By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Four Platforms You Can Use To Make A Blog For Kids
Patricia Fioriello, Kids Learn to Blog, 2014/10/22
Just for the record: blogging still exists. It's still good for kids. Educational blogging is still relevant. "Blogs offer a powerful means of socializing and they are also lots of fun. Even though it’s hard to let your kids loose on the Internet with little supervision, it is healthy in some ways. Careful preparation will enable you help your kids launch their first blogging ventures". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. AU profs argue for a new online learning model in Teaching Crowds book
Terry Anderson, Jon Dron, Athabasca University, 2014/10/23
This nice thing about this book is that you can download it for free. OK, that isn't the only nice thing. The goal, as outlined by Terry Anderson and Jon Dron, is to “provide methods of learning that are fitted to the subject and people learning them, not the needs and capabilities of institutions teaching them. This is what (networked learning) allows.” As readers here will note, this has been the subject of our work at NRC for some time, dating from the early days of the PLE to the present LPSS program. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Rights, restrictions and photos of Cats
Stuart Myles, Slideshare, 2014/10/23
This is one of the pieces that operates behind the scenes and is necessary for smooth automation of e-learning systems. "IPTC's RightsML, based on W3C CG's ODRL is the standard for expressing permissions and restrictions for digital content for the news industry. The latest report on progress in implementing RightsML, including a new Python library for creating rights expressions in XML and JSON." Good shoer presentation with a bunch of workflow flow charts describing how rights are managed. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Five Reasons #Gamergate Connects to Educational Technology
John Spencer, Education Rethink, 2014/10/23
We teach people this stuff. We who create technology and media, who shape thought and opinion, who set examples and and work in public - we are the ones who make it OK to shame and harass and threaten and all the rest.
Today I read that Felicia Day, creator of the (great!) online show about gaming, The Guild, has been doxxed for writing a post on #gamergate (to 'doxx' someone is to expose their personal information, such as their home address, online, thus opening them up to harassment and stalking). She had been mostly silent, she says, because "I have been terrified of inviting a deluge of abusive and condescending tweets into my timeline." It turns out her fears were justified. In this post, John Spencer directly draws the link between #gamergate and education. "People are way too quick to minimize the misogyny that exists online," he writes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canadian colleges’ successes with disadvantaged learners Highlighted at UNESCO-UNEVOC Skills Summit
Unattributed, Colleges, Institutes Canada, 2014/10/21
According to this post, Colleges and Institutes Canada has released a report describing "the programs, support services and innovations that Canadian colleges are using to increase access to post-secondary education for vulnerable groups." The report (60 page PDF) is organized as a series of 55 or so one-page articles, each describing a case where someone uses one of the services (it would make a great series of blog posts). Topics include Indigenous learners, language support for new arrivals, learning disabilities, the transition to college, mental illness and crime. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Chartbeat tries to fight the smoke and mirrors in web measurement by going public with its metrics
Mathew Ingram, GigaOm, 2014/10/21
We need to "stop thinking about pageviews or other traffic-focused metrics, and start thinking about measuring actual attention or engagement," says Chartbeat founder and CEO Tony Haile as his company is set to open access to the company's metrics and procedures. Although these metrics are intended for the web content industry, it's hard not to think that they will be relevant to e-learning as well. They are, after all, a prima facie indicator of engagement, which is a primary indicator for learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Open Standard
Various authors, Mozilla, 2014/10/21
Mozilla has launched a newsletter called 'The Open Standard' which addresses issues such as privacy, transparency and trust. The lead article today, for example, is titled: Who’s Collecting Kids’ Personal Data? Lots of People. It draws from sources like the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Fordham Law School’s Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP). Another article looks at the recent Whisper controversy. Another studies a university library with no books. Overall it looks like a pretty nice effort. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Harnessing informal and social learning
Charles Gould, Brightwave, Slideshare, 2014/10/21
Interesting presentation (especially the screen shots in the latter half) on personal and informal learning. "Key learning points: Early adoption examples of dynamic social learning in real-world scenarios; How to use social media to create personalised learning experiences; The role of digital learning in large scale transformation". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Review of ‘Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda.’
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, 2014/10/21
Although Tony Bates considers this book "essential reading for anyone who wants to take a professional, evidence-based approach to online learning (distance or otherwise)" he suggests that "we need a better way to disseminate this research than a 500 page printed text that only those already expert in the field are likely to access." It doesn't help that there's no open access version (at least that I could find). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Social Learning is Voluntary; Collaboration Platforms are Enablers
Sahana Chattopadhyay, ID and Other Reflections, 2014/10/21
I've used the phrase 'free learning and control learning' in the past to highlight the same distinction, but while my terminology didn't really take off, perhaps Jane Hart's 'social learning and fauxial learning' will fare better. I'm not betting on it. But the distinction is valid, and so is the recognition that people can depend on people other than teachers to support their own learning. "Organizations can no longer exist in silos -- either internally or in relation to the external ecosystem. Cooperation and collaboration will yield greater benefits than competitiveness". More...