By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personal Health Data: It’s Amazing Potential and Privacy Perils
Beth Kanter, Beth's Blog, 2014/09/10
It's hard to underestimate the potential to improve both health and learning through the analysis of personal data. I think of my own experience with Runkeeper to track my cycling. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The First Successful Demonstration Of Brain-To-Brain Communication In Humans
George Dvorsky, io9, 2014/09/04
Awesome (and a little bit scary): "For the first time ever, neuroscientists have demonstrated the viability of direct — and completely non-invasive — brain-to-brain communication in humans. Remarkably, the experiment allowed subjects to exchange mentally-conjured words despite being 5,000 miles apart. It's the neuroscientific equivalent of instant messaging." Meanwhile, DARPA's tiny implants will hook directly into your nervous system. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Common sense for some and new and inspiring for others
Barb Brown, Weblog, 2014/08/27
Barb Brown responds to a post I wrote back in 2013. I complained: "Course instructors discuss their approaches to backward instructional design and describe the digital tools used to support collaboration.... Well, this too could have been written in the 1990s, I guess...." She replies, "The topic may not be as timely or important to some audiences, especially those who are expert in teaching online... however, the topic of post secondary instructors collaborating on the design of online courses is relevant to a broad audience." Well maybe - but is content "relevant to a broad audience" really what belongs in an academic journal? More and more, what we are seeing is journal authors writing to an audience consisting of each other - and not keeping up with developments in the field. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Four-day week will cut absences, superintendent says
Alison DeNisco, District Administration: Education News, 2014/08/21
I have long believed we should adopt what amounts to a 3.5 day week - that is, 28 hours. This allows us to have what amounts to 7-day coverage of any position with two staff, with the work divided between them. It allows for 7-day use of facilities and resources. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future of College?
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2014/08/18
I studied the work of Stephen M Kosslyn back when I was in graduate school. At the time, he was defending a sophisticated 'picture theory' model of mind against cognitivists such as Jerry Fodor and Xenon Pylyshyn (who argue it's all rules, representations and sentences). I had a lot more sympathy with Kosslyn (though I've since before more of an advocate of J.J. Gibson). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Amway Journalism
Corey Pein, The Baffler, Aug 10, 2014
I'm not even remotely a fan of Jeff Jarvis, but I think that this criticism of him is a bit unfair. Curey Pein writes, "In their long and seemingly hopeless search for answers, journalists have internalized the abusive rhetoric of the 'disruption' brigade. Jarvis tells beleaguered journalists that they themselves, the lowly content-serfs—not short-sighted newspaper proprietors, not the Wall Street backers of corporate media conglomerates, not the sociopathic unchecked tech monopolies, not hostile politicians and prosecutors—are to blame for their sudden loss of livelihood." On the one hand, it's quite true that the technological age has led to exploitation (but mind you, what age has not?). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. BlendKit 2014: Choose Your Own Teaching and Learning Adventure
Melissa Loble, Canvas by Instructure, Aug 10, 2014
There was once this think called 'programmed learning' which was essentially designed as a series of branches and options (like a computer program). Originally pioneered by B.F. Skinner, it was all the rage for a while, but has virtually disappeared. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. This poster explains Creative Commons for the rest of us
Sean Connor, Saylor Blog, Aug 06, 2014
This is interesting, not simply because it explains Creative Commons for non-technical people, but because it changes the thrust of the message from what you can't do to what you can do. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Municipal nets, municipal electric power, and learning from history
David Weinberger, Joho the Blog, Jul 26, 2014
David Weinberger writes, "The debate over whether municipalities should be allowed to provide Internet access has been heating up. Twenty states ban it. Tom Wheeler, the chair of the FCC, has said he wants to “preempt” those laws. Congress is maneuvering to extend the ban nationwide." This is not just a U.S. issue because similar pressures exist worldwide. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Sum of Desire2Learn's Acquisitions: Brightspace
Tony Wan, EdSurge, Jul 15, 2014
This is an awkwardly written article and it's a bit difficult to tease out exactly what the author is saying, but I think it's this: the company Desire2Learn has recently acquired four products to extend its learning support capability. More...