By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 1,000+ Learning & Performance Tools
Jane Hart, Learning in the Modern Workplace, 2016/06/07

I'm not really sure how to process this, but I have to admit that this list of 1,000 learning and performance tools is impressive. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. No LMS - an argument for when your institution comes to reviewing their Learning Management System
Leigh Blackall, 2016/06/07
I'm not sure it's possible to actually make the argument stick - after all, the LMS automatically enters grades for you into the student record system, and who can do away with that? - but I think there are aspects to the no-LMS argument that should be considered. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Issues in Research, Design, and Development of Personal Learning Environments
Trey Martindale, Michael Dowdy, Emergence, Innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations, 2016/06/07
I like this paper and it speaks to a lot of the ideas and issues surrounding the concept of the personal learning environment (PLE) but many of the references are from 2006, illustrating the mire in which the concept has become embedded. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is Big Data Still a Thing? (The 2016 Big Data Landscape)
Matt Turck, 2016/06/21

I'm linking to this mostly so I have a reference to the image, which is the latest landscape for big data. If you're working in data and analytics you're working in a very crowded field. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Towards the new caste system: looking back at The New Digital Age
Bryan Alexander, 2016/06/21

Bryan Alexander offers a lukewarm review for this forward-looking book by Google's Jared Cohen  and Eric Schmidt, The New Digital Age. In a way, he says, the book is more about politics than technology. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Leading in a time of tumultuous change: Our VUCAST world
Eric McNulty, O'Reilly, 2016/06/21

I'm getting tired of reading that we're living in a changing world (or as O'Reilly has it, "volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous"). I think we all know that things are changing. It's nothing Toffler didn't see 40 years ago. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Laptops, Classrooms, and Matters of Electrate Concern
Alex Reid, Digital Digs, 2016/06/16
Alex Reid points to the obvious counterexample to studies claiming that students in classes with laptops do worse than students in classes without: "t someone might conduct a different study wherein the students who brought laptops to class were also allowed to use them during the multiple-choice final." Yes, that might have a different result. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Virtually Connecting the OER Conspiracy Dots
Jim Groom, bavatuesdays, 2016/06/16

There are times I think a lot of OER advocates doesn't really comprehend the benefits of OERs. This is especially the same when OERs are being used in a traditional education setting. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The lasting legacy of the "rocket girls" of JPL
filthy light thief, Metafilter, 2016/06/16

The next time someone tries to tell you girls and women aren't naturally good at math or computing, show them this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Vivaldi
vivaldi, 2016/06/17
Vivaldi is a web browser 'made for the power user'. "One of the things that makes Vivaldi unique is that it is built on modern web technologies. We use JavaScript and React to create the user interface with the help of Node.js and a long list of NPM modules. Vivaldi is the web built with the web." It looks like it's based on Chrome, and so supports important extensions. More...