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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
March 16, 2010

A Conversation on Social Learning
Conversation with a group in Holland about recent developments in social learning. I focused mostly on the idea that the intent of social learning is to generate practice and experience with idea of growing or developing personal capacity (as opposed to learning as the 'transfer' of knowledge). We also talked quite a bit about the use of social networks and communities as a mechanism for evaluating learning. Presentation by Stephen Downes, , Holland, via Skype,

I Am .CA
This is a video I created as an entry for the CIRA Show us your .ca contest. I had a pretty hard time with this, partially because I was fighting the technology and partially because I was coming down with what would turn out to be a nasty cold. I wanted to focus more on the website and less about me, but this is what I was able to put together. Stephen Downes, YouTube, March 16, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Video] [Comment] [Tweet]

The intentional marginalization of blogging in the corporate learning sector
Janet Clarey calls out corporate learning magazines for their marginalization of the blogosphere. Just as academic journals systematically disregard the work being done in the blogging community, she writes, "I do think there's the same "marginalization of blogging" (Groom writes about) and the failure to give credit where credit is due. There's (still) a certain respect associated with corporate learning periodicals (and many are very, very good and include those that blog) but I often get the feeling that when something is written on a blog (vs. within an article) it's not taken seriously." Janet Clarey, Weblog, March 16, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Academic Publications, Academic Journals, Online Learning, Academia, Web Logs] [Comment] [Tweet]

An OLPC News Rebuttal to @TMSruge's Africa 3.0 Speech
Pretty interesting back-and-forth about whether OLPC is a "failed solution." A good part of the argument revolved around whether OLPC is another neo-colonialist solution for Africa, and whether giving computers away, instead of adopting a market solution, is the best approach. I would observe that a good part, indeed most, OLPC work took place in South America and Asia. Is it neo-colonialist? Kinda. On the other hand I note the complete failure of the "marketplace" to provide anything like low cost internet access or computing in the developing world before OLPC. Mobile phones, which must be used instead, are a very expensive and closed alternative. Wayan Vota, OLPC//News, March 16, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Africa] [Comment] [Tweet]

Global Self-Paced eLearning Market Forecasts

A report from Ambient suggests that the market for self-paced learning will double by 2014. "It estimates the market had reached US $27.1 billion in 2009. The demand is growing at a 5 year compound annual growth rate of 12.8% and will take the world market to US $49.6 billion by 2014." Amit Garg, Upside Learning Blog, March 16, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

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