Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

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Vision Statement

Stephen Downes works with the Digital Technologies Research Centre at the National Research Council of Canada specializing in new instructional media and personal learning technology. His degrees are in Philosophy, specializing in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. He has taught for the University of Alberta, Athabasca University, Grand Prairie Regional College and Assiniboine Community College. His background includes expertise in journalism and media, both as a prominent blogger and as founder of the Moncton Free Press online news cooperative. He is one of the originators of the first Massive Open Online Course, has published frequently about online and networked learning, has authored learning management and content syndication software, and is the author of the widely read e-learning newsletter OLDaily. Downes is a member of NRC's Research Ethics Board. He is a popular keynote speaker and has spoken at conferences around the world.

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Stephen Downes, stephen@downes.ca, Casselman Canada

Fedify
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"Fedify is a TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards, so-called fediverse." This is why I've been learning Typescript. I want to build one of these and maybe adapt it.

Today: Total: 2025/05/16 [Direct Link]
OpenAlternative – Open Source Alternatives to Popular Software
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Subtext: " A curated collection of the best open source alternatives to everyday SaaS products. Save money with reliable tools hand-picked for you." Posted here as a reminded for myself.

Today: Total: OpenAlternative, 2025/05/16 [Direct Link]
How the right to education is undermined by AI
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 26, defines for everyone a right to education. Helen Beetham interprets this as follows: "education is a right of all people as equals and a responsibility of the public bodies who represent them - states, nations and regions. The context can only be a democratic one." Her concern is that "data and algorithmic platforms infringe these rights." Minimally, there would have to be "regulations, due diligence processes or impact assessments," and perhaps more, "a rights-based discourse must extend beyond classroom infringements of children's rights to concern itself 'with the preservation of life and the co-responsibility of AI harms to the majority of the planet'."  Beetham identifies risks and documented harms in this longish article well worth a read.

Today: Total: Helen Beetham, imperfect offerings, 2025/05/16 [Direct Link]
My Dream Fediverse Platform
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Good article with lots of good ideas, and a few maybe not quite so good (the trick, as always, is telling which is which), along with a key point: "Part of the problem here is that every Fediverse server in the network is a full-blown platform, rather than a client.... The primary side effect of every Fediverse server being a platform instead of a client is that every platform needs its own account to be used." What we want, I think, is "user accounts (that) are free-floating, peer-to-peer identities."

Today: Total: Sean Tilley, deadsuperhero, 2025/05/14 [Direct Link]
Why Do Ai Cheerleaders Respond to Critics the Way They Do? (Part 3) – EduGeek Journal
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This is the third of a three part series (part one, part two, part three) from Matt Crosslin. The tone of the articles is, I think, well reflected in the title. In the first two he criticizes people he calls 'AI Cheerleaders', including mostly myself, responding to our criticisms of AI scepticism, including mostly his own. There's too much to address here in a short post, but readers can judge for themselves. In the third, he responds to a critique authored by ChatGPT identifying (numerous) fallacies in one of his articles. His response, in part, is that "using ChatGPT in this manner is just a major misunderstanding of how to use logical fallacies. My post in question is a rebuttal and alternate viewpoint (if that wasn't obvious from the title), not a logical argument." It is not often I see writers argue by saying they are not offering a logical argument.

Today: Total: Matt Crosslin, EduGeek Journal, 2025/05/14 [Direct Link]
NSPA AI Fast Track
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Based on what I've seen from his work online, this would have to be a pretty good workshop. "Welcome to my resources for my NSPA AI Fast Track session, Crafting Better AI Prompts: Unlocking Efficiency and Accuracy for Scholarship Workflows. This page offers a few links and resources curated for your use." The resources listed, though not fully comprehensive, anre nonetheless useful. I'm positing it here to have a link handy for my own sessions coming up.

Today: Total: Miguel Guhlin, Another Think Coming, 2025/05/14 [Direct Link]

Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2025
Last Updated: May 18, 2025 12:37 a.m.

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