Before Teaching Ethics, Stop Kidding Yourself
The point of this article is to encourage would-be teachers of ethics to be honest about including their own self interest in assessments of what we would do in various circumstances where our test of ethics is tested. It is hard not to read this item as an attempt to elevate self interest as a moral principle, but I don't think this is the author's intent (even if it is an outcome). More...

Social Capital in Virtual Learning Communities and Distributed Communities of Practice
This is a high quality paper that takes the concept of social capital, described in lavish detail in the first part of the paper, and applies it to online learning. An immediate benefit of this is approach is the drawing of a set of distinctions between virtual learning communities and distributed communities of practice. More...

What's Wrong With This Picture?
I don't know that I've flattered Jay Cross, mostly because I can't draw, but if I could draw, I would be the first to flatter him. More...

Learning Object Reuse Acknowledgment
I think that Alan Levine is definitely on the right track with Learning Object Reuse Acknowledgment (LORA), which tracks the use of learning objects, but I think this is the wrongway to do it: "the system automatically sends a short electronic 'acknowledgment' to the object's home in the 'repository.' In MovableType, this is a 'ping' message that sends a weblog a title, URL, date, and brief blurb of this external mention of a blog post." Why? Well, first, pings are a 'push' medium, and therefor liable (and thus, likely) to be spammed. More...

People Lie More on the Phone Than by Email
I've been doing a lot of coding this week, which makes me look unproductive (because my software is never commercial grade) but makes me happy. And when I'm happy, I put more stuff into OLDaily. So today's issue is pretty full, and if you're reading the Weekly, reserve an afternoon. More...

Emergent Learning
I would normally simply pass on this item instead of hacking eLearn Magazine's URL to give you the bulk of the article (the first paragraph, a throwaway, is temporarily on the magazine's home page), but it was plugged on DEOS and is sufficiently misleading as to warrant a correction. More...