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by Stephen Downes
October 2, 2009

Four Struggles
This is a guest presentation to a political science class at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. I look at an introductory and fairly typical chapter on globalization and outsourcing, and then argue that changes in political and economic organization run counter to the model proposed. In particular, the development of a network-based society runs against the model of corporate structures described. This all is set within a context of 'four struggles' that have shaped political and other conflict through history and today. Presentation by Stephen Downes, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, [Link]

More Than Notes is Evernote
OK, let me first put out a global call to get a Google Wave invitation to Alan Levine, the CogDog, because if anyone would use it well, he would (sorry Alan, by invites disappeared within ten minutes of me getting them). That said, he is jumping for joy over Evernote, the tool that allows him to capture clippings, contents and other snippets from the web for use later. "What impresses me," he writes, "is how fast, simple, and seamless the moving of content into Evernote is, as well as how it moves back out to my iPhone and back." Alan Levine`, CogDogBlog, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Google] [Comment]

CCK09 - When connections fail to form
Tom Haskins has been writing recently on his experiences with the Connectivism CCK09 course. As always, I'm frustrated by the shortness of his posts, as I have to wait three days (day one, day two, day three) to get a decent bulk of material. Still, his take on the course is fresh and interesting. For example, this bit, on missed connections: "I may associate the new idea
- with lies, deceptions and mistakes which leads me to refute and dismiss it.
- with exaggeration, grandiosity and fluff which has me getting a better perspective, putting the new idea in a larger context or disputing it's overstatements
- with extreme positions, one-sided arguments or half-truths which leads to me framing it's claim along a gradient or in a four quadrant diagram with the missing halves
- with useless, ineffectual or purely abstract ideas which alerts me to the dangers of collusion, lip service, propaganda or academic requirements
It's very possible that a strong tie could be formed with any one of these alternative nodes. Any of these connections would maintain the new idea as a 'rogue node'."
Tom Haskins, growing changing learning creating, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Connectivism, Experience, Marketing, Academia] [Comment]

Situated Logic and Standardized Pests
Someone well versed with a general principle typically doesn't have a problem telling a story around that principle, to illustrate it. We see this all the time when someone in a profession needs to explain something to someone outside that profession. It's a hard task. "Getting the gist of the general principle into the story requires identification of what that gist is. This creates an imperative for the writer or the presenter." But what happens, writes Lanny Arvan, is that students who have tested very well in reading comprehension are for some reason unable to grasp this task. He writes, "I feel more that the students are the victims than the perpetrators. I've got to keep that in mind as I teach. Yet I also have to wonder how we can so neglect their intellectual development, including the best and the brightest of them." Related: How to tell a story by Scott Simon. Lanny Arvan, Lanny on Learning Technology, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Patents] [Comment]

A SLap in the face
Linden Labs is turning nasty. According to this report, Joanna McKay (also well known as JoKay) is being told to rename her SLeducation wiki because Linden has a trademark on the name. Where, one wonders, is Linden's 'SLeducation wiki'? KerryJ writes, "I hope that others – educators, businesses, entrepreneurs – hear that wake-up call too: you must diversify your explorations of new technologies so that you are not reliant on a particular platform or provider. Because SLack marketers who are too SLow to consider the community of passionate users that grow up around today's platforms and brands will SLash their own wrists in an effort to control what they feel is theirs." Hear hear. Neotenous Tech, KerryJ, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Second Life, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment]

Widgets and Webcams: Using Bondi APIs in Wookie
Scott Wilson describes "a quick report on some experimental work I was trying out with Wookie, which is adding a Feature to support BONDI APIs. I added a feature based on the BONDI Camera API, which is used to gain access to the user's camera." Here's a summary of Bondi and here is the Bondi project page. Scott Wilson, Scott's Workblog, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Project Based Learning] [Comment]

Announcing K12 Online 2009 Presenters
The online conference has a long list of presenters, and while we don't yet have abstracts or presentation resources (just titles) the page links back to the presenters' home pages, so there's a lot to look at already. "This year's conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of November 30, 2009. The following two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog." Wesley Fryer, K12 Online Conference, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web Logs] [Comment]

Get Started with Google Wave

My Google Wave invitation finally did arrive - and I dispensed with my additional invites in about five minutes. This site will be useful, providing instructions on how to get started with Wave. I had a quick look at Wave, and though it looks interesting, suffers from Google's inelegance in multi-paned design: I always feel like I'm working in little tiny windows. Ben Parr, Mashable, October 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Operating Systems, Google] [Comment]

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