Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
November 19, 2002

Web Services and Semantic Web for the Next Generation of Learning Repositories Slides from my presentation to the CANARIE 8th Annual Advanced Networks Workshop today. Regular readers of my work will notice some overlap with previous presentations. There is information about the eduSource project that may be new to some readers, plus the design principles section has been revised. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, November 19, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Lindows Hits Virtual Shelves Lindows, an open source alternative to Windows, is now available. As the story notes, "Unlike Microsoft's Windows, Lindows can be installed on multiple machines without violating licensing agreements." My bet is that it would end the blue screen of death as well. By Lisa M. Bowman, CNet, November 18, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Chain Stories As described by European Schoolnet, "Language Across Borders has been developed by teachers from five different schools in Denmark: Grantofteskolen in Ballerup, Hornbæk Skole in Hornbæk, Virum Skole in Virum, Tjørnegårdsskolen and Skovshoved Skole in Gentofte. Together, they have set up a very nice online activity: the chain stories. Start a story in English, French or German, make it travel around and grow. This activity is not new as such, but so much more fun when using the Internet." By Various Authors, Language Across Borders, Undated [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Teachers Get to Make Virtual Decisions Thanks, Trond, for sending me this item about the use of simulations in teacher training. I love some of the reports: ""As I ended my virtual year all my staff were happy, my leadership team very happy and behaviour in the classroom seemed to have vastly improved. However I was working an unsustainable 93 hours a week to achieve this." More information is available at the National College for School Leadership. By Gary Eason, BBC News, November 13, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Education Leaders Sacrificing Integrity "How can we carry forward an honest debate on public policy if our universities have decided a priori to side with the military and the banks?" This is a serious question posed by a Montana State English professor as he bemoans such things as tied research, exclusive deals with coke, and the general abandonment of research for the sake of knowledge. The column is important in the sense that it explicity recognizes and endorses more than just an economic role for universities; it endorses the important social function of the institution. Unfortunately he ties this into the university's adoption of technology, a classic case of confusing the means and the motive. I so applaud his sentiment, but I wish he could understand that a tool like the internet can be used for social good as well as economic gain. By John Snider, The Missoulian , November 17, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials A detailed and comprehensive guide with many references, decision trees (see especially the ones in the copyright section) and much more, this resource will be valuable not only for archivers of heritage materials but for anybody interested in online content. I just wish the font wasn't so small on my computer (people, please let the uyser set the font size so people like me with bad eyes can enjoy the material). Topics covered include project planning, selecting materials, rights management, digitization and encoding of text, capture and management of images, and more. By Many Authors, National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, October, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Flying Cow Why? Just because it moo-ved me. By Unknown, Media Farm, Undated [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Robert Aiken on the Future of Learning Robert Aiken sort of gets it and sort of doesn't. On the one hand he sees the internet as allowing for greater and more varied forms of interaction and collaboration. That's good. But he also sees students in 20 years still logging on to a website to get class notes. That's less good; I would like to think we will have evolved beyond that by them. Still this is an interesting interview with a person who has spent a lifetime on computers. By Unknown, Ubiquity, November, 2002 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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