By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Kathy Sierra, the Private Public and the Anonymous
There's way too much reaction to the Kathy Sierra post to attempt to capture, though this blog is doing a pretty good job. I have several reactions. First, the real problem - I reiterate - is a society (and an A-list blogosphere) that has long tolerated such behaviour. Where was Stop Cyberbullying when Juan Cole was getting death threats? Where was Safer Internet Day when those really vile posts on Ann Coulter were making the rounds? And second, as Dave Winer writes, the mob mentality is getting out of control. They are tramping around looking for scapegoats - ban anonymous posting, they write, or shut down or block these websites. As though that would solve the problem. It won't. The problem is that it is still socially acceptable to demean women, still socially acceptable to casually propose violent acts, still socially acceptable to engage in character assassination, and still socially acceptable to attack certain minorities (you read Rageboy and you realize that he still thinks it's OK). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OER Discussion Update...
Brian Lamb offers his own answerrs to recent questions on the nature of learning and open educational resources (OERs) and links in passing to the new OERderves blog. Cute name. "Even with the dramatic changes in the broader techno-cultural landscape in the past ten years," he asks, "how much has essentially changed with universities in the western world? Isn't it all too easy to imagine universities remaining essentially unchanged - or at least clinging to business as usual - ten, even twenty years from now?". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. World Bank Head Speaks Out On Why Canada Is Needed in Africa
This article doesn't describe learning directly, though it is clear to me that Canada can play a role in this field as well. What the author, the president of the World Bank, stresses is that myths of African development - that "Africa is hopeless, aid to Africa is money wasted, and Africa can solve its own problems" - are no longer true. I don't know, one way or another. But I remain hopeful, and I certainly call for continued, and strengthened, Canadian investment in the future of Africa. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Social Networking As Professional Development
Links to Ning and in particular describes the Library 2.0 network created on Ning as well as the more recent Classroom 2.0 network. I look at that and say, well what, now, you own Classroom 2.0? See - I don't think it's a network if it belongs to someone, if it is created, if it is associated with a place. It's more like, what, a club or a group in such a circumstance. And that is the key difference between social networks such as Ning and the edublogosphere. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I Just Don'T Get It Yet - Social Networks
Dave Warlick echoes my comments on Ning, including the 'club' remark: "I'm wondering if this sort of social network 'place' is really more for kids. Children need a clubhouse, a place where they can be themselves, pretend to be somebody else, make up their own rules, and dream of other places and times. But clubhouses have walls, as does Ning! It seems to be a container and less in the spirit of small pieces loosely joined. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning with Networks
Terry Anderson, who is well known for his discussions of "various types and function of interaction in formal (usually distance) education contexts," looks at what John Dron calls the interaction between the student and the group. Now again, the word "group" is used loosely here - "Downes' sense of fluid, unbounded networks relates directly to the multiple forms, size and purpose of informal distributed synchronous and asynchronous collections of individuals that Dron refers to as groups." But, as Anderson notes, access to a network from a formal situation works differently than in an informal situation. And so he cautions teachers about what to expect when they access the network: the quality of interaction with the network will vary greatly according to the skill and experience of the student. It will also fluctuate from dead silence to blizzards of activity. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ELI Conference - Haptic Force Feedback On Learning
This is pretty neat - an interface device (like a mouse, only much more complex) that not only lets you control objects on the screen, but which responds with resistance as appropriate. It's the same basic technology as rumble-sticks but with more fine-tuned responses that merely on-off and intensity. Jeff VanDrimmelen says there's no reason not to have one now, as they're becoming mainstream. Well, I guess I'd wait for some applications to actually develop the interface. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Characteristics of High-Performance Personal Networks
Well the website's a bit wonky right now - it's a combination of some less than perfect code and getting slammed by search engines (if you get 1000 hits a day, 999 of them will be search engine hits - that's a real challenge for anyone writing software). (Or maybe it's a DOS - I 'killall' but then all the httpd threads start right up again... sigh). Ross Dawson attempts to identify what makes personal networks work well, and hits on a number of things familiar to readers of these pages - things like diversity and dynamism. The article also describes "six key behaviors that create energizing relationships" - things like "have and communicate a compelling vision", "seek and acknowledge quality contributions", "give genuine attention to people." Well - ok. But, it seems to me, if you do these things in order to create or cultivate a personal network, they will be hollow and strained. Rather, these activities are ends in themselves - and a personal network is just one of the things that grows out of them. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Obsessed with Putting Ink On Paper
OK, in the end, this has nothing to do with online learning, has nothing to do with why I clicked on it in the first place, and in the end, is an advertisement. But what really strikes me about this piece - which is about software that writes musical notation - is the way the author is concerned about the details. Now I have just spent all day writing code and looking at some editing, which means I've spent all day being really picky about semi-colons and the proper reference of pronouns. Picky stuff which (to be honest) most people don't care about. But - and this article makes the point so nicely - the beauty is in the details (same with Harold Jarche's sailboat - it wasn't the 50K, it was the zillion hours spent making sure every board was exactly right). So that's worth passing along. Now - why did I click on this in the first place. More...