By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Future of the MOOC
Stephen Downes, George Siemens, YouTube, February 22, 2013
I was in Philadelphia today to talk about MOOCs and online learning with George Siemens and staff at Philadelphia University, including especially provost Randy Swearer. We had a lot of fun and we both appreciated the relaxed and informal approach that allowed us to explore more deeply wherever the conversation took is. The result was two videos:

• MOOC Pedagogy in Philadelphia
• Future of the MOOC - Philadelphia Uniersity

The second one ends a bit suddenly as my computer runs out of power, but it's right at the end of the session and you don't miss anything.

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By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Beyond the Buzz, Where Are MOOCs Really Going?
Michael Horn, and , Clayton Christensen, Wired, February 21, 2013

This post is evidence that you can't really predict where something is going if you don't understand the subject. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Apollo Group’s Technology Investments
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, February 21, 2013
People are going gaga over the hundred million or so collectively invested in MOOCs. It's an impressive spend, even if distributed across a number of companies, but dwarfed by the $1 billion investment Apollo Group is making to support "basically their entire learning- and learner-focused technology portfolio." Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix and other online learning properties, may not be in the news so much these days, but it's still one of the dominant players in the field. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In a Violent Media World, YouTube is an Oasis
Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard, February 21, 2013

I found this interesting. "Amateur creators are providing the kind of realistic depiction of violence—with an implicit anti-aggression message—that the mainstream media are not." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Most Thorough Description (to date) of University Experience with MOOC
Phil Hill, e-Literate, February 21, 2013
I thought we have been pretty thorough with our own accounts of MOOCs (Rita Kop alone generated more description of our MOOCs than anything else I've seen) so I'm not willing to cede the title of "most thorough description" to this 21-page report (PDF). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Coursera Adds 29 Schools, 90 Courses And 3 New Languages To Its Online Learning Platform
Rip Empson, TechCrunch, February 21, 2013
EdX is 'going international' with the addition of six new partners, including the University of Toronto and Montreal's McGill University, as well as Rice University (home of Connexions - I wonder whether there will be any tension there). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Making Search Engines Work for Education Resources
John K. Waters, THE Journal, February 20, 2013
This article unwittingly makes the case both for and against the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI). The idea of such an initiative is to help educators find resources to support learning either in the classroom or online. But this, we are told, is very difficult. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Posts About MOOCs
Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily, February 20, 2013
So I thought it was pretty impressive when Jay Cross posted a list of 195 posts about MOOCs yesterday. Authoritative. Then I got to thinking, did some checking, and realized that I have personally authored 453 posts about MOOCs. This link is to that page, and I've set it to automatically update weekly, so there will always be a current list. Meanwhile, I went over to mooc.ca and found that since last July that site had aggregated 3708 posts about MOOCs. So I think between the two sites we've got the topic pretty much covered.

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By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. When MOOCs melt down
Robert Talbert, Casting Out Nines, February 20, 2013
In the news this week is the story of a professor who quit his own MOOC half way through. The Chronicle provides one side of the story - "the problem had stemmed from Mr. McKenzie’s reluctance to loosen his grip on students who he thought were not learning well in the course" - but we read from these tweets quite a different perspective: "What he didn't like most was the students who WERE informed, but were fighting back on his rigorous rational economics model. He didn't like criticism from those knowledgeable at economics. And the text that was not free was HIS!" (Tweets combined and edited for spelling.) More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Social reading' the next phase of e-book revolution
Sean Prpick, Dave Redel’, CBC News, February 25, 2013
Good article on the transition from reading online (or reading digitally) to reading socially. "Rather than limiting discussion of a certain book to a digital room in e-readers such as the Kobo or Kindle, Socialbook lets all your friends in your personal digital network know what you’re reading and invites them into the conversation." There is a caveat, of course. More...