By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. From EDUPUNK to ds106... 10Q: Jim Groom
Steve Wheeler, Learning With Es, 2015/04/28

Steve Wheeler gets Jim Groom to open up on the questions we all wonder about: what is Bava anyways? And what's up with the reverend? " It's a mishmash of edtech, 80s pop culture, animated GIFs, retro toys, ds106 art, and all things cinema. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Specialist and the Map
Matthias Melcher, x28’s new Blog, 2015/04/28

People have this metaphor of the map to understand the brain, and so they think there are 'areas' that correspond with particular sorts of knowledge. I don't think this is the case. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The STAR Project
Porter Palmer, Discovery Education Network, 2015/04/27

Discovery Channel, which has the Discovery Education Network (DEN), is focusing on space travel and digital storytelling (I thought I was reading a Jim Groom entry at first). You have to love the Star Trek uniform in space. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Who we are and what we stand for
John Fallon, Pearson Blog, 2015/04/27

John Fallon addresses Pearson's most pressing issues in an address at the annual shareholder meeting. "It has been a bruising time for our colleagues," he says. "We’ve cut 5,000 roles – mainly in print or mature markets – whilst we’ve added new roles in tech, efficacy, education, research and fast growing markets." The shift to digital learning also underscores his remarks, as he touts the Pearson System of Courses. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Features! Private Comments and Group Lists
Ronnie Burt, The Edublogger, 2015/04/27
Edublogger is touting some new features added "on both free and Pro Edublogs and will be added to all CampusPress networks next week." The blogs will now support 'provate comments', which the blog poost says "can only be created and read by those that can edit the post. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Programming an Essential Literacy for the Future
Charlie Chung, Class Centreal, 2015/04/27

Coursera is highlighting a new course on programming in Python. One wonders why the course doesn't consist of a single page containing a link to Codeacademy. But the big news here is that they've landed Charles Severance (“Dr. Chuck”) of the University of Michigan. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Accessibility: A Journey Towards Openness
JoAnna Hunt, Blackboard Blog, 2015/04/27

Interesting article on Blackboard's increasing emphasis on openness - as evidenced by its support for Moodle - and accessibility. In particular, I think these activities are providing good public relations for the company. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blackboard’s “Modern-Day Pragmatism” K-12 Trend Report
Jon Kolko, Blackboard Blog, 2015/04/27
So today's newsletter takes a tour around some of the companies active in the field of online learning - the good, the bad, and the ugly. This post starts with some of the good. It is a report freely available from Blackboard summarizing some of its recent research on personalizing education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Education and Personal Learning
Stephen Downes, Apr 23, 2015, Open Education Global, Banff, Alberta
In this presentation I outline major aspects of the learning and performance support systems (LPSS) program as it relates to open education environments. In particular I focus on understanding OERs as words, aggregating and analyzing OERs, data representation, and learner production and sharing of OERs. I conclude with a number of brief case studies of how work in LPSS supports this perspective.  Full paper available here: http://www.downes.ca/files/docs/Open_Education_and_Personal_Learning.docx. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google is making a giant change this week that could crush millions of small businesses
Jillian D'Onfro, Business Insider, 2015/04/21
I've long been meaning to redesign my website to make it mobile-friendly -- all I need to do really is use JQuery and Bootstrap and do some basic design work. But, you know, I've been busy. But this might spur me to make the change. More...