Purdue is pilot testing Hotseat in two classes and has become a favorite application for students and instrutors. As we all know students always talk about their classes with each other and as technology has evolved those conversations take place on Facebook, Twitter, and through text messaging. Often the 'backchannel' conversations are happening in real time in class as the instructor teachs. To capture this conversation Purdue developed a clever application called HotSeat to use it to improve students' learning, engaging them in the learning conversation.

The Sakai Foundation is seeking nominees for its third annual international Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award. Representatives from the Foundation announced next year's competition at the EDUCAUSE Conference in Denver, CO. The intent of the award is to highlight examples of innovative and transformative educational applications of Sakai.

Are you keeing score? If so then it is Desire2Learn: 2 - Blackboard: 1

On Oct 15, 2009 Desire2Learn posts the good news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Blackboard's combined Petition - one for a Rehearing and one for a Rehearing en banc.

There wasn't an opinion included - just a listing on the Federal Circuit's website.

Desire2Learn expects the court will issue a mandate in the near future but states all the effects of this opinion are positive for D2L.

Desire2Learn Expects the Following:

• The Judge Clark will dissolve the injunction (he's already suspended it)
• They (D2L) will receive repayment of the judgment they paid to Blackboard - plus interest - plus costs associated with the action.

If you don't know the history to this saga a Google search should give you many places to get opinions. I'm glad to see justice has been served.

You can also read Desire2Learn's Patent Blog.

FreshBrain is ready for use! After months of feedback, focus groups, development and testing, they've launched their Technology Exploration Platform!

FreshBrain.org provides you and your teen with a platform to explore new technologies, create projects and share them with the world! As a new media developer and educator I found this site very useful, easy to use, and fun! And as always, as a mom safety is always a concern and FreshBrain passes the tests. Additionally the quality platform is a public charity - a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit so as a result, the use of the website is FREE.

Their mission is, "FreshBrain is focused on enhancing the education and development of our youth in the areas of business and technology by providing hands-on real world experience."

Complimentary Raptivity White Paper

Learning interactivity often comes with a serious downside. Custom content can be expensive and time consuming to produce, straining or exceeding the budgets of many learning organizations.

A new research paper by Harbinger's Raptivity describes how it is now possible to create compelling and effective eLearning content that not only provides true interactivity, but is also affordable and easily created by individuals who have little experience in content development.

Click here to obtain the complimentary copy of white paper on 'Raptivity makes Interactive Learning Easy’.