Threads

These are the most recent 20 comments submitted in response to the daily newsletter. Click on the comment title to see the complete thread, beginning with the newsletter post.

Re: Presentation Tube

Alaa Sadik, February 9, 2012

Stephen,
I appreciate your feedback and support. I have developed PresentationTube recorder to support three different video outputs, WMV, AVI, abd FLV. So, if you have any problem in FLV encoding, please try version 1.3.0. Now you record in WMV high-quality format and upload the file directly to get interactive PowerPoint presentations.
http://presentationtube.net/index_record.php

Regards [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Web literacy? (v0.1)

Doug Belshaw, February 9, 2012

Wow, I can remember the days when you used to comment on people's blogs and provide constructive criticism. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Leadership for Constant Change

scott HJ, February 7, 2012

I live in terror of reading this article. We've just emerged from the gravitational pull of 21st century speak back into the zone of unapologetic bossiness. Wonder if there is a prize for turning drivel to drizzle? Scored like Scrabble and great for the resume.

Back at our college, the Prez now declares his desire for us to cork it and push on with his splendid plans. No more cozy chat sessions, just do it. These plans may not be well considered, or even particularly doable, but they are free of jargon. Think we'd all much rather understand what we have and what we can do with what we have than to spend all day interpreting the meaning(s) of the fluffy words that used to come to us from management.

Thanks for the post. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: The Cost of Knowledge

Stephen Downes, February 6, 2012

Yep. That was 7 years ago. Ergo, my boycott has lasted for "years".

Totally agreed with your win-win-win comment, though. The only losers are the students and the taxpayers.
[Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: The Cost of Knowledge

lemire, February 6, 2012

You have published in "Learning Organization" for example. Emerald Group Publishing Limited sells your paper for $25:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1512987

Emerald Group Publishing has pulled a few dirty tricks in the past like making up fake journals:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Group_Publishing#Republication_controversy


It is unclear to me whether Emerald is better than Elsevier.

Anyhow. I think that the real problem has to do with library budgets. How come the librarians can afford to spend such crazy money on journals? Where does all this money come from?

That would be like going to the arms dealer and blaming him for all the money he makes from the Canadian military. The real question is how come the Canadian military has all this money... right?

My theory is that high journal fees is a win-win-win for all those involved. Librarians are happy because they manage large budgets (and have a corresponding amount of prestige). Publishers are happy. And many students and professors from top universities are happy because they can distinguish themselves from those at the lesser institutions (not to mention those who dare go on their own).

It is very difficult for anyone outside the academic system to compete with me because he simply does not have access to the material. I benefit from this system.

You *can* boycott. But as long as libraries have X millions of dollars to spend, the money will get spent. It is not like librarians will return the money left on the table.

[Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Apple

mgozaydin, February 6, 2012

Dear Frank
Sometimes I wonder why Americans are so much misinformed what is going on in the USA and in the world .
I am 12,000 miles away and I am aware what is going on in Washington State Education Committee.
Washington State is adopting etextbook . ASll books are free to students. Utah is following. Why in the worl other states do not follow such a nice project
Why on tjhe earth All American are not aware of that .
Publishing industry will bankrupt like KODAK soon.
They had an opportunity to have ebooks to everybody at fairprices. But they missed the boat. They charge still very high prices to ebooks .
I call it greedy capitalism I like the mild capitalism but not the wild capitalism .
Solution
DC should have all etextbooks for schools written by the best subject experts of the USA . Just imagine 500 textbooks for all 1 to 12 grades . Imagine you pay $ 1 million to authors per book.( ohhh Ohhhh ) That is only $ 500 million total.
The cost for 60 million students of K12
500.000,000 / 60,000,000 = $ 8.33 /student for only first year next year it is free.
Why DC does not show the right direction to states. Even look up how much charge I allowed to authors $ 1 million. One can find a nobel prize winner for that money . Please get wiser. Act smartly . Don't waste your money . Children need that money for better things . [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Online Social Networks as Formal Learning Environments: Learner Experiences and Activities

George Veletsianos, February 5, 2012

Thank you, Stephen, for the comment on our paper. I may be misunderstanding part of the comment, but I wouldn't say that the fact that this study took place at a traditional institution is a "weakness." That was actually part of the reason why we did the study, as the majority of the work that we have seen focuses on the use of these technologies outside of the institution, and individuals tend to think that findings will easily transfer to institutional settings. If you mean that the results were influenced by the fact that the course occurred in a traditional institution or that the institutional setting influenced how the technology was used, you are absolutely correct, and that's an implication of the study. Finally, I agree with you in that this is just one case study of the use of Elgg and online social networks in an institutional setting. A collection of case studies can help us make sense of this phenomenon, and these are slowly appearing (e.g., in our paper we cite Arnold & Paulus (2010), Brady et al. (2010), Dron & Anderson (2009b)).

Thanks!

