Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 10, 2008

Edubunk
OK, here's my final statement on edupunk (as a meme, an ideology, or whatever): "Anti-authoritarianism is, in essence, thinking for oneself, rather than thinking as one is told. No problem of authority has ever been solved by any other means." Jeremy Hiebert, headspaceJ, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Edupunk] [Comment]

Taking Back Teaching: A Forgotten History
Clay Burell writes, "This all connects to the decision I announced yesterday to 'stop working for schools so I can teach.' Some of the comments I've received suggest that people have defined schools as a necessary ingredient in the definition of 'teaching,' and I can't say loudly enough that that is an historical error of the largest proportions." It just seems to me that as people become informed about the value of online learning, they leave the traditional school system. Just saying. Clay Burell, Beyond School, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning] [Comment]

Learn the Art of Photography: The Nikon Way
My new Nikon D60 should arrive any day now. I'm getting ready by looking at Nikon's new (free) online learning. Dan Colman, Open Culture, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

Web 2.0 and Commercial ePortfolios
Helen Barrett discusses a recent article in Campus Computing on commercial e-portfolio systems. She notes, "One of the ironies of this discussion is that free Web 2.0 technologies could be a threat to some of the commercial tools, since students could replicate ePortfolio/PLE functions of many of the commercial tools using these Web 2.0 tools." Helen Barrett, E-Portfolios for Learning, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, E-Portfolios] [Comment]

OER Presentations
From the wiki page: "We have created this page for OER presentations to help in our effort to make resources available for local awareness-raising activities. If you make a slide presentation on Open Educational Resources and/or the activities of our international community, we invite you to share it here. Thesepresentations may be adapted and used by others in the community in conferences, workshops and other awareness-raising events. To share your presentation, first upload it to SlideShare, or a similar site, then add the link to your presentation, together with a brief description to the list." Various Authors, UNESCO, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Open Educational Resources] [Comment]

Hidden Cost of Open Access
This article, published in the Times Higher Education Supplement, has drawn widespread condemnation from the open access community. Stevan Harnad writes, in an email, "Professor Altbach's essay in the Times Higher Education Supplement is based on a breath-takingly fundamental misunderstanding of both Open Access (OA) and OA mandates like Harvard's." According to the article, "There are several problems with it [Open Access]. Chief among them is that peer review is eliminated - all knowledge becomes equal. There is no quality control on the internet, and a Wikipedia article has the same value as an essay by a distinguished researcher." This, of course, is sheer fabrication, as is easily demonstrated by simple reference o any of the numerous open access journals online. Philip Altbach, Times Higher Education Supplement, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Books, Wikipedia, Research, Quality, Open Access] [Comment]

Towards the Creation of an Educational Heritage of Standards-Based Learning Resources
I spent the day today at a meeting with the e-Learning Standards Advisory Council of Canada (eLSACC) discussing with them our activities in New Brunswick and their discussion document, Towards the Creation of an Educational Heritage of Standards-Based Learning Resources. The eLSACC is an advisory body composed of five members of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) in order to help inform Canada's participation in international e-learning standards activities. Readers may also be interested in the Report on ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 Standards development, also available on the eLSACC website. Robert Thivierge, eLSACC, June 10, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Canada] [Comment]

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