By Stephen Downes
October 23, 2003
e-learning Stakeholders and
Design
The comment from elearnspace reads
simply, "If the designer isn't in contact with the end
user, how can the learning environment / software / course
/ resource be designed to optimize their experience?" It
points to the necessity of feedback, but while I would
agree that feedback is useful, I draw the line at saying it
is necessary. It is possible to design very good, if not
optimal, systems with zero user feedback. Many things -
from great works of literature, to great art, to innovative
software, have been designed this way. "I write my songs
for myself," is the way many artists put this sentiment.
Not only do I think that this devel-may-care attittude
exists, I think it is actually necessary. Innovation is
disruptive, and disruption produces negative feedback, and
if the feedback guides the product, the first thing to go
would be the innovation. I like to listen to and read
comments, because they let me know when I'm onto something.
But I would never ever design - or write - based only on
the feedback. By Jeremy Hiebert, Headspace J, October 21,
2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Open Source Course Management
Systems
Via George, here is a very nice list of
open source CMS software compiled by Scott Leslie. My quick
count adds up to 46 separate systems, each with a link to
the software home page, and many linked to reviews and
commentary. Great job! By Scott Leslie, EdTechPost, October
22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
How to Hate Microsoft
This is one
of those articles where the comments are much, much more
interesting that the item itself. In the new Longhorn Blog
Microsoft employee Robert Scoble asks readers for feedback
on the forthcoming Longhorn operating system in an effort,
he writes, to create a system users can't hate. It has
resulted in an outpouring of raw sentiment, including a
longish post on digital rights and content distribution
from myself. By Robert Scoble, The Scobleizer LonghornBlog,
October 22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Search Inside the
Book
Amazon.com's new 'search inside the book'
service provides a granularity of search that the designers
of learning object technology have so far only dreamed of.
I wonder where they got the licenses to search inside all
those books. By Unknown, Amazon.Com, October, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Spam: How It Is Hurting Email and Degrading
Life on the Internet
This new candidate for the
Ig Noble Awards investigates and concludes: "Spam is
beginning to undermine the integrity of email and degrade
life online." No, really? By Deb Fallows, Pew Internet
Project, October 22, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Why We Must Stand On Guard Over
Copyright
This brief article outlines why many
nations - including Canada - are reluctant to adopt the
strong copyright protections demanded by the U.S., and
describes some of the tactics being employed to widen this
regime despite these nations' reluctance. The author
suggests that the less stringent copyright regime desired
by these nations may be sacrificed in ongoing trade
negotiations in order to obtain concessions in other areas.
It would be a mistake to sacrifice any current leverage we
may have in the information economy in order to obtain
short-term and illusory gains in more primary industries.
Having an export agreement with the U.S. is one thing.
Having the U.S. respect its terms and conditions - as
anyone in the Canadian softwood industry will attest - is
quite another. Selling out on copyright will buy us
nothing, and will cost us a developing industry. By Michael
Geist, Toronto Star, October 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
National Occupational
Classification
Some discussion in the DEOS list
on competencies is producing some interesting links. This
one, for example, is the result of Human Resources
Development Canada's (HRDC's) efforts in 2001 to describe
all occupations in Canada (for fun - select the first link
on each page, and be treated to the description for
'cabinet minister'). Another link on the same topic is the
ASTD Models for Workplace Learning and
Performance. By Various Authors, Human Resources
Development Canada, December 31, 200-31 8:33 p.m.
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Students Fight E-Vote Firm
I have
linked to the story about the Diebold electronic voting
controversy frequently in NewsTrolls (see the research here) but this is the first time
the issue has intruded into academia. The company is trying
to respond to criticisms that its voting machines can be
(and may have been) rigged, and it is doing so by invoking
the DMCA to force people to stop linking to some revealing
memos, prompting a group of students to launch an
"electronic civil disobedience" campaign against the
company (see the students' press release). "They're using copyright
law as a means of suppressing information that needs to be
public. It's a great example of how copyright law can be
against the public good rather than for it, as it was
originally intended. It's not like people are reading these
memos in order to steal Diebold's election system. (The
company is) trying to use this law, and specifically the
mandatory take-down section, to conceal flaws that directly
affect the validity of election results. This is a threat
to our democracy." By Kim Zetter, Wired News, October 21,
2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
AAUP–ARL Statement on Scholarly Communication
Statement by the Association of American
University Presses (AAUP) and Association for Research
Libraries (ARL) that mostly preserves the status quo, with
a slight nod toward open access: "What each library and
press does complements the work of the other and completes
the cycle of scholarly communication, for readers without
access to scholarship
are as crippled as scholarship without access to readers."
By Various Authors, October, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Marketing Science, Marketing
Ourselves
The point of this article: "We need to
ask whether we really want or need to proceed further down
the market-driven path. Is some implacable economic
mechanism forcing us to do so - is the deck stacked?"
Enthusiasm for the pre-Cold War model of noncommercial
academia, writes the author, stems from the idea that the
academic has a committment to open enquiry, separated from
personal or national prejudices. This has produced a
heritage of credibility - "It is difficult to imagine this
level of believability being awarded to a politician, a
lawyer, or a corporation executive, let alone a car
salesman." Commercial and sponsored research, though, risks
damaging that credibility. "We should not delude ourselves
that the final price will not be much higher than has been
paid thus far when the bill is presented. When the sole
value of anything we do is measurable only in dollars, we
will be just like everybody else, scrambling in the economy
for what they scramble for and having no more credibility
than they do." By David C. Montgomery, Academe, October,
2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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