By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Campus political correctness is no threat, it’s a wish for a better future
Kate Groetzinger, Quartz, 2015/12/09

I am in agreement with the argument in this article. Opponents of 'political correctness' argue that it censors freedom of speech and embraces victimhood. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Converging Forces
Paul Stacey, Musings on the Ed Tech Frontier, 2015/12/09

It's an upda Paul Stacey on the Open Business Models project, with an extra bit on Creative Commons statistics. In the first part he looks at "using the open business model canvas and questions as a tool for depicting and designing open business models. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. State of the Commons Report
Various authors, Creative Commons, 2015/12/09
I looked at it this morning; I'm deeply sceptical of some of the numbers, but I don't have time to investigate it deeply. The message is, as always, that the number of Creative Commons licensed works continues to rise, which I don't doubt, but that more and more people are opting for so-called 'free' licenses (ie., licenses that allow you to block access by demanding money), which I doubt. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Edcamp with Students - Finally!
Liz B Davis, The Power of Educational Innovation, 2015/12/07

We know that EduCamps (as I know them) are quite useful for teachers, but what about offering them to students themselves? Sure, why not! But in the school system you have to tie everything to a lesson, so in this case, it's... Benjamin Franklin. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mark Zuckerberg Is Betting Tech Can Address Educational Equity. Is It That Simple?
Anya Kamenetz, NPR Ed, 2015/12/07

In this NPR article Michael Feldstein is asked about the need for more than just technology to support personalized learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Theories and Applications of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs): The Case for Hybrid Design
Abram Anders, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL), 2015/12/07
This is an article from a special issue of IRRODL featuring a European view of MOOCs. There's a nice table in the middle of it comparing xMOOCs, hybrids and cMOOs across several dimensions, including (notably) "Cognitive-behaviorist, Social-constructivist, and Connectivist." I find it interesting that social-constructivist is cast as the middle ground. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is Open Education a Movement?
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2015/12/04

Text and slides from Michael Feldstein's recent keynote in which he addresses the question of whether the open education movement is a movement. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reflections on Open Education and the Path Forward
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, 2015/12/04

David Wiley addresses "concern that a focus on open textbooks confuses the means of open education with the end of open education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Agile Approach to Learning Design
Stephen Downes, Dec 03, 2015, Online Educa Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Panel discussion on the use of agile development methodologies in learning design. My own contribution was to highlight the pitfalls of this approach., and I pointed out that learning design is very different from software design - indeed, are we doing agile "learning design", or design for "agile learning". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Developing a Personal Learning Infrastructure with Stephen Downes
Stephen Downes, Dec 02, 2015, Online Educa Berlin, Berlin, Germany

This workshop steps through design elements of a personal learning environment and underlying technologies. Note that the audio and video files are some five hours long, and while I've tried to cut out the time spent working in groups, there's a fair amount of dead air. More...