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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
February 10, 2010

Blackboard's Open Standards Commitments: Progress Made
Ray Henderson reports on Blackboards progress toward open standards. Most of the work is toward IMS Global's Common Cartridge (CC) and Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specifications, previously reported by me here and here. Ray Henderson, Blackboard, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Open Standards, IMS Project, Interoperability, Blackboard Inc.] [Comment] [Tweet]

While Supplies Last ... Get Yours Today!
The Chronicle ridicules the idea of corporations granting degrees, but universities should take note. When their funding falls through the floorboards, corporations will be quick to jump into the credentialing game. They won't, though, think of professors as high-paid talent. Teaching staff, like hamburger-flippers, will be disposable, because the real power is in the degree-granting monopoly, not the hoarding (or delivery) of knowledge. Gina Barreca, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

Scholars Use Social-Media Tools to Hold Online Academic Conference
Isn't it around five years after the first conference using web 2.0 tools was held? So why would the Chronicle tout some conference hosted by a USC professor as "what may be the first academic conference held entirely using Web 2.0 tools." Talk about missing the boat. Where has the Chronicle been all this time? Not reading OLDaily, that's for sure. Jeff Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Academia] [Comment] [Tweet]

School Secretary Fired for Translating for Concerned Parents
When you use schools as an instrument of colonialism, denying people their language and culture, there is a long-term price to pay. This is a lesson Canada learned (I hope) with the ill-conceived experiment of using residential schools to assimilate First Nations children. It is a lesson yet to be learned by this school, which fired a secretary for acting as a translator for a Spanish-speaking parent. And it is surprising how many people in general think that schools can be used to 'normalize' what they believe to be unsavory elements in society. Alex DiBranco, Change.org, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Canada] [Comment] [Tweet]

Rorschach's EdTech Journal 2-10-10
The Bava's Rorschach makes the Joker look tame, and he's out to get the ed tech corporations. "There can be no compromise" between the LMS and edupunk, he growls. "Those liberal middle-of-the-road moderates ruining the possibility of purity. There can be no compromise. The two shall never meet... Listening to those half-hearted instructional technologists and so-called professors preach about the future... they know nothing. The future is now." Pretty funny. But with a point, I think, that can't be denied. The idea of people creating their own education is fundamentally opposed to the idea of (corporate) providers of education, and each one necessarily undermines the other. Jim Groom, bavatuesdays, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Edupunk] [Comment] [Tweet]

Hands On With Google Buzz - It's a Stream in Your Inbox

I don't use Google Mail because it forces you to use your GMail address for all other Google apps. I prefer to use my own email address, using my downes.ca domain name, because it belongs to me, not Google. So I can't use Google Buzz, because it is tightly connected to Google Mail. I understand Google wanting to integrate status updates and feeds with email content, but it has it backwards - they should make email more mobile rather than making stream content less mobile. Luis Saurez, though, uses the occasion to rethink his long "email is dead" campaign, linking to these slides from Wrike.

Michael Calore, Monkey Bites, February 10, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Google, Domain Names] [Comment] [Tweet]

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