Stephen's Web

OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
June 26, 2010

Saturday Catch-Up
A special Saturday OLDaily to catch up on some overdue but useful items...

Journals
So I was duped last week by a rip-off site copying Tony Bates's list of journals. Here's a much better list, and even better, a list of lists. Doug Holton, EdTechDev, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

Free Learning Badge
In response to the promo badges, Doug Peterson asked for a downes.ca badge - and here it is. It's the same deal as the SEO sites, except instead of them benefiting from your Google popularity, you can benefit from my Google popularity. Go to the page, copy and paste the script into your blog, send me a note, and I'll post your link on the page (unless, you know, you're one of the SEO sites) without any 'top 50' or 'top 100' nonsense. P.S. you'll get to see my new template design, which I am very gradually developing and rolling out. Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Thomson Corporation, Google, Web Logs] [Comment] [Tweet]

What research has to say for practice
This is overall a very good set of resources, a bit tilted (not surprisingly) toward formal research rather than actual practice, but still in the end surprisingly consistent with what practitioners are saying. Results are presented as wiki pages, and yes, it appears you can edit them (worked for me, at least).
a) Tutoring on-line – Gilly Salmon and Mike Keppell
b) Web-based course design – Robin Mason and Frank Rennie
c) Learner acceptance of on-line learning and e-learning – Allison Littlejohn and Brian Whalley
d) Learning objects and repositories – Allison Littlejohn and John Cook
e) Learning using mobile and hand-held devices – Mike Sharples and Agnes Kukuluska-Hulme
f) On-line communities – Frank Rennie and Mike Keppell
g) Technology-supported assessment – David Nicol
h) Learning environments – Bob Banks and Gilly Salmon
i) Using social software in learning – Frances Bell and Frank Rennie
Via Seb Schmoller. Various Authors, ALT, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Assessment, Online Learning, Research, Learning Object Repositories, Portable Computers] [Comment] [Tweet]

Daniel Pink on incentive pay...?
Arnie Leonard recommends this video by Daniel Pink on incentive. Chris Lindholm summarizes, "He argues that the business model assumptions based on pay incentives for performance actually have an ignorable or even negative effect on actual task performance in most situations. His work is based on studies published by highly respected economics scholars and brain research. Hmmm... Does this play into the 'pay for performance' debate raging in public education?" Chris Lindholm, Principal Thoughts, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Books, Video, Research] [Comment] [Tweet]

Virtual Patients bring together fragmented e-learning tools
You'll be seeing more on modelling and simulation in these pages as I explore how these work with personal learning. These are evolving into subdomains of their own; the idea of the virtual patient, for example, has spawned its own blog and an entire development community. In this video Bas de Leng outlines the difficulties of bringing together different domains to create a single simulation. "In order to create effective VP, multidisciplinary teams are crucial, as are standards. 'It is important to have a uniform language in order to collaborate in a meaningful way,' he says." Unatrtributed, eViP, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Simulations, Ontologies, Video, Web Logs] [Comment] [Tweet]

LearnMobs? DoShops?
Sharable: "'I'm tired of sitting in meetings just talking about things. It feels like a waste of my time. Why can't we go out and work while we meet rather than just sitting around a table?' Frase believed you could build stronger relationships with people by working side by side rather than just sitting around a table talking. Her fellow farmers agreed. 'The idea emerged that we'd come together to build community, help each other out, and share a meal,' explains Rob Jones, one of the farmers in attendance that October night. 'We decided we'd call it the Crop Mob.'" I like the idea, but I think that unless you're working locally, with people who know each other, it's a lot harder to set up than it looks. Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, June 26, 2010 [Link] [Tags: none] [Comment] [Tweet]

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