Cisco simplifies m-learning

With its M-Learning Viewer, Cisco Systems continues to build upon its arsenal of applications for the iPhone, this time adding an authorised source of learning materials designed to help people study for Cisco certifications, writes eWeek.

While the viewer application and available content are currently somewhat bare-bones, the platform could grow into a useful learning tool over time as the company works on it.

M-Learning consists of freely available viewing applications and a series of for-pay content modules.

Blackboard is planning a version of its widely used e-learning suite, with an emphasis on incorporating social networking tools such as wikis, YouTube, Flickr, and Slideshare, reports Inside Higher Ed.

"We provided a very intuitive process to search for and add content from YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare to a course without ever having to leave the LMS," says Stacey Fontenot, a Blackboard vice-president.

"And this content can be leveraged not only as standalone course content but used in different places like discussion boards posts and assessment questions to provide educators with more dynamic ways to engage and assess learners," she adds.

MI5 is ditching staff members who lack computer skills in a programme of compulsory and voluntary redundancies, states the BBC.

The Intelligence and Security Committee says the service had been reviewing its staff profile and one area of concern was the level of IT skills.

MI5 director-general Jonathan Evans told the committee: "I think some of the staff perhaps aren't quite the ones that we will want for the future."