Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
December 4, 2009

Chumby is your friend!

I'm not sure yet that these actually exist. But the site seems legit. And I'm not sure they're really so amazing. After all, they're simply devices that play widgets. Widgets that are alarm clocks. Widgets that are weather reports. Widgets that are web radio. But the more I look at this, the more I want one. One? No, wait, I want two, three, more! Kathy Schrock, Kaffeeklatsch, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

Use QR Code to Share Your Site to the World!
So I created a QR code for my site. Because this

is so much easier to understand than: http://www.downes.ca
(yes, that's sarcasm. Because I still don't see the benefit of obfuscating easy-to-read text). Zaid Ali Alsagoff, ZaidSwoosh, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

CSI Twitter- Crime Scene Investigation
I don't really like shows like CSI but one thing I do appreciate is that they foster a sense of scientific enquiry in viewers (so do MythBusters and Survivorman, which are much better examples of television). This is a great example of the impact, as schoolchildren analyze a skeleton - and analyze different ways the web solves problems. A great story at many levels. Silvia Tolisano, Langwitches, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Twitter, Video] [Comment]

More archival images shared by Flickr

Bryan Alexander reports, "The Library and Archives Canada (Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) Webbed up "a selection of digital images related to Canadian documentary heritage" through Flickr." Love the airplane; Canada has a great aviation history that is unknown to most people. Bryan Alexander, Liberal Education Today, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Canada, Image Software, Flickr] [Comment]

Rhee wants to sell off closed D.C. schools to condo developers
The funny thing about this is that the local newspaper has recommended selling off a (historic) local school and turning it into condominiums. And I don't believe in coincidences. "Either way, whether public space is turned over to private charter operating companies or to condo/hotel developers, the real losers are kids, parents and communities, who have lost a valuable resource as well as a voice on how public space is utilized." Mike Klonsky, SmallTalk, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools] [Comment]

Oscar winning e-learning guru urges trainers to take another look at video
Yes, I know, David Puttnam has never been mentioned in these pages before. He is a well known film producer (and made many of my favorites, including Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Chariots of Fire, Local Hero, The Killing Fields and The Mission) and is a member of the British House of Lords, but I'm not sure he's an e-learning guru. No matter; you are what you do, and what he has done is to release a video on learning, available for free viewing (if you send your email, they'll send a DVD (huh?)), We Are The People We've Been Waiting For. And what he offers is a message that resonates here. "Rightly or wrongly young people expect an entirely new form of relationship with the world around them that does not simply rely on accessing information but on creating new knowledge, new products and new resources." Martin Kornacki, Training Journal Online, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Great Britain, Online Learning, Video] [Comment]

Hailey Hacks lolcats
Pretty prefessional video for someone so young. No matter, if you want to learn how to create a LOLCat, this video will show you how. Thanks to Brenda Sherry for the email. HaileyHacks, YouTube, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment]

Google Launches Public DNS to Speed Up Web
I didn't know about this before I wrote about the great Rogers Google-DNS fail but there is certainly a fill of irony to this item. "Google announced Google Public DNS on Thursday, a new means by which users can utilize the Google DNS servers to access the Internet.... Users who want to try out the new Google DNS servers can change their DNS settings to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4, as its instructions describe." I don't know, OpenDNS is one thing, but Google? Mark Hachman, PC Mag, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Google] [Comment]

Documents from The Internet as Playground and Factory
Now this is how you do a conference. I'm been following the discussion on the iDC list for the last six months (albeit not closely). Now the conference has come and gone and an amazing array of resources has been left behind. Trebor Scholz, iDC, December 4, 2009 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment]

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