October 18, 2006

OLDaily

Tim Lougheed[Edit][Delete]: U.S. Patent Claim Against Waterloo Firm Concerns Researchers, University Affairs [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] Coverage of the Blackboard patent and lawsuit in University Affairs, the major magazine in Canada directed toward university professors and administration. This quote from Michael Geist captures the tenor of the article: "If this is to drag out there will be mounting pressure on many institutions that use Blackboard to consider switching, for the very reason that they are somewhat indirectly supporting the lawsuit." [Tags: , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Seb Schmoller[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard Patent. John Mayer Interviews Various Lawyers With Patent Knowhow, Fortnightly Mailing [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: 34 Hits] Seb Schmoller links to some interviews with lawyers on the Blackboard patent. "The first is with Professor Mary LaFrance who teaches patent law at the Boyd School of Law, part of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The second, which is a long and intensly relevant to key issues in the Blackboard infringement case against Desire2Learn, is with Professor Vince Chiapetta." [Tags: , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Anonymous[Edit][Delete]: And Then It Hit Me..., Webhead Link [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] "A mantra that Stephen Downes chants over and over in presentation after presentation: the power of the Internet is that it makes possible an aggregation of knowledge distributed over P2P networks whereas in a CS system knowledge resides in and is the property and responsibility of a single omnipotent yet not omniscent entity." Yes! "In the short run the CS manager is in control and can impose order on the system. But in the long run, as people become more sophisticated and aware of appropriate uses of technology in education, this will be seen as detrimental to the big-picture goals of the educational community." Yes! [Tags: , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Various authors[Edit][Delete]: perX, October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] This is a nice example of federated search. Note that when you input the search term it accesses each repository separately, then provides a link to the search results, if any. Advantages: the search happens in real time. Disadvantage: it's slow, and puts an excessive load on the repositories in the federation. Also, search results are unordered, and there's no value-added (such as third party tagging). Which leads me to really question the value of the federated approach. The authors have just release a poster (in PowerPoint) for the Open Scholarship 2006 Conference. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Education.au Seminars, Education.au Seminars [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: 1 Hits] This blog has been around since July but I'm just noticing it now (can you tell I've been busy recently?). The blog mostly links to audio and other media from presentations sponsored by education.au, including those from the recent Global Summit. Just posted, for example, is a talk by Doug Brown, from the Department of Education and Skills in the U.K. Or listen to Leigh Blackall on why teaching is dead and the rise of connected learning. As well, you can hear George Siemens on connectivism. [Tags: , , , ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Garett Rogers[Edit][Delete]: Google Docs to Go `Offline' and More, ZD Net [Edit][Delete]ZD Net [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] This link is mostly for me, as I'll need to cite it in a few hours, but what you'll see here is some discussion - and proto-code - for moving Google's web applications to the desktop. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Stephanie Reiger[Edit][Delete]: Decline of the PDA?, Keitai [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] The market in handhelds is changing and the author wonders whether the days of the PDA are nearly over, to be replaced by something like a smarter mobile phone. The big difference between the two, it seems to me, is that the PDA is a computer while the mobile phone is not. What this difference amounts to is this: you can hack your PA, but not your phone (like all absolutes, this isn't completely true, but it is mostly true). I am inclined to agree with the author, that people would miss the range and flexibility of applications available on PDAs. Via Mark Wagner. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Chris Correa[Edit][Delete]: Inside Teaching, October 18, 2006
[link: 6 Hits] Interesting. Chris Correa reports, "The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has put together a living archive for teachers and teacher educators to document their work via text, video, and images." [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Autonomy, Half an Hour [Edit][Delete] October 18, 2006
[link: Hits] I describe in some detail the concept of autonomy, as it applies to effective networks, and in passing, explain more oif what I mean by a non-causal theory of meaning. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Projects&Collaborations
Browse through the thousands of links in my knowledge base sorted according to topic category, author and publication.

Research
Browse through the thousands of links in my knowledge base sorted according to topic category, author and publication.


Stephen Downes

About Me
Bio, photos, and assorted odds and ends.

Publications
You know, the ones that appear in refereed journals of Outstanding Rank.

Presentations
Lectures, seminars, and keynotes in a wide variety of formats - everything from streaming video to rough notes.

Articles
All my articles, somewhere around 400 items dating from 1995.

Audio
Audio recordings of my talks recorded in MP3 format. A podcast feed is also available.

Calendar
What I'm doing, where I'm doing it, and when.

Photos
Newly updated! A collection of my photographs. Suitable for downloading as desktop wallpaper.

Stephen's Web
Since 1995

About this Site
Why this site exists, what it does, and how it works.

OLDaily RSS Feed OLDaily
Edu_RSS RSS Feed Edu_RSS
FOAF (Friend of a Friend) FOAF
Podcast Link
OLDaily Audio

OPML

About the Author

Stephen Downes

Copyright 2006 Stephen Downes
National Research Council Canada

Contact: stephen@downes.ca

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

.

I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle.

Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be.

This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence.

This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward. - Stephen Downes