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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 19, 2008

Lucy Kellaway's Diatribe Against Brainlessly Upbeat Business Language
I read numerous press releases and corporate fluff pieces. So I'm completely symnpathetic. "What no list of words can get at is the new business insincerity: a phoney upping of the emotional ante." Seb Schmoller, Fortnightly Mailing, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Speaking to Ascilite, ACODE and Desire2Learn
Pretty good rant from Leigh Blackall on the question, "What is an appropriate response from our educational institutions, to a forecasted social media scape?" And the argument is subtle - but easy to grasp, once stated as clearly as this: "Now that a connection should be evident between social constructivism and the media scape we have on hand today, it should be interesting to consider how objectionable it may actually be for education to be adopting social media inside its seemingly inescapable behaviorist contexts. If you can accept my argument that social constructivism can not be used in behaviorist methodologies, then with it I would argue that social media cannot be used inside behaviorist media - such as the prescribed media presently used (LMS, system email, content repositories etc)." Leigh Blackall, Teach and Learn, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Desire2Learn, Learning Object Repositories, Constructivism] [Comment]

University Learning = OCW + OER = FREE!
Zaid has updated his list of free online learning resource sites. This is a great resource - and something to spur me to create something (using RSS or something) that will aggregate and make available for search the collected resources from those sites. Zaid Ali Alsagoff, ZaidLearn, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Open Educational Resources, RSS, OpenCourseWare] [Comment]

OLDaily Production
As I prepare to take some time off (one day left after today!) I'm getting things ready for my replacements. One thing I did today was to record a screencast showing the OLDaily production workflow. It's about 15 minutes, and gives you a pretty good idea of how the system works. And how I work. Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Edupunk or Educational Leader?
Dave Truss writes, "These are not Edupunks, they are Educational Leaders! The reality is that anti-establishment, Do-It-Yourself, transformative, collaborative, networked teachers doing new things, in new ways, in new wall-less, time-zone-less, textbook-less, standardized-test-less classrooms are paving the way for a new kind of schooling. I'll say this again in a different way: These are not Edupunks, they are Educational Leaders! They are our role models paving a new path to a more meaningful educational experience in our schools. They may be on the fringe, but they are also at the forefront. They are leading the way." Dave Truss, Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Networks, Experience] [Comment]

Firefox 3 Not Loved by Corp. IT, Not That It Matters...
The other way of putting the same point: the only thing keeping Internet Explorer in business these days is enterprise computing (and the fact that it comes pre-installed on Windows). Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Microsoft] [Comment]

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
Do you know how to talk to a plumber? If not, it might be because of your elite education, according to this article. Or, it might just be because you don't don't like sports and have nothing to talk about. William Deresiewicz, The American Scholar, June 19, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

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