By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Interview with Morten Flate Paulsen: Focusing On His Theory of Cooperative Freedom in Online Education
When Morten Flate Paulsen spoke in Barceloa last October he outlinedwhat I feel was an important distinction between collaborative learning and cooperative learning (one that that is reflected, I think, in the distinction between groups and networks). In this item, a lengthy interview, he discusses this and other aspects of his theory of cooperative freedom. The idea is to preserve autonomy while acquiring the benefits of groups. One technique, for example, is the idea of 'cooperative gating' - you can access a cooperative resource, but only if you have performed a task that contributes to the community resource. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future of Online Learning and Personal Learning Environments
My presentation here in Bogota, Colombia. A look at some of the recent accomplishments in e-learning, an outline of network learning, and a description of personal learning environments. Click here to go directly to my (latest attempt at a) nice presentation page display work, with embedded slides and audio, plus links to the ppt and MP3 files. Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web April 19, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Personal Learning Environment, Networks, Online Learning, Audio]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 2007
I am in Boston where I'll be presenting at the E-Learning Guild conference tomorrow. I caught most of the keynote summarized by Jay Cross in this post and while it surveyed the trends evident in the participation culture it didn't, I think, capture the import. We are seeing today movements that are derivative of popular culture - people protesting WTO and governments, people mashing up commercial media, people gaming American Idol. But these are transition phenomena. Eventually (and sooner than you might thing) people will want to govern themselves, create their own media, select their own idols. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Rapid eLearning Panel
I'd be curious to know what people made of our panel, which was a rollicking all-over-the-map free-for-all, but I'll make do with Jay Cross's assessemnt of the rapid e-learning panel. "While no one came out and said it, rapid eLearning can cut the instructional designer out of the process. One member of the audience cautioned against letting the rapid tools fall into the wrong hands." heh. More...