By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. This Will Revolutionize Education
Derek Alexander Muller, YouTube, 2014/12/15
According to this video, "what limits learning is what happens inside a student's head... no technology is inherently superior to any other." So, says the video, "the question really is, what experiences promote the kind of thinking that is required for learning?" We've learned some good lessons here and have probably come close to optimizing the presentation of information. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tipping Points? Malcolm Gladwell Could Use a Few
@blippoblappo, @crushingbort, Our Bad Media, 2014/12/16

It does bother me a bit from time to time to see people like Malcolm Gladwell getting credit for ideas originally created by others. But I shrug, because that's the way the book-publishing racket works (I could name half a dozen pop technology writers who work, and get credit, the same way). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Outlook on instruction: Class around the clock
Jessica Terrell, District Administration, 2014/12/16
It's only half way through December and already the predictions for next year are starting. This article features a headline that doesn't match the content, a poorly-conceived line graph that doesn't match the content, an even poorer comment (an engineer proposing multiplication chants? really?) and a few prediction. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A business model view of changing times in higher education
Lloyd Armstrong, Changing Higher Education, 2014/12/16
I've been exposed to this way of thinking about education (and innovation generally) a lot over the last couple of years. Parts of it I resist, parts of it I embrace, and all of it I view with a certain scepticism. But it's important to understand that there are large masses of people (specifically, the business community) who view all systems this way, including the education system. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Skype Real-Time Language Translator Goes Live
Angela Moscaritolo, PC Magazine, 2014/12/16

It's probably really bad (though I can't wait to try it) and it's limited to English and Spanish for now, but this is the face of the future: real-time translations of online conversations. How awesome is that? "The Microsoft-owned chat service on Monday launched the first phase of its Skype Translator preview program first announced back in May. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. EMMA project meeting – Madrid
Grainne Conole, e4innovation.com, 2014/12/17

Grainne Conole summarizes an EMMA project meeting - EMMA is "The European Multiple MOOC Aggregator" and collects information from, as the name suggests, several MOOCs. The MOOCs (and we're beginning to see this as a trend) had a small number of participants, about 70 each for five MOOCs. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Adaptive learning markets: talking Turkey
Philip J. Kerr, Adaptive Learning in ELT, 2014/12/17
This post looks at work being done to advance adaptive learning in Turkey. "OUP," writes Philip Kerr (referring to Oxford University Press) "probably the most significant of the big ELT publishers in Turkey, recorded ‘an outstanding performance’ in the country in the last financial year, making it their 5^th largest ELT market.". More...