Ontology is over-rated

An interesting article from Clay Shirky about the use of tags in preference to formal categorisation systems.

British pupils 'cannot locate UK'

Simple English Wikipedia

Simple Wikipedia is a new version of Wikipedia for those with limited English skills. Maybe a good resource for S1/S2 pupils and primary kids?

Derived grades to go

After the controversy surrounding the derived grades procedure, SQA has announced that the procedure is to end.

Assessment 2.0

You've heard of e-learning 2.0, well here are some Web 2.0 technologies applied to assessment. The table seeks to show how teachers can use social software for assessment purposes.

Web service	Example	Use(s)	Assessment type
			Self	Peer	Diagnostic	Formative	Summative
Personal portal	Netvibes	Evidence organisation	x
Calendaring	Google calendar	Assessment scheduling				x	x
E-mail	Google mail	Communication with assessor Evidence storage Authenticating evidence				x	x
Search engine	Live search	Evidence discovery				x
RSS	Bloglines	Evidence discovery				x
Social bookmarking	Furl	Evidence collection				x	x
Blogs	Blogger	Reflection Log book/diary	x	x	x	x	x
Photo service	Flickr	Evidence storage/organisation				x	x
Online storage	Box.net	Evidence storage			x	x	x
Wiki	Pbwiki	Collaborative working Group work Projects		x	x	x	x
Word processing	Writely	Collaborative working Group work Projects		x	x	x	x
Instant messaging	Live Messenger	Authenticating evidence					x
VOIP (incl. video)	Skype	Authenticating evidence					x
Spreadsheets	Google spreadsheets	Result calculation and reporting					x

Google Literacy Project

A slogan in search of a meaning?