By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: Video Sharing Creates Challenges For Schools, ESchool News [Edit][Delete] July 12, 2006
It really is a case of the chickens coming home to roost, isn't it. Now that children and young adults can create and share video, their offerings look surprisingly like Fox or MTV. And, of course, parents are outraged. "But alongside the cute animal tricks, comic sports bloopers, and corny lip-synching sessions are extremely weird antics and clips of the crudest kind. There's a plethora of videos of people vying for some attention and young women flaunting their bodies." Block the sites, you say. Fine. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Moodle Sites, Moodle [Edit][Delete] July 12, 2006
If you are still of the belief that an open source application like Moodle is not really of use in a production setting, perhaps you will want to check out this map. And maybe contact a few of the thousands of sites listed to get their perspective. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Banno, et.al.[Edit][Delete]: Private Language, Philosophy Forums [Edit][Delete] July 11, 2006
Can there be a private language, that is, a language that you think in, but never speak to anyone else? According to Wittgenstein, there cannot be, because you would never know whether you are using it correctly. Language is, therefore, an irreducibly public phenomenon. Is it the same with knowledge? Can there be private knowledge? It seems there must be, doesn't there - after all, only you can know whether or not you are actually in pain. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Miles Berry[Edit][Delete]: London Grid for Learning - the dangers of DIY, Miles Berry :: Weblog [Edit][Delete] July 11, 2006
Miles Berry says of the London Grid for Learning's (LGfL's) Briefing for Local Authorities and Schools (MS-Word doc) on 'Learning Platforms' that "The apparent degree of bias and prejudice throughout this document is frankly astonishing: it seems to me that LGfL are seriously rattled by the number of London schools opting for open source or their own choice of commercial 'learning platforms' rather than sticking with the Digital Brain powered LGfL solution." What follows is a sustained attack on the document. For some reason, LGfL seems to thing of open source as do-it-yourself (DIY) and caution against the dangers of such an approach. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Miguel Guhlin[Edit][Delete]: Feature - Download a la Mode Series, Around the Corner [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
It's hard to go wrong with resource, a list of basic educational technology how-to articles varying from how to install an FTP server to how ease concerns abput data theft or loss. Both text-based articles and audio recordings are available. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wesley Fryer[Edit][Delete]: Intel Supports the WRONG vision of 1:1 in Schools, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
I have to agree with the headline. And I would add that Intel has crossed the line between pandering to fears and giving the customers what they want. The ClassMates PC is apparently an answer to the $100 computer project. But, "Teachers will be able to conduct lessons on laptops while students follow on the Classmates. If students try to surf the Web while class is in session, the computer will block them and warn them politely to pay attention." This is exactly the wrong way to use computers in the classroom. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Nancy McKeand[Edit][Delete]: Copyright Issues, Random Thoughts [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
With the assistance of a good media push, the TeachersPayTeachers concept has been spreading across the internet. So I appreciate this response from Nancy McKeand, who has decided to attach a Creative Commons license to her blog and explains that it is "not because I am worried about anyone stealing abything they find here but rather because I want to make a statement. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tim Goral[Edit][Delete]: Higher Ed at the Crossroads, University Business [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
A "perfect storm" of circumstances is converging to create a crisis in the higher education system that has been in the making for years. High and increasing tutition costs, increasing student loan interest rates, issues over accreditation and articulation - all this against a background of high faculty costs, escalating infrastructure costs, and a private sector that is nipping at the heels of an increasingly embattled (and yet strangely unresponsive) public system. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia[Edit][Delete]: Beyond Bloom's Taxonomy: Rethinking Knowledge for the Knowledge Age, IKIT [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
This is an interesting idea. As Doug Belshaw comments, "The problem is that the bureaucrats who run education in many western education systems - the majority of whom have never taught - have an outdated conception of knowledge." He points to Louise Starkey, who observes that this conception "...was based on an underlying assumption that the mind behaves like a filing cabinet. This assumption is being challenged as the implications of learning in the digital age [are] explored further." She cites this paper, a 1998 proposal by Bereiter and Scardamalia that there are seven levels of increasingly sophisticated understandings of knowledge. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various authors[Edit][Delete]: Windows Live, Microsoft [Edit][Delete] July 10, 2006
Google has been getting a lot of publicity, but Microsoft has been quietly unveiling its own versions of online applications and services. This page links to beta versions of a dozen or so applications, including Expo, an online social marketplace, and Academic, articles from thousands of academic and research journals. My biggest complaint so far. More...