Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 8, 2007

Mandarin 2.0
Tomorrow morning, before the Sun comes up, I will be getting ready to leave for a visit to Taiwan for the 2007 International Conference on OpenCourseWare and e-Learning. It's a bit late for me to use this site, which assists in the teaching of Mandarin. But I like the idea. "'Tens of millions' of people in 110 countries now download the free ChinesePod podcasts, Praxis's flagship service, says Mr Carroll. About 250,000 listen regularly and 'several thousand' pay for the premium services, which include individual Skype chats with teachers." Unattributed, The Economist June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: China, Podcasting, Chatrooms, Audio Chat and Conferencing] [Comment]

Lolcats
From the internet culture department, you ma want to take note of 'lolcats' - photographs (originally of cats) with captions (funny, LOL) expressed in altered grammar. They're pretty creative - and what I find interesting is that the altered grammar has a pattern, it is recognizable, and you can sense when it's done incorrectly - but it does not, obviously, follow any rules, standards or guidelines. Various Authors, Wikipedia June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Blogging 2.0
Interesting discussion of the future of blogging. "The future of blogging must be connected to why people blog now," writes Ian Delaney, and also why they don't blog. Many aspiring bloggers underestimate the workload - and so future blogging may resemble more micro-blogging (such as twitter) or passive blogging. Ian Delaney, twopointouch June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

System Content: The Seven Models in a Sim
Verty good post that should cause readers to rethink what they think about simulations. "Our world is filled with systems, as complex as the universe or simpler than a light switch. And complicated systems are made up of simpler systems, equations, variables, relationships, processes, units, and actions. There are seven different techniques for building out systems in sims, all compatible with each other, overlapping, scalable, and recursive." Don't miss this post. Clark Aldrich, The Blog of Clark Aldrich June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Simulations] [Comment]

The Web 2.0 Driven SECI Model Based Learning Process
The diagram in this post reminds me of my old 'knowledge - learning - community' diagrams from 2001 or so. There's still something to that, I think. In this case, the cycle is something like "externalization - communication - internalization - socialization". "After 15 years," writes the author, "Web 2.0 concepts seem to be an ideal fit with Nonaka's SECI approach opening new doors for more personal, dynamic, and social learning on a global scale." Mohamed Amine Chatti, Technology Enhanced Learning June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0] [Comment]

Show Me the Examples! ASTD Big Question for June
The ASTD Big Question for June asks readers to 'show me the examples' of e-learning. Kapp provides a few nice examples. Me, I'll point to just one: this website. OLDaily plus the articles and the presentations and the rest of it. Karl Kapp, Kapp Notes June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

Just the Facts
It's a short post, but I want this statement out there and presented for the record: "Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it's not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It's not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil." You know, it kind of reminds me of the kids I used to know at the arcade down on bank Street. Same behaviour. Same risk. Dean Shareski, Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs, Research, Privacy Issues, Chatrooms] [Comment]

Blogging Inside or Outside the Corporate Firewall
Some comments on my post from yesterday talking about PLEs and corporate learning. Jay Cross says it was nonsense. He writes, "He knows full well that the reason I question 'Personal' is that I don't want us to forget that learning is co-creation, not solo." So, what, we replace 'personal' with 'work'? How does that follow? Tony Karrer writes, "Stephen's very much correct about a PLE being for the person. It is going to be a challenge for corporations to come to grips with the ownership of the learning if it is captured in a system." Donald Taylor focuses on the appeasment question, asking "Do those involved in corporate learning sometimes simply deliver what they think their pay masters want?"

Andy Roberts captures my intent: "the reason why some people are passionate about genuinely personal PLEs is because of the potential to shift the locus of power and control in favour of the individual, and it's no wonder they get twitchy when it seems like there's a danger of the whole thing getting subsumed back under the wing of the corporate interests and educational institutions." Exactly. Tony Karrer, eLearning Technology June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Research, Online Learning] [Comment]

Hey Blogger! Andrew Keen Says You'Re a Pajamad Monkey Intellectual-Kleptomaniac Communist!
I protest! I am not wearing pyjamas! The blogosphere responds as one to Andrew Keen's ridiculous book, "We are not monkeys." Keen - who has been promoting the book relentlessly (I was one of the unfortunates to be subjected to his marketing on the mailing lists) - will probably make some money as a result of his uninformed attack. But such is the nature of that irresponsible and uneducated medium - traditional book publishing. Vicki A. Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs, Marketing, Mailing Lists, Google, Books, Blogger] [Comment]

Concreting
Is YouTube blocked at your institution? Try Motionbox. That's where I learned all about pouring and setting concrete (very complete - the only thing missing was the point where the kids come and scratch their initials in the newly set sidewalk). Not sure how long Motionbox will last before being blocked, but it points to the fact that this will be a losing struggle for network administrators - they won't be able to block all the sources of online video. Simon Brown, Motionbox June 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: YouTube, Video, Networks] [Comment]

 

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