OLDaily

Marc Canter, et.al.[Edit][Delete]: PeopleAggregator, June 28, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] Marc Canter's PeopleAggregator site has now launched in an alpha version. On the one hand, it looks and feels just like another social networking application, and with a clunky and awkward interface. But on the other hand, the premise is that because it uses open APIs, it should be the first in a network of distributed social networks. This would be much more interesting. You need to be invited to get a look inside - but if you send me an email (please give me your first name, last name and email address, so I don't have to look them up) I'll send you an invite (no guarantees that the site is working, though the test invites I tried in the last couple days all worked). Oh yeah, and I've also created an edubloggers network in People Aggregator. [Tags: Networks] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Jay Rosen[Edit][Delete]: The People Formerly Known as the Audience, PressThink [Edit][Delete] June 28, 2006

[link: 14 Hits] If I wrote, "The People Formerly Known as Students," what would you say? How would you react if I said, "We graduate from wanting learning when we want it, to wanting it without the filler, to wanting learning to be way better than it is, to teaching and educatingg ourselves when it meets a need or sounds like fun." Well - this is what I am saying, and I am saying it because this is where the evidence points - just as people are taking control of media, they will also take control of learning. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Librarians Condemn Captain Copyright, CIPPIC [Edit][Delete] June 28, 2006

[link: 5 Hits] From the website: "the Canadian Library Association unanimously passed a resolution condemning Access Copyright's misguided 'Captain Copyright' advocacy website... as posing 'a threat to our shared information commons by providing biased copyright information to the Canadian public, particularly children and schoolteachers.'" Can't argue with that. [Tags: Canada, Copyright and Patent Issues, Schools, Children and Child Learning] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Tim Lauer[Edit][Delete]: QuikMaps: Google Maps Creation Tool, Education/Technology [Edit][Delete] June 28, 2006

[link: 6 Hits] Nifty tool. It's not as intuitive as I would like to draw the lines - but it's a lot better than, well, everything else. [Tags: Google] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

George Siemens[Edit][Delete]: Constructivism vs. Connectivism, Connectivism Blog [Edit][Delete] June 28, 2006

[link: 26 Hits] Post outlining some of the distinctions between connectivism and constructivism. One point needs considerable clarification. Siemens complains of constructivism, "The act of learning itself is still perceived to be in the head of the individual." As a commentator writes, "Where else would it happen?" And of course, that's where it happens. But what is learned by an individual is incomplete - it is as though the process of learning produces a key in our heads - the production occurs entirely in the head, but it still requires a lock and a door in order to be of use.

Siemens also observes, critically, that "constructivism is a 'sometimes' learning habit (we are always connecting, but we only construct in certain situations)... We don't always construct. We are often much more passive in our learning. We read an article and we link it to our existing understanding. We subscribe to a newsletter (or magazine)...we attend certain conferences...we dialogue with certain people/communities." I think this is right. It's as though constructivism postulates some specific intentional act, 'learning', which is fundamentally different from everything else we do (and which we would never do without help?). To me, though, learning is much more natural, something we are always doing, and, as Siemens says, "the real challenge lies in defining context, need, and intent of learning." [Tags: Connectivism, Newsletters, Constructivism] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Commission on the Future of Higher Education[Edit][Delete]: Commission Report 6/22/06 Draft, U.S. Department of Education [Edit][Delete] June 28, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] Educators in the United States are up in arms over a draft report released by a federal higher education committee, but the report doesn't say anything we haven't been saying here for several years. "History is littered," it says, "with examples of industries that, at their peril, failed to respond to or even to notice changes in the world around them, from railroads to steel manufacturers. Without serious self-examination and reform, institutions of higher education risk falling into the same trap." Quite right. Moreover, higher education institutions are not accessible, the report says. And with costs that have outpaced inflation for decades, they are not affordable. There are also questions about quality and accountability. PDF. Via Inside Higher Ed, which documents the responses. [Tags: Accessibility, United States, Quality] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Justin Hall[Edit][Delete]: bud.com, June 28, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] This is an interesting concept. "URLs with time and date stamps define a geography. The hypertext choices we make describe hours of our life. Using the Attention Trust Firefox browser extension, bud.com will collect the surfing trails of willing participants. By uploading their browser history, players will be setting the bud.com server to task, interpreting that data into their own networked reflection." It's interesting not so much because of the gaming aspect but because of the use of the browser extension to collect and interpret browsing data in a multiuser environment. Here's the single-player information architecture diagram. Via Craig Bottomley. [Tags: Networks, Games and Gaming] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Jan Oberst[Edit][Delete]: Flickr Grab, June 28, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] A nifty application that grabs thumbnails from Flickr. I think you need to see this to appreciate it. Try 'by user' - my user ID on Flicker is 'Stephen Downes'. Via EdBloggerNews. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]