By Stephen Downes
July 23, 2004
It’s All About Learning
The July issue of the International Journal
of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning is now
out and this editorial pretty much summarizes the issue's
theme. "Add the distillation of 100 years of psychological
literature, philosophies of learning, learning styles, and
instructional technologies, and... Do we really practice
what we know? Or are we like doctors who, after 20 years of
school and college, prescribe the same six drugs for most
of our 'patients'." Today's newsletter features three other
articles from this month's issue. By Donald G. Perrin,
International Journal of Instructional Technology and
Distance Learning, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
RecoSearch: A Model for Collaboratively
Filtering Java Learning Objects
There's a lot
going on in this paper and this short summary won't do it
justice. The author describes a system for "a collaborative
infrastructure for authoring, searching, recommending and
presenting Java source code learning objects." I am on the
one hand impressed by the completness and elegance of the
solution described (and, as far as I can tell,
implemented). On the other hand, I am concerned by this
big-box approach. Everyone does everything the same way
within a relatively controlled environment. I don't know,
maybe it's a Java world, maybe it's not. I just wish I
could make some of this stuff actually work so I could see
for myself. But Java just wasn't made for the desktop; the
programs always jitter or freeze or crash or wipe out the
operating system. And like most people, the desktop is the
only environment I really control and can work with. By
Jinan Fiaidhi, International Journal of Instructional
Technology and Distance Learning, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Reusable Learning Objects Aggregation for
e-Learning Courseware Development at the University of
Mauritius
Pretty good overview of the
traditional theory of learning objects (it feels funny to
say it like that) with some good images. The authors,
though, sense the same sort of dissonance I feel with the
State of The Art: "The question remains whether we are
making optimal use of these repositories? How much sharing
has taken place between the various repositories that
exist?" By Mohammad I. Santally, Mahen Govinda, and Alain
Senteni, International Journal of Instructional Technology
and Distance Learning, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
No Two Swimmers Float Alike
I
still feel wistful when I think of Guy Bensusan, a man I
never met but who was able to talk to me through his
stories, examples, and passion for teaching the person (as
opposed to teaching the material). This article takes me
back to those heady days on DEOS (now it's all conference
announcements and posturing) when we were exploring what
teaching online really meant. I haven't seen this article
from Bensusan before, though it may be a reprint. Anyway,
it takes me back to my own days of swimming lessons when we
were packed into a car, driven to Russell, dumped into an
icy early morning pool, and drilled red Cross style. I wish
I had had Bensusan as a swimming instructor. By Guy
Bensusan, International Journal of Instructional Technology
and Distance Learning, July, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
ECMAScript for XML (E4X)
Specification
I still can't reconcile myself to
the idea that Javascript is now called ECMAscript (and I
won't change!) - it seems to me it should be called
Javascript, as it always was, and run by the W3C. Even if
ECMA runs it, it should still be called Javascript. Anyway.
D'Arcy Norman picks up this nice link to E4X -
ECMAscript (Javascript) for XML. Some nice work in there -
I like the way they look at the semantics of the thing
9which tells us what content you should get) rather than
just raw syntax. And the mechanism for referring to a
specific XML document element value is elegant. PDF link
from an HTML page. By John Schneider, et. al., ECMA, June,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Why Weblogs?
Link to a longish
PowerPoint presentation on the use of weblogs in the
classroom. Many screenshots make the presentation a bit of
a heavy download (which is why I've simply linked to the
blog post) but offer a lot of ideas and inspiration.
Nothing new here, but nicely organized and presented. By
Will Richardson, Weblogg-ed, July 22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Future Chat
The summer issue of Threshold - a magazine published by Cable in the Classroom - contains some
remarkable content, including this fascinating online
discussion featuring students (supposedly) from around the
world (meaning, around the U.S.) talking about the the
future of learning. This dialogue, archived from a
discussion at Tapped In, is chock-full of classic
one-liners. Here are just a few: "My powerbook never leaves
a 6 foot radius of me" ... "A computer would be able to fit
in your eye, or just built in your brain when you are born"
... "ShainaE: maybe, but don't you think there's value in
having an actual person there exchanging thoughts with you?
JonV: yeah, but i don't think that will be a factor in
stopping it" ... "in my one class we have a chance to talk
to others live, and yet we IM instead" ... "with the
laptops my school is covering at least 1/3 more material
than before." PDF. Thanks to Art Shostak for passing this
along. By Julie Evans, Threshold, Summer, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Duke to Provide Freshmen With
iPods
Interesting. "Freshmen showing up at Duke
University this year will get their own Apple iPod, part of
an experiment by the school to see if the popular portable
music player can double as a learning tool." All sorts of
data can be placed on a iPod - frosh "orientation details,
the academic calendar, campus tours and even the school's
fight song." By Associated Press, Excite News, July 21,
2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
A Conversation with Brewster
Kahle
The CEO of the Internet Archive and a
pioneer with WAIS (Wide Area Information System), Kahle has
been involved in internet archiving for 20 years. "The idea
is to take the Library of Alexandria another step further
and make the published works of humankind accessible to
everyone, no matter where they are in the world. We hope
that then everyone can add to this grand library. Current
computers and the Internet are making this conceivable.
This seems to be the opportunity of our time, in the way
that the generation before got to lay claim to landing a
man on the moon. That was something that humankind can
point at for centuries as a worthwhile achievement." Via
Open Access News. By Stu Feldman, ACM Queue, June, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Open Access Publishing: broadsheet roundup
and JISC's role
The British House of Commons and
Technology Committee report, covered here earlier this
week, has caught the attention of the press. Most of the
reports are vaguely positive toward the proposal. This
article is a wrap-up of the coverage in the major
newspapers. More. Via Open Access News. By Unknown,
JISC, July 21, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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