Stephen Downes

This is David Wiley thinking aloud about dashboards. The core of his suggestion here is of an "action dashboard" which is "is a dashboard filled with specific actions a user might consider taking." It's not a bad idea to have links or buttons for specific actions on a dashboard (indeed, I wouldn't think of it as much of a dashboard without them). You should also have more open-ended controls (sliders, dials, etc.) to fine-tune specific parameters. But my main suggestion is to change perspective. Wiley describes a dashboard for faculty. I am much more interested in dashboards for learners. A  'personal learning environment' as contrasted with Wiley's 'personal teaching environment'.