April 13, 2012
Presentation
Learning in a Digital Age: The reality and the myth
Stephen Downes, April 13, 2012,
Learning and Teaching in a Digital Age: Myths and Reality, Tallinn, Estonia
In this presentation I look at the positive side of myths, not focusing on the fact that they are untrue, but finding in them the way we create our own reality, project our own future, and talk to each other.
On Web Thinking
Alan Levine,
CogDogBlog, April 13, 2012.
URLs are what make or break the web. It's a good test of whether an initiative or institution is trying to support or break the web: are they trying to support or undermine URLs? I like my links pure. Without QR opacity, without utm clutter, without hashbang redirects. Just the location, no SEO, thanks. Alan Levine writes about a Jon Udell talk in which he revisits the idea of the link and the URL. And I'm totally enthused about any work toward syndicating events - the idea that we can't just link to calendar events as thought hey were like web pages (or items in an RSS feed) has long vexed me.
New NEA Research Report Shows Potential Benefits of Arts Education for At-Risk Youth
Press Release,
National Endowment for the Arts, April 13, 2012.
What this suggests to me is that testing in math and language skills might not be sufficient to assess the success of an educational program (but you already knew I thought that): "At-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement."
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Academia, Tests and Testing]
Academic Publishing: Open Sesame
Unattributed,
The Economist, April 13, 2012.
The Economists announces support for open access publications, to the cheers of the OER community on their various mailing lists. "When research is funded by the taxpayer or by charities, the results should be available to all without charge." All I can say is, beware those who join the cause at its moment of success. Not all new bedfellows are benign.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Mailing Lists, Research, Open Access]
Are Online Learners Frustrated with Collaborative Learning Experiences?
Neus Capdeferro and Margarida Romero ,
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, April 13, 2012.
The title poses an interesting question. The answer is "yes". Or more formally, "Results revealed that frustration is a common feeling among students involved in online collaborative learning experiences. The perception of an asymmetric collaboration among the teammates was identified by the students as the most important source of frustration." I'm totally not surprised.
How participatory cultures in healthcare are transformational
Alan,
Smart Mobs, April 13, 2012.
This, as opposed to, say, "knowledge mobilization" or "knowledge translation": "The real insight was that the answer to such a complex problem lay in the minds of the many, that the way forward was held collectively in all the stakeholders that worked in the current system – not in the PowerPoint charts of highly paid specialist management consultants."
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