Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
October 1, 2008

Open Learning Is Here - Where Next?
"And now we are witnessing an explosion in open learning. Of course there are the big publicity happenings like the CCK08 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) organised by Stephen Downes and George Siemans on connectivism. But more important is the flowering of opportunties for learning from many, many diverse sources." I hardly see our course as 'big publicity'. But that aside, I agree with the main point. And, as Graham Attwell says, "The last barrier to open learning - and a very complex one - is that of accreditation." (p.s. - Attwell says "I am sceptical about the Connectivism MOOC..." - what does that mean? That he doubts that it exists? That he doubts it is accredited? That he doubts there are students? The Connectivism course isn't some proposition, which you can look at and 'doubt'. It is what it is, that's all.) Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Connectivism] [Comment]

Looking Two Times the Distance Back to Forecast the Future
Ewan McIntosh, based on this 'looking back' thesis, says "The next big thing is not the semantic web - it's sensors and robots." A lot of people around NRC are big on sensors as well. I'm less engaged with the concept, but I could be simply off the mark. Or too interested in philosophy. Or something. And then there's Tikitag. Ewan McIntosh, edublogs, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Semantic Web] [Comment]

I Mean, Really, Where Did We Think All of This Was Going to Go?

I want to repost this item, with the diagram, because of the relevance to current discussions. What MIT OpenCourseWare is to open content, our open courses are to open access, open conversations and connections. It's not a stretch to seeing this as related to open accreditation. George Siemens, Connectivism, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Open Content, OpenCourseWare, Open Access] [Comment]

On Open Accreditation
More on some of the issues and possibilities raised by open courses. David Wiley writes, "Open accreditation may be much closer than we think. We just need to continue to find creative ways to hack our courses into the existing university systems around the globe. At the same time, we need to establish a recognizable brand name for the collection of courses we would offer, so that folks will have heard of them. Until then, we'll have to ride the strength of our names." David Wiley, iterating toward openness, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Branding] [Comment]

Hacking the Curriculum
Think about this: "the delivery of education via online courses will change the entire landscape of course development and control of the curriculum. Each academic field will supply its experts to help create the courses in that field. Once these courses are created, the notion that a teacher at a local school should be creating their own course no longer makes any sense whatever." So what would they do? Coach students. Conduct assessments. Create community. Darren Draper, Drape's Takes, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Assessment, Schools, Traditional and Online Courses, Academia] [Comment]

Dumbed-Down Generation?
More angst on whether the younger generation is a "dumbed-down" generation. I would venture to ask whether the same could not be said of the television generation, the generation that currently holds power, the generation that seems to have a very difficulty managing to read anything at all, much less websites, books, or the daily newspaper. I mean, I'm just saying, look at the results. Matthew Swift, ASCD, October 1, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

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