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OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
May 26, 2010

Why teachers oppose Academies
Graham Attwell explains why teachers oppose plans to privatise the education system through the establishment of Academies. "Creating Academies in place of community or foundation schools involves the transfer of publicly funded assets to unaccountable sponsoring bodies... Sponsors are not required to have educational expertise or experience." Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Experience] [Comment] [Tweet]

Homeschooling 2.0? Giant Campus Online High School Program
Interesting - "This is a rather unique, tuition-free, ACCREDITED, online high school program available via Giant Campus of Washington. Perhaps this is the next step for online homeschooling? 'Giant Campus, the nationally recognized leader in innovative technology education programs for youth and adults, today announced the availability of full-time enrollment with Giant Campus of Washington, a public and tuition-free online school program of Columbia Tech High School in the White Salmon Valley School District.'" This is exactly what I would have opted for had I the option when completing high school. Lee Graham, elearning 3.0 blog, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Online Learning, Homeschooling, Adult Learning, Tuition and Student Fees] [Comment] [Tweet]

Outsourcing Mom
A little fun with the whole idea of outsourcing technology directors - outsourcing mom. provisions include "Eliminating tuck in and good night kisses because they have not been empirically proven to impact mental health" and "Negotiating conjugal services with a local independent contractor." Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blog, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

Why Diaspora will fail
Will Diaspora fail? It depends on who you ask - or in this case, on when you ask. In the first post, Why Diaspora will fail, Matthew Rogers calls it a well-funded pipe dream, suggests the authors will waste the money, and points to Appleseed, a 2005 distributed social network project (now looking for funding) that went nowhere. In Why Diaspora will win Erez Zukerman argues that "if it's played right, Diaspora can become an ecosystem," not depending on the original designers but benefiting from the support of an entire community. It seems clear that there is a lot of interest and discussion of this in the development community. See also Your guide to the Facebook revolt of 2010. Matthew Rogers, Download Squad, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Open Source, Project Based Learning] [Comment] [Tweet]

Day One Canada 3.0
If you have a full day to listen to videos then you'll be interested in this Canada 3.0 series. The videos are from the conference of the same name. The conference, in turn, is notable because of its high-level political support and connection to OpenText, the company that has won the contract to manage information for both the Ontario and federal governments. So, if you're associated with Canadian government IT in any way, what was said at this conference matters. There's 67 videos in all, starting with this intro. Various Authors, YouTube, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Video, Canada] [Comment] [Tweet]

10 ways to keep courses short
How to keep courses short. Donald Clark, Plan B, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

How to do the learning revolution?
Teemu Leinonen describes the essential elements of a learning revolution. "A long wish list?" he asks. "It is and it will cost a lot of money. A good thing is that it is not a risk investment. The economist know that these things have a high return of investment." Included in the list are some elements of traditional learning - libraries, teachers, universities - mixed well with learning technology and social equity. Teemu Leinonen, How to do the learning revolution?, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Paradigm Shift] [Comment] [Tweet]

Graphic Capture of Some IST Africa Sessions
These graphic lecture captures are invaluable teaching aids. Not simply because they represent the content of the lecture in an accessible format. But also because they make clear the structure of the presentation, a structure that should be very familiar to people who heard about the 'the rule of threes' I talked about in Argentina. Look at this one, for example. You can see the author employing some techniques - a pyramid, a four square diagram - to construct the overall presentation. Nancy White, Flickr, May 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Accessibility, Africa, Flickr] [Comment] [Tweet]

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