Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
February 21, 2008

E-Learning 2.0: What It Means, Where It's Going
Presentation I did for Mzinga is that (the result of a merger between KnowledgePlanet and Shared Insights). I looked at what e0learning 2.0 means to me personally, then what it means to students in general, and how it shaped learning. I also talked about trends in learning - especially as these new technologies come up against traditional environments. I finished with a quick summary of the underlying technologies. Presentation by Stephen Downes, The Business Case for eLearning 2.0, Online - WebX, [Link]

Why Is Adobe Trying To Add DRM To Flash?
They are doing it not so much as a lock-in, as the author suggests (though that is a nice side-bonus for them) but because their customers - content creators who haven't yet given up on controlling the market - are demanding it. Michael Masnick, TechDirt February 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Digital Rights Management (DRM)] [Comment]

E-Clippings
Mark oehlert is doing yoeman work covering the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, including a (short) post on Ray Kurzweil's keynote and a (longer) post on narratives. But I think I enjoy the video the most (much funnier if you're a Dungeons and Dragons player). Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings February 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

The Digital Commons - Left Unregulated, Are We Destined for Tragedy?
This essay looks at the use of the internet for open content from the perspective of the 'tragedy of the commons'. I think the main utility of the article is that it shows that the internet is very different from a pasture - it (and this is my perspective now) is kind of like a pasture that keeps growing and growing, a pasture characterized by abundance rather than scarcity. Thomas J. Hanson, Open Education February 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Open Content] [Comment]

Selecting Content for OpenLearn - an Insider Account
The director of OpenLearn, Andy Lane, respond to criticisms of the content selected by the Open University's open access initiative, saying the selection has to be pragmatic, and not just flashy. "For me the choice of content is a side issue. Unless we grow a culture of sharing and reusing content, good, bad and indifferent then we will remain in our ivory towers doing our own thing, thinking ours is the best or better than someone else's and we are not looking at what works for learners." Andy Lane, Fortnightly Mailing February 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Open Access] [Comment]

Repositories Follow-Up - Global Vs. Institutional
Andy Powell responds to some of the commentary to a recent talk he gave questioning the current approach to repositories. In this post he argues that "we need to focus on making scholarly content available on the Web in whatever form makes sense to individual scholars." Imagine, ge suggests, a service like 'ResearchShare', similar to Slideshare. "we would end up with something far more compelling to individual scholars than current institutional offerings." Like iPaper, maybe.

In another follow-up, Pete Johnston reaches back to Tim Berners-Lee to emphasize four basic rules:
1. Use URIs as names for things.
2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.
4. Include links to other URIs. so that they can discover more things.
Not exactly what we see from a pile of PDFs, is it? He writes, "I was struck (but not really surprised) by the absence... of any of the data about researchers and their outputs that is being captured and exposed on the Web by the many 'repository' systems of various hues within the UK education sector." Andy Powell, eFoundations February 21, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Research, Learning Object Repositories] [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.