By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A network of artificial neurons learns to use human language
Unattributed, NeuroScientistNews, 2015/11/15

One of the truisms always repeated by cognitivists and proponents of the physical symbol system hypothesis is that a natural system, like a neural network, cannot learn a language without prior encoding. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future Belongs to the Curious: How Are We Bringing Curiosity Into School?
Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education, 2015/11/15

This is a loosely structured post with numerous quotes from thinkers about the nature and value of curiosity, including this one from Paulo Friere, "I believe in the pedagogy of curiosity. That’s why I defend the pedagogy of the question and not of the answer." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Exploring Alternatives to the Traditional Conference Format
Ben Sweeting, Michael Hohl, Constructivist Foundations, 2015/11/15

The journal Constructivist Foundations has devoted a special issue to alternative conference formats. As authors Sweeting and Hohl explain in the introduction, "The passivity and predominantly one-way structure of the typical paper presentation format of academic conferences has a number of serious limitations from a constructivist perspective." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Downes Theory of Education
Bryan M. Mathers, Visual Thinkery, 2015/11/15

I saw in Facebook today this graphic version of my so-called "Downes theory of education". Even more usefully, I browsed through the other images on Bryan Mathers's blog and found a veritable treasure trove of useful graphics which you can use. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personal Learning in Virtual Environments
Stephen Downes, Nov 13, 2015, VI Jornadas pedagógicas en tecnología e innovación educativa, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Presentation in English, with translation in Spanish. In this presentation I discuss the foundation of MOOCs in an approach based in experiential learning, as opposed to more traditional content-based learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Re-imagining secondary learning through a key competencies frame
Rosemary Hipkins, Wayne Erb, New Zealand Education Gazette, 2015/11/10

On the one hand, I am uneasy with the way this article addresses competencies through the language of behaviourism (for example, with repeated reference to 'dispositions', echoing Gilbert Ryle from the 1950s). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to Get Work Done on the Road
Joseph Grenny, Harvard Business Review, 2015/11/10

It's funny, but I'm actually more productive on the road. As I type this, I'm sitting in a departure lounge in Toronto waiting for a flight to El Salvador. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The usual arguments for competency-based education and why they are invalid
Stephen Krashen, SKrashen, 2015/11/10

There's a nice challenge in the headline. Stephen Krashen responds to a post by John Baker in EdSurge describing and defending competency-based education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. IMS Caliper published – we now have a clearer picture how activity streams should be described
Tore Hoel, Learning Analytics Community Exchange (LACE), 2015/11/09
Discussion of the recently published IMS Caliper specification. Caliper describes the method to encode and transfer clickstream data - that is, a recording of each action taken by a user (click of a mouse, press of a keyboard). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mozilla is Doing a Hack Job on Open Badges
Kerri Lemoie, Medium, 2015/11/09

Criticism of the Mozilla Open Badges project. Kerri Lemoie argues that Mozilla doesn't even have any staff assigned to the project and disbanded the team more than a years ago. More...