By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Have a business idea? Get funded with Coursera
Unattributed, Coursera Blog, 2014/12/12
I'll give Coursera the prize here for innovative business strategy as it blends one of its open courses with a series of presentations of new business ideas to venture capitalists, who in turn may fund some of the ideas. I assume (?) Coursera gets some portion of the returns the VCs receive. But as usual, it's students who pay most of the shot, a total of $196 for the course (which Coursera brands as 'three courses'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. There Is No Best Programming Language
Alfred Thompson, Computer Science Teacher, 2014/12/12

There is no best programming language, writes Alfred Thompson. But of course there is: it's Perl! Just kidding. Actually, this post should serve as a cautionary note to those who believe there is an idea path or certain foundational core materials in education. There are no such things. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. When bad ideas will not die: from classical AI to Linked Data
Daniel Lemire, Weblog, 2014/12/12

The opening post is short, but I agree with it pretty much completely, and there's a great discussion that follows that draws out many of the arguments and implications. If it's all new to you, skip down to comment 19, which draws the distinction between classical AI and machine learning A. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Draft Strategic Plan (2015-2021)
Various authors, Commonwealth of Learning, 2014/12/11

The Commonwealth of Learning has posted their draft strategic plan for the next 6 years and are calling for comments. It's a shift from previous plans. The first thing is a realignment from 'learning for development' to 'learning for sustainable development'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ICDE - UNESCO Policy Forum on open, online and flexible learning
Press Release, ICDE, 2014/12/11

An ICDE-UNESCO policy forum has called for "a new commitment is needed to opening up education, technology enhanced learning, the use of open educational resources, online, flexible and blended learning, research and innovation in the design, development, deployment and delivery of education at all levels." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Art can enhance humanity’s survival
Ollivier Dyens, University Affairs, 2014/12/11
What we need to understand about art, I think, is what is reflected in this article: "we are enticed by forms, shapes, rhythms and movements that are useful to our existence.... (art) acts as a device for creating effective metaphors, analogies, play on words, and allegories – mechanisms that draw unusual elements together to produce innovative shapes, dynamics and phenomena." We have artificially separated language and numbers from other forms of expression, and relegated the latter to the realm of beauty and pleasure, without understanding the need to express ourselves in different ways at different times. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 5 Reasons Your Portfolio Should Be A Blog
George Couros, Connected Principals, 2014/12/09

My own portfolio, such as it is, isn't any sort of 'thing', though a certain amount of it is a blog (the rest is YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Slideshare presentations, and a radio station currently off air that nobody listens to (I really have to fix that)). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Instructional Design in the VUCA World
Sahana Chattopadhyay, ID, Other Reflections, 2014/12/09

Good article describing how the practice of instructional design has to change to adapt to new circumstances.  The author writes, "One of the implications of the shift is that instructional designers can no longer think about designing only formal training programs that will go on the LMS. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canada First Research Excellence Fund
Press Release, Government of Canada, 2014/12/08

The Canadian government has announced a large new research funding program. It will be administered by the the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and focus on five priority areas: environment and agriculture, health and life sciences, natural resources and energy, information and communications technology, and advanced manufacturing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. EB2014, Flipped teaching,flipped class by iStudio
Reokim 김영대, YouTube, 2014/12/08

Here I am at Online Educa Berlin being show how to create my own broadcast studio ("Now I can be Jon Stewart," I commented). It's still pretty expensive (note that you're getting broadcast cameras and screens) but the software will make it possible for anyone to manage their own video production. More...