By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Internet of Things
George Siemens cites a Bruce Sterling presentation. This is a bit old, but if you haven't been following this concept it's worth keeping an eye open. "Basic premise: in the future, due to the joys of RFID, we will be able to link physical objects to the internet, so that we can use an online search to find our keys, shoes, or whatever other physical things we've misplaced." Read Sterling's novel Distraction for some more views on how we will interact with our objects - and each other - in the future. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Go Global? or Learning for the Future!
I have in common with the authors of this site the opinion that "Our curriculum structure, school day structure and educational priorities are not preparing students for their future" and with it the thought that new learning technologies will be able to change this. What for me counts as what students need to learn, however, is different from the version presented here - things like "managing complexity" and "managing for results" seem to me to be more a misrepresentation of what is needed, while things like "risk taking" and "civic responsibility" are, in my view, mostly cliches. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. IBM Executive Calls for Virtual Planet
According to this article, "Nick Donofrio, executive vice president, innovation and technology at IBM, hopes to encourage the creation of what he termed 'a virtual planet' where rival virtual worlds are more interlinked." This reminds me of the old days of Intermud. But this really only managed to accomplish cross-MUD communications. Packing your +50 Excalibur class sword from Frag-world DIKU to MediaMOO just wasn't on, really. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action
According to this ASCD report, the "one‐size‐fits‐all education has marginalized the uniqueness of our children and eroded their capacity to learn..." and that if educators focused on the whole child, not just the part that passes tests, "we would create learning conditions that enable all children to develop all of their gifts and realize their fullest potential". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ex.Plode.Us
The new version of Explode is live. I don't know what that means yet; I just got a short note. But the features page mentions search, collections, and nudges. Also, 'find a similar user'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What'S Good About the May 4 NY Times Article About Laptops in Schools
So the New York Times make a flap last week with its article on why computers don't improve learning outcomes. What we learn is that if you don't change the way you teach - if you just leave the computers sitting there - you won't gain any benefit. And, as Dave Warlick points out here, while the students' test scores in traditional subjects do not change much, when they are given the opportunity to use the computer things that are not tested - like critical reasoning, information retrieval, collaboration and research - are greatly enhanced. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Big Question - PowerPoint
Having produced something more than a hundred PowerPoint presentations, I suppose I owe some accounting, given that the most common word on PowerPoint slides is that presentations using them are somewhere between torture and death. Would I, knowing this, now abandon them? Not a chance - I'm already hard at work on the next presentation for my talk in London. Speaking of which - they're calling my flight. More...

Les Régions rendent hommage au Président Jacques Chirac et s’inclinent avec émotion devant la mémoire de ce serviteur inlassable de notre République.
Nous nous souvenons en particulier que c’est sous son impulsion qu’a été conduit l’acte II de la décentralisation durant son second mandat. La loi constitutionnelle du 13 août 2004 a reconnu aux Régions le statut de collectivité territoriale de plein droit, à l’instar des communes et des départements. Plus...