Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 18, 2008

Hulu to Match YouTube's Revenue: Ten Observations For The Future of Media
A lot has been made of recent reports that online video site Hulu is close to YouTube in revenues and is expected to match them next year. I wouldn't be so quick to start praising Hulu. The company has made its mark by signing deals with traditional media to run television content online, and (apparently) has distribution agreements with blog sites, such as Gawker. So fine. But views outside the United States continue to see error messages instead of video in Hulu screens, which means that the problem of distribution is far from solved. And is segmenting the internet into closed national viewing areas a good strategy in the long run? Of course not. Hulu's business model is based on closed content - but you can't sustain a closed content model, not in the long run, not once the momentum from free viewing has dried up. Scott Karp, Publishing 2.0, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: United States, Video, YouTube, Web Logs] [Comment]

Real Punks Ship

I like this title better than the diplomatic 'OCW Production in the OCWC, 2003 to Present (w/ Chart)'. The title refers to the large number of online courses being made available by the open courseware consortium, about which I am unreservedly delighted. That many more free things to rip, mix and burn, right? Caulfield writes, "We're lucky, as a movement, to have people approaching this issue from both the bottom-up and top-down. In my experience it's the combination of those two approaches that gets change done." Mike Caulfield, Tran|Script, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, OpenCourseWare] [Comment]

OA Discussion List at U. Toronto School of Education
"Open Access @ OISE is a discussion list for students, faculty, and staff at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto." Which is good, but it would be better to be able to view posts without having to be a member, so I can follow it and maybe link to the more insightful items. Peter Suber, Open Access News, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Discussion Lists] [Comment]

On the Video: a Reflection On YouTube and Friends (Part 1)
Derek Morrison offers a two-part examination of the increasing role of video in gneral, and YouTube in particular, in learning. Part One, Part Two. The first part discusses the use of video generally and lists a number of British learning video projects, while the second lists 'YouTube affordances' and considers alternatives to YouTube. For my own part, I prefer not to use YouTube, because the quality isn't very good and videos are limited to 10 minutes. I would host them myself, but they would eat away my bandwidth, which would harm my website. So I am currently using blip. Derek Morrison, Auricle, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Video, Bandwidth, Project Based Learning, Quality, YouTube] [Comment]

Wikiversity; or Education Meets the Free Culture Movement: An Ethnographic Investigation by Norm Friesen and Janet Hopkins
The authors suggest that there is "a gap that is critical to the possible or ultimate effect of the free culture movement on education: On the one side is a remarkably successful system of development and 'relevance/accreditation.' On the other is the creation and provision of open educational resources and services." Consequently, they argue, "Wikiversity's goal of empowering people to achieve their educational goals via the free culture movement, and without governmental financial support and direction, is laudable but ambitious in the extreme." Norm Friesen and Janet Hopkins, First Monday, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Listening to Themselves: Podcasting Takes Lessons Beyond the Classroom
It has been said here before, but it bears repeating. "Web distribution of their work motivates students to put their best foot forward. 'My Web site has been viewed in all fifty states and eighty-seven foreign countries,' Coley says. 'I use that to my advantage. When I show the kids statistics and recent visitor numbers, it tells them that I'm not the only person who is going to hear what they're doing. People in Australia and England are going to hear it.'" Maya Payne Smart, Edutopia, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Australia] [Comment]

Online Resources On Gender and ODL/ICT
The Commonwealth of Learning has set up this microsite to address issues related to gender and online learning. "The resources in this section vary in format and type and include: books (both in their entirety and select chapters); monographs; reference sources; journal articles; research and project reports; thesis; select conference papers; and, country and case studies." Various Authors, Commonwealth of Learning, November 18, 2008 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Research, Project Based Learning] [Comment]

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