Georgia sues Carl Malamud, calls publishing state laws "terrorism"
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Georgia sues Carl Malamud, calls publishing state laws "terrorism"
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, 2015/07/24
Each paragraph gets more outrageous. "The State of Georgia claims that its statutes are a copyrighted work, and that rogue archivist Carl Malamud.. committed an act of piracy by making the laws of Georgia free for all to see and copy." More...
LinkedIn quietly removes tool to export contacts
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. LinkedIn quietly removes tool to export contacts
Bobby Owsinski, VentureBeat, 2015/07/24
You may think you own your own identity, but LinkedIn has very quietly underlined the fact that no, you don't. "LinkedIn has removed the option to export your contacts. Instead, the company is asking users to request an archive of their data, but that process can take up to 72 hours to complete." More...
Well I wouldn't start from here anyway!
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Well I wouldn't start from here anyway!
Brian Mulligan, 2015/07/24
One of the arguments against the longterm success of MOOCs, and of of online learning generally, is that it does not provide the two major things college students are looking for when they enrol in college: first, a mechanism for finding a husband or wife of the same demographics and social standing as them; and second, a method of signalling to future employers that you can get into a 'good' college, which demonstrates not simply academic ability but also background and pedigree, wealth and social standing. More...
Are crows the ultimate problem solvers?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Are crows the ultimate problem solvers?
Alex Taylor, BBC / Youtube, 2015/07/23
We were having a conversation yesterday about whether we need language in order to know things and to learn. We certainly need language of some sort in order to create models and representations. More...
Reddit and Weep
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reddit and Weep
Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/07/23
Kudos to the headline writer for the best pun from the spate of articles surrounding the current controversy at Reddit. The website Reddit calls itself the 'front page of the internet'. Its stories are contributed by thousands of members, and readers can 'vote up' or 'vote down' the story. More...
A Master List of 1,150 Free Courses From Top Universities: 35,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Master List of 1,150 Free Courses From Top Universities: 35,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures
Dan Colman, Open Culture, 2015/07/22
At a certain point, pundits will stop saying there's a shortage of open learning resources out there, and will begin thinking about how to use what already exists in courses (hint: cMOOCs). More...
Study of colleges shows ‘encouraging’ texts dramatically cut dropout rates
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Study of colleges shows ‘encouraging’ texts dramatically cut dropout rates
Paul Offord, FE Week, 2015/07/22
I think I want to see a few more studies before jumping to conclusions here, but wouldn't it be funny if the retention problem could be solved (or substantially impacted) simply by sending encouraging text messages. More...
Big Data, Learning Analytics and Distance Education
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Big Data, Learning Analytics and Distance Education
Terry Anderson, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, 2015/07/22
Terry Anderson remains optimistic about learning analytics, but the two concerns he cites in this short post are more interesting. More...
Listen to 188 Dramatized Science Fiction Stories
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Listen to 188 Dramatized Science Fiction Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard & More
Dan Colman, Open Culture, 2015/07/22
Off-topic, but I don't care. I grew up on science fiction. I've read all these authors and more. More...
MOOCS and Social Learning Networks
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOCS and Social Learning Networks
Stephen Downes, Jul 21, 2015, MOOCs Y Aprendiazaje en Redes Sociales, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
In this presentation I look at the intersection of MOOCs and social learning networks by looking at the various aspects of openness in MOOCs - open admissions, open content, open instruction, open assessment - and considering how they change when applied to networks and to social networks. More...
