By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ccLearn
Creative Commons has created 'CC Learn' and staffed it with Board members (all Americans, of course), including Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales. I am supportive of open educational resources, as most people know, and I am supportive of Creative Commons - but I am apprehensive about this new organization, which has been formed without any (apparent) consultation or process. Long-time readers will recall some of Creative Commons's previous forays into education, including the proposal for special 'education' licenses. This to me looks more like the commercial publishers trying to redefine 'free' in such a way as to allow them to take free resources and sell them commercially. That's usually what language like this means: "Worse, much of the OER currently being created is incompatible - legally, technically, and socially - with other OER". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Slideshare, Now Slidecasts, with Sound!
A few people wrote to me to let me know that Slideshares (on which I have more than a hundred presentations) now allows you to add a soundtrack to the slide presentation. Which is really nice, but I may have my work cut out for me if I want to convert everything. Meanwhile, I have three contacts on Slidehare and dozens and dozens on Facebook (and they keep coming in). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Photoshop of Horrors
Even as it sinks into insolvency, traditional media continues to press the case against new media. And the interminable debate continues. But as the most recent champion of traditional media, Andrew Keen, makes the rounds with the digerati, I am continually frustrated by the fact that the digerati won't state the knockdown argument: that traditional media is corrupt, and it is new media that is trustworthy. Of course, the digerati actually make their living from traditional media (look at their credits) so I guess they wouldn't. But I don't, and never will. So nothing stops me from observing that blatant bald-faced manipulation, such as the travesty described in this article, is commonplace. And not just that, but such manipulations of image and fact have had serious, long-term, and detrimental effects on society. And the thing is - I see numerous examples every single day! For example, also from today, the release and reporting of five year old Osama video as "new". Also, the description of a scientific study that doesn't exist. Or the smear campaign launched by an editor of the Daily Telegraph. Actually - that's just from this morning - I haven't done the evening rounds yet. Folks, in case you have missed it, traditional media is systematically and thoroughly corrupt, from the tabloid magazines to the corporate-owned newspapers to the advertorials to the product placements to payola placements. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Questioning the Student Use of and Desire for Lecture Podcasts
The authors conclude, " Although iPods and other MP3 players are common with students, the use of audio files as an educational device is still debated and has not undergone rigorous pedagogical research." Well fine. Of course, they are surveying whether students at Duke - who have already paid the gazillions in tuition fees and are actually on campus - listen to lecture podcasts. And sometimes they do. But I just think this is researching the wrong thing. What I want to know is, what is the effectiveness of a podcast compared to, say, nothing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. JISC RepositoryNet
JISC has launched RepositoryNet to bring together four JISC-funded projects: Repositories Support Project; The Depot, a repository for UK researchers; Intute: Repository Search; Repositories Research Team. "The aim of JISC RepositoryNet is to help form an interoperable network of repositories. It will do this by providing UK universities and colleges with access to trusted and expert information about repositories and by supporting some key services that form building blocks for a network of repositories. By working together, sharing practice and implementing common standards, UK universities and colleges can help to improve access to research and learning and to manage and curate their output. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. HP and MIT Create Non-Profit Organization to Support Growing Community of DSpace Users
MIT and Hewlett-Packard are creating foundation for DSpace, the MIT brand of Open Archive Initiative (OAI) software. According to the HP press release, "Jointly developed by HP and the MIT Libraries beginning in 2002, today more than 200 projects worldwide are using the software to digitally capture, preserve and share their artifacts, documents, collections and research data." More from Peter Suber here. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Miro
Released last night, Miro - formerly known as the Democracy Player - is now available. "The only video player you need. Free and open-source, because open media matters.... The app lets you subscribe to RSS channels, download in the background via BitTorrent, and view most video formats in full-screen resolution." Play video and HD, internet TV, download YouTube, and use BitTorrent. I'll be playing with it this evening. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. IWMW 2007 in York - OpenID and All That
Here's an interesting suggestion, "that no-one in an institution should ever again invent an ad hoc sign-on mechanism for anything they do on their Web site." There's some serious discussion around identity these days - with it being described as of "strategic importance", and also of ensuring that OpenID remain open. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Percolations: Museums and Social Networking Sites
Normally when I go to a conference I avoid the social events because they're essentially a bunch of people in a big room eating food that is too small off a napkin that is too floppy trying to think of something to talk about. But I want to commend the organizers of the conference here in Duluth for thinking to have social events in museums - at the aquarium on opening day and at the railway museum last night. I was like a kid in a candy shop taking photos of animals, climbing on trains, and just having fun. To me, museums have always defined the way I like to learn - on my own, unfettered, choosing my own direction. More...