By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Angela Frucci[Edit][Delete]: Log on, Learn to Play (Without Reading a Note), New York Times [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Music learning is undergoing an online revolution. "From the real-time animated guitar fretboard of workshoplive.com to the truefiretv.com on-demand guitar lessons to the animated courses of Berkleemusic.com, students are increasingly able to forgo formal lessons in favor of a la carte online instruction with as little or as much human interaction as they want". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Martha Irvine[Edit][Delete]: Online Can't Match One-on-One, The Morning Call [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
I find it ironic that a journalism professor is touting the benefits of personal interaction as opposed to the online variety. "He points out the students he's seen walking across campus, holding hands with significant others while talking on cell phones to someone else. He's also observed them in coffee shops, surrounded by people, but staring instead at a computer screen." Well - yeah. Would he also object to people holding hands while listening to the radio? Sitting in a cafe while reading a newspaper. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Doug Lederman[Edit][Delete]: Opening Up Online Learning, Inside Higher Ed [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Coverage of the 'launch' of the Common Cartridge standard (who came up with that name?) at the EDUCAUSE meeting in dallas today. "It is a set of specifications and standards, commonly agreed to by an IMS working group, that would allow digitally produced content âx" supplements to textbooks such as assessments or secondary readings, say, or faculty-produced course add-ons like discussion groups âx" to 'play,' or appear, the same in any course management system." According to the article, "all of them have vowed to begin incorporating the new standard into their products by next spring âx" except Blackboard, which says it will do so eventually, but has not set a timeline for when." Don't expect them to rush, though. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Various Authord[Edit][Delete]: Eduforge: Eduforge Team Blog, Eduforge [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Eduforge has created a team blog. "Eduforge is an open access environment designed for the sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open content and open source software for education." Topics covered so far include Open Educational Resources. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Press Release[Edit][Delete]: K-State Converts 6,000 Class Recordings to Podcasts, Kansas State [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Not sure if it's the largest, but it's pretty large, and worthy of mention. According to the press release (mind the useless adjectives), "Kansas State University announced today its use of Tegrity Campus to convert an unprecedented 6,000 recorded classes to enhanced podcasts". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unattributed[Edit][Delete]: $100 Laptop Reinvents Computer Security, ESchool News [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
It's not the '$100 Laptop" any more, but we'll let that slide (all that relentless publicity has a price). The security innovation touted in this story is that "the $100 laptops will force any application to run in 'a walled garden' and limit the files it can access." This sounds to me a lot like 'trusted computing'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Christopher Irwin and Zane L. Berge[Edit][Delete]: Socialization in the Online Classroom, University of Maryland Baltimore County [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Essay about socialization in the classroom with the oddest (but perhaps the most honest) conclusion I've read in some time: "Anyone interested in examining how this complex dynamic contributes to achieving desired student learning outcomes must plod through a number of studies, each with a wealth of data that seem to examine only the constituent characteristics of socialization without considering the phenomenon as a whole." The authors attempt to place socialization into a context of practice where knowledge acquisition within them is sustained by collaboration, but I can sense the struggle that results when it appears that the communities themselves are intended as the outcome, and not the constituent knowledge or expertise. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Agence France-Presse[Edit][Delete]: China Builds an Ultrafast Internet, International Herald Tribune [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
This is interesting. "China has built its own version of an ultrafast next-generation Internet network that promises to reduce the country's dependence on foreign companies, the state news media reported Monday. The China Education and Research Network has linked 167 institutes and departments at 25 universities in 20 cities through the Internet Protocol Version 6." Which makes me think: a lot of these studies comparing China with the rest of the world are based on per capita measures. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wesley Fryer[Edit][Delete]: Podcast87: Stephen Downes on E-Learning 2.0- Learning Networks and Connected Learning, Moving at the Speed of Creativity [Edit][Delete] October 9, 2006
Wesley Fryer has captured and podcast my presentation to yesterday's Global Learn Day 10. As he notes, I will be presenting this content as a paper at ITForum next week. [Tags: Podcasting]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Barbara Dieu[Edit][Delete]: Simulations, Future of Learning [Edit][Delete] October 7, 2006
Barbara Dieu sends along links to three nifty simulation packages. Breve "makes it easy to build 3D simulations of multi-agent systems and artificial life." Starlogo "is a programmable modeling environment for exploring the workings of decentralized systems -- systems that are organized without an organizer, coordinated without a coordinator. More...