By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John Cox[Edit][Delete]: Software Patent Ignites Firestorm in Higher Education, Network World [Edit][Delete] November 15, 2006
Network World covers the Blackboard patent lawsuit. "It's a case in which the level of vitriol and vilification is making the long-running and now-settled patent battle between Research in Motion and NTP look like high tea at the Ritz. There are claims, counterclaims, a civil suit, an extraordinary demand from a higher education IT group and a mounting torrent of blog postings. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Christian Long[Edit][Delete]: Welcome UVA Students!, think:lab [Edit][Delete] November 15, 2006
Christian Long is featuring 7 UVA students on his blog, an arranglement that has resulted in some cracking good content. From UVA 3: "The 5 senses are vital" From UVA 5: "We can continue to fill their brains with core information, or we can begin to help them think... ultimately learning doesn't distinguish between the two. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. George Siemens[Edit][Delete]: Connectivism: Learning Theory or Past Time for the Self-Amused?, Elearnspace [Edit][Delete]ELearnSpace [Edit][Delete] November 15, 2006
Asked to review George Siemens's paper on Conectivism, Bijdrage van Plon Verhagen from the University of Twente treats readers to a detailed criticism of the paper. The review prompted Siemens to write a (self-admitted) meandering reply. As Siemens (accurately) summarizes, "Verhagen's criticisms are broadly centered on three areas: 1. Is connectivism a learning theory or a pedagogy? 2. The principles advocated by connectivism are present in other learning theories as well. 3. Can learning reside in non-human appliances?"
Taking as his cue the third criticism, Siemens launches on a long discourse on epistemology. I wish he had taken more time and written a shorter paper (yeah - like I'm one to complain about this!) to more sharply identify just how it's a new theory about learning and not merely a new pedagogy. Still, it's a fun, if somewhat loosely organized, romp through the theory of knowledge. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Josie Fraser[Edit][Delete]: Edublog Awards - Nominations Open, IncSub [Edit][Delete] November 14, 2006
The 2006 Edublog Awards nominations have opened. Nominations are made confidentially and "only current edubloggers are invited to nominate contenders." The usual set of categories, with some additions, including the inscrutable "Best research paper on social software within learning and teaching" (why not just 'best research paper'? Weird). Librarians, teachers, undergraduates and newcomers each get their own categories (nothing for graduate students, researchers or Zoroastrians). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tim Lauer[Edit][Delete]: Google Earth Adds Additional Educational Content, Education/Technology [Edit][Delete] November 14, 2006
Tim Lauer reports, "Last week Google added quite a bit of new featured content to their Google Earth application. This includes historical maps from the Rumsey Maps Archive, two layers that deal with Africa, and imagery from the European Space Agency." What I really like is that this is showing clearly how to put the education into the application, rather than (as is much more common) trying to put the application into the education. Like this look at using Skype in education (by Jeff VanDrimmelen) for example. Instead of asking, "How can I use Skype in a classroom" we should be asking "How can I make learning part of the (everyday) Skype experience?" Related: Flash Earth, an mapping application built in Flash (not sure why we need that, personally). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sean J. C. Lancaster and Paula E. Lancaster[Edit][Delete]: Technology Shaping Learner Dispositions, Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian Flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete]Australian flexible Learning Framework [Edit][Delete] November 14, 2006
A 'disposition' is "...a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way". Philosophically, we would consider a disposition to be an instantiation of a counterfactual property in an individual - it describes what a person would do if stimulated in a certain way. Why do I describe it like this? Well, thus understood, dispositions constitute the central idea in Gilbert Ryle's behaviourist theory of mind. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Katy Campbell, Richard A. .Schwier and Richard F. Kenny[Edit][Delete]: Conversation As Inquiry: A Conversation With Instructional Designers, Journal of Learning Design [Edit][Delete] November 14, 2006
The authors write, "In this paper we offer instructional designers' stories of practice through which we explore two interconnected theoretical frames using four lenses: reflexivity, voice, strong objectivity, and power/authority. These lenses themselves are woven together by the idea of moral action." I'm not agreeing with everything in this paper - I certainly don't agree that "learning involves shared thinking or understanding" and would question the proposition that it is "most effective if embedded in social experience." I'm also not comfortable with the idea of theoretical 'lenses' you can just pick and choose like different settings on your microscope. I agree that the design is 'messy' and that "this 'messiness'should not be seen as a problem to be overcome, but as a stimulating and creative environment in which relationships, rather than content, are at the center of the action." But does this paper get at that? I'm not sure. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Barcelona Photos, Flickr [Edit][Delete] November 14, 2006

I have uploaded a very large set of photos from Barcelona (still have some from Castelldefels and Sitges to come, but this is the bulk of them). I'm really pleased with this set - grab a coffee, sit back, and let the slide show play in all its glory.
I now move into a period of change and transition. I have been required by my director to move my website off NRC servers by November 22, so you should expect to see some changes. I will be setting up at a new host and converting to a Drupal system. Concurrently, some of my work in e-learning, and in particular, OLDaily, becomes via this action officially a volunteer activity. A hobby.
That said, I have taken the opportunity to document this transition. The first part - Setting the Stage - is now available on my other website. I will be writing about what I do to set up Drupal, to work with distributed content, and to create a next-generation computing environment for myself. [Tags: Online Learning, Flickr] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thomas Pfeffer[Edit][Delete]: Content Management and Blended Learning: Beyond the Boarders of the Classroom, Zeitschrift fur Hochschulentwicklung [Edit][Delete] November 13, 2006
The translation of this paper is sometimes rough, but it makes some useful distinctions between types of communication (personal (or, interaction), organisational, and community) and types of publication (course, organisation and society). A lot of familiar stuff (learning object metaphors, for example) in familiar settings (blended learning). More...