The 23-campus California State University system has announced the adoption of learning management systems Moodle and Angel. In a statement release, CSU's Director of LMS Initiatives Kathy Fernandes citied reasons for supporting Moodle included interoperability with existing systems, lack of licensing fees and for meeting W3C accessibility standards. According to Moodlerooms, the Moodle service provider that CSU signed an agreement with to provide campus support for Moodle, several of CSU's campuses have already been piloting Moodle programs for more than a month. Full details of this announcement can be found in yesterday's Campus Technology article.

One Laptop Per Child has officially launched its second Give One/ Get One program. This year's program not only includes the United States, but also the 27 members of the European Union, Switzerland, Turkey and Russia. Additional details can be found at amazon.com/xo or at the SJs Longest Now blog.

Michael Feldstein has an interesting article on his blog e-Literate about his observations from this year's EDUCAUSE conference, notably the growing number of higher education institutions recognizing the value of open standards.

"As I sit on the flight home from the EDUCAUSE conference thinking back on the themes of the week, it is clear to me that various flavors of openness have finally arrived in a big way in higher education, with more on the way," states Feldstein. "Certainly, a critical mass of universities are recognizing the value of open standards and accepting that open source is a viable and important approach. Open access and open educational resources are coming on too, although they are much earlier in their adoption cycle. Further down the road, open governance and open business practices are looming on the horizon."

His observations are certainly encouraging news for educators like myself who support open standards in education, and is definitely worth reading. Full article can be read at http://mfeldstein.com/openness-finally-were-getting-somewhere/.

Educational materials for OpenOffice.org 3 are now available. Paperback copies of A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 3 are now available at many online book retailers and independent bookstores. Resources available include an updated Moodle Course Package for OpenOffice.org 3, a new slide presentation detailing the advantages of using OpenOffice.org 3 in an educational environment and more.