August 2009 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

40-minute interview on Wisconsin Public Radio about Twitter, New New Media, and Iran
by Paul Levinson 02 Aug '10

02 Aug '10

The interview was conducted at 7am this morning. You can listen to it anytime at http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/jca/jca090624b.rm PL

2 1

Ranking Web of Universities: July 2009 edition
by Isidro F. Aguillo 22 Jul '10

22 Jul '10

The July edition of the Ranking Web of World Universities (http://www.webometrics.info) shows important news. Most of them are due to changes done to improve the academic impact of the open web contents and to reduce the geographical bias of search engines. As a result, the US universities still lead the Ranking (MIT with its huge Open Courseware is again the first, followed by Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley), but the digital gap with their European counterparts (Cambridge and Oxford are in the region’s top) has been reduced. Even more important, some of the developing countries institutions reach high ranks, especially in Latin America where the University of Sao Paulo (38th) and UNAM (44th) benefits from the increasingly interconnected Brazilian and Mexican academic webspaces. Several countries improves their performance including Taiwan and Saudi Arabia with strong web oriented strategies, Czech Republic (Charles), the leader for Eastern Europe, Spain (Complutense) and Portugal (Minho, Porto) with huge repositories and strong Open Access initiatives. Norway (NTNU, Oslo), Egypt could be also mentioned. On the other side, the underrated are headed by France, with a very fragmented system, Korea, whose student-oriented websites are frequently duplicated, New Zealand, India or Argentina. Africa is still monopolized by South African universities (Cape Town is the first, 405th), as well as Australian Universities are the best ranked for Oceania (Australian National University, 77th) Other well performing institutions include Cornell or Caltech in the USA, Tokyo (24th) Toronto (28th), Hong Kong (91st), or Peking (104th). On the contrary, in positions below expected we find Yale, Princeton, Saint Petersburg, Seoul and the Indian Institutes of Science or Technology. Check out also: Ranking Web of Research Centers http://research.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Repositories http://repositories.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Hospitals http://hospitals.webometrics.info/ Ranking Web of Business Schools http://business-schools.webometrics.info/ -- ************************************* Isidro F. Aguillo, HonPhD Cybermetrics Lab CCHS - CSIC Albasanz, 26-28, 3C1. 28037 Madrid. Spain Ph. 91-602 2890. Fax: 91-602 2971 isidro.aguillo @ cchs.csic.es www. webometrics.info *************************************

1 2

Information wants to be ASCII or Unicode? Tibetan-written information cannot be ASCII anyway.
by Han-Teng Liao (OII) 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

Dear all, Running the risk of trolling and misrepresenting the famous motto "Information wants to be ASCII", I want to raise the question of the difference between "Information wants to be ASCII" versus "Information wants to be Unicode" from a multilingual perspective. It should be pointed out when Lev Manovich declare "Information wants to be ASCII" when talking about remix and remixability of information, it was in 2005 when the adoption of Unicode was just in the early adoption period globally. So I do not intend to raise the question to make lazy criticism against the America-centric implication inside ASCII, but rather raise the question about remix and remixability across linguistic boundaries. Why the Unicode is not universally deployed yet? How can we measure the remixability across linguistic boundaries simply because the information are encoded not in Unicode? Why so many user-generated content websites in China are only using their simplified-Chinese-only kind of "national standard" (GB2312) even when Hong Kong (using traditional Chinese not included in GB2312) is part of China and Beijing claims Taiwan is part of China? What about Tibetan-written information: is it want to be Unicode or GB 18030-2000? Tibetan-written information cannot be ASCII anyway. I really like to hear from you. Best regards, -- Han-Teng Liao PhD Candidate Oxford Internet Institute http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/students.cfm?id=123

5 12

Re: [Air-L] Using brick-space measures- Online Education Beats the Classroom
by William Brantley 14 Sep '09

14 Sep '09

Steve brings up a good point here. During the timespan of the metastudy (1996 to 2008), Internet technology has changed greatly while traditional classroom technology has changed little. In fact, the biggest change in f2f teaching has been the increasing use of PowerPoint which probably diminished classroom interaction thus leading to less student engagement. As Steve pointed out, the new media became less like the old media and developed methods to better engage the student. Leaving out the differences in innovation makes for an unfair comparison. To me, whether online or f2f is better is a false dilemma. Online technology is valuable as a content delivery system but it is the conversations with peers and the teacher that turns information into knowledge. As I read the report, I see it as evidence that a blended learning approach is the most effective (http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/07/01/meta-analysis-is-blended-learning…) And that fits in with my experience as both a traditional instructor and online instructor. This is an interesting study but I think the debate should be more about how learning itself has changed rather than the learnings tools have changed. Bill Brantley Credentials: http://www.linkedin.com/in/billbrantley --------------------------------------- Original E-mail From: Steve Cavrak <Steve.Cavrak(a)Uvm.Edu> Date: 08/20/2009 08:00 AM To: tom abeles <tabeles(a)hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Using brick-space measures- Online Education Beats the Classroom On Aug 19, 2009, at 2:56 PM, tom abeles wrote: > Has anyone suggested that the brick and click comparisons may be > measuring the wrong variables. with the changing nature of knowledge > and knowledge acquisition? In other words are the studies measuring > what could be measured using an old lens and the easiest variables > to assess, like the drunk looking for keys where the light is rather > than in the dark where they were dropped? >From my reading, the (meta) study was of 99 cases of a course that had two sections - an online section and a non-online section. So yes, they were measuring by the old standard, and yes, the new approach did old things better than the old way. In someway, it addresses faculty's apprehension of "doing worse" rather "doing better." (It also illustrates the first law of "new media" - the first content of new media is old media. Once faculty get comfortable with the newer format, often they get quite innovative. And yes, as iTunes U and YouTube show, often they fossilize their old methods. Steve _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

