By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mark Oehlert[Edit][Delete]: Six Word Learning Plans, E-Clippings [Edit][Delete] October 31, 2006

[link: 7 Hits] Fun. I saw the 'six word novel' post on Dave Pollard's site recently and added my own effort. This recasting is of 'six word learning plans', which already incorporates too much pedagogy for my tastes in the title. Still. It was interesting to note the various educators' efforts, which (not surprisingly) devolved into lists of verbs. Which sort of reminds me of my own five word, "Aggregate, remix, repurpose, feed forward". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Derek Wenmoth[Edit][Delete]: PLEs and MLEs, October 31, 2006

[link: 1 Hits] As another one of those diagrams that advance the concept another iteration, this illustration and post "is an attempt to describe the development and potential intersection of these two systems, ie 1. Personal Learning Environment that is "owned", managed and maintained by the individual learner, and 2. Managed Learning Environment that is "owned, managed and maintained by a school or institution." This exploration is worthwhile, especially since it is hard for institutional administrators to see where their technology fits into the personal learning landscape. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Leonard Low[Edit][Delete]: Mobile Learning Ecologies, Mobile Learning [Edit][Delete] October 31, 2006

[link: 1 Hits] OK, this bit is right: "Mobile learners have the opportunity to retain a persistent network of peers, mentors, teachers, and nodes of content and functionality - to add and remove nodes, and interact with them as and when convenient. This is quite similar to the way our internal neural networks operate: we create connections of information..." But with this correction: this applies to all learners, not just mobile learners. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dave Berlind[Edit][Delete]: Whether It Meant To Or Not..., Zdnet [Edit][Delete]ZDNet [Edit][Delete] October 31, 2006

[link: 1 Hits] Jotspot, a site I've used in any number of my presentations, has been acquired by Google (and Socialtext, a sit I never used, was acquired by Microsoft - coincidence? I think not). Maybe Google can do something about the hundreds of spam comments it has acquired. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brian Lamb[Edit][Delete]: Make as Big a Mess of My Second Life, Abject learning [Edit][Delete]Abject Learning [Edit][Delete] October 30, 2006

[link: 5 Hits] I have been a bit sceptical of Second Life, and for similar sorts of reasons: "For one, my bent toward 'fast, cheap, and out of control' technologies has left me underwhelmed by top-heavy immersive 3-D environments." Then there's this, reported by Brin Lamb: "Four of the Lower Mainland's major post-secondary educational institutions will simultaneously open a virtual campus in the online cyberworld Second Life and a new real-world $40-million digital media school on Great Northern Way". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dahah Boyd: Wikipedia, Academia and Seigenthaler, Apophenia December 16, 2005

Another defense of Wikipedia, this one looking at the backlash from academics against the online encyclopedia. "The academic community pointed to this case and went 'See! See! Wikipedia is terrible! We must protest it and stop it! It's ruining our schools!'" I have already responded to this post that such opinions do not reflect the entire academic community, and that many support wikipedia and distributed media in general (many of who are reading this post). But I will say here as well that the sentiments identified in this article are real (just look at the slanted Chronicle coverage, from a journal that has harangued against online learning as long as I can remember (see for yourself)). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed: Canada's High School Dropout Rates Are Falling, Canadian Council on Learning December 16, 2005

The Canadian Council on Learning today released statics arguing that Canadian drop-out rates are falling - only 10 percent of people aged 20-24 did not have a high school diploma and were not in school (that still seems pretty high, but I digress). I read this after just having read yesterday this scathing item from Christopher D. Sessums on rates in the United States. He writes, "The national graduation rate is 68 percent, with nearly one-third of all public high school students failing to graduate." All of a suddent, ten percent looks pretty good (though it is important to recognize that these statistics are compiled very differently). It is tempting to look at the different political systems, as Sessums does, but I'm not sure the answer lies there. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles: Will Fair Use Survive?, Brennan Center for Justice December 16, 2005

Detailed report on the future of fail use under recent copyright law. The authors are explicit in their recognition that reliance on the 'four factors' commonly used to measure whether something is fair use is a "fairy tale" - fair use claims are much more complex than usually depicted. Moreover, they not that many 'take-down' orders are based on superficial and dubious claims (I've received a few of those), and yet, many people take the content down rather than get involved in a court battle. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dan Carnevale: Michigan Considers Requiring High-School Students to Take at Least One Online Course, Chronicle of Higher Education December 14, 2005

According to this article, Michigan wants to make every high school student take an online course. Meanwhile, Ontario wants to make young drivers license applicants prove they are still in high school, to reduce dropouts. Why is our first reaction to make people do things, rather than to make high school, or online courses, good enough to attract students? Why do we insist on standardization? After I dropped out of high school (surprised? you shouldn't be) I picked up my diploma taking part-time and night classes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Liz Ditz: Schools, Blogs, Xanga, MySpace...What's it All About, Alfie?, I Speak of Dreams December 14, 2005

I've spent a lot of time browsing around sites like LiveJournal, MySpace, and others, not looking for anything in particular, just trying to get to know cyberspace (in most other jobs, this would be known as 'time wasted surfing the net' - I'm lucky that way). People should do this - there are so many interesting and wonderful people on the net! So I appreciate the work done by Liz Ditz (via Will Richardson and Josie Fraser) to bring to light just what the dangers are of these sites to students. More...