I’ve completed my review of nine open courseware courses (three from MIT, three from Carnegie Mellon, and three from the Open University). As expected, I found a great deal of variety—particularly between the different institutions. It seems clear that these schools have very diverse approaches to instruction. I’ve compiled a list of features that I found within the various courses and I’m in the process of coding each course on a master list of features. I would like to create some type of data visualization with the results, but haven’t yet formulated what it will look like. I’ll seek input from colleagues before I link the results here.
Adobe made news last week by releasing a beta version of a web-based photo editor, Photoshop Express. They also created a significant stir with over zealous terms of use—implying that Adobe can use your images in any way they please. According to multiple sources, Adobe heard the outcry; they’re currently working with their legal department to rewrite the terms document. Photoshop Express follows other online photo editing tools like Picnik, and photo storage sites like Flickr. They trumped Picasa by offering more storage space (2 GB of free storage), but neglected to add the capacity to organize with tags. I haven’t yet found any compelling reason to create a Photoshop Express account, other than pure curiosity.
While I was looking at Photoshop Express and reading assorted reviews, I came across this article on ReadWriteWeb about Adobe’s growing set of online tools, like:
Adobe Labs has been busy! I had no idea. As with Photoshop Express, none of these tools appear to be the first on the block. They do have a certain elegance in design, but I’m not sure that elegance and the Adobe name are enough to attract throngs of users. As ReadWriteWeb speculated, combining all these tools into a one-stop suite might, however, give them a significant edge over single-tool competitors. Several of these tools have potential for educators…something to keep an eye on.