By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The ROLE Sandbox
ROLE - Responsive Open Learning Environments, April 25, 2013
I saw this in my LinkedIn stream today: "The ROLE Sandbox (http://role-sandbox.eu) is a permanent hosting environment for widget-based personal learning environments. Everybody is welcome to create or join learning spaces in the ROLE sandbox. Access is easy. Just register or use your OpenID. Connect to the ROLE widget store to install widget bundles to learn about languages or science. Give feedback on everything you like or dislike using the 'Idea' button." Sign-in didn't work; I had to use my Google ID. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tin Can API Version 1.0 Released
Rustici, April 25, 2013
The US-based Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) led the development of a project now called the Experience API, the purpose of which is to formalize the recording of learner interactions with learning resources. The non-ADL version of this is the Tin Can API, featured here by Rustici software (though so far as I can tell, Experience API and Tin Can API are the same thing). Tomorrow (Friday) will feature the launch of the Tin Can API version 1.0 specification. Thanks to Andy Whitaker for sending me the Tin Can information. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Pick My NCTM Sessions For Me. Please.
Karl Fisch, The Fischbowl, April 22, 2013
I thought this was a clever way of (semi-)randomizing his participation at an upcoming conference on education and mathematics. You are presented with a list of sessions, a way to select one, and room for comments. Of course I helped Karl Fisch pick his sessions; my comment at the end: "It's like there's two tracks through this conference, baby-math (aka common core) and adult math (the others). Stay with the adult math". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. jQuery 2.0 Released
JQuery, April 23, 2013
The modern web is the web intended to support things like Google Chrome add-ons,Mozilla XUL apps and Firefox extensions, Firefox OS apps, Windows 8 Store (“Modern/Metro UI”) apps and BlackBerry 10 WebWorks apps. This web took a step forward today with the release of JQuery 2.0, a set of Javascript functions designed to support dynamic interaction with internet services (what used to be known as 'web 2.0'). What's significant is that JQuery 2.0 drops support for the older Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 browsers (but you can still use JQuery 1.9 for that). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 2019 Fosway 9-Grids for Learning Systems and Digital Learning
Fosway Group, 2019/01/30
I'm linking to this mostly for the diagram, since there's a spamwall blocking readers from the actual report (I gave my information so you don't have to). The focus is on the learning systems market for the UK and Europe (including learning managent systems (LMS) and Next Gen Learning Environments (NGLE). The category extends to talent managent system like Cornerstone, but what's most interesting is what's missing completely: Blackboard. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. It’s about Trust, Stupid! Why Blockchain-based BlockCerts are the wrong solution to a false problem (0/3)
Serge Ravet, Learning Futures, 2019/01/30
This is the first of what may be three or four articles on the subject. The key point in the this first post is this: "Trust is the mortal enemy of public blockchains." Or, to put the same point another way, the core message of blockchain technology is this: "distrust each other, the way I distrusted you." I would have though we had learned the limits of trust in this era of hack attacks, online scams and fake news, but maybe not. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. VR cameras on the space station for your virtual spacewalk
Emory Craig, Digital Bodies, 2019/01/29
OK, I admit, I'm linking to this because I love the idea of a virtual spacewalk and I want to try it as soon as I can! That said, reading through the article naturally brings to mind additional thoughts. Like: what if I want to move? How would they handle that? In space, you could move in a full 360x360 degree sphere of directions, presumable with some simple jet-pack controls (one of the reasons I like No Man's Sky so much is that it really allows you to move freely and fluidly through the environment). But capturing the video for this kind of movement would create a crazy amount of data! I imagine we would scale up to is, and full-motion VR would be quantified by some sort of 3d movement resolution scale. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Podcasting Can Work in Any Subject
John Spencer, 2019/01/29
What makes this post work is that it not only extols the virtues of podcasting and explains how it can help develop skills across a number of disciplines, it also spends a lot of time suggesting really good and grade-appropriate podcasting project ideas for students from grades 3 to 12. Actually, a lot of these would be good podcasting ideas for adults as well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Teachers and technology: time to get serious
Neil Selwyn, Impact, 2019/01/22
According to this article, "The most useful education technology knowledge does not come from globe-trotting ‘gurus’, keynote speakers and product evangelists. Instead, the best technology advice can often come from simply trying things out for yourself and/or speaking with colleagues working in similar situations and circumstances." This is both true and not true. It's true in the sense that nobody understands local needs and conditions better than the people working with them. On the other hand, the speakers and gurus are often longtime experts in the field. Not always, of course. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thanks to rapid, 3D imaging, anyone can tour the fly brain
Robert Sanders, Berkeley News, 2019/01/22
This 3D view of a fly's brain shows even a simple insect's neural network can be large and complex. The accompanying video points to different areas of the brain that do different things, but it's important to keep in mind that they entire structure is densely interconnected. The images are the result of new scanning technology, which is described in this article. More...