By Stephen Downes
November 7, 2003
The Future of E-Learning Models and the
Language We Use to Describe Them
On Wednesday I
released the text of my interview with Mark Oehlert, which
he asked me for a week or two before posting a more general
request on his website. My declaration of impatience was
rewarded as on Thursday he released the slides and draft
from his study. Although Oehlert uses a great deal of
material from my submission (attributed throughout to 'one
contributor') I still prefer my version, which doesn't pull the
punches. By Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings (a division of
blogoehlert), November 6, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Mentor Initiative
Interesting
item from India's The Apex Academy, offering online
mentoring services to students throughout that country.
"This provides you with an opportunity to create, add, and
supplement your own knowledge delivery. In case you are
preparing to enter the domain of providing personalized and
expert support to students, here is an opportunity for you
to create unique offerings with virtually NO investments
from your end." By Press Release, The Apex Academy,
November, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
LMS Selection Site from Simon Fraser
University
If you have any interest in the
future of WebCT you might want to look at this site, which
compares it against Desire2Learn. If Simon Fraser
University selects anything other than WebCT (almost the
default in British Columbia), it's all over. This brief
blog entry contains a number of useful links to primary
documents (great digging). By Scott Leslie, EdTech Post,
November 7, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
RSS in Government
Good overview
website about the use of RSS in governments. I sent them
information about the Government of Canada's comprehensive RSS site which will be
posted when they've had a chance to digest it all. Yes
folks, Canada is leading the way in governmental use of
RSS, even if this knowledge hasn't spread beyond our own
borders. By Ray Matthews, November, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Note on the Proposed WIPO Treaty for
Broadcasters, Cablecasters and Webcasters
When I
wrote last January,
people thought I was overstating the case. But, if
anything, to judge from this item, I was letting them off
easy. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is
considering a proposal that "expands or gives new rights to
transmitters of information, even if they are not the
creators of that information. Rights that are normally
reserved to creators and performers would be afforded to
organizations that merely transmit creations and
performances -- even if those works are in the public
domain, or if those works' authors wish to have the works
distributed without restriction." This is out and out
theft, no matter how 'legal' you make it. More ongoing coverage... Summary article. By James Love, October
29, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
College Pact a Fresh Start For
Napster
Students feel betrayed by Penn State
administration, and with good reason. The university will
begin offering the students free access to music through
the revamped (and now commercial) Napster service. There
won't be an extra cost (for now) - it will be paid for from
the existing technology fee (begging the question: what was
it being used for before?). Students are outraged. "The money I pay
could go to much better things such as rebuilding the
network or better lab equipment," wrote Penn State senior
Joe Jarzab in an e-mail to CNET News.com. Some people
suggest the students should be grateful. But suppose you
were a journalist and you discovered one day that your
money was being spent to support censorship of the press.
This is much how the students feel. After treating their
customers like criminals, the music companies are actually
being rewarded. With the students' money. Oh, for a
transcript of the deal that must have been reached. "Penn
State President Graham Spanier and Recording Industry
Association of America President Cary Sherman are co-chairs
of a joint industry and university committee that is
scrutinizing the possibility of putting legal music
services on campus." Yeah.
The Register comes up with a good name. Pigopolists. By Dawn Chmielewski, San
Jose Mercury News, November 7, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and
Worldview
Clay Shirkey makes two important
points in this article. First, deduction is not nearly so
useful as proponents of the semantic web imagine. And
second, people will always have differing views. Both
appear to seriously undercut the potential value of the
semantic web, even when it is realized. I have argued for
the second point on numerous occasions (the first I have
always considered self-evident), to little avail thus far.
The Resource Profiles paper I released on
Wednesday is designed to address these issues (again,
right-click, download, and read it in a text editor).
Because, deduction isn't the only game in town. Now I still
have some writing to do at the end of the paper, but let me
presage it now by saying: the killer application for the
semantic web will be inductive inference, induction to
evaluative results, for example. Of course, first you need
a way to express this, which is what the bulk of the paper
is about. By Clay Shirkey, Clay Shirky's Writings About the
Internet, November 7, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Albuquerque Journal as a Bad Paid Content
Model
Though this article covers paid content
for news access, providers of online learning content
should read carefully. I have commented frequently that the
market for online content is two-time order of magnitude
smaller than traditional - that is, if it cost $100
originally, it should cost $1 online. The lemma, mentioned
in passing, is that if the price remains the same, then the
audience declines by that same margin - an audience of 100
people reduces to an audience of 1. By Vin Crosbie, Digital
Deliverance, November 6, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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