OUM) official internet radio station, iRadio OUM broadcasts segments based on OUM’s courses, blending entertainment and education at your fingertips! Interestingly, it is Malaysia’s first Internet radio station to base its programmes on modules offered by a university.

Although, I have known about OUM’s iRadio initiative for some time, it was first today I really explored it. Earlier today, we (IMU group) had actually visited OUM for some other matters, and during the process we got to learn more about iRadio behind the scenes. I was quite impressed with the energy and passion sparked into this initiative.

You can actually download some of their course module books in MP3 format (audio books!) for free (they are using text-to-speech tools to convert them). If you miss the daily live learning sessions, you can listen or download later from their iCast archive, conveniently organized according to faculty, schools and special segments.

Also, the iRadio team is using web 2.0 tools such as iTunes, Twitter and Facebook to simplify the access, spread the news, and communicate more effectively with their audience. Since launch (2007), they have had online visitors from more than a 100 countries.

Finally, I did manage to listen to some of their iCasts, and it was quite interesting. However, I would strongly recommend that they cut out the background music while people talk, especially when special guests are being interviewed. I was getting quite dizzy and distracted listening to cool music, while trying to grasp what the old Professor was trying to say.

I suppose I am getting too old to multitask my ears while learning. But, overall OUM’s iRadio initiative is a wonderful knowledge and learning sharing model that we should encourage more Universities in Malaysia to explore 🙂

Thousands of Free Online Courses!

Free Online Courses

It includes thousands of links to courses in subjects ranging from architecture to chemistry to women’s studies and these courses are prepared by top institutions such as MIT, Yale University and University of California.

It is a comprehensive and wonderful index (and list) of free courses, but I would also love to see a customized search feature that enables me to search all the University courses found here. One could easily use Google Custom Search (or any other free search creating engine you can find!) to do the trick.

Finally, one might want to also check out ZaidLearn’s ultimate OER – OCW lists of lists. It is an old and clumsy list, but still quite popular 🙂

5th International Conference on e-Learning at USM (Malaysia)

5th International Conference on e-Learning
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
12-13 July 2010

The International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL-2010) invites researchers, practitioners and academics to present their research findings, work in progress, case studies and conceptual advances in areas of work where education and technology intersect. The conference brings together varied groups of people with different perspectives, experiences and knowledge in one location. It aims to help practitioners find ways of putting research into practice and researchers to gain an understanding of real-world problems, needs and aspirations.

If you decide to take up the challenge, you will find Penang a fascinating place that embraces modernity while retaining its traditions and old world charm. Yes, besides stimulating our brain, we must not forget that Penang is regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, which means that we can also stimulate our eating desires and experience a complete hands-on learning experience.

Finally, you simply cannot find a more dynamic, engaging and entertaining double act than Rozhan M. Idrus (Conference Chair) and Issham Ismail (Programme Chair). These two giants will surely ensure that your learning experience is both enriching and entertaining.

I am not sure if I can present, but I will certainly try to make it there. The problem is that I have to sit down again and practice writing academic papers full of opinions disguised in objective mode using dry and boring academic language standards (You are wrong!).

Yes, that is a tough one (If I was Einstein, I suppose I could get away with it)! But, I am sure you can 🙂

Medpedia – A New Medical Knowledge Sharing Model

“The mission of Medpedia is to openly share and advance medical knowledge…“

Medpedia

The Medpedia Project is a long term, worldwide project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public. The Project provides a free online technology platform to any individual or organization that can benefit from its use.

Users of the platform include medical and scientific journals, medical schools, research institutes, medical associations, physicians, hospitals, for-profit and non-profit organizations, companies, expert patients, policy makers, students, non-professionals taking care of loved ones, individual medical professionals, scientists, etc …more

WOW! This is it 🙂

P.S. You might also want to check out this King Kong list for medical online resources

To Get an MBA or Not? Guy Kawasaki’s Law!

Watch it on Academic Earth

Guy Kawasaki shares his thoughts on whether or not to get an MBA. The problem with an MBA he says is that you believe you are being taught how to manage, and he generally thinks it is impossible to learn how to manage in school. The only way to learn how to manage, according to him, is to do it in the real-world.

Guy Kawasaki discusses briefly ‘Kawasaki’s Law‘ (of PreMoney Valuation) here: Entrepreneurs: Then and Now

Click here for more ‘in-your-face sense making’ lectures from Guy the man! I love his in-your-face honesty and passion.

So, do we need MBA graduates? It depends! Just remember Kawasaki’s law before hiring one 🙂

MedWorm – The Ultimate Medical Resource Search Engine?

Via Ajaan Rob

MedWorm

MedWorm is a medical RSS feed provider as well as a search engine built on data collected from RSS feeds. It collects updates from over 6000 authoritative data sources (growing each day) via RSS feeds. From the data collected, MedWorm provides new outgoing RSS feeds on various medical categories that you can subscribe to, via the free MedWorm online service, or another RSS reader of your choice, such as Bloglines, Newsgator, Google Reader or FeedDemon.

You can easily customize or tailor your search query to specific types of content (and categories), such as news, journals, blogs, podcasts, etc. Also, MedWorm has already indexed a wonderful collection of categories (e.g. Swine Flu), which can assist you to find what you want, as fast as you want (Not sure about that one, yet!). Cool!

If you think you can do better, why not create your own specialized search engine using Google Custom Search Engine. I heard recently that they have updated it with some cool new features, including more templates to personalize and tailor the look-and-feel (to what you want!). Why not 🙂