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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
October 15, 2009

Personal Learning Environments & Personal Learning Networks - Day Three
We heard from Steve Wheeler today - here are his slides on his website, and there is the audio recording. Tomorrow (Friday) we have three sessions to wrap up the conference; see the schedule for times, and Abastracts are here. Access the conference via Elluminate here. , , October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Podcasting, Personal Learning Environment] [Comment]

Eight principles for 21st century skills
Despite opposition from the usual suspects, the concept of "21st century skills" is taking hold as expressing a viable - and needed - educational strategy. Here Tony Bates summarizes some underlying principles. Mostly, the document is a call to action, rather than an enunciation of those skills. I'm a bit concerned that a number of documents appear to be no longer available on the website.
Tony Bates, e-learning & distance education resources, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Cliqset Debuts a Desktop App for the Real-Time Web
Cliqset has attracted some buzz for being Friendfeed done right. "The company has released a desktop app for discovering shared items like status updates, photos or videos - and all the discussions related to those posts - across the dozens of sites Cliqset supports. Also announced Tuesday morning is Cliqset's new social app for Boxee which lets you chat with your friends while you're watching videos culled from around the web." It's a tricky market to get right - and personally, I don't think that those cluttered desktops that are all display, no use, will be the way forward. Michael Calore, Monkey Bites, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Chatrooms, Video] [Comment]

10/GUI
Here's a presentation that has been creating some buzz - a demonstration of a concept from 10Gui. "This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers." You'll want to watch this and have your ideas of user interface expanded. Via Doug Fisher. C. Miller, Vimeo, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Visualization, Video] [Comment]

Guide to Field Blogging
Terry Anderson links to work from Glenn Groulx, a student in Athabasca's Masters of Distance Education programming, who has been workin on EduBlogging. Anderson writes that Groulx presented at a CIDER session last month (recording, Powerpoints) "where he outlined a set of metaphors that helps us recognize and appreciate the different types of blogs and motivations of bloggers in educational contexts." You can also view some podcasts from him on field blogging - that is, blogging away from the desk or office. Terry Anderson, Vitual Canuck, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Podcasting, Web Logs] [Comment]

Web 2.0 and Other Educational Resources from Microsoft
This is a large post filled with all kinds of goodness for educators from Microsoft, including Photosynth, world wide telescope, office labs, Live@edu, and much more. The products allow you to make stuff and share stuff - downloading the free Photosynth creator, for example, allows you to create large 3D experiences from digital photos. There are also academic resources, such as MSDN Academic Alliance, DreamSpark development and design tools, Expression for Educators, IT Academy, and ahain, more. Alfred Thompson, Computer Science Teacher, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Experience, Academia, Image Software, Microsoft] [Comment]

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare
The American University Center for Social Media has released a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare. From the press release: "The code aims to help OCW designers at U.S. educational organizations recognize situations to which fair use applies and situations that require they get permission from third-party rights holders." Via Jane Park. Terri Bays, et.al., American University, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: United States, OpenCourseWare, Copyrights, Web Logs, Patents] [Comment]

UNESCO OER Toolkit
From the email release: "Today the UNESCO OER Toolkit (with support from the UNESCO Communications and Information Sector) was released as a resource for academics and institutions -- with a special focus on developing countries -- who are interested in participating in open education projects." The toolkit is a basic set of wiki pages containing introductory-level information on open educational resources (OERs). Philipp Schmidt, UNESCO, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: UNESCO, Information, Open Educational Resources, Project Based Learning, Academia] [Comment]

FCC Commissioned Study Assesses Why Canada Lags On Broadband
So why is Canada lagging in broadband. The American FCC studies the issue, and comes up with reason that should really be no surprise: "Canada in particular offers an example of half-hearted efforts to impose unbundling, and increasingly heavy reliance on competition between local telephone and cable incumbents. Its results, as our benchmarking study shows, have been weaker than those of other countries we review here." The impact on competitiveness is noticable. Compare, meanwhile, to Finland (yes, the same country that leads all those studies of educational outcomes), where broadband (real broadband) has been made a civil right (more, more, more, more). Michael Geist, Weblog, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: United States, Canada, RSS] [Comment]

Second Classroom explores ReactionGrid
"ReactionGrid is a virtual 3D environment, that uses the OpenSimulator platform. Think SecondLife, but think less traffic, more focussed on education and learning for business and education – and in a PG environment." Judy O'Connell, heyjude, October 15, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

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