Table of contents: issue51

Supporting Creativity in Networked Environments: The COINE Project

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Geoff Butters, Amanda Hulme and Peter Brophy describe an approach to enabling a wide range of users to create and share their own stories, thus contributing to the development of cultural heritage at the local level.

The W3C Technical Architecture Group

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Henry S. Thompson introduces the W3C Technical Architecture Group and its work.

ARROW, DART and ARCHER: A Quiver Full of Research Repository and Related Projects

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Andrew Treloar and David Groenewegen describe three inter-related projects to support scholarly outputs and the e-research life cycle which have been funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government.

Developing a Virtual Research Environment in a Portal Framework: The EVIE Project

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Tracey Stanley provides an overview of the EVIE Project at the University of Leeds which was funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments Programme.

Researchers in all disciplines increasingly expect to be able to undertake a variety of research-associated tasks online. These range from collaborative activities with colleagues around the globe through to information-seeking activities in an electronic library environment. Many of the tools which enable these activities to take place are already available within the local IT infrastructure. However, in many cases, the tools are provided through discrete, bespoke interfaces with few links between them.

Using Blogs for Formative Assessment and Interactive Teaching

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Lisa Foggo provides a case-study of using a blog for formative assessment. Its interactivity engaged participants and permitted measurement of student expectations and satisfaction with library sessions.

This case study shows how students were taught the skills they need to find information relevant to their subject area. As groups of students are generally seen once only, measures to assess the effectiveness of teaching are needed, i.e. to determine the skills the students have acquired. Blogs were used as a tool for formative assessment and were used to measure student expectations before teaching, and their level of satisfaction with the session afterwards.

Search Engines: Why Ask Me, and Does 'X' Mark the Spot?

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Phil Bradley takes a look at different versions of Ask to see how it is developing and looks at how it is emerging from its servant roots.

Citeulike: A Researcher's Social Bookmarking Service

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Kevin Emamy and Richard Cameron describe a tool that helps researchers gather, collect and share papers.

This article describes Citeulike, a fusion of Web-based social bookmarking services and traditional bibliographic management tools. It discusses how Citeulike turns the linear 'gather, collect, share' process inherent in academic research into a circular 'gather, collect, share and network' process, enabling the sharing and discovery of academic literature and research papers.

Towards Virtualisation: A New Approach in Server Management

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Eddie Young provides an account of trials and implementations carried out here after Matt Thrower gives us the background and benefits of employing virtualisation.

Hold It, Hold It ... Start Again: The Perils of Project Video Production

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

It's not like writing a paper. Film production, when the camera points at you, can challenge all sorts of sensitivities. Steve Hitchcock survived the ordeal to tell the story of the Preserv Project video.

OpenID: Decentralised Single Sign-on for the Web

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Andy Powell and David Recordon take a brief look at OpenID and ask what relevance it has to e-learning.