By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tim Goral[Edit][Delete]: Higher Ed at the Crossroads, University Business [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
A "perfect storm" of circumstances is converging to create a crisis in the higher education system that has been in the making for years. High and increasing tutition costs, increasing student loan interest rates, issues over accreditation and articulation - all this against a background of high faculty costs, escalating infrastructure costs, and a private sector that is nipping at the heels of an increasingly embattled (and yet strangely unresponsive) public system. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ganesan Shankaranarayanan and Adir Even[Edit][Delete]: The Metadata Enigma, Communications of the ACM [Edit][Delete] July 7, 2006
Good paper making the point that there are numerous types of metadata, including what the author calls 'process metada' and 'quality metadata'. I am in agreement with the general point but less happy with his characterization of six types of metadata. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jennifer McLean[Edit][Delete]: Forgotten Faculty: Stress and Job Satisfaction Among Distance Educators, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration [Edit][Delete] July 7, 2006
Useful study which conforms generally to my own experience. The author writes, "it is important to recognize that distance educators view themselves as dedicated almost exclusively to instruction. The traditional triad of higher educators sharing their time between teaching, service and scholarship is not perceived as applicable." Moreover, "the strong independence shown by this panel makes conformity to institutional regulations less likely among distance educators." You mean I was not supposed to partition the institution server and set up my own private multi-user environment? Heh. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Robert Sylwester[Edit][Delete]: Connecting Brain Processes to School Policies and Practices, BrainConnection [Edit][Delete] July 7, 2006
The concept of 'brain-based teaching', strictly speaking, doesn't make sense, argues this column. "We educators tended to blindly follow the instructional advice of those who seemed to understand brain processes. We were thus vulnerable to bogus claims that brain research had validated this or that curricular program or instructional strategy." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ton Zijlstra[Edit][Delete]: Social Software Works In Triangles, Interdependent Thoughts [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
As I commented in the discussion: Social network analysis (and most social network software) tells you that two people, A and B, are connected. But that's it. Social networking becomes a semantic social network when we can determine how A and B are connected. When we can determine what meaning they share in common. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors[Edit][Delete]: ZDNet Education, Zdnet [Edit][Delete]ZDNet [Edit][Delete] July 6, 2006
Another look at what this newsletter would look like as a commercial product, this time from ZDNet. This isn't a bad service. For one thing, the coverage is broader - I was drawn to it via a reference to ZDNet coverage of Konrad Glogowski's post on student blogging. I also see Robin Good as a source. Also, the self-styled blog features regular opinion columns. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: How to Grow Standards, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] July 4, 2006
Michael Feldstein responds to Scott Wilson's comments on standards mostly by accepting the point and giving an example. Still, I'm not sure he sees the issue here. Begin with his 'Step 1'. "Identify a user problem that you need to solve." Right off the bat we are in a situation where we are solving a problem for them. I would start with 'Step 1'. "Identify a problem users have solved for themselves." Now the solution may not have been implemented, but you can be sure it has been suggested. Why is this important? Because users have different priorities than you do. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. John Ottenhoff[Edit][Delete]: Wikipedia: A Note to Students, Academic Commons [Edit][Delete] July 4, 2006
Link to a proposed policy statement for students on the use of Wikipedia in the preparation of written assignments. Nothing I would particularly object to, though I wonder why similar warnings were not issued when I was a student. For example: "World Book, like other encyclopedias, is out of date from the moment it was published and will therefore contain numerous factual errors. In addition, the language of description and especially the selection of topics for inclusion will reflect a socio-cultural bias that may be inappropriate for a full understanding of some subjects". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Barbara Fister[Edit][Delete]: Scholarship in a Read/Write World, ACRLog [Edit][Delete] June 30, 2006
Discussion of the idea that the wisdom of crowds could be used to evaluate academic work, including discussion of (and a link to) a commentary in Nature. I find it interesting to note that while there's a lot of commentary in the responses to the Nature article about "the mob's" lack of credentials, the writers have no hesitation to comment on a phenomenon they have obviously not investigated. More...