By Stephen Downes
June 23, 2003
RSS and Education: The Current
Hype
This link is to the main blog page because
the permalinks are returning page errors. But if you click
right away you should see the author's discussion of a
paper which, for unrelated reasons, I can't link to yet. I
agree with the author in the sense that RSS is a promising
technology still looking for the killer application. It
will come, because as the author notes, weblogs are maven
enablers. What that means is that they create a class of
people and sites who act as essential clearing houses on a
given subject. People start sending them links. Now the
author writes that teachers don't have time to become
mavens. Perhaps not. But over time, it will be the other
stuff (like administrative duties), not weblogs, that will
have to take the back seat. By Eric Baumgartner, Designing
Learning Technology, June 23, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Round-up of Links About SCOTUS Decision to
Censor Library Internet Access
In a decision
that will no doubt afect U.S. schools and universities, the
Su[reme Court has ruled that the government can force
libraries to filter internet access. The ruling can't be a
surprise, can it? Anyhow, this page provides background
information and a list of links related to the case. By
Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian, June 23, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Philadelphia Schools Scaling Back Corporate
Role
The first sentence says it all: "Private
enterprise was supposed to save Philadelphia's public
schools. But after just a year, the district's
unprecedented experiment in school privatization is looking
considerably less corporate." You'd think there was a
lesson in this wouldn't you. But no: read the rest of the
article and what you see is (mostly) explanation of why the
private management of schools is a trend that will
continue. By AP, CNN, June 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Classification 1.8
From the
announcement: "The CanCore guidelines document for last of
the Learning Object Metadata element groups. This element
group is also one of the most flexible in the LOM, as it is
able to accommodate a wide variety of classification
schemes, including hierarchical subject classifications
used in libraries and websites like Yahoo." Related to
this, CanCore has also released a system for using the
Dewey Decimal system within the classification element of
learning object metadata (LOM). This link is to a page on
which these and other documents appear as links. By Various
Authors, CanCore, June 23, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Semantic and Syntactic Interoperability for
Learning Object Metadata
Book chapter in with
the author, one of the principle architects of CanCore,
looks at learning object metadata (LOM) and compares
CanCore's with other application profiling efforts.
According tot he author, CanCore provides what has been
called "semantic interoperability," as compared to by what
is known as "syntactic" or "technical interoperability."
By Norm Friesen, CanCore, June 23, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Corporate Blog Is Catching
On
The blogsphere is abuzz with this report from
the New York Times touting the advent of corporate blogs.
As I have remarked previously in this space, there is room
for concern as the essence of corporate communications is a
form of sanctioned, depersonalized presence - just the
oppositie of what a blog should be. Corporation can do what
they want in the space, of course, but the requirements
posed by corporate participation in a space twnd to spill
over into the private and personal arena. First into the
fray are the lawyers, offering advice that will no doubt be
urged for all bloggers, not just corporations: "Lawrence
Savell, counsel at the law firm of Chadbourne & Parke in
New York, suggests posting a legal disclaimer concerning
the links listed on a corporate blog, in case it
inadvertently points readers to a Web site that advocates
illegal conduct." By Thom Weidlich, New York Times, June
22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Bethesda Statement on Open Access
Publishing
This document begins with a
definition of open access publishing - "to all users a
free,
irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a
license to
copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work
publicly" - and contains statements from three groups
endorsing the concept at the Meeting on Open Access
Publishing at the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Though the meeting was
held in April, the document was just now released. By
Various Authors, FOS News, June 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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