To all kairosnews-ers:

I'd like to offer an open content research-writing text that I have been putting online over the past few weeks. See if you have any use for any of it in your classes. It is a work in progress, and I am still working on the formatting of the chapters. If you like something that is not formatted the way you'd like, help yourself to it and modify the text as you wish.

The text is available at www.pz-writing.net/methods.

At the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion, I thought I'd plug in my most recent co-edited (with Kirk St.Amant, of ECU) collection, The Handbook of Research on Virtual Workplaces and the New Nature of Business Practices.

Matt, I will admit that my cover and ever topic are not as cool as yours, but you have an essay on new media in this one, so you are partly responsible for it.

Hello, kairosnewsers:

I am working on a research project which involves learning about methods of assessing the effectiveness of e-learning tools, particularly socially-collaborative and "informal" learning tools. I am thinking community blogs, wikis, virtual worlds and such as well as platforms that combine all of the above and perhaps others. In other words, I am not interested in the type of electronic behemoths which are focusing on grammar drills and which are put out by all the textbook publishers. Here are some questions that I'd need to answer:

--design effectiveness

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.eofficehours.com/

Looks like more competition for our friends at Blackboard. I ca see this taking off particularly at high school and, perhaps, in some smaller colleges which do not choose to dish out the thousands it takes to run Bb.

This came via CNET, perhaps some you have read this already: Google has launched Google for Educators. These tools are, of course, not new, they are just all in one place now.

In my view, this contains lots of useful features, one of them being able to collaborate on texts in docs and spreadsheets without having to set up a wiki. I'd even be willing to overlook a couple of side-bar ads here and there.

The deadline for the CFP below has been extended till June 15, 2006. Please e-mail the editors if you have any questions. Thank you.

Introduction to the Subject Area

Online communication technologies (OCTs) are continually changing how we think about both the workplace and business interactions. More and more employees perform their job duties outside of traditional workplaces. The ability to work online offers more flexibility and responsiveness, both of which are essential for business success in the new millennium. OCTs can also enhance knowledge management (KM) by facilitating information sharing across an organization. Simultaneously, managers, workers, and educators who manage and work online or train others face new challenges and problems. These challenges include issues of corporate and employee time management, technology training, effective online communication among employees and with clients, and others.

Editors: Pavel Zemliansky, Ph.D, James Madison University
Kirk St. Amant, Ph.D, Texas Tech University

Online communication technologies (OCTs) are continually changing how we think about both the workplace and business interactions. More and more employees perform their job duties outside of traditional workplaces. The ability to work online offers more flexibility and responsiveness, both of which are essential for business success in the new millennium. OCTs can also enhance knowledge management (KM) by facilitating information sharing across an organization. Simultaneously, managers, workers, and educators who manage and work online or train others face new challenges and problems. These challenges include issues of corporate and employee time management, technology training, effective online communication among employees and with clients, and others.

This article from the NY Times fits into the Virtual Communities category, and here is how. The paper reports of an online screen-writing contest where participants critique each other's work, thus making it similar to a large writing workshop online. According to one of the participants, the opinions of his colleagues are just as important to him as the judgement of the contest's jury.

NY Times reports that Bill Gates is about to begin a tour of India in an effort to "take the case for Windows software to a crucial audience." India has an estimated half-million individual software developers many of whom are writing programs for some of the world's largest corporations, according to the article.

This seems like an appropriate posting on election day. According to this article from The New York Times, new computerized election technology may actually increase the time it will take to get election results. This could be the concession that has to be made in order to receive more accurate results rather than faster ones.