By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. E-Learning in the Trades
Australia's Flexible Learning Network has launched a new site, E-Learning in the Trades. "This is a resource to inspire and support you to take the e-learning path in your teaching practice." The core of the site consists of six case studies. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Death Threats Against Bloggers Are NOT "Protected Speech" (Why I Cancelled My ETech Presentations)
Kathy Sierra reports (language and image warning) on some abusive emails and commentary she has been receiving, some of which has been posted anonymously on public websites such as meankids.org (which has now been pulled off the web). She writes, "I now fully understand the impact of death threats. It really doesn't make much difference whether the person intends to act on the threat... it's the threat itself that inflicts the damage." Right - and that's why it's not "protected speech". The utterance (ie., the saying or writing) of a death threat isn't an expression of an opinion, it's an act, and an offensive, dangerous, destabilizing and illegal act. It is one example of a class of utterances, known as 'speech acts', which are intended to do things (usually, things that hurt) rather than say things. The publication of offensive cartoons, which I discussed last year, falls into that category. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Scholarship in an Age of Participation
I have thought from time to time about starting a journal but I just can't get myself excited at the prospect. I mean, what would be the point? Perhaps this article will get me going. Then again - any process of 'publication' that involves me doing something over and above posting an article on my website automatically gets my goat. If the article is any good, it will have an impact whether or not it is in MLA style, whether or not it is peer reviewed, whether or not there's a 'formal' or a 'paper' version. And if it's not any good, none of that will save it. More...