By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OpenID: a Step Forward for E-Learning Standards
Another call to pay attention to OpenID, this time explicitly as an education standard. "It is time for e-learning developers to cast their vote for OpenID by employing it actively in the products and services that they are developing". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. U Learning = Elearning + Mlearning
This is quite a good presentation (slides in PDF, ugh) describing the integration of learning resources and communications to support learning using handheld computers at Monash. There are bits that don't appear to me - like the use of Microsoft's ASP.Net to implement the service (there's that whole 'closed architecture' that characterizes mobile learning again) but the sections on technical considerations and educational considerations are basically spot-on. 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. 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. Fragmentary Thoughts on Data (and “Analytics”) in Online Distance Education
Tony Hirst, OUseful Info, 2019/02/08
What's the purpose of using data and analytics on online learning? This seemingly simple question hides a deep divide. On the one hand, we could use it to improve our online materials. That's the approach we almost never take. "That approach also stands in marked contrast to the learning analytics view," writes Tony Hirst, "which is more akin to the current dystopia being developed by Google et al. In this world, data is collected not to improve the thing we control (the course content, structure and navigation) but to control the user so they better meet our metrics. Data is collected not so that we can make interventions in the thing we control (the course content, structure and navigation) but “the product” — the student. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Best of Elearning Awards 2006
Very commercially focused - it's like the world of open source (and, for that matter, the world of teachers) doesn't even exist. It seems a bit weird to see 'best leadership training' as a category, but nothing like 'best chemistry training'. It goes without saying that this website was completely shut out - there's no category for the kind of e-learning we do here. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Innovating E-Learning Conference 2006
JISC announced, on Friday, that "The proceedings of all three themes of the 2006 JISC Online Conference Innovating e-Learning 2006: Transforming Learning Experiences are now available as downloadable e-books." The books are mixtures of presentations and summaries, with links to multimedia (such as Flash video of the presentations). The three themes are: "Designing for Learning, Learner Experiences of e-Learning and Innovating e-Learning Practice."
I read through the Learner Experiences text and found the discussion frustrating. There is much talk of the need for greater learner control, and much reluctance to give them any. A lot of this is a matter of perspective. The discussion starts by acknowledging that the learner's voice is drowned by all the special interests, and so this book will give a voice to... the teachers. Then in Chapter 3 we see the students' words being asterisked out. And then there's the obligatory description of lack of motivation - why those self-managing students are doing their mandatory work instead of the student-led stuff (am I the only one who sees how absurd this is?). Then we get conflicting views of the wiki - teachers love it, students, less so. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. eLearning Papers
Today was a good day. The new gas furnace that we installed in the house yesterday is working perfectly (my small revenge against NB Power). Meanwhile, my web site, which started out this morning as a sparkling new Linux box, has been restored. Mostly. Still a bunch of odds and ends to fix. But this, finally, is the server I needed. Oh yeah, and my email is working again as well. More...