2 1

Roommate for IR 10
by Kris M. Markman 05 Sep '09

05 Sep '09

Hello all, In an effort to cut costs I am looking for a non-smoking female to share a room at IR 10. I already have a double room booked at the conference hotel, arriving Wed. Oct. 7 and departing Sun. Oct. 11, and would be interested in a a roommate for all or part of the conference. Please contact me off list of you're interested. Looking forward to a great conference! -Kris ---------- ---------- ---------- Kris M. Markman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication University of Memphis https://umdrive.memphis.edu/kmmrkman/www/index.html

5 5

Twitter and science/humanities
by Axel Kittenberger 03 Sep '09

03 Sep '09

Dear All, Do you have additional hints and links about the value twitter/microblogging can and could have on science? That is less doing science about the twittersphere than science going together with twitter/microblogging, scientists and institutes who/which Twitter (publicly and privately), and so on. Kind regards, Axel Kittenberger PhD University of Vienna

2 2

Facebook's Religion Question Prompts Soul-Searching
by Gavin Baker 01 Sep '09

01 Sep '09

An engaging story from the popular press: Soul-Searching on Facebook By William Wan Washington Post Sunday, August 30, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/29/AR200908290… Also see the sidebar, Facing Their Faith http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/08/30/GR200908300… and accompanying blog post, What's Obama's Religion on Facebook? http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/godingovernment/2009/08/by_willi… -- Gavin Baker http://www.gavinbaker.com/ gavin(a)gavinbaker.com We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2 1

News Additions to The _Mobile Libraries_ Blog | 08/24 - 08/31/09
by McKiernan, Gerard [LIB] 31 Aug '09

31 Aug '09

Colleagues/ I am pleased to announce the addition of several major postings to the _Mobile Libraries_ blog /Gerry >>> PicPocket Books: Children's Books For The iPhone http://tinyurl.com/mwk449 >>> Handheld Learning (Organization) http://tinyurl.com/kra7qy >>> MoLeNET: The Mobile Learning Network http://tinyurl.com/lhgusb >>> The London Mobile Learning Group http://tinyurl.com/ntwvfp >>> Using PDAs In Libraries http://tinyurl.com/m9kvcd >>> emtacl10: Emerging Technologies In Academic Libraries | Trondheim, Norway | April 26-28 2009 http://tinyurl.com/lqzzau >>> JISC/MLA > An Introduction To QR Codes http://tinyurl.com/mjovl6 >>> JISC/MLA > Further Uses for the Mobile Web http://tinyurl.com/nhfu24 >>> Google Book Search for iPhone and Android http://tinyurl.com/nl7ms6 >>> A Million Google Books In Open EPUB Format http://tinyurl.com/n993b4 >>> International Children's Digital Library Launches Apple iPhone Application http://tinyurl.com/lc8njo >>> The Surprise > First Children's Picture Book From Winged Chariot Press For An iPhone http://tinyurl.com/lde69c >>> Library Finder Brings eBooks For Your Sony Reader http://tinyurl.com/nkhegy >>> Using Mobile Technologies To Promote Children's Learning http://tinyurl.com/kj9okf >>> Emerging Mobile Technologies for K-12 Classrooms Chat | September 3 2009 | 11 AM Eastern | http://tinyurl.com/lukyw3 >>> QandANJ Launches A Text Reference Pilot! http://tinyurl.com/nwurte >>> Sony Announces Reader Daily Edition: 3G Wireless, Plus Free Library Content http://tinyurl.com/ljdedr >>> Mobile Technology in South Korean Libraries http://tinyurl.com/n4mvud Happy Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday eNJoy /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Associate Professor Science and Technology Librarian Iowa State University Library Ames IA 50011 gerrymck(a)iastate.edu There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed / Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace

1 0

Looking for blogs on web studies/research
by richard hall 31 Aug '09

31 Aug '09

I'm looking for blogs that cover the web, especially as it relates to research. ...any ideas appreciated ...thanks...richard -- Richard H. Hall, PhD Professor, Information Science and Technology Missouri University of Science and Technology http://mst.edu/~rhall

2 1

Roomie for IR10 (female)
by Anne Hvejsel 31 Aug '09

31 Aug '09

Hi there, I'm looking for a non-smoking female roomie with a room ;) I'll arrive Oct. 7th and depart Oct. 11th or Oct. 12th. Please e-mail me if you are interested. I'm a female Danish PhD student from the IT-University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Best, Anne mailto: annehvejsel(a)gmail.com

1 0