Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 4, 2010

Welcome to My PLE!

"A 7th grade student gives a tour of her personal learning environment. This project was conducted as part of dissertation research implementing the use of networked learning and construction of personal learning environments in a 7th grade life science class." And me, a 50 year-old NRC researcher, trying to do this... heh. Posted by wdrexler (is that Wendy Drexler) This is, by the way, a great screencast. Via Harold Jarche. wdrexler, YouTube, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Networks, Research, Project Based Learning] [Comment] [Tweet]

BigBlueButton

I'm in BigBlueButton playing around with the demo synchronized conferencing forum developed at Carleton University in Ottawa. "At its very basic level, BigBlueButton (BBB) is an online classroom as is considered a synchronous learning tool... BigBlueButton is an open source project that is built on over fourteen open source components to create an integrated web conferencing system that runs on mac, unix, or PC computers." There's a Moodle and Drupal integration. It looks straightforward to implement. Here's the mailing list. Rob Nettleton, EDC Blog, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Conferencing, Open Source, Project Based Learning] [Comment] [Tweet]

The post-Becta, QCDA and GTCE future
Doug Belshaw no doubt captures the sentiments of a lot of people with this post. Applauding the termination of Becta, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, and the General Teaching Council for England, he writes, "I'm really pleased that these three organizations have gone together rather than in a piecemeal fashion. I think it signals a bright future for schools in England – so long as the Academies programme isn't used just to shuffle the money from quangos to consultants. I hope that getting rid of these organizations means that money can be channeled more effectively to schools, partnerships, federations and authorities who in a position closer to the ground to gauge its impact." He also notes, "These thoughts are my own and don't represent my employer's, my wife's or the those of Father Christmas," and I would hope readers respect his right (and responsibility) to post opinions that may not align with official (or domestic) (or Yule) policy. Doug Belshaw, Weblog, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Schools, Great Britain] [Comment] [Tweet]

GoogleApps for Education Demo Site Now Available!
Muguel Guhlin links to a Google Apps for Education demo site, now available for use without a login. I've seen the docs and spreadsheet before. I hadn't tried the drawing app, which looks pretty sweet. Here's a five-second drawing (from opening to embed, about a minute):

I know, it's not very good. But it's here in my newsletter in less than a minute. And it's live - as I edit it, it is updated inside this post. Muguel Guhlin, Around the Corner, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Newsletters, Google] [Comment] [Tweet]

The Future of Courses?
Ten dollars for a CSS course with a mix of people, community and background resources? "Certainly," writes John K, "this is the future of continuing education - where people who need skills upgrading get a package to go through with some minimal instruction. Writing clear, concise, directive instructions will be a key skill for the designers of these courses. There will be others that suggest these small, modular courses don't provide context for the work - or even more don't allow for reflective practices. That may be the case, or maybe those things need to be built." John K, All The Young (edu)Punks, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

Sony Exec Predicts E-Books to Outsell Print in Five Years
"Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong--it's within five." So says Steve Haber, the president of Sony's digital reading business. He's probably right. But - especially given the source - I'll add this: that in five years we'll be embroiled in exactly the same mess with reading content as we were with music content - people wanting proprietary formats, digital rights management, and locked-down players, instead of open and freely sharable media. Brian Heater, Gearlog, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Digital Rights Management (DRM)] [Comment] [Tweet]

AT&T: Way to spin a mobile data plan backstep! (OR: Why I'm going Android)
So let's see - if the Wired app is 600 mB, and the phone network charges $15 / 200 mB, I guess I won't be reading Wired over the iPhone or iPad without using my home WiFi connection, right? Of course, at 600 mB, a few of these maazines will put me over my home limit as well. Amy Gahran argues in favour of bandwidth caps, but as a consumer, I don't see it. Minimally, I would want my phone to conserve bandwidth, and that certainly isn't the Apple way. So I can see why she's switching to Android. Amy Gahran, contentious.com, June 4, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc., Networks, Bandwidth] [Comment] [Tweet]

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