Feature Article
The Rise of MOOCs
Stephen Downes, April 23, 2012.

Responses to interview questions posed by Kevin Charles Redmon, Independent Journalist and Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism

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Crazy Talk: The Do-What-You-Love Guide
Leo Babauta, Zen Habits, April 23, 2012.

"Once you’ve overcome the initial fear and started to become good at something you love, dream bigger. The first stage is small steps, but don’t stop there. You can change lives. You can change the world. Doing so will change you."

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The Next Big Thing
Valdis Krebs, T N T — The Network Thinkers, April 23, 2012.

Valdis Krebs argues that the next big thing in network analysis will focus on the contents of what we read (and not just the titles as entities) in order to draw connections between people. It's a natural evolution of network analysis. "It is not just the also-bought data that matters (which books bought by same customer), it is what we specifically find interesting and useful in those books that reveals deep similarities between people -- the hi-lites, bookmarks and the notes will be the connectors. Our choices reveal who we are, and who we are like!"

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KM’s Evolution: the “Connected Organization” and the Emergence of Knowledge Networks
Chris Jones, Driving innovation in a complex world, April 23, 2012.

Knowledge management, argues Chris Jones, is changing:
- "The most fundamental change in the KM paradigm must be moving from structure to one of flow..."
- "A Japanese term, 'ba' can be thought of as 'favorable conditions in time and space for knowledge emergence to occur...'"
- "Unlocking the value of KM requires a return to priorities, motivators, and intention"
I'd like to think that we're getting back to flow, context and values, but I think we still have to get through the pendulum swing in the other direction for a while first - the bean-counters will have their day and we will, for the time being, continue to be treated as digits and dollars.

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Access Copyright and AUCC Strike a Deal: What It Means for Innovation in Education
Michael Geist, Weblog, April 23, 2012.

Michael Geist reports on the capitulation of Canadian universities to the demands of Access Copyright. "In the short term," he writes, "this looks like a terrible deal for AUCC." I don't know why they signed at all; probably they faced considerable pressure to come to some sort of deal. "What is lost with this settlement is the chance for something better," says Geist. "The new AUCC - Access Copyright deal is simply more of the same: AUCC and its institutions pass along copyright costs to students, Access Copyright gets millions in revenues despite ongoing questions about its repertoire (with thousands used to lobby against education copyright reforms and most of the money going to foreign collectives and publishers, not authors), and the potential for digitally-oriented changes within Canadian higher education heading back to the back burner." Other comments, he reports, come from CAUT, Ariel Katz, Sam Trosow, Michael Ridley, and Meera Nair. Image via John Degen.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Copyrights, Canada]

Coursera Adds Humanities Courses, Raises $16 Million, Strikes Deal with 3 Universities
Dan Colman, Open Culture, April 23, 2012.

So how long before Blackboard buys Coursera (and then claims it invented the MOOC)? Coursera "has added humanities courses to its upcoming fall curriculum — a departure from the MOOC norm of only offering courses in computer science & engineering. Courses include:
- A History of the World since 1300 (Princeton)
- Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World (Michigan)
- Greek and Roman Mythology (Penn)
- Listening to World Music (Penn)
- Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (Penn)

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Isaac Asimov Imagines Learning in the Digital Age … and Gets It Quite Right (1989)
Dan Colman, Open Culture, April 23, 2012.

Of course, this may be one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. After all, I was influenced by Isaac Asimov in my youth, having read dozens of his books. Other e-learning and web developers may also have been influenced by Asimov. So we had a picture in our mind of what future learning should look like, and went out and developed that. So Asimov's predictions made his predictions come true.

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Beyond the mobile web by yiibu
Stephanie Rieger, Yiibu / Slideshare, April 23, 2012.

Good detailed presentation looking at the impact of the mobile web - and looking beyond. Best quote was by Alan Cooper: "No matter how cool your interface is, it would be nice if there were less of it." There's a really goods discussion of content design for varying screens - "What if content were designed like an app?" Really interesting content-network diagrams in the last section. "Think of it as an ecosystem of touchpoints, utilities and conversations... in the future brands will no longer be places you visit, but people you meet along the road."

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TD National Reading Campaign
Various Authors, TD Bank, April 21, 2012.

Why is the TD Bank promoting a 'National Reading Strategy' in Canada? They argue, "TD Bank deputy chief economist Craig Alexander lays out compelling evidence to suggest that Canadians shouldn’t be complacent about generally positive standardized test scores and news of Canada’s standing on international academic rankings." There is, n ot surprisingly, heavy involvement from publishers in events supporting the program. There's an Equity and Access program largely modeled after a U.S. program (even including a Readers "Bill of Rights" (which aren't bad)). You may want to view the summary of recommendations from the various working groups. I wish I saw more of an emphasis on writing rather than just reading.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Canada, Academia, Tests and Testing]