OLDaily
By Stephen Downes
June 12, 2003

Coping With Digital Rights Management
Slides (PowerPoint again, sorry, I need to make myself a really good HTML slide show engine) of my talk this afternoon to the eduSource Industry Forum here in Moncton about the Digital Rights Management system we are developing for Canada's national digital rights repository network. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, June 12, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

When Good Technology Goes Bad
I'm not sure I would call videoconferencing 'good technology' but this article, which examines what to do when your videoconferencing fails, provides some good advice. From rooms being reserved for other purposes to audio problems to camera issues, this author has seen (almost) everything that can go wrong. "Whenever a student would speak, we were treated to a lovely view of a wall clock. Clearly, the facilitators at the presenting site did not know that their camera was not trained on their presenter." Tee hee. By Scott Merrick, Tech Learning, June 1, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Hamlet on the Ramparts
Interesting. This site, hosted by MIT's Shakespeare Project, is an attempt to compile all known resources devoted to Hamlet, Act 1, Scenes 4 and 5, in which Hamlet meets the ghost of his father. By Various Authors, MIT, June, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Emotions in the Cyber Classroom
We saw yesterday discussion about the role emotion plays in learning. We have also seen, from time to time in my work, discussions of meaning, for example, when I talk about how people attach different meanings, and different importance to, the same learning objects. This interesting paper connects the cots. "Many educators routinely acknowledge that thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and values influence learning. For instance, they may stress that information must be 'meaningful,' or 'authentic,' but they fail to tell us what mental process determines meaning. By and large, that is an emotion-mediated process." Just as I said yesterday, I would extend that to say that sensation in general, and not just emotion, determines meaning. By Charlotte A. Redden, Educator's Voice, June 11, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Blogging a Chore to Students?
Oliver Wrede responds to my comments on his essay Weblogs and Discourse (where I observe that many students will not want to blog). He writes, "Right now anything that fosters richer interaction, more transparency and flow of information at a high rate is better than anything we have." Sebastian Fiedler also weighs in on the same comment. By Oliver Wrede, Details of a Global Brain, June 3, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Inquiry Page
Interesting site forwarded to me by John which allows people (especially students) to post questions, which are answered by an ever-growing number of community members. The website describes itself thus: "It's a dynamic virtual community where inquiry-based education can be discussed, resources and experiences shared, and innovative approaches explored in a collaborative environment." The site already supports many, many answers to different question which could, could they not, become learning objects? By Various Authors, June, 2003 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

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