RoboEarth: A World Wide Web for Robots
Markus Waibel, IEEE Spectrum, February 10, 2011.

I'm not sure what to make of the idea that there is a separate internet just for robots. Sure, it's probably good to get them off the main internet, if only to stop them from swamping us with data. On the other hand, it conjures images of mad runaway global robot networks, Skynet, and all the rest of it. But Roboearth is exactly that: a separate internet for robots. I already feel doomed. But not to worry (we're told): "Allow robots to encode, exchange, and reuse knowledge to help each other accomplish complex tasks. This goes beyond merely allowing robots to communicate via the Internet, outsourcing computation to the cloud, or linked data.... RoboEarth is about building a knowledge base, and while it may include intelligent web services or a robot app store, it will probably be about as self-aware as Wikipedia."

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RoboEarth: A World Wide Web for Robots
Markus Waibel, IEEE Spectrum, February 10, 2011.

I'm not sure what to make of the idea that there is a separate internet just for robots. Sure, it's probably good to get them off the main internet, if only to stop them from swamping us with data. On the other hand, it conjures images of mad runaway global robot networks, Skynet, and all the rest of it. But Roboearth is exactly that: a separate internet for robots. I already feel doomed.

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Florian Schneider's (Extended) Footnotes On Education
Leigh Blackall, Weblog, February 10, 2011.

Leigh Blackhall links to Florian Schneider's (Extended) Footnotes On Education, which he calls "one of the most outstanding contemporary readings on the situation in education I have seen in a long time." There's some good thinking in there on deinstitutionalization and commodification of education. Blackall summarizes: "Florian argues that breaking everything down into assessable units drives all skills and knowledge into discrete assessable items that plays into the commodification of learning, and further disenfranchises independent learning."

Completely related, and worth reviewing, from The Innovative Educator (which I quote at length), are Ivan Illich's major works on education:

* Deschooling Society: This book made Ivan Illich famous, arguing that schooling is a model of our centralized consumer society.
- You can download and read the book as a PDF here.
- Review of Deschooling Society.
* Tools for Conviviality: The entire text of another of Illich's most important works, the most general statement of his view about technology. This book helped found the radical technology movement of the 1970s. (PDF format)
* School is Dead: Illich ascribes his interest in public education to Everett Reimer who published his thoughts in a book entitled School is Dead where he outlines his relationship with Illich and the subsequent train of thought that both men pursued.
* Education Without School: How It Can Be Done, NYRB Jan 7, 1971
* Illich speaking on schools. Date Unknown. sideA (13MB mp3) - sideB (12MB mp3)

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The Edgeless University: Why Higher Education Must Embrace Technology
Peter Bradwell, Demos, February 10, 2011.

Good bits from The Edgeless University:
- "a person's background and socio-economic status still play too great a role in determining access to higher education. " p.17
- "The forces now confronting higher education have been called ‘a perfect storm'... Universities must offer more varied provision to a growing number of students in an era when they can no longer depend on ever-increasing allocation of funds." p.22
- "Knowledge is no longer restricted within the boundaries of universities and higher education facilities... Universities are becoming partners in learning and research rather than sole providers." p.31
- "it is too easy to ignore the huge, informal, tacit knowledge that makes science work. Science is as much about conversations in corridors as it is about papers in journals." p.43
- "Government policy must help higher education institutions develop new ways of offering education seekers affiliation and accreditation." p.54
- "Technology should be in the service of anethic of open learning." p.54
- "Many academics find it hard to envisage the possibilities that technology affords, not least because often they lack thebasic skills to use the new tools." p.58
(BUT) - "There would be higher learning without universities, but there is always a danger that we overstate how ‘transformative' or ‘revolutionary'
technology will be. Technology does not rid us of the need for these institutions." p.63
Via Rose Heaney, who writes, "In these tight financial times we don't hear much about edgeless universities, institutions seem more insular."

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Crib sheet for 2011 Educase Horizon Report
Sheila MacNeill, Sheila's work blog, February 10, 2011.

If you don't want to read the entire Horizon Report (Direct link to PDF) then this set of crib notes will do nicely. If you want to dig more deeply, as the Chronicle notes, " the New Media Consortium this year designed the Horizon Project Navigator, a social-media site to offer access to the materials experts looked at in preparing the report and share information related to the identified technology trends."

As usual, in my opinion, the Horizon Report tracks technologies that have become more prevalent in media reports. It is a publicity tracker, not a tech tracker. That's why, for example, you'll never see 'personal server' or 'home server' in the predictions until after production has started and they're appearing in media reports. That's why this year's report features the following: e-books, mobile computing, augmented reality, game-based learning, gesture-based computing, and learning analytics. More from Helge Sherlund, Jim Groom ("This must have been written by educators, not gamers"), Ray Tolley ("It is time education got its head out of the sand and looked at what the big wide world *IS* doing"), Graham Attwell ("We may actually be seeing the zenith of the Kindle"), Jane Hart and Tony Bates ("Only two out of six (mobile learning and learning analytics) are common between us – who do you think is right?").

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What Hardware Do I Need for a Personal Media Server?
Unattributed, LifeHacker, February 10, 2011.

Why would you want your own streaming media server? Well, as you use more computers (your mobile phone, your television, your desktop, your pad, etc.) it becomes more and more inconvenient to manage your media lbrary (as an example, I spent an hour last night transferring my digital music to a portable USB drive so my music is available on my computer at work - my iPod, of course, simply refused to transfer the music). With a streaming meida server, I keep my media in one place, and access it from any of my devices. While it's still ahead of most people, this article talks about what you need in order to set up your own personal media server. Not too much, as it turns out. Or, you could buy one preconfigured. Eventually, everyone will have their own personal media server, which in time will also become their own personal web server.

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Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Statement of Principles and Definition v1.0
Various Authors, Website, February 10, 2011.

Open hardware is a good idea. But what is it? Each of us may have an intuitive understanding, but something more concrete is needed. As of today, a definition now exists. "Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a term for tangible artifacts -- machines, devices, or other physical things -- whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things." The rest of definition is available here. Via Open Hardware Summit.

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SCORM Requirement for TAACCCT Rescinded
Rob Abel, IMS Global, February 9, 2011.

Regarding the U.S. Department of Labour's funding for open educational resources, Rob Abel writes, "The mandated requirement for SCORM has been rescinded. The Department has issued an amendment that I am attaching to this message." Here it is.

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