By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. William H. Rice IV[Edit][Delete]: Moodle E-Learning Course Development (Book), SchoolForge [Edit][Delete] August 18, 2006
The book Moodle E-Learning Course Development, by William H. Rice IV, has been posted as a PDF link to Schoolforge. The 73 page book is a free download. David M. Bucknell writes, "I think schoolforge.net and others of you might want to consider putting the e-book on your sites for download. Personally, I see a downside to moodle for primary/elementary schoolers (mainly that it's too complicated visually vs. say, Manhattan, which hasn't taken off the same way), but I can't nay-say what Steve points out about the positive force the software has been for getting people interested in OSS. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. George Siemens: Michael Feldstein and Blackboard, Elearnspace ELearnSpace August 17, 2006
Alfred Essa raises concerns that IMS might have now that one of its partners has played the patent card. The next IMS meeting, to be hosted by Blackboard in September, should be a pretty interesting session. Essa wonders what a question and answer with Blackboard would look like.
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) send an email advising "the patents are afforded no 'presumption of validity'" and that, as Michael Feldstein summarizes, "there is no patent in Europe yet, it will take a long time for there to be a patent in Europe, and in the event that there is a patent in Europe, the EUÃf¢x^TMs patent law is much friendlier to challenging patents than current U.S. law."
Michael Feldstein also explains why Desire2Learn CEO John Baker is our hero, explaining that "Desire2Learn is doing an enormous public service." Of course, others have observed, D2L may have no choice - once you cave on something like this, you can count on the gravy train leading to your doorstep. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: Round the World Photos, Flickr [Edit][Delete] November 1, 2006
I have finally completed uploading all the photos from my recent trip around the world. I hope you enjoy them; here they are (click on 'slide show' for a nice slide show version).
Frankfurt, Germany [slide show]
Bloemfontein, South Africa [slide show]
Lesotho [slide show]
Kruger National Park [slide show]
Cape Town, South Africa [slide show]
Manley, Australia [slide show]
Dunedin, New Zealand [slide show]
Stewart Island, New Zealand [slide show]
Christchurch, New Zealand [slide show]
Whangarei, New Zealand [slide show]
Tutukaka, New Zealand [slide show]
Auckland, New Zealand [slide show]
Desert Highway, New Zealand [slide show]
Bulls, New Zealand [slide show]
Wellington, New Zealand [slide show]
[Tags: Flickr] [Comment]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. M. Cohn[Edit][Delete]: MacArthur Funds e-Learning: $50M, Red Herring [Edit][Delete] October 25, 2006
Perhaps they were reading my coverage (the Tribune story is long gone, See this). Who knows? Anyhow, the MacArthur foundation is granting $2 million a year "for competitive research, writing, and demonstration projects." So my checque should be... oh, wait, they said competitive. Guess not, then, I am not of that political persuasion. More...