Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
December 3, 2009

ReadTwit and GReader - two great tastes that taste great together
I don't think I've ever heard it called 'GReader' (and it has become very annoying since tacking on utm= link spam on all its links) but Google Reader is a great mix with twitter, as Scott Leslie says, and is my primary means of keeping up with Twitter chat (I have always thought that 'following' is inefficient). Scott Leslie, EdTechPost, December 3, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Twitter, Chatrooms, Google, Spam] [Comment]

Why Business Leaders Should Not Be in the Driver's Seat
My 'anti-corporate bias' is well known. But, I must say, it has good pedigree. "What we now hear from our business leaders is that the schools must be redesigned to function like business. They conveniently overlook the fact that business practices and the ruthless pursuit of a competitive edge nearly destroyed our national economy a year ago." (Deb Meier concurs). Diane Ravitch, Bridging Differences, December 3, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Google] [Comment]

Pondering a rogue cloud; Will platform providers cave to business, government interests?
Is the cloud, asks Jonathon Zittrain, really the backbone of the future we want? Cloud computing exposes us to fraud and hackers, it trades away our privacy, and it puts us into the hands of providers who can change our content, tell us what apps are good for us, and restrict our speech. "More and more, your reality is contingent on the cloud and features that are dictated by business judgments," said Zittrain. Larry Dignan, ZD Net, December 3, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues, Hackers] [Comment]

The Curmudgeon's Manifesto

As they say: I've worked very hard to qualify as a curmudgeon, I deserve it, I have the website to prove it, and I'm going to be one, "a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas." Can't be any worse than being an edupunk. Anyhow, Harold Jarche, following Luis Saurez's lead, offers the curmudgeon's manifesto "a call to arms to start dumping platforms that don't understand how to play nice on the Internet.
1. I will not use web services that hijack my data or that of my network.
2. I will share openly on the Web and not constrain those with whom I share.
3. I will not lead others into the temptation of using web services that do not respect privacy, re-use, open formats or exportable data." Harold Jarce, Weblog, December 3, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues, Edupunk, Networks, Web Services] [Comment]

Learning4Content
Can't beat this: "Nellie Deutsch and Gladys Gahona would like to invite you to a free 5-day e-learning professional development workshop for educators who want to learn how to use WikiEducator and Moodle to share online content with students, create and facilitate online workshops, and collaborate online with their students and other educators (December 14-18)." This is the 33rd online workshop at WikiEducator. Nellie Deutsch and Gladys Gahona, WikiEducator, December 3, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Academic Publications, Online Learning] [Comment]

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