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OLDaily

OLDaily is currently being produced by Barry Dahl (BD), Harold Jarche (HJ), and Gary Woodill (GW).

by Stephen Downes
June 30, 2008

Your Market Is Laughing; at You
I am including a post from my co-guest editor Harold Jarche today, because his blog has some of the most thought provoking content out there, and because this particular post has one of my favorite videos - Father Guido Sarduci on the "five minute university". There's so much truth in this classic clip that it hurts. I often use it to confront audiences on the meaning and (lack of) utility of schooling. -GW Harold Jarche, Learning and Working on the Web, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Video, Web Logs] [Comment]

(Not) Coping with Cognitive Overload
Now attending NECC in San Antonio, Ewan McIntosh refers to a presentation by Chris Craft last week on cognitive load theory which is picking up new (or at least more) meaning for him at NECC. "There's. Too. Much. Noise. I mean noise in the physical sense and in this metaphorical one." He goes on to say that all of this overload is having a very negative impact on him and on those he encounters. "This is what has been happening to me for the past two days. I've become someone I hate: snarky, off-task, unproductive, unthinking." I'm quite sure that plenty of people are felling the same way. The real question is, what do we do about it? Ewan McIntosh, Ewan McIntosh's edu.blogs.com, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Counting Down the Top 10 TEDTalks
"TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. Under the moniker "ideas worth spreading," talks were released online." They reached a significant milestone recently with 50 million views since they debuted online two years ago. TEDTalks are distributed under a Creative Commons license in multiple formats and on multiple websites including TED.com, iTunes, YouTube, and others. Additionally, only about half of the views come from viewers inside the US, so they clearly have an international audience. They have cobbled together a short video compilation (7 mins 30 sec.) of their all-time Top Ten videos, as of June 2008. If you are not familiar with TedTalks it would be well worth your time to watch this compilation. If you are familiar with TedTalk, you might want to see how many of the Top Ten videos you have already watched (only 7 for me). -BD TED staff, TEDBlog, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video, YouTube] [Comment]

Are MMORPGs "Addictive"?
Dave and Greta Munger write a blog that reviews studies of cognition, especially those that have been peer-reviewed. This 2007 study, by J.M. Smyth, looks at the effects of playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) on the lives of those who play them, compared with players of other types of games. The study, which involved 100 students, indicated that MMORPG players spent a lot more time playing their games, and that this had a negative impact on the amount of sleep they got, but had little impact on their academic performance or their willingness to continue to play these kinds of games. -GW Dave Munger, Cognitive Daily, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Academia, Web Logs] [Comment]

Software As a Service
The concept of "cloud computing" is also found in the idea of Software as a Service (SaaS). According to Derek Wenmoth, "Supporters of SaaS cite the following benefits: easier administration, automatic updates and management of 'fixes', compatibility (all users will have the same version of software), easier collaboration, for the same reason, and global accessibility." Derek then reviews the Google Gears technology and the latest release of Zoho, with all its online productivity and collaboration applications. Zoho can be used both offline and online, depending on one's needs. A good example of "everyware". -GW Derek Wenmoth, Derek's Blog, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Google, Accessibility] [Comment]

Dawn of the Un-Book
Jay Cross writes about the slowness of the publishing industry to respond to change. He cites a study by the Jenkins Group, a custom book publishing firm, that found: -One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. -42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college. -80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. -70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the past five years. -57 percent of new books are not read to completion. I still buy books in my field, but only to make sure I haven't missed anything. Rarely do I learn anything new, as I find that blogs and magazines are a much more current way to keep up with the onslaught of information and change. So what is Jay doing instead? According to another post he's bought a Flip video recorder and is documenting his world straight to YouTube. -GW Jay Cross, , June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Books, Video, Adult Learning, YouTube, Web Logs] [Comment]

Online Collaboration Tools - New Technologies And Web Services
New software programs are proliferating at an amazing rate. Nico Canali De Rossi and Luigi Canali De Rossi (aka Robin Good) have published a useful list of online collaboration tools, none of which I have seen before, even though I did a scan about 6 months ago. They include applications to send large giga-sized files online, a remote control for any PC, and applications for free VoIP calls. A list that is worth further exploration. -GW Nico Canali De Rossi, , June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Books] [Comment]

"EduBloggerCon": Ownership Vs. Communication
What happens when you take an impromptu event and formalize it? Christian Long weighs in on the debate about Pearson Learning's role at Edubloggercon during NECC2008 saying that the real issue is communication - "As I hinted at above, I'm also very surprised that Steve H [Hargadon] (a man I respect and have enjoyed F2F time with in the past; a guy who has been consistently weaving together a formal network of educators the world round through a variety of digital tools) has not been asked to a) explain/defend the original contract, b) his communication before/during/after this year's "EduBloggerCon", and c) how he'd like Pearson/himself to go forward to maintain everyone's faith in his/their judgment." Ewan McIntosh also says that Edubloggercon is not an unconference. I guess this is the tension when new meets old meets new ... -HJ Christian Long, Think: Lab, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Blogger, Networks, Google] [Comment]

7 'Bad Language' Habits in Learning
The language we use in education has a large influence on how we view learning, and much of it comes from an industrial perspective, says Donald Clark. His view on assessment, for instance - "Language of assessment is the language of fear and failure. We sit exams and tests. We pass or fail. It's a red pen culture, where failure is failure, not an opportunity to try again, overcome and succeed. It's the finality of failure - no second chances that make it all so depressing." This is definitely the wrong perspective for someone starting a new job or a business. In an interconnected world, a major challenge for our educational institutions and workplaces is integrating learning with our work. That means breaking learning out of the training/education silo, which of course may unsettle many in positions of authority. -HJ Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Assessment] [Comment]

Quick Creativity: Music, Improvisation, and the Brain
The Eide's highlight more interesting research about our brains with a study on how jazz musicians deactivate one part of their brains (prefrontal and limbic) and simultaneously activate another part (sensory and motor) when spontaneously creating musical phrases. This research points out that " ... many of the techniques touted by corporate creativity trainers seem to be geared toward activating and retrieving possibilities that are decidedly not consciously determined." This type of research, based on good science and peer review, is what should be informing the training and education fields. -HJ Fernette and Brock Eide, Eide Neurolearning Blog, June 30, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Research] [Comment]

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