By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Scalable and Sustainable Approach to Open Access Publishing and Archiving for Humanities and Social Sciences
Rebecca Kennison, Lisa Norberg, KN Consultants, 2014/12/05
I'm not really sure how much I support this - the idea of centralizing the system does not really appeal to me - but anything is better than the current system, and the proposal does address the problems inherent in the open access model based on individual payments made by researchers to publishers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The TIPS Framework Version-2.0 : Quality Assurance Guidelines for Teachers as Creators of Open Educational Resources
Paul Kawachi, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), 2014/12/04
I'm not so happy with this resource as I am with some of the other resources produced by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA). The quality framework the author employs is based on the concept of 'fit for purpose', which is fair enough, but the purpose emphasized is use by educators and publishers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Knowledge as Recognition
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2014/12/04

This is a short essay I wrote as a contribution to Philosophy 12, a high school philosophy class. I tried to structure the paper according to the requirements of the assignment (keeping in mind that I haven't studied any of the lessons in the class and can only guess what authors and theories they covered). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Case Studies on OER-based eLearning
Som Naidu, Sanjaya Mishra, Shironica Karunanayaka, G. Mythili, S.K. Prasad, Mohan B. Menon, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), 2014/12/03
There are four case studies provided: "Integrating OER in a Teacher Education Course," from Sri Lanka; "OER-based Post Graduate Diploma in e-Learning," from India; "National Institute of Open Schooling – Open Educational Resource Initiative," also from India; and "Developing a Fully OER-based Course," from Malaysia. 56 page PDF. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. No script for rhizomatic learning
Jenny Mackness, Weblog, 2014/12/03

Teens always have posters in their rooms (those who can afford posters and rooms, at least) and I was no exception. One of the first posters in my own room was a Turner - this one - and he remains one of my favourite artists. That's why I'm interested in the film, Mr. Turner. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Innovating Pedagogy 2014
Mike Sharples, Open University, 2014/12/03

The Open University has released the 2014 edition of its 'Innovating Pedagogy' report. It's set up much like the Horizon Report, and so has its strengths and flaws. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. iDEA Programme Badges – Recognising Digital Skills
Andrew Robertson, Microsoft UK Schools Blog, 2014/12/02

So, should you be given a badge for instantiating a particular political perspective, or espousing a particular philosophy? One would think not. But this program comes dangerously close to that line, close enough that it gives pause for thought. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Careful with that Axe, Eugene!
Valdis Krebs, T N T : The Network Thinkers, 2014/12/02

A big headline in the local newspaper trumpeted the fact that the City is eliminating 19 positions (something their cost-averse editors deeply love). This seems unwise at the best of times, but the city is closing the positions "by attrition", which is the equivalent of using random selection. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Colossus: A New Service Framework from Tumblr
Dan Simon, Tumblr Engineering, 2014/11/28

I got this link from Andriy Drozdyuk, one of the developers working on LPSS. It describes a framework called Colussus developed by Tumblr to support the implementation of microservices. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Affiliation and Ignite
Chris Kennedy, Culture of Yes, 2014/11/28
This is a pretty key statement, I think: "Our profession will not be mandated into meeting the needs of modern learners but the power of networks and new thinking around affiliation can help diffuse the work." It is the way we work as individuals, and work with learners as individuals, that will define the new structures of learning. More...