6 septembre 2018

The Powerlessness of Positive Thinking
Adam Alter, The New Yorker, February 23, 2014
Beware philosophies saying 'thoughts become things'. Thoughts do not become things, nor do outcomes appear merely because you hope for them. Yes, there is a relation between visualization and desired outcomes. More...

Not Every Disagreement Is a Logical Fallacy
Alex B. Berezow, Newton Blog, February 23, 2014
Nice article debunking some supposed 'logical fallacies' that have started to appear in the media and on discussion boards. More...

Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology
Nice, detailed exolication of the concept of ontologies. The article could be a bit stronger on why they are created and how they are used, but provides an in depth description that leaves readers clear about what they are and how they're created. More...

On the Concepts of Usability and Reusability of Learning Objects
I'm not so happy with the definition of the usability of a learning object adopted by this paper - "Usability in e-Learning is defined by the ability of a learning object to support or enable […] a very particular concrete cognitive goal.” So I'm uncomfortable with some of the details of the definition of reusability offered: "the aggregation of the adequacy of the learning object to each of its possible contexts of use, multiplied by the number of those contexts." More...

Getting the Mix Right Again: An Updated and Theoretical Rationale for Interaction
"This paper," writes the author, "attempts to provide a theoretical rationale and guide for instructional designers and teachers interested in developing distance education systems that are both effective and efficient in meeting diverse student learning needs." The heart of the theory is Anderson's equivalency theorem: "Deep and meaningful formal learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction (student–teacher; student-student; student-content) is at a high level. More...

A Recipe for Interoperability in Practice
Demonstration of practical interoperability between a learning object content repository (the JORUM Intralibrary) and a virtual learning environment (PIONEER), mediated by the RELOAD Editor, with a walk-though of the steps involved. More...

LOM/CanCore Open-Source Software Components Released
CITIS summary of recently released software components from CanCore which designed to provide the building blocks for a digital library. Though you would never know it by reading this article, these components were developed at Athabasca University as a part of the eduSource project (and were the subject of a great deal of discussion and wrangling by the wider eduSource development team) and will be soon joined by a wider range of applications and tools (why they were attributed to CanCore is a bit of a mystery). More...

AACE Phoenix
November weather has settled in over New Brunswick, and this morning's round of snow and sleet has been followed by a generally gloomy day. 6 a.m. tomorrow I'm on an airplane, headed for AACE in Phoenix, which you would think would fill me with some joy, but my registration already appears to have been messed up, there's no way to fix it online, and there's no speaker or schedule information on the website, expect for the usual keynotes and invitees. More...

The Experience Designer: Learning, Networks and the Cybersphere
I found this relatively new blog by following a link to this item through my referrer system, then following the link on a comment on that page. It is based on the author's book of the same name. More...

Collaborative Learning Environments Sourcebook
A resource that quotes me in the first line is sure to get my attention sooner or later, and not surprisingly such a work resonates with my thinking. From the website, "This is a sourcebook for academics and students who want to develop collaborative learning environments (or communities of practice) in which lecturers, students and others can work together to create new knowledge while learning new skills." Looking for author information I follow the main link and reach the The Critical Methods Collective and just know I'm in the right place. More...