OLDaily

By Stephen Downes
August 25, 2005

More Colleges Strike Up Music-Sharing Deals, Despite Lukewarm Response in Dorms
The students don't want it. So why are colleges purchasing download services? Well part of the reason is that music publishers might sue them otherwise. "Legal downloading deals 'may be a self-protection mechanism,' he said. 'Colleges can say, well, at least we have this, so we're doing something to stop piracy.'" Buy our product or we'll sue you. Oh yeah, there's a way to build customer loyalty. By Brock Read, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 22, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Stand Up
Stand Up, a recent release from The Dave Matthews Band, was distributed on CDs using copy control technology. Perhaps the lable should have consulted the artist, as the band has posted instructions on how to circumvent the technology on its website. As for me, I have bought my last CD, my last music of any sort, in fact, unless it's an unencumbered MP3 directly from the band's website. By Michael Geist, August 19, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

The Future of Technology in Schools
The writers at Slashdot look at this two-part article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (which, stupidly, requires a registration to view). Some of the comments in the discussion may surprise you. For example, this: "... why students don't use the available computers. I think the reason is very simple: people like to work in private (thus not at school), with things arranged in their own way (thus at home), and with their own software and settings (which school computers often don't allow)." By ScuttleMonkey, Slashdot, August 23, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Editor's Notebook: School of the Future World Summit
A short article, but with links to the primary sources. The author summarizes, "Last month, an impressive assemblage of educators and policy wonks from around the globe gathered at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington to discuss secondary education reform." There's an update and (more importantly) a link to the Microsoft-based School of the Future in Philadelphia and well as a reference to Australia's Fitzroy High School in Melbourne. You can also read and link to the TakingITGlobal site. "Over the next three years, with the help of Microsoft, it will be developing curriculum activities aligned with the TIG site." By Amy Poftak, Tech-Learning, August 1, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Conversations: Tree People and Cave Dwellers
Alan Levine looks at the discussion on blogs as conversation taking place in the Moodle forums and reacts to the misunderstandings he finds among the 'tree people'. He writes, "These "facts" and summaries are astounding, and to echo myself earlier, make me wonder if I am really using the same internet. Frankly the 'control and structure' glasses of the people who live in the tree houses of Forums make them draw some odd conclusions about all the bloggers running in and out of their cave complexes in the valley below. The tree folk have never even seen the inside of a cave, yet they can handily dismiss it." By Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, August 25, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Thinkers You Should Know - David Reed
"One of the most profoundly important (and disturbing) things about the Internet," writes James McGee, "is that fundamentally no one is in charge." This article links to and describes the man most responsible for that, David Reed. "Reed, along with J.H.Salzer and D.D. Clark, wrote a seminal paper in the early days of the design of ARPANET and TCP/IP called End-to-End Arguments in System Design that laid out the reasons that hierarchical solutions were a bad idea in designing a network of the scale and complexity envisioned for the ARPANET." By James McGee, McGee's Musings, August 24, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

Chilled by Publishers, Google Print Halts Some Scans
This is a few days old, but still reasonably current, and should probably be noted, even if it is only a speed-bump in the road to full digitization. Many links to discussion of the issue. By Graeme West, Spoken Word Matters, Sugust 25, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]

OnLine PowerPoint in Many Elementary Subjects
If you like PowerPoint and teach elementary school subjects, this library of slide shows may be just the ticket for you (I looked at some, which seemed OK, but by no means all). By Michael Stokes, SEGA Tech, August 25, 2005 [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]