By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Carl DiOrio[Edit][Delete]: Unions Seek Higher Residuals for New Media, BackStage [Edit][Delete] September 6, 2006

The studios and publishers are suing people and campaigning even for even tighter copyright laws because they believe that artists should be supported. Right? Remember that? How do these same people feel the people who actually produce that same content should be paid? These people "are now being asked to accept even slimmer payments for ad-supported streaming of TV shows. And that's slimmer as in nada." Right. Nothing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dave Warlick[Edit][Delete]: Am I Getting This Wrong?, 2 cents Worth [Edit][Delete]2 Cents Worth [Edit][Delete] September 6, 2006

Dave Warlick looks at a study found through the National Center or Education Statistics, Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003, dated September 5, 2006, that appears to use 6 year-old data. And he asks, is he wrong to think there's something wrong with this? "How many members were there of MySpace in 2003?" (I think that would be none, Dave, and the current figure is 86 million). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tim Stahmer[Edit][Delete]: Kindergarten Gulag, Assorted Stuff [Edit][Delete] September 6, 2006

The headline says it all, doesn't it? "Instead of story time, finger painting, tracing letters and snack, first graders are spending hours doing math work sheets and sounding out words in reading groups. In some places, recess, music, art and even social studies are being replaced by writing exercises and spelling quizzes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: My Work, My Freedom, Half an Hour [Edit][Delete] September 6, 2006
I'm sitting on the porch at the guest house here in Bloem, about to leave for a Free State Braii. Today's keynote - skypecas was a wild frenzy of multitasking on stage, but it was all really interesting. This column, which I wrote this afternoon, has nothing to do with the conference here. No newsletter tomorrow - I'm going to Lesotho. And I'm gathering an incredible array of video, photos, audio and more, about life, learning, the internet, and more. [Tags: Newsletters, Voice Over IP, Skype] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Learning objects - what are they good for?, Skypecast [Edit][Delete] September 5, 2006
Greetings from Africa.
With my website and email having been down the last few days, and of course with my flight to South Africa, I am needless to say way behind on things. Oh, and very tired.
Today I completed a preconference workshop, and tomorrow morning I give a keynote address. I will have files to upload soon, but for now the outline is in my wiki at Jotspot. One of the highlights was the World Premiere of my video, Bogota, which will be online soon.
But even better, we successfully ran a Skypecast from the workshop (my thanks to those of you who were able to join). With no website and no newsletter, I wasn't able to advertise it, but I did post a note on Half an Hour.
This success means we are going ahead with part two of the plan: the World's First (I check) keynote address from anything to be Skypecast. Yes, when I speak at 9:45 local time tomorrow, here in South Africa, we will be welcoming people from around the world to join us.
To join, click on the Skypecast link around the time the Skypecast is to start (if you are early, reload the page every few minutes, just in case). You need Skype version 2.5 and when you click you will be joined to the Skypecast. We know the sound works, beautifilly, even from Africa.
I also have some photos online (not many though). [Tags: Newsletters, Marketing, Voice Over IP, Skype, Flickr] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tony Karrer[Edit][Delete]: Elves, Measuring Results and Informal Learning, eLearning Technology [Edit][Delete] May 19, 2006
"If an elf appeared and offer to give you a program that met your spec, how happy would you be?" Good question. And, according to the author, you would probably want to know how the program worked before you were happy. "If you create an 'organic, dynamic, flexible' learning solution but can't explain how it impacts the end numbers, then: (a) you won't get credit, (b) you won't know if you can repeat it successfully, and (c) you won't know if its really working. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tom Hoffman[Edit][Delete]: Turning SIF On Its Head with TinyZIS, Tuttle SVC [Edit][Delete] June 9, 2006
I am sympathetic with the intent of this post, whih is to replace the Schools Interoperability Format (SIF), "a classic top-down, commercially driven standard, with no uptake whatsoever in the open source world," withg a small and agile open alternative. But I don't like some of the phrasing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Laura Mullane[Edit][Delete]: Eyes Wide Open: Five Views of Quality in Online Education, American Council on Education [Edit][Delete] June 8, 2006
Not five different theories so much as five different people being interviewed for this article on quality. Also some good links, at the top of the article, on some recent reports and studies on quality. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jon Udell[Edit][Delete]: On Business/Education Partnership, Infoworld [Edit][Delete]InfoWorld [Edit][Delete] June 8, 2006

I'm not so sold on Ruby, though I do think it's elegant. But I do share a lot in common with this view of learning: "Thanks to personal online publishing and to an emerging cultural ethos of transparency, there is an exciting new possibility in the world. A young person today who is interested in software can find out what it is like to be a software developer -- by evaluating products, by reading the accounts of people creating them, by making contact with those folks, and by contributing to real projects." To me the key words here are real projects - it is this, I think, that makes all the difference. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jeff Jarvis[Edit][Delete]: Books Will Disappear. Print is Where Words To To Die, The Guardian [Edit][Delete] June 8, 2006
I was thinking about this in the train station in Manchester. I once wanted to be a science fiction author, an ambition I sometimes secretly reconsider. But these days, they only publish what seems like one or two science fiction authors. It was always a nice job, but now even more so. "In print, books rely on scarce shelf space, gatekeeping agents and editors, and expensive production. More...