By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release: Teachers Are Wary About Using IT in the Classroom, University of Bristol September 20, 2005

This study is getting some circulation (though the press coverage basically echoes the press release). According to this study, "The ESRC study reveals that many teachers fear that computers would interfere with ‘genuine’ or book-based learning, particularly in the humanities and creative subjects and use ICT only for administration and routine tasks". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Morten Andreas Meyer: eNorway 2009, September 19, 2005

The government of Norway has released a policy paper on internet access and services. Called eNorway 2009, the paper calls for access for all Norweigans and promotes open standards in the public sector. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thomas R. Ramage: A System-Level Comparison of Cost-Efficiency and Return on Investment Related to Online Course Delivery, E-Jist September 19, 2005

Report on a study conducted at 34 community colleges in Illinois on the cost and returns oon online learning. According to the author, "online programs at 83% of the community colleges participating in the study were not cost efficient and did not provide a positive return on investment." As he notes, "These findings are not consistent with the literature". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Margaret Haughey and Bill Muirhead: Evaluating Learning Objects for Schools, E-Jist September 19, 2005

Interesting essay on the evaluation of learning objects. After looking at three well-known schemes (LORI, MERLOT and CLOE) the authors draft a 12-point evaluation scheme, which they then try to implement to assess a total of 36 learning objects obtained from The Le@rning Federation. As the authors report, "Attempts to review learning objects are fraught with complexities not found in assessing other non-digital educational content." They use multiple media, employ different design methodologies, and are found at different granularities. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dave Taylor: Mailing List Discussions Are Not Free Content For Your Blog, The Intuitive Life Business Blog September 19, 2005

Dave Taylor discusses the ethics of quoting discussion board and mailing list posts. I employ a very simple criterion when deciding whether it's OK to quote someone from an online discussion: Can I link to the original of that discussion such that the reader can, without requiring a password-protected account, read that quote for him or her self. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jonathan Maybaum: When Blogging Isn't Enough..., September 19, 2005

There is no doubt that blogging is a great way to have students create online content. But there may be cases where, as the title suggests, blogging is not enough. What then? You're probably looking at some sort of online database (this is in a sense what programs like Drupal and Moodle do, though it's a very structured database). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Charles L. Slater: What Does It Mean To Be an Educated Person?, September 19, 2005

Is this list right? I mean, it sounds like part Rudyard Kipling and part Robert A. Heinlein. And while those authors resonate with me, I will nonetheless probably never be a musician or an althlete, my poetry is best kept private, and I will certainly never subscribe to the simple moral theory suggested by the author. And it seems to me that an educated person not only knows how to lead, but also how and when and why to follow as well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Associated Press: Firefighter Site Collects Stories, Wired News September 19, 2005

I actually suggested something like this when I spoke to the Canadian Association of Police Educators last June. I cited the experience of military personnel trading stories in online forums rather than relying on mission briefings. Now they have a template to work from. I also suggested that such a site would become wildly popular with the non-police public as well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed: It's A Whole New Web, Business Week September 19, 2005

The commercial media is beginning to notice that there's something happening on the web. "A whole new Web is emerging from the wilds of cyberspace. It's no longer all about idly surfing and passively reading, listening, or watching. It's about doing: sharing, socializing, collaborating, and, most of all, creating." By the same token, though, Roland Tanglao warns us to not be fooled again. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Leigh Blackall: AU$695 for a Blogging, Wiki, and RSS Workshop!!, September 19, 2005

Leigh Blackall describes, and rightly roasts, this workshop. Looking at this, I've gotta figure I'm as qualified as this guy. And if I ran one with ten people once a month, I could pretty well forget about working the rest of the time. More...