By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why E-Teaching Is Knocking Down E-Learning in Nigeria
According to the author, "Emphasis is shifting all over the world from e-learning to e-teaching. This is because there is a growing feeling that e-learning is defective – that it has too many holes." The article thus focuses on blended learning, and in particular, the challenges faced by Nigeria, which include bandwidth issues, infrastructure needs, and power supply. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Quechup? No, Thanks
Like many other people this week, I received an invitation to the social networking site Quechup. The person who sent it probably doesn't even know he did. Quechup tricks users into granting access to their email contacts, and then spams every one of them with an invitation. There's no way to complete your registration into Quechup without completing this step (I checked) so the service requires that you spam your friends. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blogging - Not If but When and Where
This post - which summarizes a presentation on blogging given at UPEI - makes the case for blogging. Nice links to examples. It responds to the Chronicle question, "What is the purpose of broadcasting one's unfiltered thoughts to the whole wired world?" My response is, simply, I think that my unfiltered thoughts are valuable and worthwhile". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Cult of the Amateur and How Internet Changes Our Culture
The Keen criticism doesn't interest me, but this statement does: "in this day and age, being expert is not about getting more and more knowledgeable about a narrower and narrower field. It's all about being as clued up on the reasoning behind a wider and wider range of fields". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Help Wanted
The best statement in this useful article is the last: "Wittgenstein at his death had one book and one article published. Another book was on the way, but unfinished. "Heaven knows what would have happened to him in today's academia." Readers will also want to view Stevan Harnad's excellent summary and commentary in JISC Repositories. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Searchbot
When people talk about 'personal agents' this is often the sort of thing they have in mind. "A Searchbot is your own personal search robot that continuously searches the Internet trying to find all the best websites it can on your behalf. When you build a Searchbot you give it a personality and then program it's search circuits with all the things you want to find. You can search for websites based on factual information like tags and locations, or more creative ways like colour and the mood you're in. You can even ask your Searchbot a question and it will talk to other Searchbots to find you an answer." Nice interface and I really like the results sets, which I assume will only improve. More...