Firefox and Drupal

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OK, I’m trying to use more open source technologies and am using Firefox 0.9.1 and I like it. Unfortunately, there is a function that does not work with the Drupal text editor. Firefox won’t let me paste text from the clipboard into the body of a post. That means that I can’t quote text from other blogs – an essential part of blogging. The help file from Mozilla that automatically pops up makes no sense at all to me. I’ve looked into the forums but to no avail. Is there an easy way to do this, or should I just use IE, which lets me copy & paste with no difficulty. If I can surmount this obstacle, I will gladly dump IE and its security issues. Help.

Open Source CMS

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Here is some solid, unbiased, advice from CMS Watch on using open source CMS; which is also applicable for using open source learning content management systems.

In my opinion, one major issue with every OSS CMS package is that most require a major developer learning curve to fulfill even small content requirements. So you can count on configuration and customization, regardless of your environment.

… However, OSS CMS software has really evolved lately, some even becoming, in my opinion, "enterprise capable." Having access to all the source code can allow you to build to almost any content requirements that you may have. OSS also allows you to "try before you commit." You can run a prototype whenever and for however long you want. So, you can certainly pay out on your investment.

There you have it from Tony.

Human Performance Improvement

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BPTrends‘ latest e-mail advisor (PDF) discusses the relationship of human performance improvement with other business process improvement methodologies.

Those involved in business process change within organizations need to draw on and integrate a wide variety of approaches and technologies, ranging from strategy change systems and process analysis tools, to ABC, BPMS, a wide variety of software automation systems, Six Sigma, and job design. ISPI represents a well-developed source of theory and practice designed to help improve human performance within organizations. It’s a rare process improvement project that doesn’t require changes in management and the jobs performed, or that wouldn’t benefit from better feedback or an improved incentive system. The ISPI is a resource that business process change practitioners ought to be familiar with.

Goals of Public Education

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Jeremy Hiebert makes a good point about evaluating the goals of public education.

How well would you do on a Grade 11 algebra exam right now? How’s your current knowledge of your country’s political history? Photosynthesis? Even those of us who remember some of this stuff would have a hard time explaining how the "knowledge" had helped us in any meaningful way. Educational reformers would tend to agree that the system is not achieving its goals (maybe has never achieved them), but the solution isn’t to do more of the same thing … it’s time to question the goals themselves.

I agree that most public education tests the wrong thing. On Kirkpatrick’s scale; the public school sector would get to Level 2 (Learning), but we should be focusing on Level 4 (Results), or Phillips’ Level 5 (ROI). But it’s not even as simple as that.

We have to question the goal of public education itself – is it to develop better citizens, better thinkers, better individuals, or better workers? As Kieran Egan showed in The Educated Mind, some of these goals compete with each other. We cannnot ask our schools to help our children develop good behaviour, learn thinking skills and pick up workplace skills – for a workplace that has yet to be created. Schools should concentrate on what they can do best – develop thinking skills. A second area could be physical skills – Mens sana in corpore sano.

This lack of focus, and being pulled in many directions by every special interest group, ensures that our public schools never have a core area of focus. If we, as a society, can give the schools a mandate to develop cognitive skills (and we will take care of the behaviourial and social issues) then our shools can have something that can and should be measured. Until the mandate is clear, the results will be unclear.

Course + LMS = Solution

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Local e-learning company, Engage Interactive, is offering its LMS free with every custom-developed course. Once again, we are seeing LMS’s becoming commodities. [Economists say that with any commodity – "price tends to zero"]

From Engage:

Recently, many of our clients have been asking us to provide some form of learning management system (LMS) with their courseware. With the help of the National Research Council, we now have an LMS that will allow our clients to enroll students, track their progress, and generate reports. And best of all, we include the LMS free of charge when you contract for two or more hours of courseware development.

LearnNB

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LearnNB had its first AGM today. This group is the overall organisation that includes the CSTD New Brunswick chapter. We have decided to put everything under one roof. The blog that I have started for the R&D community of practice will be linked to the main site, as well as the password-protected collaborative workspace. We are starting to align our technology and tools to enable collaboration throughout the province, and there seems to be a real willingness to work together. We will be hosting a CSTD Symposium this Spring (probably May) so stay tuned to the LearnNB site for more information.

Business seems to be picking up in the sector, especially for our private online universities, Lansbridge and Yorkville. New Brunswick’s legislation makes it easier for online universities to establish here and faster to get accredited.

My Kind of Workplace

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Of course this had to start in California. The Gate-3 Workclub sounds like the perfect place to spend your workday. With a day pass or a monthly fee you can have access to common areas, phone services, private workspace, coyping services and much else. I think that we’ll be seeing more of these workplaces in the near future with the increase in micro-enterprises and project-based collaborative work. The operators state that it is more than a workplace, Gate-3 also provides:

Community with a work group that shares the day to day challenges and joys of an independent work-style.

Guidance and examples from work colleagues to help you with everything from balancing your work/life to using a PDA.

Support staff that will be there for you month after month and year after year.

Access to the latest in productivity tools, techniques and technologies without having to chase the latest fads.

The reassurance of knowing theres always someone on hand to help.

And there is a blog. Via Business Opportunities Weblog.

Copyright in Education

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Via Mark Oehlert is this article from the Toronto Star by Michael Geist on copyright law in Canada.

The challenge facing Canada’s parliamentarians and copyright policy makers is they must find a way to reconcile these opposing visions [Internet as distribution channel versus Internet as creation medium]. The Supreme Court of Canada has indicated that a balanced approach is to be the guiding objective in that regard, noting in one recent case that “excessive control by holders of copyrights and other forms of intellectual property may unduly limit the ability of the public domain to incorporate and embellish creative innovation in the long-term interests of society as a whole, or create practical obstacles to proper utilization.

According to Geist, our elected representatives in the Bulte committee (part of the Standing Committe on Canadian Heritage), have not taken the time and effort to arrive at a unique Canadian solution for copyright in the education sector, but “… rather than working toward a balanced and limited Internet exception for education, the Bulte committee simply considered the competing proposals presented by educational groups and rights holder groups and recommended the latter proposal.”

The section of Bulte’s report on technology-enhanced learning is interesting. Instead of recommending to “Amend the Copyright Act to clearly state that the “fair dealing” defence in section 29 applies to education and teaching purposes, in addition to research or private study, review or news reporting”, the committee recommended:

… that the Government of Canada put in place a regime of extended collective licensing to ensure that educational institutions’ use of information and communications technologies to deliver copyright protected works can be more efficiently licensed. Such a licensing regime must recognize that the collective should not apply a fee to publicly available material (as defined in Recommendation 5 of this report).

More efficient licensing is not going to help us provide the access to quality online education that we need. It will only increase the costs of development for educational institutions. But the federal government is not responsible for education; the provinces are. These extra costs will be foisted on the Provincial departments of education and our universities.