January 3, 2012
So Here’s What I’d Do
Dave Warlick,
2¢ Worth, January 3, 2012.
There's an interesting challenge in there somewhere, I think. Number six of Tim Holt's 10 Bad Trends in Ed Tech 2011 is "Ed tech gurus not offering solutions." Holt writes, "When challenged in his blog to actually demonstrate how it gets changed, Will Richardson admitted that it would take a sea change to do it. In other words, he didn’t actually have a solution FOR change, only that change was needed. In this post, Dave Warlick picks up the matle and holds forth with a list of ten things he would do. Looking through Warlick's list my first instinct was to ask him, "and what would you do if you didn't have dictatorial powers?" Because it's easy to simply say "eliminate all photocopying" or "rewrite the budget" or "classroom curricula will evolve" (you have to love the passive-aggressive flavour of the last one). But when you have actual organizations to work with, you can't just impose change. Now of course I think that I am demonstrating how things should change, what with this newsletter and open online courses and the rest of it. So I guess to Tim Hold I'm not a guru. That's OK, I can live with that.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Web Logs, Newsletters]
Finding the Right Price for Great Educational Content
Audrey Watters,
Hack Education, January 3, 2012.
I'm of two minds. I'm actually quite supportive of 'pay what you want' pricing plans. On the other hand, I can't imagine supporting myself through such a mechanism.
Student Work – Fall 2011
Alec Couros,
Couros Blog, January 3, 2012.
I'd link to link to all of this, but that would result in a massive newsletter post. So I'll link to Alec Couros's main page, and you can follow the links from there to the work and final projects from his Social Media & Open Education course students.
Learn it Yourself (LIY)
Clarence Fisher,
Remote Access, January 3, 2012.
Clarence Fisher writes a post titled 'Learn it Yourself (LIY)' in which he argues "the Open Source revolution is rooted not in technology itself, but in learning. It’s the ease of observing how languages function and how programs are made – coupled with the ability to seek and openly share that information with others." Meanwhile, Brian Lamb writes a post titled 'DIO: Do It Ourselves' in which he argues "the slight shift to 'DIO' from 'DIY' is obvious enough, and if I think about all the fun and all I learned this past year through, say, DS106, it’s equally obvious I didn’t do any of it myself." Which leads me to suggest the next logical step: LIO - Learn It Ourselves.
Is Facebook Stifling the Free Flow of Information?
Tony Hirst,
OUseful.Info, the blog…, January 3, 2012.
Now that they have achieved dominance, the majors (Facebook and Google, in particular) are beginning to shut down the open web. Tony Hirst writes that the "thing that grabbed my attention was that Importing a blog or RSS feed to your personal Facebook account is no longer available. Facebook’s recommendation is to 'Use Facebook Notes to customize your blog posts in a rich format that’s compatible for readers on Facebook, [or] [l]ink directly to your blog posts from your status'." Yeah, that'll keep the flow of information Facebook-neutral. In related (?) news, "Both Miguel Guhlin and Will Richardson have written recent cautions about the rise of corporate-led, for-profit 'school reform' efforts that de-professionalize education with the testing steamroller Pearson at the head of the parade."
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Customization, Web Logs, Information, Google, RSS]
Digital Habitats Editable version of Chapter 10 – Action Notebook
Nancy White,
Full Circle Associates, January 3, 2012.
Nancy White writes, "John Smith likes to work on his vacation, it seems. ;-) Thanks to him, we now have an editable version of Chapter 10 of Digital Habitats… which in essence is a collection of all the worksheets from the book. I’ll let him explain! This is from the book blog." This of course is the sort of thing everybody should be able to do with every textbook.
Not expecting the GoDaddy treatment…
Brian Lamb,
Abject, January 3, 2012.
Brian Lamb points out that while GoDaddy has been forced to retreat from its SOPA-supporting stance, no such pressure has been exerted on educational publishers. "It is well-understood by solid, well-meaning, mainstream organizations that the effects of the Act could be disastrous, and those solid, well-meaning, mainstream concerns have been waved away by ignorant lawmakers just as they always are... Yet among the official supporters of SOPA are pretty much all the major players in academic and educational publishing: Elsevier, Pearson Education, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Macmillan, Scholastic, et al..."
Hackers Plan Satellite Network to Fight Internet Censorship
Brian Prince,
Threat Post, January 3, 2012.
I think this would be very interesting if it succeeded. It certainly opens our eyes as to the possibilities for unofficial communications in the future. "According to BBC News, the plan was recently outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Dubbed the “Hackerspace Global Grid,” the project calls not only for the launching of satellites in orbit but also the development of a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the satellites.
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