November 22, 2006

OLDaily

Michael R. Gettes[Edit][Delete]: Introduction to Identity Management: The Big Picture, Educause [Edit][Delete]EDUCAUSE [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 3 Hits] Very good (though large - 6 meg , and EDUCAUSE isn't the fastest site in the world) slide deck on identity management (I link to the EDUCAUSE HTML page, since there are actually three separate decks to download). If you are into identity at least as much as I am, then this presentation will be worth your while. Note how tangled identity becomes with institutional policies and other tasks, like managing access to resources. Ask yourself whether an identity federation is a sustainable model for an open network of free resources and services. Finally, ask yourself, what's in it for the person being identified. Because, as I argue in Authentication and Identification, no identity system will work unless the person wants their identification to be accurate and secure. See also, Building on Distributed Access Management, by Thomas J. Barton and others, and Maximizing Identity Management by Keith Hazelton. [Tags: , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Play is Essential for Optimal Development, Canadian Council on Learning [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 1 Hits] This is a very good article, probably the best thing I've seen come out of CCL yet (you just want to shoot the web designer though, there's no navigational links to (say) the 'Lessons in Learning' series, there's no RSS, and it (normally) appears in a gosh-awful pop up window). Essentially the article is a sustained defense of play in support of learning, but if you look at what is being described you can see it is the very sort of learner-directed open-ended approach discussed so often in these pages. Indeed, reducing or eliminating this open-ended approach is actually harmful to the child (the adult too, I would say - the highlight of my week this week has been beating the Washington Capitals 11-2 last night on EA Hockey). Note also that 'play' does not mean some sort of solitary and unsupported activity; the article discusses roles for adults as "co-players" and the like. Well referenced (though I wish more (or even some) of the citations were online). Thanks to Rod for the link. [Tags: , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Kathy Sierra[Edit][Delete]: Add Graphics to Your Blog, Book, or Presentation, Creating Passionate Users [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 4 Hits] Kathy Sierra gives away her secrets. This, of course, puts her all the more so in a class by herself. As for this article, it's in my 'clip and save' file, mostly for my own purposes, as I think about trying to add some life to this old heap. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Free Academic Podcasts, Productive Strategies [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 2 Hits] The discussions around open educational resources (OERs) have been focusing mostly on large institutional OER projects. But how do we capture the thousands of smaller initiatives, like this one, that are throwing good (and sometimes not-so-good) educational resources out there? [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Geoff Minshull and Judith Mole, eds.[Edit][Delete]: Innovating e-Learning 2006: Transforming Learning Experiences, Jisc [Edit][Delete]JISC [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 2 Hits] Putting conference proceedings online is a good idea, even for online conferences (which are often buried or lost after they are held). Summarizing the proceedings is a good idea - in the Learner Experiences theme, for example, there were 453 messages exchanged. I am rather less convinced that putting the proceedings into clumsy PDF texts was a good idea. And I think the contributions should be attributed - people have names, and should not be cited simply as 'one delegate'. In addition to this conference, two others are slated for posting: Designing for learning and Innovating e-learning practice. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Criticism of academicblogs.org, BlogScholar [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 10 Hits] The stewards of BlogScholar write, "Here at BlogScholar.com we always appreciate a nice tribute but surely its taking it a bit far to launch an 'Academic Blog Portal' without a single reference to our delightful little non-profit enterprise of the same name on the other side of the Atlantic." BlogScholar is a reviewed system ("for every blog that is accepted in the directory ten are declined") while the Academic Blog Portal, a spin-off from Crooked Timber, is a wiki with no apparent selection at all. [Tags: , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Scott Leslie[Edit][Delete]: dLCMS - Open Source LCMS built on Silva/Zope, EdTechPost [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 10 Hits] Scott Leslie reports on the dynamic Learning Content Management System. "It stores resources in XML format and has created packages which have been successfully imported into OLAT, ILIAS, Moodle and WebCT. It looks to have been produced by ETH Zurich (and possibly on soft money that's now run out) but possibly worth a look." The software is written in Python (which is a script-like computer language) which means you don't need a huge enterprise system to run it. Worth looking into further. Related: leslie offers a less than positive review of XERTE, a free visual editor for SCORM compliant Flash learning objects. "There is no way you could convince me to unleash this on the general instructional population." [Tags: , , , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Rick Broida[Edit][Delete]: 8 Ways to Shoot Video Like a Pro, LifeHacker [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 2 Hits] Good advice, borne out by my own experience. Which remind me I have a fair bit of video to process and upload. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Mike Seyfang[Edit][Delete]: Avoid YouTube if you wanna ReMix and MashUp, Mikes MSN blog [Edit][Delete] November 22, 2006
[link: 2 Hits] The funny thing I noticed about this blog - because the RSS produced by MSN spaces is broken, the RSS comes from edublogs and points to the Spaces site. Anyhow, the essence of the article is in the title - because YouTube allows only streaming, and no downloads, it does not support remixing. Which is less than idea, to be sure. I am not convinced by the comments on Creative Commons - I use a 'non-commercial' license on my stuff because I don't want some company pulling a Blackboard on it - using it commercially then turning around and claiming it's their property. Note that commercial entities can use the content if the use is non-commercial, and nothing prevents me from allowing commercial uses in parallel (it's my own content, after all). For those of you who want to download video from YouTube anyhow, here's how. [Tags: , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

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Copyright 2006 Stephen Downes
National Research Council Canada

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I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle.

Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be.

This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence.

This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward. - Stephen Downes