By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Fear and anxiety on the like/retweet web
Brian Lamb, Abject, July 31, 2013
Brian Lamb writes, "in a grim economic climate, prodding people’s anxieties and fears so you can monetize their relationships really creeps me out." He's responding in part to Alan Levine's satirical take on LinkedIn Endorsements. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. BYOD – the first steps
Alice Leung, July 31, 2013
Alice Leung points to a literature review into BYOD and links to Mal Lee take. as she and her school prepares to embark down the BYOD road. BYOD stands for 'Bring Your Own Device' and refers to the idea that the school will support whatever access device - iPad, Android, whatever - a student brings, rather than issuing centrally managed computers or tablets from a cart. Why go down this path. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS)
Human Resources, Skills Development Canada, July 31, 2013
I ran across this yesterday (I guess it's relatively new?) while looking up data for an internal project. "Use this search tool to find projected industrial data used in the development of the COPS projections. Users can search for industrial data such as gross domestic product, employment, retirements, deaths and job openings by industry. Users can view this data in tables or in graphs." It's Canadian data only, but it's sure useful inside Canada. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unequal Classrooms: What Online Education Cannot Teach
Jennifer M. Morton, The Chronicle: The Conversation, July 31, 2013
It doesn't take much to jump from "what can't online education teach?" to "what can't MOOCs teach?" but that's the state of play in today's educational discourse, where terms like 'MOOC' (and, for that matter, 'free' and 'open') can mean whatever you want them to (and where, somehow, 'education' has come to mean 'memorization' and 'school' now means 'job training'). Anyhow, philosophy professor Jennifer M. Morton tells us "college is the first place where they will be asked to defend a position and to engage in vigorous intellectual debate. It is also likely to be the first place where they have to consistently engage with middle-class students and professors and navigate middle-class social norms." You know, this whole 'social norms' and 'interpersonal communication' thing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wil Wheaton - Why it's awesome to be a nerd
Wil Weaton, YouTube, July 31, 2013
I used to hate Wesley Crusher (still do - we would play games like "that could have killed Wesley Crusher" while watching Star Trek). And I wasn't happy Wil Weaton gathered a gazillion followers online just for being Wil Weaton. But, I like what he has done with his fame, not doing the obvious and making movies or another televsion show, but rather supporting the new and offbeat, and making videos like this one. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What you would do with $1 million to inspire change in the world
Morton Bast, TED, May 31, 2013
Not that I would ever fit into the TED mindset, nor am I nominating myself, but it's still an interesting exercise. Were TED to give me a million dollars, I would put it in the bank and live on the interest. This would enable me to leave my job and do what I'm doing now, without the overhead, writing, thinking and speaking on issues related to learning and access to education, and working on projects like PLEs and MOOCs and open learning generally (anyone else with a million dollars is free to contribute should TED not recognize the wisdom of my plan). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Your degree is not a waste of time
Maureen Mancuso, University Affairs, May 31, 2013
People who know my history know the priority I placed on educating myself. It's a common story (less common than it was) in which I gave up a good job to start my studies, worked and scraped and paid my own way through, and spent decades owning for student loans. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Refactoring Coursera
Mike Caulfield, May 31, 2013
Now that we've had a year or so of 'disruptive technology' from the likes of Coursera, writes Mike Caulfield, it's time to take stock. The original premise of Coursera was massive enrollment, elite professors, streamlined technology, and open admission. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Digital Literacy: Find Free (and Legal) Images for Your Classroom
Jennifer Carey, Powerful Learning Practice, April 30, 2013
OK, I think it's good to give people advice on where to find free and open images online. But I bristle when these are characterized as 'legal' images. It is true that you can't just use copyright images willy-nilly. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Does the Khan Academy Pass the MOOC “Duck Test”?
Anuli Akanegbu, EdTech, April 30, 2013
There has been much criticiasm of the Chronicle's recent elevation of Khan Academy to 'MOOC status'. My own thinking is that either (a) they needed four companies to make a nice need diagram, and cMOOC is not a company, or (b) someone paid them. More...