I've been thinking a lot about what OU 2.0 (?!) could look like lately, and how if we were going to make a play for e-learning world player status - which I think is one of the scenario planning dreams, I suspect - we'd need to get something going with someone like Google (after all, if there's a Dell portal on Google, why not an OU one in the UK, or even better, Africa, to help with the open content drive there? (It'd be even better if we could get buy in to the Google downloader/updater so we can ship our software through their channel?)).
Anyway - I just saw this, which is not the same thing at all:
San José City College (SJCC) has embarked on a technology improvement program, and for the first time will be offering student email accounts. ... [Google are] testing a new service with the school by hosting Gmail accounts with SJCC domain addresses (like student@jaguars.sjcc.edu), plus admin tools for efficient account management. Official Google Blog: Big mail on campus
although it did, for some reason, also remind me of Microsoft's custom domains, which is completely different again...
[Added 23/02 - Microsoft also offer MSN email hosting for education]
And this is completely different too:
iTunes U* is a free, hosted service for colleges and universities that provides easy access to your educational content, including lectures and interviews 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. iTunes University
They both made me think though... not least because it's more stuff not-without-precedent for the mix...
And they're also very 2.0, in the sense that the universities seem to be being encouraged to outsource services to the very services that their students are likely to be using anyway (or which those services would like the students to be using just anyway if they aren't already using them)...
So it makes sense, doesn't it, in a backscratchy sort of way, especially if you see the online services as lifestyle services making a grab for hearts and minds in an oh, so helpful way...
(I guess the various bookscanning projects will soon remove the need for our academic libraries, for example... or not....)
Posted by ajh59 at February 13, 2006 12:40 AM