A New Look
I've had to field a number of complaints about my beautiful brown background. OK, fine. Today I present a new look. More...
Academic Values and the Lure of Profit
Academic Values and the Lure of Profit
Though the one paragraph in this article about online learning looks like it was added a an afterthought, the author's main point remains valid and applicable here as well. Universities' efforts to commercialize, argues the author, through such means as sports teams and research patents, have generally been unsuccessful. More...
21st Century Renaissance
21st Century Renaissance
If you haven't read any of Douglas Rushkoff's work yet, you should. This item is a disappointly short taste. But the full flavour of the Rushkoff universe is there. We are, he argues, in the throes of a new renaissance, one which completely changes the rules. More...
The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head
The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head
Though international conflict is causing most of us to pay more attention to the world's traditional superpower than we might like, the voices speaking out against this conflict are not the product of any single nation, but rather, of a "second superpower" characterized by the "will of the people" in a global social movement. More...
Are Corporations to Blame?
Shouldn't environmentalists and social activists spend more time thinking about how they spend their own dollars and their own time rather than blaming corporations for the evils of the world. More...
Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects
Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects
This is a very nice paper capturing most of the traditional debate surrounding learning objects (and taking a fairly traditional line, arguing that only something that"combines its digital element and an exposition" can be a learning object). More...
Somewhere a Place to Learn
Somewhere a Place to Learn
I think that people have largely overlooked the learning center in their rush to talk about learning at the desktop or learning in the home. But it's an idea that still has a lot of merit because it combines the social environment and access to facilities of a dedicated center will allowing for the flexibility and choice offered by online learning. More...
Will We Catch This Wave?
Will We Catch This Wave?
Some of my comments about weblogs and knowledge management posted here a few days ago met with resistance in the weblogging community. This post captures some of the responses, including Ross Mayfield's complaint that my reasoning is "misguided." But this author gets it right: "So far I'm not seeing the kind of evidence that weblogging (in whatever form you name it) offers a particularly unique solution to the KM problem generally. Those solutions are going to have to come from us, in how we apply what is, after all, just another technology. Otherwise I predict in 12-18 months time, articles about 'how weblogging has failed us.'" Quite right. More...
Why You Need Your Very Own Taxonomy
Why You Need Your Very Own Taxonomy
This frustratingly short article makes a good initial case for personalized taxonomies, but fails to develop it in any detail, opting instead for a quick description of facted search. More...
MS, Hollywood: Mob Rules Pirate World
MS, Hollywood: Mob Rules Pirate World
Hollywood and Mircosoft have launched a new tactic in their attack on file sharing - now they are linking it to organized crime and terrorism. More...