Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
March 6, 2007

Cool Cat Teacher Gets It - the Future of the Web (and Maybe Online Learning) Will Be 3D
Another response to Vicki Davis's post on Second like and Web 3D. Though it covers a lot of ground and is largely encouraging, this post mostly takes Davis to task for criticizing Second Life. Most significant is the following observation: "the 3D web may not be Web3D, it may be built on a completely different architecture using a completely different client. The X3D standards will have an impact, but may not win out in the end. One of the biggest drawbacks of VRML/X3D is that it does not allow for multi-user interaction, and I believe this social, collaborative aspect of 3D worlds is what has been driving their adoption." Sean Fitzgerald, Sean's Emerging… March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

Does Mobile Technology Equate with Mobile Learning?
Leonard Low clarifies his thoughts on the definition of 'mobile learning', concentrating more on social factors (ubiquity, ease of use, appropriateness of use in public places, cost) rather than on the device itself. On the one hand, I can see the point - but on the other hand, the definition seems very arbitrary. None of these conditions have anything to do with being mobile (indeed, the definition explicitly excludes mobility as a consideration). And it just happens to favour closed, proprietary platforms that access restricted networks over open or open source platforms that communicate via open protocols on a peer-to-peer or networked basis (in other words - it favours, for no good reason, telephone-like devices over computer-like devices). Leonard Low, Mobile Learning March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

Thinking About 3D Web - or Is It Web 3.0?
Reflections on Vicki Davis's recent post on Second Life and Web 3D. While nodding toward the educational benefits a 3D web will offer, Alja Sulcic says there should be open protocols and standards, that it should be more accessible, more cross-platform, and preserve the values of Web 2.0. "Ratings have no functional effect and you have to pay to give them? Hm, doesn't really sound like Web 2.0 to me." Alja Sulcic, iAlja March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

Open Source Business Model
Tony Karrer summarizes and links to a series of posts centered around an exchange between Dave Tosh and myself on open source business models. Tosh laments that open source only works in ideal circumstances, citing as evidence the fact that his own software, ELGG, does not produce a revenue stream. My response, which Tosh took very personally, was that Tosh's problems are the result of his expectations, his business practices or his business model, and not some inherent flaw in open source as a business model, the success of which is pretty much an established fact. Tony Karrer, eLearning Technology March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

School 2.0 Revisited: What's In A Name?
Response to some statements questioning the use of the term 'School 2.0' as an "effort at retrenchment" or an effort to "protect one's own turf". Sessums says he is "more drawn to reforming schools in the guise illustrated by Stephen Heppel's NotSchool or the Sudbury Schools," arguing that "the challenge before is to find a process that allows both order and innovation in individuals and society" because "schooling will most likely continue to be culturally and politically significant in our society." They are intended, he writes, to bring students closer to society and "places where collective consciousness becomes assimilated." Christopher D. Sessums, Weblog March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

Digging Patents
This is actually a good idea. The U.S. Patent Office is setting up a system to post new patent applications online and to invite comments from the web, using "a Digg-style rating system to allow readers to push the most relevant postings to the top where they will be reviewed by patent examiners." Tim Stahmer, Assorted Stuff March 6, 2007 [Link] [Comment]

 

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