Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
July 4, 2007

Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access
The authors describe a support model for the use of (open) standards in higher education. They describe a three-layered model of support comprised of the contextual, policy, layers. The support model is based on contextual support, "which recognizes the diversity and complexities of the technical, development and funding environments," and user engagement. "It could be argued," they write, "that what we need is not a list of open standards or open source licenses, or open access approaches but a process for adopting open approaches." Brian Kelly, Scott Wilson and Randy Metcalfe, ElPub 2007 July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Open Standards, Open Source, Open Access] [Comment]

Metaverse Roadmap: Pathways to the 3D Web
What happens when the 3D web begins to interact with our usual ways of interacting with the world and each other? This report describes in detail the possible scenarios, from augmented reality to mirror worlds, lifelogging, political change and the transparent society. Lots of detail, illustrations and examples. Very comprehensive. The 28 page report is available as a PDF (multi-column, so it's a pain to read). Via Liberal Education Today. Jamais Cascio, et.al., Open the Future July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups
Interesting article that analyzes patterns of interactivity (which they call 'structural signatures')in Usenet Newsgroups in order to find people playing specific roles in those newsgroups, for example, the role of the 'Answerer', the person in the group who offers answers to members' questions. Good diagrams contrasting the patterns characterizing this role with, say, people who discuss a lot. Via George Siemens. Also worth looking at: The Art and Science of Dynamic Network Visualization. Howard T. Welser, et.al., Journal of Social Structure July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Connectivism, Interaction] [Comment]

Nature Network - a Thinking Person'S Social Network?
Coverage of a new social network for scientists, "Nature Network (NN) - a social network for 'scientists to gather, talk and find out about the latest scientific news and events'." So why, asks Andy Powell, is nature - the journal - doing this? "Communication that used to happen primarily thru the peer-reviewed, published article and the conference paper is now beginning to happen in other ways." Good answer. My question is, why would they have to go to Nature to do this? Andy Powell, eFoundations July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Books, Networks] [Comment]

Picasa Mobile
Coverage of Picasa's new mobile service. What I really like was the way it adjusts the download size to the size of your screen - so if you have a tiny screen, you don't need to wait to download a huge image. TonNet, education and technology July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

iPhone&Learning: Early Report
From the website: "[This video] details the aspects of the iPhone that are high potential for learning (instructional videos, collaboration and more), some of the challenges (no current use of Flash Video) and a few trends in the mobile learning arena." Nice demo of how to resize the text on the iPhone, some critiques of the phone, and a plug on the research they're going to do. Elliott Masie, Learning2007 July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video, Online Learning, Research] [Comment]

Pedagogical Affordances of Syndication, Aggregation, and Mash-Up of Content On the Web
This article is a basic summary of Web 2.0 tools as they are applied in an online learning environment. Good overview from the perspective of two projects, the Dekita and Writingmatrix projects. They are "are similar in that they are two examples of what is possible when we are aware of and can exploit syndication, aggregation, and mashup of content in distributed learning environments over the Internet." Barbara Dieu and Vance Stevens, TESL-EJ July 4, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Web 2.0, Content Syndication, Project Based Learning] [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.