By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Systems Thinking and Practice: Diagramming
This may all be old news to some people, but there is enough of a relation to concept mapping and to network analysis, both of which have been recent items of discussion in the e-learning space, to warrant inclusion here. Systems thinking is essentially the use of models to represent actions and influences in complex environments. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. La directrice générale de la Télé-Université du Québec se fait rassurante
It has been in the works for some time now, but now it's official: Quebec's distance learning organization, Télé-Université du Québec (Téluq) has been absorbed by l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Coverage is in French. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Playtime in the Classroom
As the article notes, this may be news to people who don't play video games, but researchers are reporting that the use of these games improves learning. The author focuses mostly on "American pop science writer" Steven Johnson along with MIT Arcade and James Paul Gee. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Higher Education at Risk
Good interview with Richard Hersh, former president of Trinity College (Conn.) and co-editor of the book Declining by Degrees, a critical commentary on the state of higher education in the United States (and probably elsewhere). I don't agree with everything (for example, I'm not sure it's a bad thing to evaluate graduates by SAT scores rather than GPAs (keeping in mind that SAT itself is far from a perfect indicator)). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. We Are All Apprenticing at Light Speed
If there is a theme for today's newsletter, it is probably this. "We are all improvising at some fundamental level; making it up as we go along. Instead of looking for someone with an answer to copy, we now have to participate in the invention process ourselves." You cannot learn it all - you certainly cannot learn it all ahead of time. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Web-Based Chat And RSS-Enabled Open Discussion Space: Conversate
The title pretty much says it all: Conversate is a new web-based discussion space with RSS and chat support. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Changing Channels
George Siemens passes along this article, noting that changes in media are reflected in changes in education. And when it comes to television, new technologies are changing the industry completely. While television executives worry about things like ad-skipping and program sharing, it may already be too late to save the iondustry. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Web 2.0: Is it a Whole New Internet?
I mentioned Web 2.0 in my presentation today and kind of skimmed over exactly what that means. Fortunately, this presentation provides a nice overview of the concepts and ideas behind it. In a nutshell - the original web (Web 1.0) is a place you go to read things, while Web 2.0 is a place you go to interact. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Introduction to social network methods
I mentioned social network theory in my talk today. This item, just linked by George Siemens, looks like a pretty comprehensive guide. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. E-Learning: A Kaleidoscope of Options
My talk to the Canadian Association of Police Educators in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. PowerPoint Slides and audio (MP3), part one and part two. Once again, I'm speaking in a large concrete room (funny how things like that come in clusters) so the sound quality is again iffy. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, May 18, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]. More...