Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 9, 2007

The VLE/LMS Is Dead
"We'll probably take five years to realise it," writes Martin Weller, but "I think this shift to loosely coupled, freely available third party systems will happen. It won't happen overnight, and it will follow a succession model, but I would place money on this being the direction things take." A pretty good overview of the weaknesses of the LMS, and the post has sparked an engaging conversation in the comments. Martin Weller, The Ed Techie November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Results of First Comprehensive Study of Maine's Pioneering Ed-Tech Initiative Show Promise
The link to eSchool News will probably vanish into uselessness as that magazine clings to an obsolete publishing model by preventing readers from seeing its content, but Helge Scherlund (who has really been performing a service with her links to timely and credible content recently) has been good enough to summarize and link to the actual study. In a nutshell: the research suggests that children in the 1-to-1 laptop program are showing improvements in their reading abilities; "their writing scores have improved on a standardized test since laptop computers were distributed, the study says..." Helge Scherlund, Helge Scherlund's eLearning news blog November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Books, Research, Portable Computers] [Comment]

Slideshows for Tag: Efopenid2007
Slide decks from the eFoundations confrence on OpenID are being made available on Slideshare. So far decks from Scott Wilson, Sean Mehan and Dave Recordon have been posted. Various Authors, Slideshare November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Vid Snacks: A Place to Learn Video
Tim Holt writes, "I hope that this site will be used to help students and teachers begin to view video content creation in much the same way that we look at writing now." I think it's a good idea. But I hope he'll link to it from his blog from time to time, instead of making me and everyone else add another feed to the aggregator and join yet another Ning Network. Tim Holt, Weblog November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Video, Web Logs] [Comment]

How Creativity Is Strangled By The Law
Lawrence Lessign keeps saying he's going to focus on other things, but he keeps being pulled back to his favorite theme. That's OK, though. Because his favorite theme doesn't simply stifle creativity - it is personal expression itself that is stifled by the law (which may be why it's so hard to find any opposition to the law on the part of government and business). Via Alec Couros. (p.s. it must have been snowing last July in Saskatechewan, because I hear the Riders are going to the playoffs. ;) Lawrence Lessig, TED November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Lawrence Lessig, Push versus Pull] [Comment]

BestoftheWeb: My Most Useful Tools
If you were introducing someone to the world of the web and blogging, you wouldn't go far wrong following this post. I wouldn't call them 'folks' though - this is no great criticism, just a peccadillo, that it just sounds weird to me when people write 'folks' when they mean 'people'. Vicki A. Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

TechProof
I got caught up studying the list of categories of web sites to be filtered, the image from a filtering application half way through this article. The usual categories are there, of course, and even some odd options like 'search engines' and 'sports and leisure' (many applications also filter 'personal sites' but I didn't see that here). But what is telling is what it doesn't filter for. What about 'pro-war sites'? I think thy should be filtered. And so should 'fast food sites' because they expose children to unhealthy advertising. Sometimes I think people obscure the real dangers to children by focusing on the trivial. Doug Johnson, Education World November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Ontologies, Marketing] [Comment]

Intute Blog
I have introduced Intute before - it is a British learning content aggregation and search site. And since being introduced they've pretty much faded from sight. That will change. They've launched a blog. "At the meeting this blog was ‘launched' changing how Intute delivers news about our services, and allowing us the opportunity to share our expertise and reflect on best practices in academic use of the Internet." Via Emma Duke-Williams. Alun Edwards, Intute November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Academia, Web Logs] [Comment]

Blogging Parent Letter: Choose Your Privacy Levels
Some discussion and a sample letter to parents allowing them to select the level of privacy for their child's blog. I like the way it introduces educational blogging to parents - "it's a way for your child to read more about subjects they have a genuine interest in; to learn more about that subject through reading about it; to write more - and better - in order to attract readers in the world" - and I like the way it asks people to make choices, rather than deciding for them. Clay Burell, Beyond School November 9, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues, Web Logs] [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.