By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. And There We Have It...
This gets to the heart of the dispute between traditional educationalists and those of us advocating for change. In the Britannica blog, Michael Gorman writes, "Learning and education are enterprises in which the academically gifted prosper and are justified in prospering." John Connell responds, and I agree, "I prefer to see education and learning as processes by which everyone prospers relative to their starting position." The differences in 'academic gift' are greatly exaggerated, and are almost the sole result of nutrition, upbringing, and opportunity. The ascription to some of some sort of special academic gift is a prejudice born out of privilege, a bigotry of the worst sort. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Datalibre.Ca
A new group blog started in Canada, "a group blog, inspired by civicaccess.ca, which believes all levels of Canadian governments should make civic information and data accessible at no cost in open formats to their citizens. The data is collected using Canadian tax-payer funds, and we believe use of the data should not be restricted to those who can afford the exorbitant fees". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. German Wikipedia Receives State Funding
In the recent discussions on Open Educational Resources (OER) I felt almost along in arguing for support of community-based content creation initiatives, as opposed to the megaprojects launched by large institutions that attract the great bulk of OER funding. But now comes this report that the German government will be funding the contribution of Wikipedia content. Not sure whether the Germans were listening to me or to someone else, but they were listening, which is the main point. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Timeline Shows Web Browser Development Through the Ages
This is a pretty interesting document showing the development of the web browser through the ears ('the ages' is a bit much). The graphic, hosted on Wikipedia, is in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) which means the display was a bit less than reliable (in Firefox on my Mac - your results may vary) but there is a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format version also available, which will display just fine. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Beginning of the End for the Industrial Schooling System?
I agree with Graham Attwell, that this is a significant development. Knowsley Council in Merseyside, which has 21,000 students, will be closing all of its eleven existing secondary schools. The district, which has languished with poort educational results, will be creating hi-tech learning centres. These centres will be open from 7 am, to 10 pm. "Youngsters will not be taught in formal classes, nor will they stick to a rigid timetable; instead they will work online at their own speeds on programmes that are tailor-made to match their interests." This is pretty much the system I and many others have been recommending for years, so this is a program which will be well worth watching. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Viewing American Class Divisions Through Facebook and MySpace
I suppose there is any number of ways you can distinguish between the privileged and the unprivileged classes in America, from selection of cars to smoking and eating habits to location of residence. Danah Boyd finds one such distinction in the choice of social network, between MySpace and Facebook. One was designed for college students, and restricted to them until just recently. Guess which one is the domain of the privileged. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Internet Radio to Go Silent Tomorrow
Tomorrow (Tuesday) web streaming services will go silent to protest new royalty regulations that raise the cost of streaming music to a level greater than the revenues that can be earned doing it, making it in effect impossible for anyone other than the copyright owner (who pays no royalties, and of course won't be paying the artist any money) to do it. The royalty rates apply in the United States, so we can expect an immediate exodus to nations with lower royalty rates. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Computers Can Raise Attainment
A large study in Britain shows that the use of ICT "can" raise attainment in schools, but "Ofsted (The official body in Britain for inspecting schools) inspectors tended to disregard ICT, and computer use was inhibited by assessment methods, the study found." It's a classic case of testing for the wrong thing. "Assessment practices, particularly the requirement to complete all examinations in handwriting, are not aligned with schools' increasing use of ICT for students' writing," the report said. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Blaise Aguera Y Arcas: Jaw-Dropping Photosynth Demo
I don't like blogging stuff from TED because of their regressive admission fees policy. But you absolutely want to take the 15 minutes or so to watch this demonstration. This - rather than any Second Life experience - tells you what the 3D web experience will be like. Via Albert Ip. Tony Hirst, meantime, links to the same video as part of his presentation saying to Open University staff, in a nutshell, that "We ignore social networks and social technology platforms at OUr peril. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I Love My Communities
Nancy White responds to one of my comments on communities. "Surely sameness characterizes many communities. But I think 'sameness' is not quite the right word in my most vibrant communities. It is some shared love." Of course - this is a type of sameness, and a case where sameness carries an emotional connection, about which I've commented elsewhere. Emotional connections are good - they support families and sports teams. But if you exclude people because they don't love the topic - that's not rational, is it. More...