By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Trying (and Failing) to Buy WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP was one of my favorite shows. "Oh my God they're turkeys!" Anyhow, this story reads like an Art Carlson fiasco as it turns out to be quite impossible to but the show on DVD. Why? Because music royalties would make it prohibitively expensive. As a result, the music industry gets nothing and if you want to see the show, well, the only way is to scour the file-sharing networks where there may be copies floating around that your kids have ripped from video. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Seeing Ed Tech Really Working in Indiana
Steve Hargadon writes, "While this is a fascinating description of what is taking place in Indiana's ACCESS program, led by Mike Huffman and Laura Taylor, it's more than that. (Audio interview with Mike and Laura at EdTechLive.com) It's someone seeing a vision for the use of technology in education that is truly transformative." This is what prompted me to link: "Moodle and Criterion have saved my life," she said. "I used to spend hours grading papers and quizzes. Now, Moodle takes care of the quizzes, and Criterion grades the papers for spelling and grammar so I can focus on the content. This software saves me 10 hours a week -- which I spend building the actual curriculum." That's got to be useful to someone. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Colombia


Photos from Colombia, including this from Villa de Leyva, a small town about four hours north of Bogota. Stephen Downes, Picasa April 23, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Google]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Today Was a Beautiful Day in Blacksburg
David Carter-Tod, who I met when I gave a talk in Roanoke in 2001: "There is something intangible that connects us across continents, whether our mutual love for an institution, or a place, or people. We don't all feel this loss the same way, but our fear during those moments, waiting for a phone call, is shared. We know". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sin Limites
I am in Bogota where I presented at the LatinEd conference first thing this morning. I do have internet (yay) so I should be able to keep posting. A short newsletter today because it has been a busy day; more tomorrow, if everything works. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Virginia Tech
I have had this discussion before, about gun control. This is the inevitable result of a country that lives and breathes guns. I'm sorry. I'm angry. There's nothing else to be said. "One person was killed and others were wounded at multiple locations inside a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., Flinchum said. Two hours later, another shooting at Norris Hall, the engineering science and mechanics building, resulted in multiple casualties, the university reported". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. NASA's Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End
NASA, 2019/02/14
I want to mark the end of the Opportunity mission on Mars. For the last 18 years I have watched it with a sense of personal attachment. You see, my name is on Mars, and specifically, the Opportunity rover. I was a part of the SpaceKids program where if you wrote in to support the Opportunity mission, they would add your name to a CD-ROM that went to space with the rover. The original website is long gone, but here's the Wayback Machine listing and the actual certificate. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Just Say No! A Few More Reasons for Universities to Foster Independent Mediated Voices
Some universities are caving to the RIAA's demands that they pass along information about student accounts - Purdue, for example, warned 40,000 students to "remove or at least partially disable any peer-to-peer file sharing software on their computers." On the other hand, some other universities - notably Nebraska and Maine - have had enough and are fighting back. More...