By Stephen Downes
December 11, 2003
A Net of Control
"Picture, if you
will, an information infrastructure that encourages
censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative
impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent
is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother
subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the
cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without
the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are
saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this
infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of
rebels and free-speechers: the Internet." Short article,
but a good summary of many of the issues that occupy my
thoughts. By Steven Levy, Newsweek, December, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Workflow Learning
Workflow
Learning is a mix of task-specific, contextual content and
simulation embedded in the workflow and real-time
multi-user collaboration in virtual workspaces. This new
website and set of resources (including some for sale) is
offered by Jay Cross's Internet Time Group. The diagram of workflow learning is well
worth viewing. Cross also offers an email subscription, but
as far as I can tell, no RSS feed. Via Serious
Instructional Technology. By Sam S. Adkins and Jay Cross,
December, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Copyright Litigation Threatens
Innovation
"As unlikely as it sounds," writes
the author, "the most important issue in new technology has
become copyright law." No kidding. This overview article
looks at the impact of a number of recent events, including
the ban on screeners, a levy on streaming media, and the
SCO group attack on Linux. The author observes, and I
agree, that "the suits are really saying that it has become
more profitable to sue the competition than to produce a
better widget." I hope that policy makers take note. "With
this kind of legal chill settling in on technology, it's no
wonder the U.S. tech sector is mired in sluggishness and
that broadband has been stalled. And in Canada, the federal
government is being urged to adopt a law similar to the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with the same corporate
interests behind it as there were in the United States. If
we want to protect Canada's high-tech industries, we had
better be very careful of the copyright laws we draft." By
Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail, December 11, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Recommendations for Teaching in a Distributed
Learning Environment: The Students'
Perspective
"It was an inhuman amount of work,"
said one student. "I'm unhappy, I don't have a life. I
don't go for a walk any more, I don't speak to my
children," said another. These were just some of the
responses from an otherwise satisfied group of students
evaluating a new program offered by the University of
Wollongong. Though evaluation reports like this are a dime
a dozen, I enjoyed the writing style, the presentation, and
the student focus of this report. The article dates from
2002 but was just now added to ERIC. By Geraldine Lefoe,
Cathy Gunn and John Hedberg, Australian Journal of
Educational Technology, December 31, 200-31 8:33 p.m.
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
How Educating America's Students Can Be Based
on Science
The U.S. Department of Education's
Institute of Education Sciences (IES) yesterday released
this report, Identifying and Implementing Educational
Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly
Guide. The report documents a research process that
narrowly defines what is meant by 'science': "randomized
controlled trials are studies that randomly assign
individuals to an intervention group or to a control group,
in order to measure the effects of the intervention."
Readers will recognize this as the methodology proposed by
an organization called the Campbell Collaboration (though you would
be hard-pressed to find the reference in the report). It is
worth taking note of my criticism of this methodology as
applied to education. By Various Authors, Institute of
Education Sciences, December 10, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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