By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sun: Make Education Open-Source
According to this article, "Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, is cited as advocating public commons educational texts." Well, yeah, me too. But McNealy is probably in a better position to make it happen. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. On Data, Schlock Social Science, and Big Brother
Everybody wants to do tracking and reporting of student activities in an online course. But what are they measuring, exactly. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Introducing Django
Short version: Django is like Rails for Python. Long version: Django creates a standard framework for creating data driven websites. These frameworks are useful because they make creating a website a lot easier. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Evaluation and the Culture of Secrecy
I have always agreed with this point of view. Assessments and evaluation should not take place in secret. "Open access offers more advantages than a defense against bottom-dwelling character assassins. It also improves the quality of information.... Open access can also help people become better scholars and teachers." By Leonard Cassuto. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Scott Wilson: RSS-Blog-Furl High: Reloaded, Scott's Workblog August 31, 2005

Drawing on a post from Will Richardson, Scott Wilson observes that "many teachers aren't likely to be happy with the downside of the small-pieces approach, which is cobbling together a whole range of tools. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Bryan Alexander: New Atlantis Grapples with Gaming and Flops, Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education August 31, 2005
This article deconstructs (and slices and dices and serves for dinner) a narrow view of online gaming offered by The New Atlantis's Christine Rosen. Calling the article "ostentatiously, yet uselessly learned," Bryan Alexander asks why the author quotes a 1920s Samuel McChord Crothers essay while at the same time passing over Wittgenstein and other classic texts in gaming, misreading James Paul Gee, and serving scant mention of social gaming and massive online role-playing games (MORPGs). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Zonk: Scientist Says Most Scientific Papers Are Wrong, Slashdot August 31, 2005

A study reveals that more than half of scientific papers are wrong and suggests "many papers may only be accurate measures of the prevailing bias among scientists". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release: Skype Opens its Platform to the Web, Skype August 31, 2005

This is a significant announcement, as it opens the possibility that Skype will be embedded in a wide variety of applications. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release: WebCT Announces Portfolio Design Partner Initiative, Webct August 31, 2005
Not sure what's going to come of this, but WebCT's joining the whole portfolio movement is worthy of note. "WebCT... today announced the Portfolio Design Partner (PDP) initiative featuring a group of customers who will help define the scope and functionality of new ePortfolio software called the WebCT Learner Portfolio. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Michael Feldstein: LMOS Integration and Specialization, E-Literate August 31, 2005
Michael Feldstein has been looking at the concept of the (Web 2.0) 'Learning Management Operating System' over the course of several posts. He asks whether there need to be e-learning specific features. Two things occur to him: calendaring and grading. More...