Sloan report - Online Higher Education Enrollment

Stephen Downes reported on Kevin Carey's comment on the Sloan C report Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009. Carey noted that the current Kaplan University ads are a "direct and harsh critique of traditional colleges and universities..." http://www.quickanded.com/2010/01/steady-long-term-trends-rule-the-world.html - and what's remarkable about that is I was thinking the same thing when I saw a Kaplan University ad the other day. Good advertising! As I write this, ads are available at http://talent.kaplan.edu/campaign.aspx. See what you think!

Impact of Opencourseware on Paid Enrollment in Distance Learning Courses

Justin K. Johansen's dissertation - The Impact Of Opencourseware On Paid Enrollment In Distance Learning Courses - explores MIT's OpenCourceWare Initiative and Brigham Young University's OCW Independent Study Program - and subsequent enrollment in the same BYU courses for credit. David Wiley points out (http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1231) that this study presents evidence that a university can provide open access to courses and garner tuition-paying students. Interesting!

Metasearch EBooks: AddAll

A metasearch tool for ebooks reported on ResearchBuzz:
Metasearch Ebooks with AddAll
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/metasearch-ebooks-with-addall/
One of these days I'd like to have every Dorothy Sayers "Lord Peter Whimsey" detective novels on an ereader. Well, assuming I could afford all of them, it looks like this search engine helps identify what's available.

OLPC XO3 One laptop per child - maybe even adults?

Stephen Downes noted this in OLDaily - Information at Forbes.com about OLPC version 3 envisioned by Yves Behar. It's just a thought at this point. See http://olpcnews.com/ December 23, 2009 news item that discusses the XO-3 as vaporware and a distraction from the main mission of OLPC. Nevertheless... the X0-3 styling is intriguing! Might be worth keeping an eye on the OLPC Wiki and see what else they are dreaming.

A few freebies for the Kindle - and Kindle for PC software

I found a few things for free at the Kindle Store related to new media:

New Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Area and "Worked Examples" as One Way Forward by James Paul Gee (Kindle Edition - Jan 12, 2010) - not out yet, but it will be soon and the electronic version is going to be free apparently)

The Civic Potential of Video Games by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, and Chris Evans (Kindle Edition - Jun 30, 2009)

Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media: A Synthesis from the Good Play Project by Carrie James (Kindle Edition - Oct 30, 2009)

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project by Mizuko Ito, Heather A. Horst, Matteo Bittanti, and danah boyd (Kindle Edition - Jun 26, 2009)

The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg (Kindle Edition - Jun 30, 2009)

These might be available in PDF out there for free somewhere. I didn't check. But these are available for zero dollars at the Kindle Store. (I also spotted some murder mysteries for free that might be great for a plane trip.)

Free books for the Kindle - including Kindle for the PC

Alan Levine from the New Media Consortium reports that Henry Jenkins "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century" - the Kindle edition - is available for free. In my efforts to be frugal I find myself way behind on technology toys- no Kindle! - but the Kindle for the PC software is also free - so I downloaded the software and the book onto my tablet pc - and I'm ready to go! (Well, I did get a little over-anxious about the download for the book. It was quick enough, but not instantaneous.)

Thanks for the Lifelong Information Literacy blog crew for posting Alan's note.

Scholarly Information Practicies - redux

Dick Hartley pointed out the report "Communicating Knowledge: How and Why Researches Public and Disseminate Their Findings" (September 2009). The report from RIN and JISC deals with UK researchers. Among the findings: Peer reviewed journals are very important as a channel for publishing and dissemination (p. 16). Surprise!