By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MySpace&a Drunken Pirate's Fate: A Cautionary Tale or Hint of Things to Come?
There's obviously more to this than what we see on the surface, but what we see on the surface is pretty disturbing: "A MySpace photo of a teacher education candidate, Ms. Snyder, wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic 'Mr. Goodbar' cup was reason enough for Millersville University (aka My'Ville) to deny her both an education degree and teaching certificate." She is accused of "promoting underage drinking." Which is ridiculous, of course, but she has obviously failed some sort of political purity test. More...
Desire2Pod Cast 13: Nancy White
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Desire2Pod Cast 13: Nancy White
I haven't noticed Odeo audiocasts embedded in blog posts for a while (and had noticed that Odeo, which allows you to upload audio the way Flickr allows you to upload photos) was having read speed problems. This seems to be inversed - Flickr now seems to be throttling output (resulting in pages - that I see, at least - displaying only 6 thumbnail images out of a page of, say, 30) while Odeo seems to be loading smartly. More...
The Futures Project to Close
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Futures Project to Close
The Futures Project, described as "a higher education policy think tank that has spent the last five years investigating the influences market-oriented, competitive pressures on higher education," has shut down as of yesterday. More...
enCore Consortium
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. enCore Consortium
I've been sitting on this, hoping to install the software before commenting with a link, but being on vacatyion lends itself more to playing Civ III than to installing software. But it appears to my roots as a MUD designer and I have never let go of the idea that a multi-user environment like a MUD has a lot of potential in e-learning. Anyhow, the newly formed enCore Consortium is devoted to supporting the development of the enCore learning environment. More...
Counting Down the Top 10 TEDTalks
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Counting Down the Top 10 TEDTalks
"TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. Under the moniker "ideas worth spreading," talks were released online." They reached a significant milestone recently with 50 million views since they debuted online two years ago. More...
(Not) Coping with Cognitive Overload
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. (Not) Coping with Cognitive Overload
Now attending NECC in San Antonio, Ewan McIntosh refers to a presentation by Chris Craft last week on cognitive load theory which is picking up new (or at least more) meaning for him at NECC. "There's. Too. Much. Noise. I mean noise in the physical sense and in this metaphorical one." He goes on to say that all of this overload is having a very negative impact on him and on those he encounters. More...
Weave Update for Firefox Syncs Your Web Identity
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Weave Update for Firefox Syncs Your Web Identity
More post-Web 2.0 magic. "If you're a Firefox user, you now have the ability to synchronize not only your bookmarks, browsing history and user preferences across multiple PCs - you can also sync your identity." More...
Interview with Rick Schwier – connectivism
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Interview with Rick Schwier – connectivism
James Johnson, The Blog Herald, August 1, 2011.
This is totally what Google+'s hangouts needed - the capacity to support a live YouTibe audience. I can easily imagine using one of these in a MOOC. More...
Periodic table of videos
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Periodic table of videos
Derek Wenmoth, Derek’s Blog, July 31, 2011.
This is a neat idea, but I don't think it goes beyond that. Basically (as you can see from the illustration) it's a periodic table of the elements expressed as a set of QR codes. Presumably, when you scan the code with your mobile, you view a video about that element. More...
Innovation in Education: Where is the 21st Century University?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Innovation in Education: Where is the 21st Century University?
Unattributed, Innovation in Education, August 1, 2011.
If your missing me (I've been on vacation the last few days) try this video as an alternative. More...