Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 8, 2007

LeMill
I've been meaning to find a hook to hang this link on for a while now, but it hasn't happened, so I'll just send you straight to LeMill without a whole lot of context. "LeMill is a web community for finding, authoring and sharing learning resources. First at all, you can find learning resources. You can use the resources you find in your own teaching or learning. You can also add your own learning content to LeMill." LeMill is brought to us by Teemu Leinonen, and he adds a lot more information on his blog. Teemu Leinonen, FLOSSE Posse November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

Yippee Skippee !!
I like this. Using Voicebook, these students have made an audio-video collage of their book reports. Danita Russell, Random Rambligs November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Books, Video] [Comment]

Communities of Practice
This issue of eLearning Papers focuses on communities of practice. "This edition of eLearning Papers focuses on four distinct CoPs that have been fuelled by the use of electronic community building tools. In the last fifteen years, these tools have moved from online bulletin boards to wikis, audio and video podcasts, virtual meeting spaces, teleconferencing, and any combination of these and others." The articles look at things like eTwinning, success factors. developing services, and communities of proactice in the tourism sector. Various Authors, eLearning papers November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Conferencing, Video, Podcasting] [Comment]

Megatrends in E-Learning Provision
I haven't had a chance to review these three books (they've been in the bin for a few weeks now), but would like to pass them along in any case. "The European Megatrends project has now made available the following three reports... 1. E-learning initiatives that did not reach targeted goals; 2. Megaproviders of e-learning in Europe; 3. The Provision of e-learning in the European Union. Via Morten Flate Paulsen (Interesting use of a framed Blogger blog). Various Authors, Website November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Blogger, Online Learning, Google, Project Based Learning, European Union, Web Logs] [Comment]

Claroline Open Source LMS Wins UNESCO Award
Honestly, I had never heard of Claroline before this, an open source PHP-based learning management system. But I'm with Mark Aberdour when he ponders, "We're not sure where Moodle was in all this, used by many thousands of institutions in 195 countries and localised into 74 languages, maybe no-one nominated them." I really think that the people in these international bodies should get out more; they do tend to have an insular view of the world. Mark Aberdour, Epic Thinking November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: UNESCO, Open Source] [Comment]

Can I Hear You Now?
There are two ways to view communications skills in the network. This is one way: "From the stand point of the communicator, it means that they must produce messages that compete for attention. Therefore, it is no longer enough to simply be able to write a coherent paragraph. We must be able to express ourselves compellingly, so that our information will compete for the attention of our audiences." It is a depiction of the network, red in tooth and claw, as individual nodes compete with each other for more and more connections. Then there is the other way, where the node processes information and communicates, not with reference to the competition, but rather, with reference to its own nature, striving to be the best of whatever type of node it is and letting the connection chips fall where they may. This sort of node uses connections, not as some sort of weapon, but in a spirit of cooperation, linking and sharing as an exchange of mutual value.

If you think the internet is about competition, then you have really missed the meaning of the message. The initiatives that succeed online - including this newsletter - are those that have focused on development (including excellent software), communication and sharing. The people who try to accumulate links, who try to shout their competition into submission, may enjoy a temporary success, but I've seen them come and go, as time after time they can momentarily amuse and delight, but, lacking any sort of sustainability, they burn out in a bitter welt of acrimony and remonstration. , highlighting two major aspects: new literacies that are almost all social skills; and the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms. These are applied in Andrew Churches's revision of the verb lists in Bloom's taxonomy. Miguel Guhlin, Around the Corner v2 November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, E-Learning 2.0] [Comment]

Learning Objects
In case you had forgotten about the whole concept. Some good examples of learning objects here (though I'm not sure they would qualify as 'the smallest possible unit of instruction'). I enjoyed the Writers Toolkit object. The SuperThinkers game was also interesting. Various Authors, EdNA November 8, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Learning Objects] [Comment]

 

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