By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Standard Options Apply
Aaron Silvers, MakingBetter, 2014/09/04
As the development of the xAPI (Experience APO) continues, questions of development and implementation are beginning to arise. As Aaron Silvers says, the upcoming formalization by IEEE will break existing implementations. He suggests adopting a modular approach to xAPI, breaking it into different functions, modelled (for example) along the lines of WiFi, as a family of standards. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Challenges (and Future) of Networked Learning
Stephen Downes, [Sept] 05, 2014, , Online, to Medellin, Colombia, via Vidyo
A conversation about challenges (and future?) of networked learning. A broad understanding of the meaning and potential of networked learning can help educational institutions to rethink their role beyond the provision of LMS and centralized information systems. What skills are needed? What happens if we don't develop them?  What kind of technology supports the development of said skills? What’s the relation between this and issues of information property and citizenship in a digital context (POSSE models, Indie web movement)? [Link] [Slides] [Audio]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hackers Target Video Games for Fun, Profit and Better Scores
Nicole Perlroth, New York Times, 2014/08/26
I lost interest in commercial online multiplayer games when I discovered people cheating (a game crash was followed by a massive attack on my empire that somehow pinpointed every weakness; the other player admitted seeing my troop disposition). It's the same experience I had in Reno - playing poker in the poker room was fun until the hustler came in and started betting the maximum on every hand. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. At OTF Teaching, Learning & Technology Conference – Hopscotch, Sphero, Social Reading
Doug Peterson, doug - off the record, 2014/08/26
What Doug Peterson describes here is very similar to my own workflow, readingflow, whateverflow. It's a restatement of the "aggregate-remix-repurpose-feed forward" methodology, identifying specific tools that can be used to accomplish it. Does it work? I offer my own career as evidence. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Technology Lab / Information Technology How Twitter’s new "BotMaker" filter flushes spam out of timelines
Lee Hutchinson, Ars, 2014/08/21
I still maintain that it's easier to select for what you do want rather than to filter for what you don't want. But a centralized system, I think, can only attempt the latter. It doesn't help when the business model of the service provider involves sending you unwanted advertising messages. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Robo-readers aren’t as good as human readers — they’re better
Annie Murphy Paul, The Hechinger Report, 2014/08/21
When I read that robots are "unable to discern meaning" my first thought is to wonder what the critic thinks it is for a human to discern meaning. Yes, you can fool computers with nonsense - but you can also fool human referees of academic journals with nonsense as well. And - interestingly - it seems that it is becoming less and less easy to fool the computers, while humans remain as fallible as ever. So infallibility is not a criterion for being able to discern meaning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Deep Learning Tutorials
Juan José Calderón Amador, e-learning, conocimiento en red, 2014/08/15
There is a risk - and I see it instantiated in this post - of confusing two concepts with the label 'deep learning'. The one, typified by the chart at the top of the post, focuses on the distinction between understanding and mere memorization. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mobile Learning - No Pedagogy Required!
Brent Schlenker, Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development, Aug 10, 2014
There's a bit of a discussion following this short post, not surprisingly. The core of the argument is this: "Pedagogy is defined (according to a quick Googling) as a method or practice of teaching.  Mobile learning is not about teaching.  Mobile learning is about...well...learning. What's the word for 'a method or practice of learning'?" Learnagogy? Learnology. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tips & Tricks for Recording Audio Narration
Tom Kuhlmann, The Rapid eLearning Blog, Aug 06, 2014

I can't count how much bad audio I've listened to over the years (sadly, I've been the perpetrator of a lot of it). More...