By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New publication analysing LRMI metadata on the web
Phil Barker, Sharing, Learning, 2017/04/28
This is a really interesting conference paper (10 page PDF) on the use of the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) vocabulary through schema.org on the open web. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SCORM and Moodle: A Long Relationship That May Last Forever
Moodle News, 2017/04/28
What is not mentioned in the headline, but which becomes abundantly clear as you read the article, is that this is a dysfunctional relationship. SCORM never fit easily into Moodle and developers faced a lot of "backwash" from poorly implemented packages from other LMSs. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Perspectives on Open Pedagogy
Devon Ritter, Saylor.org, 2017/04/28
First of all, if you haven't reads this history of open pedagogy by Tannis Morgan, go there first. OK. Now, on o the discussion. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stop killing your social stories with bad headlines and images
Ryan Craggs, Columbia Journalism Review, 2017/04/27
Writing on the internet today requires a clarity and precision beyond anything required in the print world, because you do not have an exclusive hold over your reader while they're reading. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Australian Copyright Scandal Points to the Need for Greater Oversight of Copyright Collectives
Michael Geist, 2017/04/28
As Michael Geist reports, "The Australian copyright community has been shocked by a scandal involving the Copyright Agency, a copyright collective that diverted millions of dollars intended for authors toward a lobbying and advocacy fund designed to fight against potential fair use reforms." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Should We Stop with the Commenting Already?
Angela Cochran, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2017/04/27
I get the feeling that publishers really dislike crowd-sourced and post-publication peer review. Angela Cochran writes that "one thing became clear:  crowdsourced peer review = post publication peer review = online commenting." She then tags these forms of peer review with all the baggage of internet commenting: anonymity, trolls, irrelevance, and more. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Mexico Gov. Martinez vetoes higher education funding. All of it.
Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, 2017/04/27
So what happens when public funding for higher education is eliminated? Nothing good, I would expect.  That's what's happening in New Mexico. "New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has vetoed higher education funding. All of it — and the legislature cannot override her veto." It's such a contrast with, say, Germany, which has eliminated tuition fees for everyone and is seeing the benefits from that. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What is online learning? Seeking definition
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, 2017/04/27
Tony Bates is in the process of running a national survey about online and distance education (which launched today) and in the process resorted to some arbitrary definitions of key terms, which he shares here. It really raises some concerns for me. First of all, it's all about courses, nothing else. Despite the headline we don't learn what 'online learning' really is. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to Thrive: Arianna Huffington Launches E-Learning Series
Lisa Tolin, NBC News, 2017/04/26
I thought at first that this might be a venture like Huffington Post, but when you follow from the press release to the online course pages you will see that it's hosted on LinkedIn Learning. There's a link to a free preview, but don't. More...