Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
March 25, 2008

An OpenSocial Foundation
More good news: "Google is joining together with Yahoo! and MySpace in the creation of a non-profit foundation for the open and transparent governance of the OpenSocial specifications and intellectual property. This foundation, modeled after the community-led and industry-supported OpenID Foundation, will seek to ensure that the technology behind OpenSocial remains implementable by all, freely and without restriction, in perpetuity." The site opensocial.org will host the initiative. Via Simon Willison. Various Authors, Google, March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Patents, Google, Yahoo!, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

MMC Island Opens to the Public
Alja Sulcic writes, "I can finally announce the public opening of my company's first major Second Life project: the MMC island. MMC island is an extension of Multimedia center, the new media department of Slovenian public broadcaster (RTV Slovenija)." Alja Sulcic, iAlja, March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Second Life, Video, New Media, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

I Want to Retire Now and Get a Classical Education!
This site is chock-full of resources for people studying Greek and Latin. All for free, so far as I can tell. The site also has a newsletter and community forums (I wonder whether the students of Greek argue with the students of Latin - and in what language). tellio, Text2All, March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Newsletters] [Comment]

Costs of Open Source and Proprietary LCMS/LMS
Like any major application, an open source learning management system requires dedicated staff to install and maintain it. Consequently, such systems are not free (as in beer), and the trade-off with proprietary system comes in the form of the cost for support. This link points to a number of studies outlining the cost of running open source and proprietary LMSs. Harold Jarche, Weblog March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Content Management Systems, Open Source] [Comment]

Interview with Tolga Ozdemir, E-Learning Instructional Designer, Turkey
Short interview with Tolga Ozdemir, an instructional designer from Turkey. I would have liked to have seen more in-depth conversation, but I'm still happy to get this glimpse into the Turkish e-learning culture. Susan Smith Nash, E-Learning Queen March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

My Office 2.0 Setup
John Hibbs sent me this link (hiya John!), a fantastic collection of web 2.0 applications that effectively replace the standard desktop. Once we have the bandwidth, we can break out of the Microsoft monopoly in style. Various Authors, Weblog March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Bandwidth, Microsoft] [Comment]

Turning On the Lights
Marc Prensky takes a look at boredom in schools. "The reality is that students are, for the most part, bored. Pick an average kid, with an average schedule, and shadow him or her for a day in school-go where the student goes, sit in on all his or her classes-and see if you can stand it." Students today, he writes, learn more outside school than inside. Educators need to "give students the opportunity to use technology in school... find out how students want to be taught... connect students to the world... [and] understand where kids are going-that is, into the future-and help them get there." Via Darren Draper (who uses an unfortunate military metaphor to highlight the story). Marc Prensky, ASCD March 25, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Gaming] [Comment]

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