Ok so Blackboard have launched a new site catering to extension developers called EduGarage. ….So why is it that when I read EduGarage, I actually think EduRage???????

Anyway the site looks good and I’m glad they went with Confluence and not Blackboard.

…. at 37Signals

I’ve found some books on design pattern to be quite dry. The lack of examples and clear explanations have also been a put off. Finally comes a great site that documents design patterns, explains their use clearly and even provides examples in Java and C++.

All patterns contained in book form for the bargain price of $10.

Create quizzes with SomeTests.com, which just happens to be written with GWT. Take the Ajax Libraries Quiz - an Ajax quiz in Ajax. I managed to only get 70%

Can you beat that?

• Rate your Professor
  Evaluations gone extreme and shared! You’ll even be able to see the grade history - yep how many A - F’s were given.
• DoResearch4me
  They don’t write an essay, but ResearchBitch.com will do research for you. Just send your draft notes and back will come research in approx 10 - 30 mins.

Finally got some time to take a look at the Facebook app catalogue. Lots of apps that have no use or would just get annoying. I did however come across CourseFeed that integrates with Blackboard to show course content, announcements and rosters.

… But your school/uni must be supported - there is a list of supported school which will hopefully grow.

Some useful features even if your school is not supported:

• Course Wall
• File storage
• Share Course posts (feeds) with other students
• Who’s Online - via Facebook Profile

Kinda best of Facebook social collab mixed with content from Blackboard. … So why is Blackboard not doing the social stuff be default! Why?

via Mfeldstein.com. ….so 2 Judges have now ruled that claims 1-35 are not valid….

accessED is a Firefox plugin that tests for accessibility compliance. The plugin does all the work so no data is transfered across the Net. Great for password protected sites (eg content in a CMS/LMS) and sensitive content. accessED also does a great job at teaching good accessibility design.

Javabeat has a great set of Tutorials to get you started with Spring. All tutorials include samples.

• Spring MVC
• Spring and Hibernate
• Spring Web Framework
• Spring Web Flow
• Spring AOP
  This is the simplest explanation of AOP ever!

Also check out this tutorial on using Spring’s MVC for Web Form Validation.

I also like Spring on Rails - which generates simple CRUDS with either Hibernate or iBatis DAO layers.

I’ve just been reading a post on Visio replacements. The market place for prototyping tools is growing. I’ve never been an advocate of using Visio for Wireframing (screen layout) and have always preferred to do actual HTML/CSS mockups by hand or in Dreamweaver. That said some of the Visio replacements eg iRise seem quite tempting with the inclusion of a simulation engine. An iRise type product for designing collaborative learning activities would be interesting. What about an iRise type product for creating Facebook social apps? What about an iRise type product for generating Blackboard building blocks or Moodle plugins. Possibilities, Possibilities, Possibilities! What about generating complete backend code (code generation) for any platform (Java, .NET, Rails, PHP). ….and then what about a lower price tag? In the end it just means more power to the designer.