Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
August 11, 2008

Unboxed = Awesome
Tom Hoffman reports, "the High Tech High Graduate School of Education has published the first edition of their new journal, Unboxed, in print and online. You can see the contents of the first issue more easily than I can describe them. Overall, the articles hit the sweet spot between theory and practice, to make this journal uniquely readable and useful to all teachers and administrators in progressive schools." No RSS, though, and the subscription form requires all kinds of data in exchange for a print edition. Tom Hoffman, Tuttle SVC, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Books] [Comment]

Going with the Flow
I have talked about 'flow' in relation to online learning in the past,. but I haven't meant this, as cited by Grainne Conole: "the holistic experience that people feel when they act with total involvement' or 'flow' the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter." My sense of 'flow' - it is the environment that is in a state of fluidity and flux, and it is up to us to adapt to that, rather than to try to hold on to some aspect of the environment - is somewhat different. But it is interesting, isn't it, to think about where the two idea intersect? (Nice link to the Ed Tech Wiki, which I haven't looked at for a while.) Grainne Conole, e4innovation.com, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Experience] [Comment]

2008 Metaverse Tour Video: The Social Virtual World'S A Stage
This is a fabulous video showing clips from roughly 50 virtual worlds applications (for those who think Second Life is it - this is required viewing). Author Gary Hayes notes, among other things, that "the 'layered-over-the-2d-web' version of these worlds such as RocketOn Exit Reality and Weblin show great usability and promise" and that "Many of these worlds operate without the hype we have seen with Second Life and have slowly been building up large communities. Beware any world that tries to launch on hype." He also links to a useful virtual worlds by sector graph. Via TonNet. Gary Hayes, WebWorkerDaily, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Usability, Personalization, Second Life, Video] [Comment]

Freepath 2.0
Jane Hart reports: "Freepath 2.0 is designed with educators (and their students) in mind. With Freepath 2.0, users can create playlists of their content and then call up the content for a presentation when they want it. This content can be live websites, images, videos, music, pretty much anything. The audience sees the content you select, not your playlist. Then you can upload your playlist to myFreepath to share with others." Jane Hart, Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

Professor Proposes Taking Open Education Beyond Posting Course Materials
The Chronicle covers David Parry's (version of an) open online course. Jeffrey R. Young - who apparently isn't very plugged into things - asks, "Have others already tried allowing outsiders into online course discussions? Should professors open their classroom doors even wider online?" What do you think: should we tell him? Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses] [Comment]

Dell Unlikely to Get Trademark for Cloud Computing
Dell received a preliminary notice in July saying it could have 'cloud computing' as a trademark, but this was withdrawn this week. Which is good - but what we see is just another example of a company trying to steal something - in this case, a phrase - from the public domain. Stephanie Condon, CNet News.com, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

Why Microsoft and Intel Tried to Kill the XO $100 Laptop
The main feature of this story - which for some unknown reason is written in a flippant and condescending style despite appearing in the Times - is that a major news outlet is admitting that corporate entities would quite deliberately set out to destroy a humanitarian project designed to make knowledge and learning accessible to everyone in the world. People ask me why there is an 'anti-corporate bias' in my work; this is why. Bryan Appleyard, Times of London, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Accessibility, Project Based Learning, Microsoft] [Comment]

Apple Sells 60 Million IPhone Apps, Jobs Confirms Kill Switch
The iPhone has been a huge marketing success, no doubt. But this success at the same time raises questions about the control Apple (like all mobile phone operators) has over the hardware. In this item, the existence of a 'kill switch' Apple can use to disable any application on any iPhone is confirmed. Apple has already been deleting applications for no good reason from its App Store, including NetShare, an application that allows you to connect your iPhone to a computer and use it as a 3G modem. The point of the push behind mobile phone technology (and if you look, you see this in odd places) is to grant the corporatioon control over the technology. But "it's supposed to be your 'life in your pocket,' not Apple's." Charlie Sorrel, Gadget Lab, August 11, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc., Marketing] [Comment]

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