By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. WebCT Campus Edition 6: Frequently Asked Questions
Karen Gage, Senior VP of Marketing for WebCT writes (this is the full email, not edited in any way, except to place the link provided under the heading instead of in the text): "I wanted to alert you to some inaccurate or misleading information that you passed on in OLDaily yesterday in your piece on 'WebCT Price Increases'." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Publishers' Group Asks Google to Stop Scanning Copyrighted Works for 6 Months
As this article describes it, "The Association of American Publishers has asked Google to stop scanning copyrighted books published by the association's members for at least six months while the company answers questions about whether its plan to scan millions of volumes in five major research libraries complies with copyright law." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Digital Debacle
Students at the University of Maryland write, "The university's decision to extend Cdigix's trial does not offer students a genuine alternative to illegally pirated media." The system works only on Internet Explorer. It won't allow downloads to, say, iPods. People aren't using it. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Where Now for Collaborative Journalism?
I'll give them credit for trying. The Los Angeles Times attempted to include readers in their online content by setting up a wiki where readers could rewrite the day's editorial. The experiment lasted one day, and then was pulled, as they said, "due to defacement." This analysis summarizes pretty well what happened. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Playing to Learn
Doug levin sends in this link from the latest issue of Cable in the Classroom, now available. Some good insight into how games should be supported. Games require media literacy, for example - they are not real, should not be taken as real, and players need to be able to recognize that. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft works on own BitTorrent
I don't know, I just find it ironic when I read items like this to think of how much Microsoft complains about piracy and digital rights and all that other stuff intended to protect the creators of ideas and innovation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reading Between the Lines: Understanding the Role of Latent Content in the Analysis of Online Asynchronous Discussions
Prompted by a discussion on DEOS the other day I have been pondering the difference between traditional distance learning, as advanced by people like Keegan and Moore, and online learning. If I had to put it in a nutshell, I would say that it is the difference between communications theory and network theory, the difference between structured symbolic representations and unstructured subsymbolic reflections. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Insights into Promoting Critical Thinking in Online Classes
Many people equate critical thinking with reading skills. This flavour comes through clearly in this article, the core of which is a discussion of critical thinking and reading, with an eye to using the former to "increase the student’s cognitive information processing skills." Applied to writing, the same discourse stresses the importance of reflection and editing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Role of Critical Thinking in the Online Learning Environment
"Critical thinking," cites the author, "is the method of evaluating arguments or propositions and making judgments that can guide the development of beliefs and taking action." Having taught critical thinking for seven years I have by habit been leery of proposals to integrate critical thinking into the curriculum, not because I don't think it's a good idea, but because critical thinking isn't a discipline that can simply be picked up in passing, and because the proposals I have seen either misunderstand or misinterpret what is meant by critical thinking. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What Value do Australian Employers Give to Qualifications?
Interesting. This report examines how Australian employers value and use academic qualifications in their business decisions. More...