Sakai Needs to Clarify Its Position and Soon
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Alfred Essa[Edit][Delete]: Sakai Needs to Clarify Its Position and Soon, The NOSE [Edit][Delete] October 12, 2006
This article highlights, if only obliquely, my concerns about Sakai. And that is that, as a consortium of a bunch of universities, it isn't really 'open' and when its interests lie in another direction, that's where it will go. So would Sakai abandon the rest of the open source and LMS community in the Blackboard case? That appears to be a legitimate concern. More...
Socialization in the Online Classroom
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Christopher Irwin and Zane L. Berge[Edit][Delete]: Socialization in the Online Classroom, University of Maryland Baltimore County [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Essay about socialization in the classroom with the oddest (but perhaps the most honest) conclusion I've read in some time: "Anyone interested in examining how this complex dynamic contributes to achieving desired student learning outcomes must plod through a number of studies, each with a wealth of data that seem to examine only the constituent characteristics of socialization without considering the phenomenon as a whole." The authors attempt to place socialization into a context of practice where knowledge acquisition within them is sustained by collaboration, but I can sense the struggle that results when it appears that the communities themselves are intended as the outcome, and not the constituent knowledge or expertise. More...
The New Face of Learning
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Will Richardson[Edit][Delete]: The New Face of Learning, Edutopia [Edit][Delete] October 7, 2006
"What happens to the time-worn concepts of classroom and teaching," asks Will Richardson, "when we can now go online and learn anything, anywhere, anytime?" Long promised as the goal of online learning, this scenario is rapidly becoming a reality. More...
Is This True or Do Our Cultural Norms Make it Common?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Nancy White[Edit][Delete]: Is This True or Do Our Cultural Norms Make it Common?, Full Circle Online Interaction Blog [Edit][Delete] October 5, 2006
Nancy White weighs in on groups, pondering, "Maybe what we need to be thinking about is the set of skills in groups that are about listening, as much as speaking, of supporting diverse but full participation." Remember, not all collections of people are groups. People are still thinking that the choice is between groups and nothing, or groups and anarchy. More...
Confinement, Education and the Control Society
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ulises Mejias[Edit][Delete]: Confinement, Education and the Control Society, Ideant [Edit][Delete] October 5, 2006
I didn't read either Ulises or Foucault just before my September trip - but I may as well have. "This is the paradox of social media that has been bothering me lately: an 'empowering' media that provides increased opportunities for communication, education and online participation, but which at the same time further isolates individuals and aggregates them into masses - more prone to control, and by extension more prone to discipline. More...
That Group Feeling
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes[Edit][Delete]: That Group Feeling, Half an Hour [Edit][Delete] October 5, 2006
It seems clear to me that in endeavours where we, as a society, would prefer reason to prevail over emotions, we would prefer to organize ourselves as networks rather than as groups. It seems additionally to be clear to me that education is probably one of the most critical areas where this needs to be the case, as it will be necessary for citizens of the future to be able to respond to an increasing set of global crises from a ground of reason, rather than emotional attachment to a group. [Tags: Networks] [Comment]. More...
La « reprise en main » de la formation des enseignants par l’Education Nationale
Les enseignants savent-ils ce qui est bien pour les élèves ?
Herbes aromatiques. Multinationale ou coopérative : Ducros ou Biolopam ?
A l'opposé, six agriculteurs de l’Agglomération de La Rochelle se sont lancés, voici quelques années, dans la culture biologique du thym. La coopérative Biolopam, créée l’an dernier, en fédère désormais une vingtaine et la voici déjà première productrice française de thym bio pour l’herboristerie. Plus...