Stephen's Web

OLDaily

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

by Stephen Downes
July 4, 2008

Could Stompin' Tom Be the New 'Hockey Night in Canada' Theme?
Our American colleague, Barry Dahl, has disappeared for the weekend, as today is Independence Day in the USA. That leaves two Canadians in charge, which can be dangerous. The big news that Stephen Downes missed last month was the debate over the loss of our "Hockey Night in Canada" theme on television, with a suggestion that "the Hockey Song", by Stompin' Tom Connors could be a suitable replacement. As a gift to the Americans celebrating their national holiday, we introduce them to Stompin' Tom, with such classics as "The Hockey Song", "Bud the Spud", and the "Ketchup Song". Enjoy with French fries, eh. - GW Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: United States, Video, Canada] [Comment]

Microblogging: The Future of Participatory Media
This excellent slide show makes the case for the growing importance of micro-blogging. It makes a case for "social objects" rather than social networking, and then lays out 5 principles for building services around them. Engestrom argues that "sites that fail are just 'social networks'," whereas sites that have succeeded have organized around social objects such as music, photos, favorite websites, and books. He contends that microblogging with such applications as Twitter are disruptive because they are simpler, cheaper, and only need a mobile device to work, making them also more convenient. -GW Jyri Engestrom, MobiMundi, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Twitter, Networks] [Comment]

Comments On Proving the Potential of Virtual Worlds
My negative comments on Second Life in my July 2nd post inspired several replies which rightly chastised me for being too one sided. Given that readers of the e-mail version of this newsletter don't automatically get the comments, I am reproducing them here. -GW


Re: Proving the Potential of Virtual Worlds
Alan Levine, July 2, 2008

The experiences you describe of "boring" replication are not a function of the potential of Second Life, but what people so far have used it for, much the same way people can blame powerpoint software for bad presentations. Its like blaming the technology of the circuitry in my television for the crappy shows on the screen.

Its easy to take potshots at Second Life -- the post by Matt Rose is based on a lot of data? supposition like "I think..."

Our organization has run 4 conferences in Second Life (ones people paid to attend) where the sessions were most certainly not sitting and screen watching, but where we had role play, active learning, content creation, 3D demonstrations, even out of control mashup dancing.

People are behind it all.


Re: Proving the Potential of Virtual Worlds
Anymouse, July 3, 2008

I completely agree with Alan and you can reference the conversation on the SLED list re "horseless carriage syndrome" too. SL is a platform for creativity in education, including giving students the lead if you so choose. If you want to recreate page-turning, well, that's possible too.

And, dear me, we're supposed to get excited about RocketOn in closed alpha. What about weblins, ExitReality, YooWalk, etc? My excitement quota is running low already. Sheesh.


Re: Proving the Potential of Virtual Worlds
Anymouse, July 3, 2008

So, let me see - you attend a panel where they choose to replicate something from real life and that constitutes a fault with the platform?

Have you visited, for example, Dante's Inferno in Second Life. I'd love to see you replicate the travel, the lakes of boiling blood, the burning sands and the like in a real life classroom. Does it work to teach the class? Absolutely, it empowers students to see the parallels between Inferno and Linden Hills in very strong terms.

I'm guessing since you've got an .ca domain you don't have a plethora of old abbeys, castles and the like, perhaps you should try visiting Tintern Abbey in SL - far cheaper for you than heading over to the real one.

If science is more your thing, perhaps a visit to Second Nature to see molecules big enough to climb on, or Drexel where you can see the molecules reforming as the reaction progresses, you can do this on a huge scale and co-operatively - things you can do IRL if you have a lot of time, money and specialist software or you can do in SL with a bit of co-operation between two professors who might never have met without Second Life to facilitate it.

If you'd rather life sciences, go visit Genome. Parts of it function rather like a museum, but the pooping llamas leave an impression, as does the giant cell, and the ability to rapidly replicate years of Mendel's work in a way that is far more engaging than any web-based simulation I've ever seen are all strong positives for the platform.

Second Life can replicate real life if you don't have the imagination to use it in other ways. It can do a million other things too, many of them things that time, money, travel, health and safety and other issues will just stop you doing in any real life classroom.
Alan Levine and anonymous others, Stephen's Web, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Newsletters, Online Learning, Second Life, Simulations, Video, Experience] [Comment]

Explaining International Broadband Leadership
There are many examples of technologies invented in America but perfected and exploited elsewhere. Although the US developed the Internet, it only ranks 15th out of 30 in broadband performance in developed countries, according to this report. South Korea is the world leader, and reasons why the US is in the middle of the pack include a much more spread out distribution of population compared with the leaders, and less favorable tax policies. -GW Robert Atkinson, Daniel Correa, and Julie Hedlund, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

The Future of the Web
This article from Technology Review consists of 13 different visions of the future of the Web over the next 5 to 10 years. They range from the pessimistic "total end of privacy" to the optimistic "developer empowerment". The most common theme is the "mobile web" and perhaps the most unlikely is "we will all have chips in our brains". Lots of lengthy comments for this post, so it would be a good one to generate discussion. -GW Kristina Grifantini, Technology Review, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues] [Comment]

Video Games Get Into Shape
Playing online games can lead to injuries, including migraines, backstrains and nausea. But they also can be beneficial to health, improve fitness levels, and be use in healthcare and rehabilitation. This article from BBC News is a review of many of the good effects of physical virtual games. -GW Margaret Robertson, BBC News, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video, BBC] [Comment]

141, 232, 400 and Good Times
With two national holidays in North America this week, plus the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, it's only fitting to have a post about them. Dave Ferguson even provides a short history lesson, "So, for those who missed the 15 minutes spent on Canada during high school, July 1st is the anniversary of the 1867 agreement by Upper Canada (now Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia to form what Sir John A. Macdonald and Viscount Monck wanted to call the Kingdom of Canada." Happy Independence Day to all our American readers. -HJ Dave Ferguson, Dave's Whiteboard, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: United States, Schools, Canada] [Comment]

Map to the Internet Time Ecosystem
Jay Cross has been using the Web to manage his knowledge artefacts for well over a decade. All of these are available for sharing and Jay is trying to make things easier to find, "When you're getting ready to sell your boss on a new approach, you can use all the ammunition in the arsenal, and that means I need to make things easier to find. Thus, I've been darting around my blogs, wikis, and other online oddments adding labels and links." This is a good example of personal knowledge management and how it becomes more social over time. -HJ Jay Cross, Internet Time Blog, July 4, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Knowledge Management, Web Logs] [Comment]

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