By Stephen Downes
May 22, 2003
Open Content - Open Learning
Set
of web pages with links for my presentation at WEM
yesterday...
given my health (or lack of same) it wasn't the best
presentation I've
ever done... after 16 hours sleep (beginning yesterday
afternoon) I
feel a bit better but I'm still
struggling with less than perfect health, computer problems
and a
general malaise, the sort of ill-will you feel toward the
world when
your mouse dies and everything takes longer than it should
and the
sites won't connect and your email program won't delete the
mountain of spam that is clogging your inbox... today I
worked the
trade show floor (there was one presentation I wanted to
see, but I
couldn't find it - it has been that sort of conference...)
- I discovered
that the Blackboard people get snippy when you talk to them
about
the hack and the gag order... that the main selling point
for LMSs at
these shows are their exclusive content libraries...
whiteboards are
everywhere... but this whole show could have been staged
last year,
or two years ago, and nobody would have raised an
eyebrow... it's
like the innovation has come to a complete and utter
halt... is what
the commercialization of e-learning means? No, it's
probably just
me. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, May 22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Personal Webpublishing as a Reflective
Conversational Tool For
Self-organized Learning
On the one hand, we
have all the commercial applications here
(publishers, broadcasters, LMS, you know...). On the other
hand, we
have BlogTalk in Vienna. It's an interesting contrast - too
bad I
couldn't go to both. Oh well. To give you an idea of what's
happening in Austria, here's Seb Fiedler's BlogTalk paper,
now
much revised. The abstract: "This paper suggests that
personal
Webpublishing technologies and practices can be
conceptualized as
a reflective conversational learning tool for
self-organized learning.
Beyond the examination of the theoretical basis for such a
claim,
initial ideas for specific learning environment designs on
the basis of
a "conversational framework" are presented." By Seb
Fiedler, BlogTalk, May 17, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Interesting comments..
Jumping
into the middle of a conversation - James Farmer quotes
Lindon Parker saying, "the ground swell appears to be
having little
or no impact upon cheque signers... The more I look at the
EduBlog
space the more I think this is all falling apart through
lack of interest,
not on your or the other RSS/Bloggers part but on the part
of the
institutions that might want to implement them." There's
more, but half
the links aren't working from here, so you'll have to
follow them for
yourself. Anyhow. Who cares whether the cheque signers
support
this stuff? Oh, I'm sure someone will come along with
'enterprise
blog' and sell it for half a million dollars, but will that
prove its worth?
Of course not. If the tools work for you, use them. If not,
then don't.
But don't peg the usefulness of a technology to financial
or
institutional support. That, surely, is the road to
madness. By James Farmer, May 22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blogs - RSS - Wikis
Comprehensive
(but not exhaustive) list of links on these three
related subjects. Includes links to background readings,
examples,
commercial software and hosting services. Good resource.
By David Mattison, May 21, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
It's time to rebuild the Internet
I found myself nodding in agreement with a
number of the
suggestions offered by Ray Ozzie, the developer behind
Notes and
Groove. Something more dynamic, depending more on
structured
data, and less centralized. Email, especially, is in need
of a rethink -
here I am today wading throough mountains of spam, trying
to find
the odd item I actually want to read, and yet with no means
of
organizing this information. There must be a better way to
do person
to person communication... By Dan Farber, ZD Net, May 21,
2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Ivory Tower in the Real World
It bothers me that an educational system
characterized by a continual
declines in public funding is depicted as "real" - as
though the
alternative were somehow less than real. But that is the
message in
this PBS series - I haven't listed to the audio (it's just
not an option
with my connection here) but the text tells the story: "To
maintain their
elite statuses, schools like Michigan at Ann Arbor and
Wisconsin at
Madison -- the jewels in the crown of their respective
state university
systems -- are trying to wean themselves off of state
budgets to gain
more control over how they can do business." By Various
Authors, NPR, May 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
W3C Aopts Patent Policy
My first
reaction is that the W3C has caved to the patent people.
Well, I guess that's my second reaction too. The provision
allows the use of patented technology in W3C standards, but
with full disclosure and on a royalty free basis. But there
may be exceptions. At this point, I have to ask whether the
members of the W3C have ever heard the story of the camel's
nose... By Thor Olavsrud, InternetNews.Com, May 21, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
WEM Summary - Day One
I always get
off the airplane with a cough and a runny nose - I am
probably allergic to recycled air - and so I'm suffering
today after a cross-Atlantic trip. Writing the day one
summary of WEM is all I can manage for now - though for
those of you who want to know, I searched for about two
hours for something to put in today's newsletter, found
nothing of interest, and I'm just tired of looking. Some
days are just like that. Anyhow. A keynote about the
European Commissions approach to learning, and five
speakers at a panel on content development and the
commercial content sector, and some photos too. Now I'm
going to go lie down for a bit. By Stephen Downes,
Stephen's Web, May 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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