By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Anecdotes
Today seems like a good day to note that Clark Aldrich is slowly creating a dictionary or encyclopedia of instructional technology terminology. He has been working on this for weeks, and is up to the letter 'C' (though he has been going back and adding 'a' and 'b' entries when he thinks of them, which explains this item). It's a worthy endeavour, and while I don't always agree with the definitions I certainly think this will evolve into a useful resource. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. My First DMCA Takedown
YouTube has gone from being something that was pretty neat to something that is evil. Yes, I can understand the owners wanting to remove violations of copyright. However, criticism requires quotation, and this is as true in video as it is in print. Quotation is clearly an area covered by fair use. But the YouTube copybots don't see it that way, and so one person's right to free expression is summarily trampled upon. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Intellect, Emotion, Spirit, and Will: Another Side of Connectivism
I have said from time to time, in asserting that 'to teach is to model and to demonstrate', that one should 'be the person you want your students to be'. Not original with me, and not original to connectivism, either, but surely at the heart of the theory, and the idea that learning is 'pattern recognition' explains why. Sessums finds links from all this to The Courage To Teach by Parker Palmer. "Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Let's Toss Jobs Under the Bus
I don't recommend such drastic action as indicated by the headline, but I do share the author's displeasure with Steven Jobs's simpleminded 'blame the union' analyis of education. If unions were the cause of a malfunctioning educational system, then education in places without teachers' unions would automatically be that much better. But there's no evidence of this; just look at the lacklustre accomplishments of the union-busting private and charter schools that have been launched in various places throughout the U.S. I agree with this assessment: "Perhaps we ought agree -- for once -- that the entire 'public education experiment' (in the US) of the last 150+ years has been an insanely SUCCESSFUL adventure. It worked". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SecondLife: Revolutionary Virtual Market or Ponzi Scheme?
People who renege on their obligations, banks that disappear overnight, gerrymandered exchange rates, and a completely unregulated investment environment. This is the Second Life 'economy' where (we are told) millions of dollars are being made every day. "SecondLife is a giant magnet for the desperate, uninformed, easily victimized. Its promises of wealth readily ensnare those who can least afford to lose their money or lives to such scams." Do read the comments for some raucous discussion. See also this item, which notes, "If you can actually collect your SLLs from your counterparty - which turns out to be an enormous problem - you can't cash them out for USD easily or profitably."
While I'm on this topic, it is worth noting that because Second Life is bogging down when it gets crowded (where 'crowded' means about 38,000 people - hardly the million the legends are made of) Linden Labs will be to "paying accounts". More and More. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Social Media: Something Different IS Happening...
This article takes the idea of 'every person a teacher' as a point of departure and loops through some recent discussion on the nature of social media, discussion that is echoing commentary I have been seeing elsewhere ("if all media is social," says one commentator on iDC, "then why do we call it social media?"). As a summary article it's pretty good, but read some of the claims with a note of scepticism. It is helpful to recall that connecting every person to every other is not an ideal". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wii Report
I still think that the introduction of the Wii is a much bigger story than Second Life and possibly even bigger than mobile computing (though there may be some overlap between Wii and mobile). This article points to this, describing not only its use as a game but also the personalized Mii (virtual avatars for each user) to email to web access. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. EduPatent Alerts
Michael Feldstein has performed a service by creating 'Edupatent Alerts' - essentially an RSS aggregator that will flag any post that tags or uses the word 'edupatent' (including, I guess, this one). The idea is to help educators keep each other informed as these damaging patents come down that dysfunctional pipe known as the U.S. Patent Office. "If we all make use of this system, then you won't have to rely on just a couple of bloggers (e.g., me) to be able to see everything that's relevant and post about it". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Myth
Norm Friesen offers the fourth of his 'e-learning myths' series. It follows the form of his previous installments. He writes, "'Anyone, anywhere, anytime' invokes a kind of 'default' person, place and time which is generally white and male (Nakamura, 2002), in a position of wealth and in a space and time generally defined in terms of production and consumption. In uncritically invoking categories like anyone, anywhere, anytime, the experience of a single (and relatively small) class of people is privileged and universalized." First of all, I don't think that anybody asserts that the internet presently allows 'anyone, anywhere anytime' access. Second, the detection of stereotypes on the internet does not make it impossible to be 'anyone', it merely points out that most people choose to be more or less themselves, through which some people can identify stereotypes. Finally, this assertion that "the experience of a single (and relatively small) class of people is privileged and universalized" doesn't trump everything. The digital divide doesn't trump everything. If we are restricted to saying things about the internet that must be true not only of rich white males but also of impoverished people with zero access, we may as well go home; it's a ridiculous requirement. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Questionable Conviction of Connecticut Teacher in Pop-Up Porn Case
It's hard to believe that this case is real, but I've read enough accounts to be convinced that it is. A substitute teacher is told not to turn off the computer (because she won't be able to log in again). Searching for hair styles, she or a student clicks on a link that launches adware. because the computer's security has been allowed to lapse, the adware installs itself and begins sending a steady stream of pornographic images. The substitute teacher is charged with willfully exposing minors to pornography. Investigators did not look for adware on the computer, and defense testimony showing how the adware was installed is not allowed to be presented in court. More...