I Love Google Maps

Have you seen the new Google Maps website – http://maps.google.com/ ? Well it bears resemblance to http://www.mapquest.com/ , but it has some really nice extra features. You can put in addresses to find directions, for example “80 Sheppard Ave East Toronto ONâ€? the TCDSB board office. This is an example of real world tool.

Try this on http://maps.google.com/ :

1.Enter the board address in the search area “80 Sheppard Ave East Toronto ON�
2.On the left hand side you should see a slider with a “+� and “-� symbol, move the slider closest to the “+� symbol. (Zooms In)
3.Select anywhere on the screen and hold down your left mouse button. You should be able to move the map around.

That’s pretty neat, but let’s take it a step further.
4.On the top right hand side of your screen you should see “Map -Satellite� click on the “Satellite� link.
5.Select anywhere on the screen and hold down your left mouse button. You should be able to move the satellite map around.

June 28, 2005 | | Comments Closed

OKNL RFP on LMS and LOR

Wow that is a lot of acronyms.

Well the Request For Proposal http://oknl.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/default.asp for the Ontario wide K-12 Learning Management System and Learning Object Repository has come out.

It is a 100+ pager which seems to encompass a broad range of just about everything. The abstract is available online, but the actual RFP must be requested. I didn’t want to get into any trouble for posting a copy of it here.

Here are a couple of highlights from the abstract:

A major component of the e-learning strategy is to provide all District School Boards with common tools and resources to support the delivery of e-learning credit courses and to enable equitable access to e-learning courses and resources across the province. The Ministry is looking to establish a contractual commitment with one (1) proponent for the hosting, installation, configuration and operation of both the LMS and LOR and associated help desk and support services, for a period of three (3) years, with the capability to extend this for one (1) more year at the sole discretion of the Ministry. Associated training will be for the first two (2) years with an option to continue for an additional year.

I also found it interesting that the abstract mentions elementary students as potential elearning students. Most of the talk around the elementary level has been the LOR I’m interetested to see how this will translate into the LMS. Are we going to see the blended model promoted through the provincial LMS?
Another fascinating bit of information was the estimate that OKNL makes for the potential number of elearning students/teachers in programs over the next 3-4 years – 80,000-100,000 that is incredible. That is greater than the total number of students in the entire Toronto Catholic District School Board.

The RFP is due in mid-July with a roll-out date of September 2005. I’m still in doubt about this timeline. It seems like a lot to ask for, unless OKNL has someone in mind already and they have started work on it. Of course, this is only a rumor I am starting. I hope that it doen’t come down to which company has the deepest pockets – I hope there are some open source consulting companies taking up this challenge.

(Looks like they took some advice and cleaned their website as well, kudos to you. So maybe OKNL can pull things off quickly – I’ll wait and see.)

June 9, 2005 | | Comments Closed

My 5 Minutes Of Fame

Well I think I received my five minutes of fame. I was interviewed about my experiences in website creation a few months back by a researcher from Professionally Speaking magazine. It looks like the editors decided to include some of what I had to say in “The How, When and Why of Teacher-Designed Sites.�

If you are interested in the article it is available in the June Issue.

June 1, 2005 | | Comments Closed

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