By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Faceted Classification in the Government of Canada
There are two major ways to organize resources. One way is to assign each resource a position within a classification system. Dewey Decimal and the Library of Congress classification systems work this way. But there are many such ways to classify resources. And some resources might not fit easily into a single category. Another way is to look at the properties of a resource. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. F For Assessment
Blunt criticism of the standardized tests currently applied in U.S. schools: "in most instances these evaluations are inaccurate. That's because the standardized tests employed are flat-out wrong." Some of the tests, argue the author, are designed to elicit responses based on social profile rather than learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Homegrown Single Sign On at UM - St. Louis
I enjoyed this presentation on the various iterations of a single sign-on system at a university (I loved Phase II - you have a single user ID, but you still have to log on to each application separately - which led immediately to Phase III). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. AAHE Announces Closing
The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) is ceasing operations later this year. Communities of practice and projects will be would down; members will still have access to the website and publications. More...