October 18, 2006
OLDaily
[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:
Canada,
Blackboard,
Copyright and Patent Issues] [
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[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:
Blackboard,
Copyright and Patent Issues,
Schools,
Desire2Learn] [
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[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:
Learning Communities,
Online Learning,
Networks] [
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[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:
Learning Object Repositories] [
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[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:
Connectivism,
Online Learning,
Web Logs,
Personalization] [
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[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:
Google] [
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[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:
Portable Computers] [
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[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: ] [
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[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:
Networks] [
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Projects&Collaborations
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Stephen Downes
Copyright 2006 Stephen Downes
National Research Council Canada
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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