OLDaily

Christopher D. Sessums[Edit][Delete]: This Machine Kills Fascists, Christopher D. Sessums : Weblog [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: 11 Hits] We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

Yes, I am officially back from my hiatus; thanks to those of you who have posted welcomes. Rob Wall kindly says "Given the hysteria around web based e-mail accounts, MySpace and other threats to the educational orthodoxy, the timing couldn't be better." And I do want to make a difference regarding these and other issues.

What brings me back is a desire to make things better, to contribute my own unique voice to what I see as a rennaissance. Like this: "What edubloggers must do is to continue to engage in critical dialogue, reflect, and communicate with those around us. We must be the ones who stand up and take responsibility for the struggle (If not us, then Who?). We must reflect and act together in a way that offers a new story, a new vision of education can be. Start by looking in the mirror: Meet the new boss; you're not the same as the old boss..."

Perhaps - but we do not need vision and will, we do not need great leaders. There will be no revolution, no rennaissance, until we change ourselves, until we ourselves become the embodiment of the caring and compassionate society we want to create. How hard that is! I return from my time away more aware than ever of how fallible, how ordinary, how human I am. Oh my yes, I have my apologies to give and my amends to make. Still, no matter how hard it is, we need to believe in ourselves, to believe we can make a difference, to believe we matter, to believe we can live freely. This, above all, must be our legacy. [Tags: Online Learning, Paradigm Shift] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Andy Carvin[Edit][Delete]: Tag - You're Delicious!, learning.now [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: 2 Hits] Useful post describing the social bookmarking service del.icio.us to the uninitiated. It is easy to forget sometimes that this whole web 2.0 thing is new to a lot of people. [Tags: del.icio.us] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Beyond Text: Using Your Voice Online, Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: Hits] It doesn't appear to be completely finished, but this online guide to the use of voice in online learning is nonetheless worth a look. The site offers a number of case studies, guides and some discussion on future directions. [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Press Release[Edit][Delete]: CIPPIC Study Shows Widespread Violation of Privacy Laws, CIPPIC [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: Hits] This should be no surprise. A recently released report shows "widespread non-compliance with federal laws requiring openness, accountability, consent, and individual access to personal data." A companion report describes "the many ways that detailed personal information about consumers is gathered and traded in the marketplace." Something to keep in mind the next time they talk about the ethics of their customers. Via coverage (mostly a reprint of the press release) in the Ottawa Sun. [Tags: Privacy Issues] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Philip G. Altbach[Edit][Delete]: The Tyranny of Citations, Inside Higher Ed [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: 7 Hits] Good article questioning the mere counting of academic citations as an indication of an author's influence (one would think this would be an obvious thing, but, well, you know...). Some good points: "Academics in many countries are urged, or even forced, to publish their work in journals that are part of a citation system... [and] Creative research in universities around the world is downplayed because of the control of the narrow paradigms of the citation analysis system." [Tags: Paradigm Shift, Research, Academics and Academia] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Wesley Fryer[Edit][Delete]: Ontario Blogs Put Up, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: 1 Hits] The Ontario edublogosphere moves forward. This item describes 'Ontario Blogs', "an online publishing project, coordinated by the Education Network of Ontario, where writers and readers can interact in a controlled environment. Students write articles and submit them online to the teacher for publication in the project blog." There was also an Ontario edubloggers meetup at the recent ECCO conference (summary by Quentin D'Souza, Day One, Day Two). [Tags: Web Logs, Project Based Learning] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Clare Brett[Edit][Delete]: Why Reading Matters Even More in the Digital Age, May 8, 2006

[link: 2 Hits] The latter half of this paper, dealing with the educational uses of weblogs and wikis, will be familiar to most readers of this newsletter. Leading into that material, though, is a nice description of the new literacies required by online readers. This description, together with the wealth of examples and references provided, make this PowerPoint presentation well worth the download. Via Konrad Glogowski. [Tags: Online Learning, Web Logs, Newsletters] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Daithí Ó hAnluain[Edit][Delete]: NewsML Aims For the Mainstream, Online Journalism Review [Edit][Delete]Online Journalism review [Edit][Delete] May 8, 2006

[link: 6 Hits] NewsML is an XML format designed for news articles. It is similar to RSS, but also includes a detailed vocabulary for categorizing news stories. This article describes the progress (or lack of same) of NewsML as a new version, 2.0, is about to be released. Readers should note the parallels between NewsML and Learning Object Metadata (LOM). Most of the discussion concerns the complexity of the standard. "On the plus side, stories get a common nomenclature to a very fine degree. And the NewsCodes can be adopted independently of the NewsML model, so it can be used with almost any tagging system. On the minus side, it uses too many terms to be practically applied by deadline-panicked reporters." [Tags: XML, Metadata, Ontologies] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]