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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: 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The beauty of Internet is that it makes possible for us to access these historical documents, these old films.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]

Re: Crowdsource My Basement Design

Stephen Downes, January 31, 2012

I was wanting the homestyler to have more options than it does. I was able to see the ceilings and walls in the pics you provided - that's why I wanted to redo them! [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Crowdsource My Basement Design

karlfisch, January 31, 2012

Are you wishing for pics of the existing ceiling and walls? Or did you wish that homestyler had more options for that? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Anymouse, January 31, 2012

Got a better idea how to show a relative size of two numbers that are so far apart? (sorry, English is not my mother tongue) [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Stephen Downes, January 31, 2012

Well, I don't think a pie chart will be very useful for percentages greater than 100% and also for very small percentages like 0.06 percent [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Anymouse, January 31, 2012

You're right, I need to think of something that would show the process (and maybe visualize how numbers relate to each other... a pie chart perhaps). [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Stephen Downes, January 31, 2012

But it doesn't teach kids how to do it, it just gives them the answer. A better tool would offer some indication of *how* it arrived at the answer, perhaps by providing a graphical element that will enable kids to make off-the-cuff calculations themselves.
[Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Anymouse, January 31, 2012

Stephen,

I'm Matt, the creator of the tool reviewed in Wesley's post. Sure you shouldn't need a calculator to figure out percentages... and that's the reason I made the tool: to help kids learn to do it.

P.S. it would be nice if you could link to the site in question :) ( http://percentagecalculator.info ).

kind regards,
Mateusz Mucha [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: How Apple Can Solve Its China Problem

Anymouse, January 31, 2012

Thank-you so much, Stephen, for making the rare but valuable point: in the market, money and commodities have freedom of movement, but people do not. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Framing of Connectivism and digital learning

Lewismal, January 30, 2012

This video sumaries research which applies Frame Analysis based on George Lakoff ideas to the problem of bridging the hugh gap between a connectivist understandings of digital media and learning and the understandings of lay peoples about education/learning and digital devices.

Connectivism will not advance queickly unless research inot publuc frames can tell us how to bridge these gaps.

http://t.co/FtxYEv10
[Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

russia tours

Anymouse, January 29, 2012

I do not even know with incredibly blog greatly that helped me. God bless you "All of life's riddles are answered in the movies." - Steve Martin [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: What does iBooks mean for the eBook/eTextbook industry?

Frank Lowney, January 29, 2012

The same folks who missed the key differences between native iOS apps and web apps trip here in the same way. Being a profit-seeking enterprise, Apple is not going to snub the folks who are currently ensconced in the drivers' seat. Yet, they gave the same tools to the world at large as they provided to commercial publishers.

Apple has actually opened up the contest over who will define 21st century education - at least the part that is defined by textbooks. That may or may not be as important as it was in the previous century. We'll just have to wait and see.

The excuses have fallen away. We no longer need to command printing plants, warehouses and transportation infrastructures. We no longer want for free and inexpensive tools with which to create textbooks that compete with the best that commercial entities have to offer. Apple doesn't get full credit for this, they had lots and lots of help.

But our bluff has been called. Carping on the sidelines is no longer credible. We can make great textbooks that are free and if we don't then we have no one else to blame but ourselves. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Charts: Education Publishing Much Bigger Than You Think

Frank Lowney, January 29, 2012

Everyone seems to be seizing on the commercial side of Apple's announcement and missing the fact that Apple (along with others) have handed the education community the tools to completely dis-intermediate the commercial textbook industry. I go into the Higher Education case here: http://frank-lowney.blogspot.com/2012/01/ibooks-author-and-coming-etextbook.html and am thinking about tackling K-12 next.

We now have excellent free and inexpensive tools for creating .epub and .ibooks (ePub on steroids) files that can be disseminated freely. Those files could easily be eTextbooks that cost students zero.

Just ask the question, "What does the commercial textbook industry bring to the table that the education community (Higher Education & K-12) cannot provide for itself?"

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

Re: Calculate and Learn about Percentages with Percentage Calculator

Anymouse, January 29, 2012

Hey. Right now, I'm starting a site for my high school club (it's in my URL). Basically, what we're trying to do is to create a one stop shop for information regarding high school teenage life. I came up with this idea because (I don't have an older sibling) I wanted to help others who had similar questions as me, such as "where can I volunteer" or "what courses should I take in Gr. 11".
So basically, I'm trying to get the word out about this site on the web. Could you please help me, such as maybe linking to our site in on of your posts? If you could, thanks a bunch. :) If not, that's ok too. I understand. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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