Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
November 2, 2009

Why I don't use Google Reader anymore
Robert Scoble writes (in Posterous, not his own blog, which makes it impossible to find unless you know what you're looking for) that he no longer uses Google Reader. The main reason is speed: "I see most news faster on Twitter than in Google Reader. Where did Marissa Mayer announce Google's deal with Twitter? On Twitter. It didn't show up on my Google Reader until later after everyone had written blog posts. Headline scanning is easier, and more interesting for some reason in Twitter than even in Google Reader's list view." Now - if you're Rober Scobnle and live headline to headline, never venturing past the lede, then sure, Twitter's your ticket. But I am inclined to agree with Brett Kelly, who says "replacing Google Reader with Twitter is nuts." he says, "Twitter, in it's current iteration and feature set, simply cannot function as a legitimate newsreading tool." Robert Scoble, scobleizer's posterous, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Twitter, Google, Web Logs] [Comment]

Google Wave to have its own app store
Just what the world doesn't need: apps that work only in Google Wave (just like we didn't need Apps that work only on the iPhone, just like we didn't need Apps that work only on Internet Explorer). Nilay Patel, Engadget, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Google, Microsoft] [Comment]

Gardner's 'Multiple Intelligences' seductive nonsense?
It almost seems to be a rite of passage in the discipline these days to announce to all and sundry that there's nothing to multiple intelligences, that Gardner (in his early writings at least) was mistaken, and that people who think there's something to it have been "seduced." Well - if it's "seductive" it may be because there is something to it, even if we don't exactly know what. It may not be that there's a nice neat four-item taxonomy in into which to classify individuals' special abilities - but it doesn't follow that no such abilities exist, and that there can't be different ways of being 'intelligent'. For my own part I certainly observe and experience preferences in learning style, which to me amounts to something. I'm quite sure they don't show up on standardized tests - but so much the worse for standardized tests. In the current discipline we call 'education' the argument that something is not 'proven by research' is to my mind almost redundant. People in this field do not even agree on what constitutes 'research' and 'evidence' (and there they do agree, in an Ungerleider sort of way, they get it wrong). Donald Clark , Plan B, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Assessment, Tests and Testing, Experience, Research] [Comment]

How do YOU connect online?
This is my submission to D'Arcy Narman's survey on "How do you connect to people online?" (He says "Contributions can be in any format – video, audio, text, photographs, interpretive dance, poetry, or whatever way you can express a response." - my 'format' is a post in my newsletter). And the answer is: like this! By working, writing and thinking in my own space, and making it available to anyone who is interested to watch and follow. D'Arcy Norman, D'Arcy Norman Dot Net, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Audio, Newsletters, Video] [Comment]

An EducationPLN Twitter List for You!
Someone had to be the one to start an education Twitter list (and it wasn't going to be me). If you're into that sort of thing, here's one for you. Let the jockeying for list position begin! A Faire Alchemist, Teach Paperless, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Twitter] [Comment]

The dilemma presented by China's content filtering of my current handouts website
Listing of the websites blocked to Wes Fryer in China. he has such limited access to the social web, he mnust feel like he's in a K-12 school! Sites blocked include pbworks.com, Twitter, bit.ly, ning.com, YouTube and Diigo. No word on OLDaily and downes.ca. Related: E-Learning in the Chinese context by Ronghuai Huang. Wesley Fryer, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Twitter, Video, YouTube, China] [Comment]

Point/Counterpoint in L&L
"When exactly," asks Doug Johnson, "did I go from being the young cute guy to the old grumpy one in most situations?" Maybe when he began writing columns like this. His side of the debate is a defense of the traditional library, an institution that will be obsolete, he says, when teachers and learners "Feel no need for a collaborative learning space," "View voluntary reading as a waste of time," and "Are content to provide only textbook- and test-driven instruction," among other similar remarks. This column sees librarians (if the remarks are typical) as very much misunderstanding the nature of the opposition to storing books and other media all in one place that people have to go to. Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blog, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning] [Comment]

The grammar gravy train
What makes language such a great tool for thinking and learning is that it can approach a greater precision than most alternatives. In current usage, however, with a general decline in language and logic among what would in previous years have been called the intellegensia, language remains as imprecise an instrument as the rest. The fault, though, lies not with the speakers - at least, according to this author - but rather, with the grammarians themselves, who have been practising their are with no particular knowledge of the subject. Related: Seven Bad Writing Habits you learned in school. Geoffrey K. Pullum, Language Log, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Six Social Media Trends for 2010
It's only November and yet we're already getting next year's predictions. Some of these, though, seem worth noting. "Social media begins to look less social," for example, rings right. More and more, social media seems to be the latest way to market media pheonoms, and less and less the way to talk to your community. Thus we also see "Corporations look to scale" and "Social business becomes serious play." Finally, will social media make inroads into email? "Sharing no longer means e-mail," suggests David Armano. Really? Then.... what? Wave? David Armano, HarvardBusiness.org, November 2, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

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