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2 octobre 2019

Principal Quiets Young Orator

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Principal Quiets Young Orator
I have in the past touted Mississauga as an example but I may have to rethink that following this report. "One of the prominent things we teach is respect for authority figures," says Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board spokesperson Bruce Campbell as he defends the censoring of a student's speech on being bored in class. This hits close to home, as I participated in public speaking myself, once speaking on how to create a dictatorship (I was also very successful, winning five times in eight years). Vicki Davis quite rightly says, "This is not a place we censure students for having opinions unlike ours! This is a place where we encourage opinions and free speech." Peel District high school teacher Elona Hartjes, who found the article, responds, "it's not my responsibility to entertain students." Maybe not. More...

2 octobre 2019

Net Heads

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Net Heads
Interesting discussion of 'small worlds' networks as they operate in the human brain. "Fractal, small-world brain networks reverberate in an electrical limbo state that almost, but not quite, comes unglued... Especially at higher frequencies, these networks operate "on the edge of chaos," the researchers say. More...

2 octobre 2019

The Future of Learning Is DIY

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future of Learning Is DIY
It has taken me a while to put my finger on exactly what it is that bothers me about the 'School 2.0' movement that has developed in the States, but I think this item on the issues before us comes closest. "By locking into the concept of 'school' the proponents, while looking for all the world like they are embracing change, are in fact freezing the state of education into an archaic past, where the school is the centre and where everything else - including the students - revolve around that central concept." The reason why I think this way is because of the sort of thing summarized here by Harold Jarche (from Donald Clark). More...

2 octobre 2019

Pipes and HyperCard: Interactive Vs Connected Media

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Pipes and HyperCard: Interactive Vs Connected Media
Scott Wilson nails it (and in passing reminds us of Derrick de Kerckhove's book 'Connected Intelligence'). "We have entered an era of connected media. Connected media does not contain interaction; instead content items are nodes in a network of connections that are the focus of interaction. The content is inside-out. The hot content today is not interactive - Flickr/Photobucket, YouTube, iTunes, RSS feeds all feature non-interactive content, yet the content is highly connected via layers of interlinked metadata (del.icio.us, technorati, recommendations, hyperlinks, comments...)." Right. And - crucially - it's exactly the same with learning. Connected media does not contain 'learning'. More...

2 octobre 2019

OpenID Makes Web Identities Real and Appealing

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OpenID Makes Web Identities Real and Appealing
I got email over the weekend saying that and OpenID-enabled version of Explode! is in testing (just as I recommended :)). This is just the latest in a flurry of developments. People are catching on. This author summarizes the weekend reading: "If that pitch still hasn't infected you with OpenID fevor, I recommend watching Scott Kveton's quick pitch. Then digesting Simon Willison's talk on OpenID and his Six cool things you can build with OpenID. Then consider the fact that Firefox 3 will ship with native support for OpenID and that Microsoft is getting on board as well. Suddenly a future of OpenID everywhere starts looking mighty plausible. More...

2 octobre 2019

Blackboard Announces New 'Institutional Effectiveness Platform'; Patents Pending

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blackboard Announces New 'Institutional Effectiveness Platform'; Patents Pending
I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Blackboard's vision of the future of e-learning is exactly the opposite of my own. No loss; it leaves more room at the top for the successful companies. Thomson Learning, meanwhile, traditionally a close Blackboard partner, announces that it is adopting Sakai (though not cutting its connections with other LMS vendors). They write, in their press release, "In addition, Thomson Learning is glad to see one of its key business partners, Blackboard, Inc., making a move in the right direction to engage the open source community." Yeah. More...

2 octobre 2019

Open Access Reshaping Rules of Research

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Access Reshaping Rules of Research
Michael Geist rattles the cage a bit regarding open access to reserach in Canada. He writes, "Given the connection between research and economic prosperity, the time has come for the federal government, its funding agencies, and the Canadian research community to maximize the public's investment in research by prioritizing open access." There's not much to add to that. Every day, it seems, I urge someone inside all these government agencies to open up research. More...

2 octobre 2019

US Patent and Trade Office Grants Re-Examination Request to Desire2Learn

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. US Patent and Trade Office Grants Re-Examination Request to Desire2Learn
This is the second re-examination request the Patent office has considered; the previous was on behalf of the open source learning management systems. In the wacky world of U.S. patents, though, Desire2Learn could end up paying even if the patent is overturned, as the East Texas kangaroo court where the case is being held has refused to stay the proceedings pending the results of the re-examination. More...

2 octobre 2019

Microsoft Hit with $1.5 Billion Patent Verdict

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft Hit with $1.5 Billion Patent Verdict
I would be more sympathetic to Microsoft had the company not just threatened lawsuits against Linux users. Even so, this verdict shows how ridiculous patent law has become. And, of course, it is the end user who pays for these verdicts. More...

2 octobre 2019

Vidipedia

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Vidipedia
Another find by Bee on TALO. Vidipedia is "the free video encyclopedia that anyone can edit." I'm not so sure about this one. As of this posting, the most popular videos include Hiccup Girl, who has had the hiccups for three weeks, the Gaussian Gun, supposedly a perpetual motion machine, and a JFK Assassination video. More...

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