By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Terry Webster: Schools in Quandary over Bloggers, Dallas Fort Worth Star-Telegram December 5, 2005

The debates over student blogging continue to rage. This news article highlights the sensational: "A Birdville High School cheerleader was kicked off the freshman squad last month for having vulgar language in a Web log, or blog, she maintains on her home computer." But does the school's authority extend that far. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed: The MySpace Generation, Businessweek December 5, 2005

As this article notes, "Being online, being a Buzzer, is a way of life for Adams and 3,000-odd Dallas-area youth, just as it is for millions of young Americans across the country. And increasingly, social networks are their medium." More commentary from Will Richardson and Miguel Guhlin. Worth noting in this context is the increased commercialization of the online spaces used by students. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors: The TrustDR Project December 5, 2005

From an email from Jackie Proven: "The main aims of this project are to explore the cultural, legal and technical issues that must be attended to in order to create legal agreements that can then be incorporated into a DRM system (please note that in the context of our project a system is not just about technical issues, but includes policies, protocols and perhaps most importantly cultural attitudes)." Not much on the site yet, just some news (no RSS) and some background documents. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Jon Hoem with Ture Schwebs: Personal Publishing and Media Literacy December 5, 2005

"The importance of mastering basic digital skills is often emphasized, but it does not seem clear what these skills should include," write the authors. Often, we seen an emphasis on the tools. But "the information society favors those who are able to develop strategies to process large amounts of information and its relevance in different contexts." In addition, "An important skill will be the ability to reformulate information in order to meet personal needs." Short report, in PDF, but well worth a read, especially for the discussion of the relation between common knowledge and individual knowledge. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hannah Green, et.al.: Personalisation and Digital Technologies, NESTA Futurelab December 5, 2005

Scott Wilson points to this document, somewhat akin to a manifesto ('tis the season) calling for a greater emphasis on personal learning. "The logic of education systems should be reversed so that the system conforms to the learner, rather than the learner to the system. This is the essence of personalisation. It demands a system capable of offering bespoke support for each individual in order to foster engaged and independent learners able to reach their full potential". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stuart Yeates: Oxford University Opt for a Library System Based on Open Source, EDUCAUSE Blogs November 25, 2005

Stuart Yeates reports, with links, "Oxford University libraries have announced that their new Library Management System (LMS) will be from VTLS. The VTLS product range incorporates open source components such as FEDORA digital object repository and the Mckoi or MySQL databases. So what are is Oxford paying for, if the software is based on free and open source software. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Cory Doctorow: Sony Anti-customer Technology Roundup and Time-line, Boing Boing November 25, 2005

Good wrap-up of the events and fallout surrounding the Sony rootkit (don't forget to check out part 2 and part 3). It is worth noting, again, that the Sony debacle is just the tip of the iceberg. Other companies are working on similar technology, and a Sony rootkit-style computing environment is what publishers and some DRM-advocates are seeking to achieve. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Kyle Gabler, Kyle Gray, Matt Kucic and Shalin Shodhan: How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days: Tips and Tricks from 4 Grad Students Who Made Over 50 Games in 1 Semester, Gamasutra November 25, 2005

This is a fun article, and not simply because of the goofy games described in passing. It offers some good insights into things like game design, such as: "You only need a few days. It seems like a natural and comforting thing to say, 'Hey we made a great game in one week. Therefore, if we spend TWO weeks, it will be TWICE as good!' Of course this isn't the case. We found that generally any gameplay idea can be prototyped effectively in less than one week. Extra slop time tends to yield diminishing returns." Via Peter Rawsthorne, who also sent along this link about the same group of designers. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release: New Digitisation Report Calls for Cross-sectoral E-content Strategy November 25, 2005

Press release announcing a new report issued jointly by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles (CURL). As the title suggests, the report calls for greater standardization and coordination of digitization efforts in britain, tied to research into user needs. The reasoning behind this call emerges about half way through the report: "the introduction of such a system would keep track of resources, aid discovery and prevent duplication... significant gaps in provision remain in many disciplines... (and) it will never be possible to digitise everything, so future developments must respond to researchers' needs." Well, maybe. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Joseph Hart: The Open Learner November 25, 2005

New blog by Joseph Hart. Well, in all honesty, he sent me an email about it about a month ago, but it lay buried in a stack of items requiring action. Over the last couple days I have burrowed through about 500 emails (90 to go) and this means that some people did not get responses - I feel badly about that, because I appreciate the time people take to write to me, and you should know that I have read the email even if I didn't answer. More...