By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Nicholas Negroponte[Edit][Delete]: TEDTalks: Nicholas Negroponte, TED [Edit][Delete] August 2, 2006

Were you taught to walk? Were you taught to talk? Maybe a little, but you mostly learned this stuff - along with everything else, up to the age of six - without the aid of a teacher. But the internet is changing that, allowing us to interact with the world in new ways, and thus to learn on our own. That's the premise behind the $100 computer, described in this TED lecture by Nicholas Negroponte, just released online. "These kids, their very first word is 'Google', and they only know Skype, they've never heard of telephony."
I like the initiative but I think it could really be sold without the arrogance. Here's Negroponte again: "This is not something that you have to test, the days of pilot projects are over. When people say, 'Well we'd like to do three or four thousand in our country to see if it works,' screw you, go to the back of the line and someone else will do it and then when you figure out that this works then you can join as well." Laughter and applause from the audience at Monterey, California. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Bill Fitzgerald[Edit][Delete]: Blackboard Granted Patent on Series of Tubes, August 2, 2006

Keeping up with the discussion on the Blackboard patent as Bill Fitzgerald gives us our headline of the day (via McToonish). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reuters[Edit][Delete]: History Without Books Gets a Test in US Schools, August 1, 2006

Reuters: "What began as a long-shot attempt last year by Pearson Plc to sell California educators digital materials to teach history and politics, collectively known in US schools as social studies, has become reality in what could be the first large-scale step to eliminate books from classrooms." But in order to ensure schools purchase content from commercial publishers, they must be required to use a learning platform that offers only commercial material. Like, say, a system like Blackboard, with which Pearson has a long partnership. Limit the choice of LMS, limit the choice of content. More...