By Stephen Downes
July 29, 2003
How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web
Server, and a Beer
The ultimate low-tech guide
to creating your own RSS feed. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's
Web, July 29, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
RSi
Copyright
I ran across this while checking out
an article I found via elearningpost, an
article I decided not to run here because it seems to begin
half way through (I now realize that elearningpost's link
has been sabotaged). The service is called RSi Copyright
and its a mechanism for obtaining instant copyright
clearance. It's a service similar enough to what I've
described that I took notice, but as I read through it I
realized I had discovered the evil twin. The "Instant Web
E-print" option - which would cost $200 for this item - is
essentially paid permission to link, with the statement
that "If you link to the article on the publication's site
without this license, you risk broken links since
publishers move their content frequently." As I said,
sabotage. There are other options, including a $1.00 charge
to make one photocopy. If you want to send one email
containing the article, that will cost you $5.00. This
company is very insistent on getting every dime from
readers - I wonder whether they paid any money to Creative
Commons for lifting their idea and commercializing it. Nah,
I thought not. By Various Authors, July, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Secrets of Successful Idea
People
My job - quite literally, these days - is
to come up with ideas. So of course I measure an article
like this against my own practice. First: think outside
your discipline. "Read — and not only in subjects that are
directly related to your profession." Yes, but don't just
read (that traps you into linear thinking). But seek out
things like Idea City and soak in the wisdom of a
hundred disciplines. Second: "Check the fit" by evaluating
the idea and, according to the article, ask, "is the idea
aligned with your sphere of influence?" Piffle. If you're
not allowed to do it, do it anyway. If you can't do it,
convince someone who can. Never be limited by what
you're allowed to do. Third: "Try to anchor the idea in as
many places inside the company and with as many customers
that are important to the company as possible." This is
"planting seeds" and, yes, I do that. But my experience is
that I have to grab them by the root and yank them out of
the soil before they'll grow. Then the other seeds take
notice. Fourth: "Fly under the radar... use small pilot
projects to build support for idea..." That's nice if you
want to build better wheels for trains. Doesn't work at all
if you want to build an airplane. This article misses the
most important thing of all: catch a vision, a way things
could or should be, and fly with it. This article hits one
and a half out of four. I hope they're not being paid to
create ideas. By Theodore Kinni, HBS Working Knowledge,
July 28, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
How Long Does it Take? Estimation Methods for
Developing E-Learning
How long does it take to
build a road? A moment's reflection tells you that, in a
certain sense, this is a pretty nonsensical question: it
depends on the type of road you want to build and how far
you want to go (it also depends on the weather, the terrain
and labour negotiations). It's pretty much the same for
e-learning. But that doesn't mean you can't come up with
some sort of idea - otherwise we could never plan road
construction projects. It's just a lot more complex than
might first be assumed. This article surveys found major
ways of calculating the time required: comparisons with
similar projects, using formulas, bottom-up planning, and
industry standards. By Karl M. Kapp, Learning Circuits,
July, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blown Away by RSS Feeds &
Blogs
Count Paul Stacey among the converts (and
I guess we can expect him at the RSS talk at MERLOT next week - which, by the way, I
will be attending after all). Mostly this article is
a story of his own discovery of RSS, but the article is
littered with useful links he encountered en route.
By Paul Stacey, E-Learning, July 25, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Intellectual Property in
Education
The lessons are at the top of this
article: "Intellectual Property is important...
intellectual Property issues have been greatly complicated
by modern technology... IP is not widely understood... The
IP problem is not going to evaporate..." All four are true,
and all four are well documented on this site, but the
authors focus far too much on "official" sites and
accounts, leaving many alternative voices silent. A token
link to John Perry Barlow just doesn't cut it any more.
Disappointed. Here is an alternative list of links; perhaps the
authors will contemplate a Part Two and properly engage
this topic. By Graeme Daniel and Kevin Cox, Web Tools
Newsletter, July 28, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Beautiful Minds
Via Kairosnews,
this link points to an interesting discussion of the
(possible) correlation between a teacher's looks and the
evaluations given by the class. Writes the Invisible
Adjunct, cynically, "Hamermesh believes that 'in a strictly
economic sense,' this may not be unfair: 'If students pay
more attention to good-looking instructors and thus learn
more from them, then professorial beauty could have a
'productivity effect,' Hamermesh said.' I'm not quite sure
what Hamermesh means by 'strictly economic.' He seems to
rely on the very dubious assumption that the higher a
student's evaluation of a professor, the more that student
has learned." Great read. By Anonymous, Invisible Adjunct,
July 28, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Elearning, By Any Other
Name...
Discussion of the idea that a person
could learn simply by using Google. Clark Quinnresponds,
"I'm concerned that someone's going to try to push the view
that a factoid dribble is an elearning solution. Which
might prevent people from working to solve the tough
components of the problem: context model, content model,
user model." Fair enough. I clarify my position in this
dialogue and several people chime in about the definition
of e-learning and whether or not it is, and Jay Cross says,
dead. By Clark Quinn, Learning Circuits Blog, July 25, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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