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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
December 24, 2009

A New Diigo Vision and Call for Advice: On Students Teaching China to the West
Clay Burell described how he changed his technology - and his approach - in his Chinese history course this year. He changed his textbook, replaced Blackboard with Ning, and, well, still got stuck in the "one fact after another" trap, something that's easy to do when covering one dynasty after another for a 4,000 year time span. I like the post because of the concreteness of the example (and because I studied Chinese history as an elective in high school). Clay Burell, Beyond School, December 24, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Schools, China, Blackboard Inc.] [Comment] [Tweet]

Six priorities for Canadian e-learning in 2010
Tony Bates offers six items as his wish list for Canadian higher education in 2010. They include:
1. Certification for post-secondary teaching.
2. Establishment of (at least one) hybrid digital university.
3. Establishment of a Canadian open content consortium
4. The development of educational apps for mobile learning
5. A national centre for digital learning.
6. Sharing of networked services across a province or inter-provincially
The dominate theme of these, in my view, is that they are all institutionally based. Consequently, I think they would be less successful in the current environment than may be imagined. Tony Bates, Weblog, December 24, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Networks, Open Content, Canada] [Comment] [Tweet]

Signaling cells show education how to use online resources
Breck: Placing OER (open educational resources) online without optimizing their components to signal is like expecting a single cell or group of cells to perform their role in isolation. Quite right. How would this work? "There are other very effective signal methods inherent in learning resources including: experts linking to (creating a network with) other OER they respect, landing pages that point (signal toward) excellent OER, and RSS-type signals that roll out expertise as it is published." Or to put the same points more concisely: 'stand-alone' learning objects need ways of connecting to the wider environment. Judy Breck, Golden Swamp, December 24, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Books, Networks, Open Educational Resources, RSS, Linking and Deep Linking, Learning Objects] [Comment] [Tweet]

10 News Media Content Trends to Watch in 2010
If I were to want to monetize news content, I would charge for breaking news, not archives. If you've invested in a news organization, what you can do that nobody else can do is cover a story as it breaks. That, it seems to me, is the premium news organizations can make money from. Much the way stock quote services offer free listings only on a delayed basis. Everything you post - and allow free access to - after it's (say) a half hour old is advertising for the premium service. I don't know why news media haven't monetized in this way - it would be minimally disruptive, would be very reader-friendly, and would allow them to earn revenues from those willing to pay for the premium service. (This idea occurs to me after reading dozens and dozens of these 'top story' and 'predictions' lists, none of which even hint at the breaking-news premium model. Remember - you heard it here first (it will actually be "invented" by an A-lister somewhere in the U.S. in mid-2010). Vadim Lavrusik, Mashable, December 24, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Marketing] [Comment] [Tweet]

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