By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SSRN has been captured by the enemy of open knowledge
Paul Gowder, Medium, 2016/05/18
As the Press Release announces, Elsevier has acquired the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN) and plans to in some way roll it in with Mendelay. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Whatever happened to … Logo?
Doug Peterson, doug – off the record, 2016/05/17
Logo was an almost magical tool in its time designed to help students learn to program. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future of Work and Learning 2: Chatbots
Jane Hart, Learning in the Modern Social Workplace, 2016/05/17
Ah, chatbots. Everyone's favourite potential robot teacher. They've been around for a while - here's me interviewing one that ran for president in 2000. Today they're a lot more sophisticated and sometimes even passing the Turing test (here, here and here). More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Interested In The Moodle Academy?
Moodle News, 2016/05/17
In what looks like "a direct response to the Canvas Network," Moodle's Gavin Hendrik has announced the Moodle Academy, "a centralized MOOC hosting platform run and managed by Moodle. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. E-Learning in K-12 Schools: The Prospects for Disruptive Innovation
Paul W. Bennett, The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), 2016/05/17
I wasn't expecting much from this report as the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) typically parrots a hard-right neo-liberal political agenda, but it is actually fairly comprehensive and reasonably accurate. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Pedagogy out of Fear of Philosophy as a Way of Pathologizing Children
Arie Kizel, Journal of Unschooling, Alternative Learning, 2016/05/17
This article has the most awkward title ever, but represents a logical progression from Friere's characterization of the 'pedagogy of the oppressed' (and more positively, 'pedagogy of hope'). The pedagogy of fear "stunts the active and vital educational growth of the young person, making him/her passive and dependent upon external disciplinary sources. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why a staggering number of Americans have stopped using the Internet the way they used to
Andrea Peterson, Washington Post, 2016/05/17
The internet used to be so cool. But now people are afraid to use it. That's the gist of this article in the Washington Post which cites statistics showing that privacy and security fears are preventing people from using the net the way they'd like to. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. CASS / Competency And Skills System
Various authors, Website, 2016/05/16
To be launched on May 24, the Competency and Skills Systems project aims "to facilitate the transition to competency-based education, training, and credentialing through the development and dissemination of open source infrastructure and tools." It is being coordinated by the American Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) proigram, which develops technology on behalf of the U.S. military. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Universities must enter the digital age or risk facing irrelevance
Don Tapscott, Toronto Star, 2016/05/16
I have to admit that I am impressed by the way Don Tapscott has found something current, used it to reinforce his core message, and released a book with a slew of publicity that is going to keep himself (and his son Alex) employed for some time into the future. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Books are back. Only the technodazzled thought they would go away
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, 2016/05/16
This is just an example of some of the ridiculous assertions still being published in the traditional media. I realize that opinion columns should represent all perspectives, but the denial of reality should not be one of them. If you go into your local bookstore (if you can find a local bookstore) you'll find it selling knick-knacks, toys, food, and pretty much everything but books. More...
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