By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors[Edit][Delete]: ZDNet Education, Zdnet [Edit][Delete]ZDNet [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
Another look at what this newsletter would look like as a commercial product, this time from ZDNet. This isn't a bad service. For one thing, the coverage is broader - I was drawn to it via a reference to ZDNet coverage of Konrad Glogowski's post on student blogging. I also see Robin Good as a source. Also, the self-styled blog features regular opinion columns. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lorcan Dempsey[Edit][Delete]: The Digital Library Landscape and Trends in the World of Web 2.0, Edinburgh University Library [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
If you have two and a half hours to watch a video, be sure to watch this one, a presentation by Lorcan Dempsey organized by the Digital Library Division of Edinburgh University Library. It's the first detailed look I've seen at the impact of web 2.0 approaches on university libraries. Around the 30:00 minute there's even a discussion of the 'Future VLE' chart (Dave Tosh's version), and Dempsey, while observing (with reference to Liz Lyon) that "URLs are the new currency" asks librarians "How many of your resources have URLs?. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Julie Lindsay[Edit][Delete]: Podcast Jazz Wiki: Invitation to Contribute, eLearning Blog [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
The title is a bit misleading; this short item is actually some discussion and links to the Podcast Bangladesh project, including Julie Lindsay's presentation at NECC06. It's worth a visit to her blog to see more blogging from NECC06 and to broaden the international perspective. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lanny Arvan[Edit][Delete]: Current Thinking On LMS, Lanny on Learning Technology [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
Good article on the current state of the learning management system (LMS), perhaps best summarized by the author: "The LMS is an environment for managing course logistics and for promoting learning. Changes in IT that we're all observing can threaten and ultimately defeat the LMS, if LMS vendors don't adapt appropriately to that changing environment. There are some fairly straightforward changes that need to be made on the convenience front that will make information housed in the LMS accessible by student when using their cell phones, which is their preferred mobile device". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Teemu Arina[Edit][Delete]: EU eLearning Conference 2006, July 6, 2006
Teemu Arina writes in, "these few links might be of interest to you: a dedicated talk to you and others on informal learning, just trying to steer the policy makers in EU in the right direction (I hope), and a podcast from the BBC guy on how they supported social computing inside their organization. And our conference aggregator, of course." I watched the first item, the screencast, with is a nice statement of the decentralized approach to learning technologies. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Scott McLemee[Edit][Delete]: Public Access, Inside Higher Ed [Edit][Delete] July 5, 2006
This article rekindles in me a project I have been pondering for a while, though if only by catering to some of my more crass motivations. Book publishers, argues the author, tend, at their peril, to ignore the blogosphere as a means of marketing their works. And this is manifest in their reluctance to furnish desk copies to notable bloggers; even well known writers have received only three or four books in as many years. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various Authors[Edit][Delete]: Washington Business Journal - Blackboard, July 5, 2006
I followed what turned out to be a pretty uninformative link on a new Blackboard community product and ended up at this page - a summary of stories about Blackboard carried by a local Washington D.C. publication. I can't really explain the results ordering (what's so hard about ORDER BY crdate DESC?). The product? Well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Alec Couros[Edit][Delete]: Reasons For Not Adopting FLOSS In Ottawa-Carleton, Couros Blog [Edit][Delete] July 5, 2006
This item caught my eye partially because the Ottawa-Carleton school board is where I went to school, and partially because the response from a superintendent, Laura McAlister, was described in this post as "clueless". Well, I'm always up for a good scandal. Except that, as I read the letter, it didn't seem clueless at all. These are genuine issues: "central authentication, file storage and security, costs of obtaining software, which for the most part today is free to schools courtesy of the OSAPAC program, adapting new applications into existing curriculum, security, staff training, portability, adaptability."
And the letter demonstrated, to me, at least, openness and willingness to listen. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: How to Grow Standards, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] July 4, 2006
Michael Feldstein responds to Scott Wilson's comments on standards mostly by accepting the point and giving an example. Still, I'm not sure he sees the issue here. Begin with his 'Step 1'. "Identify a user problem that you need to solve." Right off the bat we are in a situation where we are solving a problem for them. I would start with 'Step 1'. "Identify a problem users have solved for themselves." Now the solution may not have been implemented, but you can be sure it has been suggested. Why is this important? Because users have different priorities than you do. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John Ottenhoff[Edit][Delete]: Wikipedia: A Note to Students, Academic Commons [Edit][Delete] July 4, 2006
Link to a proposed policy statement for students on the use of Wikipedia in the preparation of written assignments. Nothing I would particularly object to, though I wonder why similar warnings were not issued when I was a student. For example: "World Book, like other encyclopedias, is out of date from the moment it was published and will therefore contain numerous factual errors. In addition, the language of description and especially the selection of topics for inclusion will reflect a socio-cultural bias that may be inappropriate for a full understanding of some subjects". More...