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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
April 1, 2010

Reviewers required for forthcoming book on Personal Learning environments
We've had a good response to our call for chapters in a PLE book and now we need reviewers. Rita Kop, Plearn Blog, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Books] [Comment] [Tweet]

Elevator pitch for Moodle curriculum mapping
All signs point to a trend in the making toward curriculum mapping in learning management. David T. Jones gives the elevator pitch for a curriculum mapping project in Moodle (actually, it's more of the two-hour seminar pitch - what follows in this post is the elevator pitch): "Curriculum mapping is based around the idea that having alignment between the outcomes etc. and the learning activities, resources and assessments within a course is a good thing.... making outcomes etc and their relationship with learning resources, activities and assessment a highly visible and first class component of the LMS/learning environment is necessary to increase alignment... Well designed extensions to an LMS that encourage and enable improvement of course alignment will increase the quantity and quality of usage of the institutional LMS and subsequent student outcomes." See also Step Two of the same project. David T. Jones, Weblog, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Assessment, Online Learning, Project Based Learning, Quality] [Comment] [Tweet]

Is New Media Incompatable with Schooling?: An Interview with Rich Halverson
Is new media incompatible with schooling? In a word, yes. Good two-part interview (Part One, Part Two) of Rich Halverson by Henry Jenkins. This pretty much sums it up: "Digital media provides a path to personalizing and customizing learning that is often at odds with the batch processing model of, especially, K-12 schooling. This has meant that digitally literate young people have come to understand that there are at least two living channels for learning - 1) an institutional channel, and 2) a peer-driven, interest-driven, and unregulated digital media channel. The bifurcation of learning experiences for young people is bound to call the institutional identification of schooling and learning into question in the coming years." Henry Jenkins, Confessions of an Aca/Fan, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Personalization, Customization, New Media, Experience] [Comment] [Tweet]

Eight Corporations May be Learning the Hard Way about Patent Infringement
A patent troll has launched an action against eight LMS companies. IPLearn holds US Patent 5,967,793, 'Relationship-Based Computer-Aided-Educational System', which describes a way for students to learn a new subject based on its relationship to subjects they already know (in other words, what we generally call 'adaptive learning'). The companies named include Learn.com, Certpoint Systems, Meridian Knowledge Solutions, emTRAiN, HRsmart, and NetDimisions. Via Masie. Press Release, PRLog, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Patents, Online Learning, Google, Copyrights, Patents] [Comment] [Tweet]

Corporate Control of Public Education Policy
Good set of links looking at common core standards, technology, and corporate interests. "Some have said that the Common Core State Standards have been driven primarily by corporate officials, politicians and testing companies," writes Jim Burke. "If that is the case . . . Who stands to profit? Should Corporations control educational Policy in the United States?" Jim Burke, Learning in Maine, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: United States, Tests and Testing] [Comment] [Tweet]

The Most Disturbing Presentation of the Year
If all life is learning and all learning is a game, then - ? This is the scenario depicted in this presentation. "In Jesse Schell's future we will still shop, eat cereal, brush our teeth, and watch TV. But everything we do and (more importantly) all the information we attend to will win us points and benefits across a vast incentives network engineered by corporations and government entities. Morgen Peck, IEEE Spectrum, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Video] [Comment] [Tweet]

Surveys Are Not Connective Knowledge
Steve Covello argues "the collective opinion based on crowdsourced data collection means nothing more than a statistical point of interest... In a 'data happy' world, we are inclined to reflexively respond to patterns and trends in information – the so-called emergence phenomenon mentioned by Stephen Downes and Connectivists in general – rather than the inherent validity of the basis for the data trends" and I respond. Update: Covello responds with a detailed post (always appreciated!).
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, April 1, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Privacy Issues] [Comment] [Tweet]

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