Mashing up the OU UK

For several months I've been following a really really great weblog, which is called
OUseful Info. The author is Tony Hirst. As with my previous post in this weblog, Tony is very much into the newest social software stuff that is out there. I like this!
The last thing that Tony has tried out and documented on his weblog is Dapper. This seems like a very very powerful service to screenscrape almost every website in the world and let this transform into almost anything you would like: RSS, iCal, Google map, XML...
I am just blogging this, so that this is a sort of reminder that I should look into this further. And you? Are you gonna try it?

Google as Personal Learning Environment? Yes, why not!

I have sort of gotten into the habit of starting up Bloglines before anything else (well, sometimes i forget and start with my email client), when I arrive at my desk. Today was no exception. And I came across CogDogBlog » Barking » Google Home Tabs: "I’ve had the personalized Google home page set on all my browsers for a while, but just recently noticed that you can now add tabs to organize and spread out the different tools and feeds you can use".
So, Alan Levine was the first to remind me that Google is taking on the competition. Since Netvibes already has tabs for some time now, and Pageflakes also I believe, Google couldn't stay behind for a long time.
Anyway, what strikes me more and more is that these kind of tools very well can serve as a very decent Personal Learning Environment, combining all sorts and types of (web)services from around your campus and beyond.
I also spoke a little bit about this at my workshop "Dancing with services" during the seminar last Tuesday of the Dutch Digital University. See the slide.
References: PLE Blog at CETIS (UK), Wikipedia entry on PLE

Great name: LeMill

The last two weeks have been quite busy for me. Last week i was present at the very succesfull first European Sakai Days, that were organized at the Lubeck University of Applied Sciences in Germany. I delivered a workshop about issues that we should work on within Europe, regarding Sakai. Therefore this weblog was a bit neglected. But here we are again!
I've been following some Finnish developments lately. One very interesting concept has gone live a few weeks a go. It is called LeMill (which is neat name, I think).
From the FAQ on LeMill: "LeMill is a web community for finding, authoring and sharing learning resources. First at all, you can find learning resources. The stuff you find you can use in your own teaching or learning. You may also add your own learning content to LeMill. You may edit your content and combine out of the pieces some larger junks of learning materials. If you wish you might also join one of the groups producing or editing some learning content. In LeMill the content is always easily found where and when ever you need them."
This sounds to me like an interesting concept. You can export SCORM packages from LeMill, BTW. So far, the content is a little scarce, but let's see what happens in the near future.