By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. French scholars say ‘oui’ to open access
Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, March 28, 2013
The Times Higher Education reports "Sixty senior figures from the humanities and social sciences in France have published a statement in national newspaper Le Monde in support of open access." It adds that the statement Who Is Afraid of Open Access? has received more than 2,000 endorsements from individuals and (mostly) organizations. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. POERUP elevator pitch: 26 countries in 26 minutes
Paul Bacsich, Slideshare, March 28, 2013
Interesting presentation surveying 26 open educational resource (OER) initiatives in 26 countries, including Europe, North America, Australasia and the Middle East Gulf region (conspicuously missing are reports from South America, India and China). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOC Manifesto
Conecta13, March 28, 2013
This 'MOOC manifesto' came to me via Twitter and while I am sympathetic with the intent, the manifesto is almost point for point opposed to my own view of MOOCs. "In every teaching design," it begins falsely, "the learner is the centre." And then, "MOOCs must be an element within the digital strategy of an institution," and "Institutions may consider MOOCs basically as a branding instrument," and "Institutions may need to consider the prerequisites to enter a MOOC" seem to place MOOCs well within the institutional context, which is probably (in the longer run) not where they belong. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Trend Report: Open Educational Resources 2013
Ria Jacobi, Hester Jelgerhuis, Nicolai van der Woert, SURF, March 28, 2013
This is a substantial document that "describes trends in open educational resources (OER) and open education in the Netherlands and elsewhere, from the perspective of Dutch higher education." Topics covered include not only OERs but also MOOCs, badges and learning analytics. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Buying Our Way into Bondage: The Risks of Adaptive Learning Services
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, March 28, 2013
I've never been big on adaptive learning systems because they resemble too much to me the old programmed learning texts that were essentially a series of branches and pages. David Wiley in this post offers another reason to be wary. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Students and OERs: Exploring the possibilities
Lorna Campbell, Lorna’s JISC CETIS blog, March 27, 2013
This post is a summary of a presentation from Toni Pearce, vice-president (further education) for Britain's National Union of Students. I have no doubt that her comments are reflective of the opinions of students, but reading them makes me want to dissolve 'students' as a distinct category for research and opinion on learning technology and policy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Do you see an unmotivated baby?
Steven K. Khan, University Affairs, March 27, 2013
Outstanding analysis of the use of an 'unmotivated baby' image during a presentation on learning. "In order to code this image of a baby as 'unmotivated,' various elements must be attended to and combined. The visual cues of the (pan-African) colours of the headwear, the stylized marijuana leaf, the possibly hand-rolled cigarette and the reddened droopy eyes must be combined with a cultural knowledge..." Imagine, suggests the author, what the reaction would have been had the baby been covered with stars and stripes, eagles and fast food wrappings. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Little Outliner
Dave Winer, Small Picture, March 27, 2013
"What Google Maps does for geography, outliners do for ideas." So says Paul Ford of Dave Winer's latest project, Little Outliner. On the surface the prduct is very simple, but it does some nifty things, like embedded Javascript, and local data storage. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Learning in Canada #oer
Jenni Hayman, March 27, 2013
I had a wide-ranging discussion earlier this week with Jenni about open educational resources, what an e-learning application would look like and where e-learning is going in general. This post summarizes her thoughts after the conversation, and I think it reflects the tenor of our discussion quite well. More...