By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Skills Training Dysfunctional, BBC News [Edit][Delete] November 21, 2006
I can believe that the skills training program is dysfunctional. But I am not convinced that it ought to be put into the hands of business and industry to manage. After all, aren't they the ones who demanded something like the current "'alphabet soup' of skills quangos?" Business and industry have demonstrated over the years that they are mostly interested in the short-term and that they have no acuity for the development of public policy, including education policy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mary Burgan[Edit][Delete]: In Defense of Lecturing, Change [Edit][Delete] November 21, 2006
In TALO, John Gregory wrote, "Will Richardson says we don't need college. Daniel Pink says high school's out too. How low can we go? Can a fourth grader replace every positive aspect of traditional schools with an online education? A second grader?"
I responded, "Why do people always represent this sort of thing as though the student would be doing it completely on his or her own? Nobody expects a fourth grader to 'replace every positive aspect of traditional schools.' Sheesh, they're kids, not government employees". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Andy Gibbons and Clint Rogers[Edit][Delete]: Selection of Quotations on Design Languages and Their Relation to Design Layers, ITForum [Edit][Delete] November 21, 2006
This is a very interesting paper. The premise is that the process of, say, instructional design involves the participants in the creation of a 'design language' - a set of terms, metaphors, meanings and images - that will characterize their project. Design language is best thought of as a tool, rather than a theory. It is typically applied in layers, with different representations of entities in the design relating to different aspects of that design. I think the authors finesse the incommensurability of theoretical language, and I think their description of the layers in instructional design shouldn't separate the message and the representation (here I'm thinking of McLuhan and Derrida). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Derek Wenmoth[Edit][Delete]: Wiki Generated, Free Textbooks, November 21, 2006
You have to figure, the people in a society should be able to collectively author high quality textbooks for schoolchildren. Right? So why would we be paying some company mnillions of dollars to do it? "Using wiki technology and an open community format, over a 1,000 textbooks are being assembled online (with some PDF and print versions as well). Titles include Accounting, Chess, European History, Physiology, Managing Groups and Teams, Ecology and more". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Danah Boyd[Edit][Delete]: Social Network Sites: My Definition, Many2Many [Edit][Delete] November 21, 2006
For Val, this link to Danah Boyd on the definition of social network sites (I know that's not exactly 'social software' but it's close enough). Something like this definition is needed because with the recent popularity of social software everything and its dog is being called social software or a social networking site (I can just imagine getting in my email: Purina Cat Chow - social networking for your pets). Boyd writes, "A 'social network site' is a category of websites with profiles, semi-persistent public commentary on the profile, and a traversable publicly articulated social network displayed in relation to the profile." or as I wrote (see the comments), "The point about social software is that it creates persistent links between users, and through these persistent links, a community is formed. Moreover, the ownership and control of these links - who is linked, and who isn't - is in the hands of the user. Thus, these links are asymmetrical - you might link to me, but I might not link to you". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Graham Wegner[Edit][Delete]: A Terrible Decision, Teaching Generation Z [Edit][Delete] November 20, 2006
Some very upset reactions in South Australia this week as the government closes the Technology School Of the Future. "There was an 'outcry' over plans to replace the school at Hindmarsh with online services and video conferencing." Graham Wegner writes, "The South Australian education community deserves better than this". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Timothy K. Hamilton[Edit][Delete]: Commercial Use of a Photo of Mine by CNET News, Flickr [Edit][Delete] November 20, 2006
There has been discussion recently on whether open educational resources should use a non-commercial license - at an online OECD-UNICEF discussion someone raised the issue, insisting people not use the 'non-commercial' clause, before the discussion even started. talk about coming into a conference with an agenda! I think some companies just want to get stuff for free, which they will then sell to people who can't afford them. But anyhow - the main argument they use is that if you use a 'non-commercial' license, then no commercial agencies can use this. This - as this item on Flickr shows, is false. The 'non-commercial' license doesn't prevent commercial agencies from using the content. It prevents commercial use of the content. Which, I think, is what is intended by most people when they use the non-commercial license. Use my content all you want. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brock Read[Edit][Delete]: A Business Book, Wiki-Style, Chronicle of Higher Education [Edit][Delete] November 20, 2006
From the Chronicle: "Can a wiki-style editing process result in a worthwhile business book? Pearson PLC, the publishing firm, intends to find out - and it has recruited business-school officials at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help with the experiment. The publisher is putting together We Are Smarter Than Me, a new book that tries to help businessmen make sense of blogs, online communities, and other interactive Web media. Professors at Penn and MIT have already written the volume's chapter titles and introductory anecdotes". More...