Feature Article
Agents Provocateurs
Stephen Downes, October 28, 2010.

Huffington Post article. If we think of OERs in a wider context, then we start saying some new things about them. We stop thinking of learning resources as something produced by publishers and institutions, and instead start thinking of them as being produced by learners themselves. And this in turn changes out thinking about how we sustain the cost of them, how we vet them for quality, and how we license and use them.

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Free, as in Unfettered
Gardner Campbell, Gardner Writes, October 28, 2010.

Frankly, the concept of 'free' as 'unfettered' is naive and misdirected. A good many people live their lives 'unfettered'. Of course, this is because they are so poor they have no ties, no obligations - and no food. The concept of freedom is empty and meaningless without a corresponding concept of agency and action. Similarly, the concept of "unfettered learning" is empty without reference to the skills, capacities, and agency needed in order to actually become educated, fettered or otherwise. Structures for dialogue, engagement, security and good order are needed in order to support freedom, whether in learning or otherwise. Otherwise your 'freedom' will be fodder for the 'unfettered' action of someone or something bigger and stronger than you.

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Differentiating tacit and explicit knowledge
Michael Hanley, E-Learning Curve Blog, October 28, 2010.

I wish that this post had gone into more detail. The distinction between "tacit (or personal) knowledge and explicit (or formal) knowledge" is an important one in educational theory (and knowledge management). But the post does contain a link to Ron Sanchez's Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning: Fundamental Concepts for Theory and Practice, which makes up for the lack of detail. The first section contains an extended discussion of the distinction between (what the author calls) 'personal knowledge' and 'organizational knowledge'. The second section examines the advantages and disadvantages of an emphasis on one over the other. An intermediate mode - group learning - is interposed between the two, which leads to five cycles of knowledge management.

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AP's ASCAP for news - new ecosystem, new revenue streams, new enterprise opportunities
Martin Langeveld, News after Newspapers, October 28, 2010.

The Associated Press is launching a rights clearinghouse for news content. "A newspaper (or a broadcaster, or a local blogger) could release a piece of content (a story, a photo, a video) with tags indicating what it is about, who owns it, how and where it may be used, and how the content originator is to be paid. The content, distributed through any available channel, is picked up by another publisher, aggregator, or personalized news service and used in accordance with the attached rights and payments protocols. The clearinghouse monitors usage and payment obligations throughout the network of participating content originators." This is a model that has (at least in the education domain) previously been bogged down in patent claims; I don't know whether AP is ignoring claims by companies such as ContentGuard or has in some other way finessed the legal issues.

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Quick Shoot-Out – 4 Free Web-based Screencasting Tools
Scott Leslie, EdTechPost, October 28, 2010.

Scott Leslie reviews four free web-based screencasting applications:
- ScreenCastle – http://screencastle.com/
- Screencast-o-matic – http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
- ScreenToaster – http://www.screentoaster.com/
- ScreenJelly – http://www.screenjelly.com/
Of the four, Screencast-o-matic served his needs the best, though of course you should try all these for yourself.

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TESSA - Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa
Various Authors, Website, October 28, 2010.

From the OER list, from Gareth Dart: "TESSA is a consortium of 18 national and international organisations including 13 institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa who are using the TESSA materials in a variety of teacher education programmes." The website continues: "TESSA has produced a large bank of materials directly aimed at enhancing and improving access to, and the quality of, local school based education and training for teachers."

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Adopting Standards and Specifications for Educational Content
Various Authors, elearningeuropa.info, October 28, 2010.

Interesting project and especially an interesting set of free and open webinars (though the playback seems to be broken at the moment). "ASPECT is developing best practice approaches to implementing standards for educational content discovery and usability. Initial results on how teachers have responded to standards (such as SCORM and Common Cartridge) and the integration of resources into learning platforms are already available. ASPECT also provides tools, services, workshops and webinars for educational content developers, publishers and tools' providers."

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