By Stephen Downes
November 20, 2003
KM Europe
Outstanding coverage is
available online of Knowledge Management Europe. This link
points to Mathemagenic's November 15 coverage, which
provides numerous links, outlines, and commentary. Readers
will also want to scan Headshift's summary with commentary and even more
links. It's hard to capture the wide range of discussion in
a single post, but what I've seen leads me to suggest that,
if there is a trend, it is away from explicit
characterization of knowledge structures. David Snowden's presentation is perhaps
the best example of this, as he argues that "conventional
Knowledge Management has been too concerned with codifying
explicit knowledge to aid replication, and with using
categorisation (where we construct data around a
framework), rather than exploration (where we construct
frameworks around the data)." By Lilia Efimova,
Mathemagenic, November 15, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Sustainable Provision of Online Curriculum
Beyond 2005: An Issues Paper
The Learning
Federation, a collaboration of ten governments in Australia
and New Zealand, explores options for collaboration beyond
2005 and adduces four major criteria:
- continuing online curriculum content procurement and
distribution
- embedding online content in the practices of schools
- a national vision about schooling for the future and
- commitment to a range of policies and programs to
support the vision.
That said, the paper reflects
issues in how this development should proceed. "There are
tensions, and at times conflict, in the understandable
desire of schooling arms of governments to gain immediate
local financial return on money invested in content
developed for their schools. At the same time other arms of
the same governments are working to develop viable
commercial industries in multi-media, with export
potential, pursuing policies that restrict government
activity to core business." By Steering Group, The Learning
Federation, November, 2003
[
Refer][
Research][
Reflect]
Why you Shouldn’t use Learning Objects, and
Why You Should
Good bit about some of the issues
that may face instructors thinking of using learning
objects. The paper identifies three major hurdles: where is
the learning in learning objects, copyright issues, and the
workload involved. By Brian Lamb, Object Learning, November
19, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
PR Wars Heat Up in Open-Access
Publishing
This very brief item is a good survey
of the conflict between open access and subscription
academic publications. "The economics of scholarly
publishing can best be described as broken and
dysfunctional. Fewer and more powerful publishers are in
ongoing struggles with their biggest customers,
characterized by boycotts and dramatic contractual battles.
Until the fundamental structural problems in the publishing
industry are fixed, there will not likely be an end to the
barrage of open-access alternatives. And it may already be
too late." Not that the commercial publishers are standing
still, as evidenced by the announcement today that he UK’s Joint
Information Systems Committee has secured agreements with
seven major international publishers to provide access to
eJournals for the higher and further education sector in
the UK. By Unknown, Outsell's e-briefs, November 10, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Learning Webs: Learning in Weblog
Networks
This short paper provides an overview
of the technical environment before getting into the
interesting bit, a discussion of the social ecosystems that
emerge through current Weblog authoring practices. By Lilia
Efimova and Sebastian Fiedler, November 20, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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