By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canada's Innovationm Challenge and Opportunities
Elizabeth Cannon, et.al., 2015/11/30

We again revisit the state of innovation in Canada (international readers can just look away). This is the latest report from the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC), which reports to the federal government. It's not a pretty report. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 10 Things I Learned From My 3D Printer: An Early Adopter's Diary
Michael Lydick, PC Magazine, 2015/11/30

What I like about this story is that it's not just a story about being an early adopter, it's a story about learning. And it's not one of those "you can learn it in ten minutes" stories, it's a story about what it takes to learn something big, complicated, and unfinished. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. TEAMMATES peer feedback system – review
TELICS, 2015/11/30

This looks like an interesting and useful tool. Teammates is "a free online system that facilitates anonymous peer feedback between students working in groups." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mobile App Developers are Suffering
Alex Austin, Medium, 2015/11/30

Good article explaining why it is nearly impossible today to break into the app market with enough impact to build a sustainable revenue base. Essentially, the market (consisting of the apple and Google app stores) is rigged in favour if the incumbents (and those apps with a special relationship with Apple and Google). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ten steps to make Canada a leader in science
Lee Smolin, Maclean's, 2015/11/27
Following from yesterday's discussion of science in Canada, we have today this post from Lee Smolin in Maclean's. Essentially, the advice is to focus on emerging leaders in promising domains overlooked by other institutions, to invest heavily in them, and to give them free reign, rewarding discoveries rather than citations or publications. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Academic Phrasebank
University of Manchester, 2015/11/27

This University of Manchester 'academic phrasebank' was sent to me almost a week ago now, and I've been reading through it, mulling it, and trying to pin down why I find it so unsatisfactory. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. No Rich Child Left Behind, and Enriching the Rich: Why MOOCs are not improving education
Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, 2015/11/27
I've heard this argument a lot, and here it is again: "All the evidence I know suggests that MOOC learners are typically well-educated, more affluent from the developed world, and male." OK, let's suppose that's true (it might not be). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Maker Movement is about Making Meaning
Jay Silver, Medium, 2015/11/26

Mostly I think that the 'maker movement' is about publicity for Make magazine, but let's go with this. Jay Silver writes "The maker movement is not about the stuff we can make, it’s about the meaning we can make." More...