Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
April 10, 2007

A Conversation at MIT
I spent the day today at MIT where, thanks to the generous welcome offered by Phil Long, I visited OCW and the Media Lab, among other things, and engaged in this conversation with a number of the people at the University. I began describing the properties of successful networks, and from there we wandered through Edu_RSS, topics, tagging, resource profiles and more. I really enjoyed my visit today and, on listening again to the recording, think you'll enjoy this recording. The link is to the MP3 file. Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web April 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Edu_RSS, RSS, Networks] [Comment]

Google to Host Atom Publication Protocol Plugfest
This is a bit odd, because my experience is that Blogger isn't really supporting the Atom API (the old Blogger is, but the new Blogger isn't). Here's my experience. And from that experience, I can say it would be nice if we had working libraries. Scott Wilson, Scott's Workblog April 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Experience, Content Syndication, Google, Blogger] [Comment]

Public eduCommons Demo
David Wiley writes, "For those of you who have always wanted a chance to play with eduCommons, our OpenCourseWare Management System, there is now a publicly accessible demo available at... Please let me know what you think!" David Wiley, iterating toward openness April 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Accessibility] [Comment]

The Importance of Learning Slowly
This is expressed a bit differently than usual, but it works: "Like neural networks, the brain is based on vector algebra, rather than numerical computations. Vectors have strength and direction, and many vectors, representing multiple inputs, unite to form a result. The result in the brain is strengthening or weakening of a set of neural connections, a relatively slow process. While a single event can have an impact, it usually takes many events to have a relatively permanent change in the brain (aka "learning") and to extract general features and generate rules from experience." Right. Exactly. Gary Woodill, Weblog April 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Experience, Networks] [Comment]

McLuhan'S Laws of Media and the PLE
When confronted with new media, McLuhan said, ask these simple questions: what does it enhance? What dos it obsolete? What does it retrieve? What does it reverse? If you have an answer to these, well, as Terry Anderson argues, "This brief mapping of PLEs to McLuhan's Laws of Media illustrates that PLEs constitute a new educational media. More importantly, noting the inherent adherence to McLuhan's four laws helps us understand how best to exploit this technology and what to be on guard against as the PLE cycles through exhibition of all four Laws of Media." Via George Siemens, who says it sort of does and sort of doesn't. Terry Anderson, Virtual Canuck April 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: New Media, Connectivism] [Comment]

 

This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.