Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
July 2, 2009

EduBacon
EduBacon is a (relatively) new blog by Steve Egan. Love the slogan: "Before, education was bland. Now it's got extra flavor, salt, fat and cholesterol." And "Large Helpings, Hearty Food, Extra Flavor". The most recent post is on open engagement.
Steve EWgan, Weblog, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

Video Call (two strikes already) for Amazing Stories
You can help Alan Levine prepare for his talk for an upcoming Open Education conference by sending him examples of good things that have happened to you as a result of sharing your work openly. Also, it's worth reading about his issues with YouTube (interestingly, most of my videos are stored elsewhere, as I have never had success with YouTube. Alan Levine, Cogdogblog, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video, YouTube] [Comment]

Second Life, Education and Openspace
There's trouble in the virtual world. Andy Pulman links to: Andy Powell Loses Faith in Second Life, Fuzzy Buzz on why Linden Lab needs to read Snow Crash again and Zonja Capalini on Openspace. Related, especially to the last item: OpenSim. Andy Pulman, Andy Pulman Edublog, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Second Life] [Comment]

Using audio and video in Firefox
For my first use of the video tag, a test pattern (if you are using Firefox 3.5 you should see it).

Here is some more information on the video and audio tags. Here is a link to DailyMotion, which is promoting the use of open video. Various Authors, Mozilla, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Video] [Comment]

Building the user-centered web
"I believe strongly," writes Ben Werdmuller, "that a decentralized, user-centered model for the web is the best way to advance it as an application platform." I agree. And many of the initiatives he cites are at least part of the solution: "The Diso Project is turning the WordPress open source blogging tool into a decentralized digital identity through an array of open standards, and the project's Chris Messina has a lot of wise things to say about its development; Laconi.ca is a decentralized microblogging platform, whose Open Microblogging standard may be adaptable into a more widely-scoped technology; The Open Stack is a set of developing technologies that address some of the issues; Marc Canter's Open Mesh treatise goes into detail on many of the issues." Ben Werdmuller, Weblog, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Open Standards, Open Source, Project Based Learning, Web Logs] [Comment]

Woodlawn Elementary thinks outside the book to pull D to a B
As usual, I caution against the 'gee-whiz' news story. That said, I'm sure people will want to quote this item. "Woodlawn Elementary's math teachers locked up their textbooks in a music room closet.... The school went from a D to a B this year... Instead of textbooks, teachers used games, group assignments and other materials. They also focused on showing students different ways to solve the same problem." Via ASCD. Sylvia Lim, St. Petersburg Times, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Books, Push versus Pull] [Comment]

Socialbrite
JD Lasica - with whom I collaborated (along with Marc Canter) on OurMedia - has launched Socialbrite. "Socialbrite is a learning hub and sharing community that brings together top experts in social media, social causes and online philanthropy." The list of experts on the site will include names familiar to many readers. JD Lasica, Website, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

The #interestingOPMLexperiment
Tony Hirst suggested that we try something like this experient for the fall edition of the Connectivism course. There is definitely some merit to the suggestion, and especially in the idea of comparing OPML lists before and after the course, to observe progress, and also to look at other networks, such as Twitter or Facebook connections. Of course, we may need to draft someone like Tony to implement this. Heh. Mat Morrison has offered to share the (Perl) code he used to produce diagrams like this one of congress twitterers and of other Twitter social network analysis. Mat Morrison, mediaczar, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Twitter, Connectivism, Books, Networks, OPML] [Comment]

Recommendations on MrTweet
Thanks to Orla Hegarty for the recommendation - and for thereby pointing me to this service, which is an interesting attempt to explicitly leverage recommendation as a service. The risk of such a system being gamed are there - but if the reputation of the recommender is taken into account, this risk can be minimized. The system (currently) needs overt recommendations - where it would take off, I think, would be if it could capture recommendations through linking or other practises. Various Authors, Website, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Linking and Deep Linking] [Comment]

Open Education Resource Foundation
WikiEducator is announcing the launch of a new Open Educational Resources Foundation (OERF). In a nutshell, they write, they want to institutionalize OERs, atgtain financial sustainability for the movement, increase fcollaboration among OER providers, and support greater reuse of OERs. "The major value proposition," they write, "lies in opportunities for education institutions to improve efficiencies through OER resource creation and distribution -- most notably reduction in cost and improvements in quality." I think that the value proposition for OERs lies in their potential for use by individuals, not institutions, and that this is where efforts need to be focused.
Wayne Mackintosh, WikiEducator, July 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Open Educational Resources] [Comment]

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