Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
January 21, 2008

Marie Jasinski

I don't know if you ever saw it, but there was once two or three years back where Marie Jasinski wrote about letting go and committing herself wholeheartedly to being open and sharing online. She then proved it by posting an MP3 of her singing. It was probably the worst singing I had ever heard. But I'm sure she knew it was bad, and posted it anyways. People who do stuff like that are an inspiration to me. Not that I will ever post my own singing. But you know I know about just letting go and becoming the thing that you're doing, whatever it is. Marie has always symbolized that to me. I didn't tell her that her singing was bad, but I made sure to tell her the rest of it.

Thanks Marie. You will be missed.
Marie Jasinski, Website January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

I'd Love to Kiss You, but I Just Washed My Hair...
I've been thinking recently about the 'high school social group' mentality of some of the edublogosphere. I perhaps should not be so negative, but my experience (in high school) of social groups was more or less a disaster. There seems to be a presumption, as Artichoke points out, that this sort of sociality is a necessary part of an education. I disagree, and generally endorse her criticism here. Artichoke, Weblog January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Experience] [Comment]

A Pictoral Commons
I think this is a useful initiative: the Library of Congress is releasing photos to be tagged on Flickr. More from HeyJude! And Tim Stahmer addresses head on the criticisms: "Many were along the lines of 'So, what? All of them are on the LOC site already.' or 'Big deal! It's only a very small part of their collection.'." My own take is that the only way to get them tagged was to release a relatively small number - asking people to tag 4000 images is reasonable, asking them to tag many more will just leave them daunted by the sheer scale of the task. Harold Jarche, Weblog January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Project Based Learning, Flickr] [Comment]

CuePrompter
I like this. "CuePrompter is a free teleprompter/autocue service. Your browser works like a teleprompter -no extra software needed." Jane Hart, Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Changes to the Networks Community Forum
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework is changing once again. "[The] online learning community will not be continuing as a funded activity. In the short term it will revert to an edna (Education Network Australia) Group with the edna Groups team as the administrator and self-managed by the current membership." Cathy Baxter, Australian Flexible Learning Framework January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Membership, EdNA, Learning Communities, Online Learning Communities, Australia] [Comment]

Take Me to Your Thought Leader!
Interesting reflections on the concept of the thought leader (not obviously tied to the recent debate on experts, but obviously in the same context). As I comment, "What we need are thought leaders, certainly, but we need not people who can tell us (or even show us) what to think, but rather, people who, through their practice, show us how to think." Related: Artichoke pretty much lays down the law on social networking and the Economist debate. Also related: Contact spam Economist style. Derek Morrison, Pathfinder January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Government Mandated Morality
I have been thinking of content filtering as something that happens in other countries, but it appears to have spread to our fair shores. Unfortunately. Clarence Fisher, Remote Access January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Who Cares About the Box?
Personally, I think the launch of iPod Touch - with WiFi access - was a much bigger development than the iPhone. Clarence Fisher, Remote Access January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc.] [Comment]

It's Looking to Be a Fun Year...
I'm going to stop with the 'so and so has adopted OpenID' items after this. We have Yahoo on board, Google on board, AOL on board - it's officially mainstream. Also, Simon Willison on Yahoo and Blogger signing up. Scott Wilson summarizes. Brad Fitzpatrick, Brad's Life January 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Blogger, Google, Yahoo!] [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.