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by Stephen Downes
September 29, 2009

The LHC and Education
Educators use technology to try to improve education, but physicists use technology to try to c0ollect data, says David Wiley. Given that the use of technology hasn't really improved education (though it's had a big impact on access), perhaps it would be useful to help in the collection of data. "? After a recent tweet on this topic," he writes, "a number of colleagues accused me of having physics envy. Believe me, you don't have to wish you were a physicist to be disappointed by the quality of data educators have access to." Well perhaps. But would such data be of most use to students? Shouldn't we be devising ways for students to organize and track their own learning? David Wiley, iterating toward openness, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Twitter, Online Learning, Quality] [Comment]

The Net Neutrality Walk of Shame
"Reading through some of the comments posted by readers of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal articles reporting on these developments," writes Larry Downes, one can't avoid the sense that no one really knows what anyone else really means by neutrality." maybe. And maybe this is a point worth noting too: "There's a simple solution to all this, one that might make a rational conversation about net neutrality possible. And that is to eliminate the distinction between common carriers and everyone else. Hold everyone to the same rules regardless of what information they are transporting–whether voice, video, television, data. Because regardless of who's doing what, these days it's all bits." Agreed. Larry Downes, Weblog, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

A Framework for the Policy-Oriented Web in Social Networks
This is the lead-off paper (slides, PDF) from Renato Ianella (creator of ODRL) at the Virtual Goods symposium held in France this week. All the presentations slides are online at this site. Alsoi worth a look: Usage Rights Management, by Helge Hundacker, Daniel Pahler, and Rudiger Grimm. Renato Ianella, Virtual Goods, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Overview of social evolution (past, present, and future) in TIMN terms
This is quite a good post - from what is overall quite a good blog (I've subscribed, so watch for more from it). This slide depicts four major forms of social organization - Tribes, Institutions, Markets and and Networks. In this, it is similar to the groups and networks distinction I have discussed. But the TIMN theory is cumulative: "To put it notationally, over the ages monoform societies organized in tribal (T) terms - many of which still exist today - are eventually surpassed by societies that also develop institutional (I) systems to become biform T+I societies, normally with strong, professional states [etc.]" Which is very interesting and worth thinking about. David Ronfeldt, Visions from Two Theories, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Web Logs] [Comment]

Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
School, according to the author, is a prison. "Human beings within a certain age range (most commonly 6 to 16) are required by law to spend a good portion of their time there, and while there they are told what they must do, and the orders are generally enforced." This results in a series of 'sins': denial of liberty on the basis of age; fostering of shame, on the one hand, and hubris, on the other; interference with the development of cooperation and nurturance; interference with the development of personal responsibility and self-direction; linking of learning with fear, loathing, and drudgery; inhibition of critical thinking; reduction in diversity of skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. The last two, especially, result in severe pedagogical deficiencies, which is why I think it ought not to be radical to reconsider our system of education via a penal system. Via jtneill. Peter Gray, Psychology Today, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Linking and Deep Linking] [Comment]

Seeking a business model for journalism

In the Future of Online Learning (a sort of semi-electronic book) I write that the educational profession will be disaggregated. This diagram illustrates the same phenomenon in the news business. I wonder what a similar diagram would look like in education. Mindy McAdams, Teaching Online Journalism, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

Want to Write an Electronic Book? Check Out Sony
I'm not sure what to make of the weird logic that suggests that if you want to create an electronic book you have to create it for the Kindle or the Sony e-book reader. Electronic books existed well before these specialized readers - throusands of them on Gutenberg, for example - and it is a glaring defect of these readers that they do not tap into these magnificant free libraries. As for meself, I have published three 'e-books' without coming near an e-book reader (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3), and with more to come (soon). So, want to write an electronic book? Check out your text editor. More from Wired. Karl Kapp, Kapp Notes, September 29, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Books] [Comment]

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