The Flickering Mind
Review of Todd Oppenheimer's The Flickering Mind, a critique of the use of computers in schools. The review and the Slashdot discussion that follows show a scepticism about online learning that would not be expected in a forum for internet developers such as this, and while (as some commentators point out) the picture painted of online learning is exaggerated, some of the critiques are nonetheless valid. More...

What Is Social Capital
There seems to be this desire on the part of some to reduce every sort of good to some sort of 'capital' - human capital, knowledge capital, and now, social capital. Social capital is, according to one definition, "the degree to which a community or society collaborates and cooperates (through such mechanisms as networks, shared trust, norms and values) to achieve mutual benefits." According to another, "Over time, social capital builds what may be termed as social infrastructure." Bleah. More...

Osgoode Township High School
I am in Embrun, Ontario, visiting my family and preparing to attend the Osgoode Township High School reunion just down the road in Metcalfe this weekend (or, at least, I hope to be, since the 'online registration' consisted of a PDF, and my email please to be registered met with only an ambiguous response). More...

My Brilliant Failure: Wikis In Classrooms
Though the article's message is clear - "To really use a wiki, the participants need to be in control of the content- you have to give it over fully" - I wish I understood just how the exercise turned into a failure. More...

Giving It Away (for Fun and Profit)
Good introductory account to the idea of Creative Commons and especially the idea that sharing content does not mean giving up on any hope of an income. More...

Here is a How to Topic Maps, Sir!
The author's main point is this: "Topic Maps are not as complicated nor difficult as many believe. There are objects that points to objects that points to objects. Objects are of certain types, and given a certain number of types behaving in a certain way, we call that a Topic Map." That's probably why I don't get excited about them; it's just different terminology used to express an older concept. More...

Darknet
Online author and journalist J.D. Lasica has embarked on a novel project, the authoring of his new book on the underground internet using a wiki. What this means is that readers may not only browse through his book as it is being written, they can edit it and make changes themselves. More...

More than marks
Doug Peterson, doug - off the record, 2018/09/17
One of those formative experiences that you have when you're young came for me when I attended a Model Commonwealth conference at Ashbury College in Ottawa. Ashbury is a private school in a chi-chi part of the city with a reputation and tuition fee schedule that ensured I would never go there. It was clear students there had every advantage, and if you're an Ashbury student you're probably going to university. A far cry from Osgoode Township High School, out in the country. More...

Re-examining grit
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Education Research Report, 2018/09/24
Sadly, the reserach report cited here languiahses unread behind a paywall, but at least we have this useful (albeit short) summary: "many of the core claims about grit have either been unexamined or are directly contradicted by the accumulated empirical evidence. More...

Physical models and embodied cognition
Ulrich E. Stegmann, Synthese, 2018/09/21
A lot of work in education theory depends on the idea of forming conceptual understanding through the creation of mental models; these models give meaning to the words, ideas and skills being learning. This idea is central to constructivism, and even connectivism relies on it to a certain extent. More...