By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Web 2.0 Slam - Performing Innovative Practice
There was a fair amount of coverage around the blogosphere of last week-end's Alt-C conference, which was held in Nottingham. In particular, a number of writers commented on the 'Web 2.0 Slam' session, which consisted partially of a description of Web 2.0 technologies and partially of chaos as people developed their own creation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. EduRSS Feed List
I have updated the EduRSS feed list, dropping some weblogs that haven't been updated since the Middle Ages and adding a bunch of new ones. This was motivated by a list published in Edutopia constituting the "cornerstone" of edublogging. As I comment, they may be a cornerstone, but the selection of weblogs - which are all American - represents only a small segment of the wider community. Edutopia editor John Daly suggested that I send in some international contributions. Here's a few hundred. And as Graham Wegner, "Look around at some of the places he suggests and you'll find that some of the issues that US education is exploring as 'things to do' are already 'things being done' in many areas of the globe." It's something that he's written about before. Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web September 11, 2007 [Link] [Tags: United States, Books, RSS, Web Logs]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Schools Alone Cannot Help Poor
Children who are poor need a number of things. They need good nutrition, perhaps more than their parents can afford. They need a stimulating environment, preferably with good internet connectivity. They need support and encouragement, an environment that sets high expectations and recognizes and values when they are met. Out-of-school programs may be key to this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New York Times Enters Distance Learning Market
The new York Times is partnering with several colleges to provide single-seminar and multiple-session online courses. The cousres - which won't be cheap - will access customized content packages. "These packages will provide access to special packages of content - summaries of articles, interactive maps, video, audio, graphs - on a wide range of topics (the European Union, nanotechnology and so forth)." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Use PRISM To Start A Dialogue On Open Access
Finally, from ACRLog, signs of 'getting it': "The question for librarians, higher ed administrators and scholars then, is why hasn't open access in physics led to journal cancellations? Do we really want to set up two systems, an open access repository system while maintaining the old system with publisher embargoes so that libraries will have to maintain subscriptions? Do we really want to 'partner' with the kind of companies that have launched such a deceptive and distorted PR campaign? More...