October 9, 2006

OLDaily

Wesley Fryer[Edit][Delete]: Podcast87: Stephen Downes on E-Learning 2.0- Learning Networks and Connected Learning, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Wesley Fryer has captured and podcast my presentation to yesterday's Global Learn Day 10. As he notes, I will be presenting this content as a paper at ITForum next week. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Tom King[Edit][Delete]: Google Calendar for Elearning Events, Mobilemind [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: 2 Hits] Good start. But what we need is a (semi-)automated method of submitting entries, rather than the current method, which is to send an email to Tom King. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Agence France-Presse[Edit][Delete]: China Builds an Ultrafast Internet, International Herald Tribune [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] This is interesting. "China has built its own version of an ultrafast next-generation Internet network that promises to reduce the country's dependence on foreign companies, the state news media reported Monday. The China Education and Research Network has linked 167 institutes and departments at 25 universities in 20 cities through the Internet Protocol Version 6." Which makes me think: a lot of these studies comparing China with the rest of the world are based on per capita measures. But perhaps we would obtain a more accurate impression were we to look at the raw numbers. [Tags: , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Christopher Irwin and Zane L. Berge[Edit][Delete]: Socialization in the Online Classroom, University of Maryland Baltimore County [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Essay about socialization in the classroom with the oddest (but perhaps the most honest) conclusion I've read in some time: "Anyone interested in examining how this complex dynamic contributes to achieving desired student learning outcomes must plod through a number of studies, each with a wealth of data that seem to examine only the constituent characteristics of socialization without considering the phenomenon as a whole." The authors attempt to place socialization into a context of practice where knowledge acquisition within them is sustained by collaboration, but I can sense the struggle that results when it appears that the communities themselves are intended as the outcome, and not the constituent knowledge or expertise. "Social knowledge construction (which is actually situated learning) is the end itself and the chief raison dâxTMetre for the existence of the community of practice." Via Distance-Educator.com. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: $100 Laptop Reinvents Computer Security, ESchool News [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] It's not the '$100 Laptop" any more, but we'll let that slide (all that relentless publicity has a price). The security innovation touted in this story is that "the $100 laptops will force any application to run in 'a walled garden' and limit the files it can access." This sounds to me a lot like 'trusted computing' and I wonder (in the back of my mind) how this will roll out. [Tags: , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Press Release[Edit][Delete]: K-State Converts 6,000 Class Recordings to Podcasts, Kansas State [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Not sure if it's the largest, but it's pretty large, and worthy of mention. According to the press release (mind the useless adjectives), "Kansas State University announced today its use of Tegrity Campus to convert an unprecedented 6,000 recorded classes to enhanced podcasts. K-State plans to have all 6,000 class podcasts available to its students this year, making it by far the education realm's largest podcasting implementation worldwide." [Tags: , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Various Authord[Edit][Delete]: Eduforge: Eduforge Team Blog, Eduforge [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Eduforge has created a team blog. "Eduforge is an open access environment designed for the sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open content and open source software for education." Topics covered so far include Open Educational Resources and the Blackboard patent. [Tags: , , , , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Doug Lederman[Edit][Delete]: Opening Up Online Learning, Inside Higher Ed [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: 10 Hits] Coverage of the 'launch' of the Common Cartridge standard (who came up with that name?) at the EDUCAUSE meeting in dallas today. "It is a set of specifications and standards, commonly agreed to by an IMS working group, that would allow digitally produced content âx" supplements to textbooks such as assessments or secondary readings, say, or faculty-produced course add-ons like discussion groups âx" to 'play,' or appear, the same in any course management system." According to the article, "all of them have vowed to begin incorporating the new standard into their products by next spring âx" except Blackboard, which says it will do so eventually, but has not set a timeline for when." Don't expect them to rush, though. "Because Blackboard and Web CT together own in the neighborhood of 75 percent of the course management market, Pearson and other publishers produce virtually all of their materials to work in those proprietary systems." [Tags: , , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Martha Irvine[Edit][Delete]: Online Can't Match One-on-One, The Morning Call [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] I find it ironic that a journalism professor is touting the benefits of personal interaction as opposed to the online variety. "He points out the students he's seen walking across campus, holding hands with significant others while talking on cell phones to someone else. He's also observed them in coffee shops, surrounded by people, but staring instead at a computer screen." Well - yeah. Would he also object to people holding hands while listening to the radio? Sitting in a cafe while reading a newspaper? I can see the benefit of advice saying that we should "talk to people" - as though there were anyone who really doubted the wisdom of that. But what makes loose associations by computer distinct from any of the others we have developed over the years? [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Angela Frucci[Edit][Delete]: Log on, Learn to Play (Without Reading a Note), New York Times [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Music learning is undergoing an online revolution. "From the real-time animated guitar fretboard of workshoplive.com to the truefiretv.com on-demand guitar lessons to the animated courses of Berkleemusic.com, students are increasingly able to forgo formal lessons in favor of a la carte online instruction with as little or as much human interaction as they want." The music industry, of course, whats to shut it all down, claiming that the 'tabs' - or non-traditional noration used to describe guitar chords - violate their copyright. [Tags: , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Hannah Edwards[Edit][Delete]: E-volution of Schools, Sydney Morning Herald [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] Is it really radical and impossible? "A 24-hour school with no traditional classrooms and where students use mobile phones and laptops to learn is being built in Sydney." Apparently not. "The traditional classroom concept will disappear, replaced by 'learning spaces'. The school will be referred to as a 'learning community' and teachers will be known as 'learning advisers', Mr Whitby said. 'The walls of a classroom become redundant because students are able to access real-time, any-time learning.'"

More from the Catholic Outlook: "Mr Whitby said this vision could not be realised without harnessing the Information Communications Technology (ICT) capabilities emerging through Web 2.0 developments. 'Web 2.0 is the second generation of Internet-based services that allows for greater sharing of information and networking,' he said. 'Tools like blogs, podcasts, wikis and the like mean that we can access information and collaborate anytime, anywhere.'" [Tags: , , , , , , , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Press Release[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard and SAP Announce Global Agreement, Blackboard [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
[link: Hits] If you have to use SAP (as I do) for anything, it's probably your most hated software. No surprise then that Blackboard is entering into a 'strategic agreement' with the company. "Blackboard and SAP are implementing this service-oriented architecture to help institutions deploy integrated end- to-end processes." Any chance of open APIs here? Thought not. My view: the real purpose of an agreement like this is to allow Blackboard, as a commercial sales platform, to tap into student account details, as contained in SAP, to facilitate sales of online content, software, and services. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

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Copyright 2006 Stephen Downes
National Research Council Canada

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I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle.

Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be.

This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence.

This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward. - Stephen Downes