OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
October 11, 2004

Knowledge and Learning
Slides from my talk in Perth today in which I draw out a clear theory of knowledge and educe from that a theory of learning. Sketchy, obviously, the audio will help when it's available. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, October 11, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio
Postcasting is here. "Known as podcasting, the technology is a new take on syndicated content feeds like RSS and Atom. But instead of pushing text from blogs and news sites to various content aggregators like FeedDemon and Bloglines, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player." By Daniel Terdiman, Wired News, October 8, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

RSS Quick Start Guide for Educators
Newly updated, this resource has just been updated. A good place for those new to RSS to start. Oh, and I notice that Will Richardson has added advertising to his blog, too. Hm... By Will Richardson, Weblogg-Ed, October 11, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

dscn6382-94
As you scan your morning feeds, your kitchen reports, "Your shortening would like to upload a recipe (yes,no,always upload content from Crisco). Note: this recipe got a thumbs up from your friend Brian" You click "yes" because you trust Brian and the RFID tag, which has connected with your home wireless network to make the requests, adds the URL and metadata to your home recipe library. Later, in your kitchen, you search for 'lemon pie' and the recipe once again offers itself. You decide to give it a try and this downloads instantly to display on your cupboard door. The recipe works great! and you add your 'thumbs up' to the Crisco spot in your recipe list. Oh yeah... what was that theory of learning objects again? By Bertrand Sereno, Bertrand's photostream, September 24, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

E-Learning Reviews
I got a press release in my email about this site, which at first glance looks interesting but developing. The idea is that a group of reviewers is reviewing publications in e-learning. A good idea - something that has been some time in coming. The reviews thus far (I read a dozen or so) look more like summaries - I would like to see more commentary. The reviews are sorted by people - no reviews of 'Downes' yet, but you'll see people like Anderson and Wiley listed. But instead of reviewing the authors' publication, I think they should review the people - are their ideas coherent? do they give good presentations? etc. Didn't find an RSS feed, and I didn't find a place for people to submit their own reviews. By Various Authors, October, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

BBC Reveals Open-source Video Technology
Just what the world needed to counteer the mess that has been proprietary digital video formats (and the maze of incompatable technologies that naturally followed): Dirac (named after the physicist) is an open source codec (which stands for 'coder-decoder') released by the BBC. As they say around here: good on ya, BBC! By Matt Loney, CNet News.Com, October 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Innovate
From the website: "Welcome to the inaugural issue of Innovate, a peer-reviewed e-journal that lives up to its name in both content and design... These pages feature cutting-edge research and practice in the field of information technology, but Innovate invites you to do more than simply read. Use our one-button features to comment on articles, share material with colleagues and friends, and participate in open forums. Join us in exploring the best uses of technology to improve the ways we think, learn, and live." Edited by James Morrison, Innovate picks up where Technology Source left off and is a welcome addition to the instructional technology community (though I will confess to angst about the one-time registration requirement). By Various Authors, October, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Ontario School Board Stretches Network over 71,000 Sq. Km.
A million dollars may seem like a lot for a wireless network - aftr all, the one in my home only cost me $700 (to set up one hub and five computers). But when you look at the stats of this networked being rolled out in the Ontario (Canada) district of Keewatin, a million doesn't seem so large: 7,000 students in 27 remote locations spread out over some 71,000 square kilometres. Or, to put it another way, just imagine what the cost of deploying fibre over that area would have been. By Ian Palmer, ITBusiness.Ca, October 7, 2004 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Remember...
[Refer] - send an item to your friends
[Research] - find related items
[Reflect] - post a comment about this item

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter?

Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/subscribe.cgi

[About This NewsLetter] [OLDaily Archives] [Send me your comments]