By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. African Scientific Network
From the description: "African Scientific Network (ASN) is a network of African faculty members, students and colleagues, grass root African Scientific Organizations, interest groups for the development and promotion of science education and research in all disciplines including humanities. More significantly, this network is composed of the African Physics Forum, the African Naterials Research Society, the MRS-Africa Working Group, the African Mathematical Forum, the African Biotechnology Forum, African Telemedicine, African Chemistry Forum, The African Biology Forum, The African Laser Network and others". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Games and Learning
This is a good paper, though it's frustrating to watch a completely undefended approach to learning being applied over and over again. The authors, after describing how games support learning in general, attempt to apply this to the formal environment. Part of the problem is a lack of experience with the games - the authors complain that the 'enemies' in war games are usually German, Vietnamese or Arab, for example, without realizing that in many games players can pick either side to play. But mostly, the authors' application of the games to a classroom environment contorts them - in the case study involving Civilization, for example, a value of the game is that players learn that there isn't a simple cause-effect relation between actions and consequences, but in the chart (pp. 18-19) the authors say that the players should be able to "infer from the feedback supplied how their actions have caused particular effects." In the recommendations (p.30) the authors state that "Educators should be clear about the exact learning goals they are hoping to achieve when using games". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is There a Future for Bibliographic Databases?
Professional databases, such as Books in Print (BiP), WorldCat (WC), Ulrich's or the Serials Directory (SD), have been a valuable tool for researchers. But as this author argues, they are facing increasing pressure from companies like Google and Amazon, enough that they will have to change or die. In order to prevent being replaced by free services, the author argues, these databases will have to be a lot better than the competition - not just a little better, but pervasively better. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What If Every Child Had A Laptop?
The most important bit in this article - which focuses mostly on the competition between the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and Intel's Classmate - is in the very last paragraph: "If you're wondering if the One Laptop will be available in the U.S., right now Negroponte's in talks with some states and school districts. He says it will be sold commercially in the future, but you'll have to buy two: one for your child and one for a child in a poor country". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Quote of the Day
Trying to track this down leads you through a merry-go-round (people should link to actual posts, not merely home pages) so the link isn't really worth following (I found a much better link, here, about five hours later). But the thought is definitely worth echoing. "You can't figure this stuff out from the outside." Quentin D'Souza adds, "Never listen to a presenter or keynote that has not been immersed in the environment that they are talking about. You will be misinformed." That's a bit extreme. But people who are not immersed are much more likely to make mistakes about the environment. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Groups, Networks, Collectives
Scott Wilson joins the groups and networks discussion. He writes that he is not sure about the introduction of 'collectives' and that "there is a lack of clarity around the difference - very large, I'd say - between a network operating within a single managed service (such as an Elgg installation) and a network formed by people blogging and tagging things of mutual relevance." Of interest are his diagrams - "cybernetic modeling" of groups, distributed networks, and bounded networks. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Publisher Position On Author Rights
Peter Suber calls this recently released position paper "wishful thinking" and Im inclined to agree. The document stressed how important it is for publishers to own exclusive rights in order to manage the 'publication of record' and (more importantly) 'enforce' strictures against plagiarism. But mostly, the paper the paper is intended to present arguments against mandated public access for research funded with public money. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Fair(Y) Use Tale
Video - consisting entirely of excerpts from Disney Cartoons - describing the principles of copyright and, most importantly, fair use. It is worth nothing that a video like this, while quite legal - the author is very careful to use only small snippets of Disney content, hence respecting fair use provisions - would be impossible under DRM, as these technologies are intended to prevent any copying, not just illegal copying. See al;so the video home page. More...