P.S. I've re-posted your comment and posted this response on my own site as well: http://www.veletsianos.com/2012/02/05/online-social-networks-as-formal-learning-environments/ [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools

Frank Lowney, February 5, 2012

Indeed. And who was it that put them up for sale? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Apple

Frank Lowney, February 5, 2012

Since annual repurchase is required (students own the eTextbook), it will be interesting to see if commercial iBooks 2 eTextbook publishers actually improve these high school textbooks from year to year. Imagine a HS history text that mentions currently sitting leaders such as the US president. =8-0

The other process to watch is statewide textbook adoption. Utah and a few other states are more flexible than most. More common is the 'broken market' created by textbook adoption which is made even worse by states such as California, Texas and Florida who have disproportionate influence on what publishers offer because they purchase centrally.

So commercial publishers still have a few cards to play. They will not go gently into that good night. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Open Textbook Authoring Tools Part 1 – Mediawiki

Frank Lowney, February 5, 2012

The ePub output options are also interesting. Some have described ePub documents as a "web site in a box" so this would be a "wiki in a box." Not the whole of a wiki I would hope but, rather, some coherently edited pieces of it. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Lisa Marie Blaschke, February 5, 2012

Hi Anymouse, Thank you for your comment on my paper on heutagogy and lifelong learning. Please check out page 59 of the article, which includes a couple of references to Argyris & Schön (1978, as cited in Hase & Kenyon, 2000 and Hase, 2009). Stephen is correct that the purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the theory and to summarize the research into heutagogy practice to date. I also hope that it will generate further discussion on the theory's potential as a learning theory in DE. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Making universities obsolete

mgozaydin, February 4, 2012

Yes universities and colleges are obsolete, except few 50 or so .
MITx will educate the whole world.
I hope Stanford and Yale will follow . [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: The place of 'the teacher' in relation to open content

mgozaydin, February 4, 2012

Yes traditional universities cannot create enough knowledge for people.
But now MITx can supply best knowledge to evryone in the world at no cost.
Even a certificate at nominal cost
Support MITx [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Tuition cuts won't increase university access

karynromeis, February 3, 2012

Interestingly enough, we're seeing the flip-side of this reasoning in the UK. This September, new students will pay up to 200% more than the 2011 intake, as fees rise from around £3Kpa in some instances to £9Kpa. And how much of an impact has this had on the number of applications to university? According to one report on the news last week (sadly I missed the name of the source), very little. Just a few percent. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Stephen Downes, February 2, 2012

I don't think so. I think the purpose of the paper is to rebrand a lot of the newer work around online self-directed learning as 'heutagogy' and deeper references would not support that. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Three Passions of Bertrand Russell (and a Collection of Free Texts)

idabrandao, February 2, 2012

I can't resist to make a comment on Bertrand Russell and my profound admiration by this wonderful human being. I fell in love with his knowledge and life. I read his autobiography and many of his books when I was 18 years old (today I'm 57). His activism for nuclear disarmament and peace, his freedom of thought and his moral values touched me. The attacks he suffered, namely during his stay in puritan America, were shameful.

He had a long and fruitful life. As a member of the english aristicracy he had the opportunity to be introduced to the victorian minister Gladstone (19th century) and he died when he was 97 in the 60's, preserving his civic intervention all along his life, i.e. in major conflicts, like the cuban conflic, that risked a III World War.

The beauty of Internet is that it makes possible for us to access these historical documents, these old films. I had already seen these videos and had already disseminated them among my community, and am very pleased to see them disseminated in this newsletter that I follow on a daily basis (thanks Stephen Downes).

Bertrand Russell was a supporter of A.S. Neill approach to education and his Summerhill school. He himself tried an experiment to found a free school, that didn't last long. Very recently, I saw old films from the 50's (Pathé Films) on Summerhill, this is living history. As I'm exploring alternative education, I'm extremely interested in all these initiatives on democratic approaches to Education, that date back to the turn of the 19th-20th century. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Anymouse, February 1, 2012

I have only read the paper quickly (so far); but, it's interesting that it does not make reference to Chris Argyris on double loop learning. (Argyris, C., Schön. D. (1978) Organizational Learning: A theory of action perspective. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley). Am I missing something? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Open Textbook Challenge Wave I Winners Announced!!

mgozaydin, February 1, 2012

Here it is .

Now everybody knows Apple ibooks at $ 14.99
but nobody knows Saylor's free books .
Shame [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Apple

mgozaydin, February 1, 2012

State of Washington may be some others too providing FREE digital books to all of its K12 student. Why should I Apple ibooks and iPad written by a Phd nobody knows . Look for the other states too .
In fact I blame Duncan. He should declare all these to all USA , he is in the central table . I have never seen uninformed people as in USA nowhere in the world unless a marketing genious hits their door . [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Georges st pierre

Anymouse, January 31, 2012

This place is the Definative Guide Dedicated to bringing you all the relevant news R.E GSP With special offers and all the best news. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Comment



Title
Your comment:
Enter email to receive replies:

Your comments always remain your property, but in posting them here you agree to license under the same terms as this site (CC By-NC-SA). If your comment is offensive it will be deleted.

Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to make sure it makes sense.