Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day

I want to celebrate the blog day of action for the environment by linking to this video, Lion Love, which on the one hand is a heartwarming reunion between some people and a lion they raised from a cub, but on the other hand, is two people being jumped on by a lion. Eek. But so heartwarming. Because being an environmentalist doesn't have to mean being a communist or protesting in the street or throwing paint on people or harassing people who drive Hummers or getting into fights about global warming. It can be something as simple as loving your cat. OK? Various Authors, Website October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video, Linking and Deep Linking, Web Logs] [Comment]

One for the Mouse-Potatoes: Your Future Without Net Neutrality
One thing I've notice recently, in addition to an overall increase in the volume of Ed tech related content, is a big jump in the quality and accessibility of that content. I have dozens of journal articles to review, videos to watch, sharp insights to comment upon, applications to try out - and items like this, summarizing really important concepts in incisive cutting diagrams. Like this one, which makes the case for net neutrality (supported, I read in an article today, by more than 60 percent of Canadians) better than any essay ever could. Just look at it. Clay Burell, Beyond School October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video, Canada, Accessibility, Quality] [Comment]

Do Not Localize - Make Your Own
I am working on articulating my differences with David Wiley, and if I could, I would want to put this post right in the middle of it somewhere. Oh, it has nothing to do with open licenses. But it points to the distinction between creating one version, which you localize 9essentialism) and the creation of many versions, each by and for people in a particular context (pragmaticism). Which reminds me, in turn, that essentialism is kind of a modernist doctrine, while pragmaticism is kind of a post-modernist doctrine (though I would say, while I am not a modernist, I am hardly a post-modernist either). maybe it's more like the difference between Curriki (which was recently funded by UNESCO) and Wikiversity (which, um, wasn't, I don't think). Teemu Leinonen, FLOSSE Posse October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: UNESCO] [Comment]

Setting the Dial On Rationality
This post begins by summarizing M. Mitchell Waldrop's "Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos," a worthy objuective in itself, and then proceeds through an interesting discussion of modernism and technology. Doug Noon's definition of modernism will do: "progress, reason, technology, and a new world order all seem to be bundled together in it." And as Tom Hoffman says, "One thing that drives me crazy about our favorite ed-tech K-12 Web 2.0 rhetoricians is the exclusion of modernity and modernism from the discourse." Well I think I understand modernism all right; I am old enough that I was positively steeped in it when I was growing up. But, you know, I've read kalle Lan too. And I don't see technology as inevitable, I see the future as the result of choices, not progress, and there is no one purely rational future to choose from. Doug Noon, Borderland October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Wikipedia] [Comment]

Web 2.0
OK, I like the idea of presenting a long (111 slide) presentation on Web 2.0 in Web 2.0 tools. But it shows me that Google Presentation isn't prime time yet, with awkward page loads (including a 404 sidebar) and sizing (Google's software has been surprisingly unreliable for the last year or so, as though they are stretching their programming resources way too thin - maybe he should have used Zoho). That said, you should keep this resources (which is licensed as open source) on file, as it contains hundreds of useful (and usefully sorted and filtered) resources. Via Tirekicking Health Vault. Jon Udell, Jon's Radio October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0] [Comment]

OpenLearn Units in Facebook, App
I wrote a dull Facebook app last week, and now Tony Hirst has com back with something more interesting, "an OpenLearn Course Units facebook app. Add it to your Facebook profile and you can read the content of every OpenLearn unit via the unit RSS feeds, which are bundled using my own OpenLearn OPML bundles" using Grazr. Sweet. Now, imagine if these were different every day, as though your could reach in and sample a day's activity at a university. Oh so cool. Tony Hirst, OUseful Info October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Books, RSS, OPML, Cool] [Comment]

About Helge Scherlund's eLearning Video Today
I like this video because it's clear, forthright, and informative. And it describes an interesting and useful 'roadmap for e-learning'. Helge Scherlund, eLearning news blog October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Video] [Comment]

A Vision of Students Today
Fabulous video produced by Micheal Wesch - the same person who produced Web2.0...The Machine is Us/ing Us - and his Anthropology Class. What I like about the video - aside from the tone and the music - is the rebelliousness. Linked by, oh my, a whole pile of people. people who had comments include Tony Hirst, Alec Couros, Miguel Guhlin, Link] [Tags: Connectivism, Google] [Comment]

Consent Decree with the Open Web Shuts Down Times Select
"Whether or not content wants to be free", writes Jeff Jarvis, "it is free." He is writing of the New York Times decision to knock down the pay walls and open its subscription service, Times Select, to free access. This is significant. This isn't just Radiohead releasing its latest album on a pay-what-you-want basis (something Jane Siberry started a couple of years ago). This is a recognition that, in order to generate revenue, content needs exposure. Rosen writes, "you can try to charge, and some people will pay, but there is more money and a brighter future in the open flow of Web traffic... Just as RSS sends stuff from the middle of the stack out...every barrier you create to their participation with your product weakens your revenue stream..." The same is true of education. Creating barriers to learning does not advance learning. It weakens it. Jay Rosen, PressThink October 15, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Subscription Services, RSS] [Comment]

 

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