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...
Bridging Differences
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Bridging Differences
Education Week has ventured into the world of blogs, including this column featuring a conversation between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch. The issue is the usual set of questions around testing in schools - the usual fare for mainstream media. More...
Write Nonsense
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Write Nonsense
We haven't heard much from Jakob Nielsen recently. As this post from John Connell suggests, we can understand why. I lost interest in his article when I read this, under an illustration: "Histogram of expertise scores for 1,000 authors. Each dot is one person". More...
PoducateMe Podcasting Guide
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. PoducateMe Podcasting Guide
I didn't have a chance to read this guide written by Micah Ovadia; it is rather more substantial than the one I linked to a few days ago. But Tony Vincent's recommendation carries some weight with me. You can read the guide online - the PDF you would use to print it, though costs money. More...
Eagle
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Eagle

I am still in Duluth where I have been enjoying the museums as much as the conference (which reflects well on both museums and conference). Wireless access has been plentiful and reliable here (except in my hotel) which makes me happy. Stephen Downes, Flickr July 10, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Flickr]. More...
SREB-SCORE
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SREB-SCORE
From a comment in a session today... Created by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) "SCORE (Sharable Content Object Repositories for Education) places reviewed course content in databases (repositories) to which all participating states have access... SCORE membership is limited to SREB state education agencies and schools or colleges designated by the state agency." Some useful resources - such as SREB's principles of Effective Learning Objects - but I would prefer to see open, not limited, access. More...
The Most Poisonous Force in Technology
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Most Poisonous Force in Technology
A cutting and biting commentary from the perspective of an IT manager on why SLN2.0 (SUNY learning Network), an integration of "several carefully chosen Open Source projects, each with strong technical compatibility, resulting in a whole far greater than the sum of its parts," was rejected. More...
Podcasting
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Podcasting
Useful article describing and outlining case studies in the use of podcasting in learning: "the creation and distribution of lecture archives for review, the delivery of supplemental educational materials and content, and assignments requiring students to produce and submit their own podcasts". More...
Turnitin Bibliography
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Turnitin Bibliography
Turnitin is a system that copies students' essays (without their permission) and then compares them to submitted work, this all to combat plagiarism. This weblog post is a comprehensive resource on the topic, listing a number of the author's own posts in addition to numerous external resources. Good stuff. More...
Desire2Blog
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Desire2Blog
Greetings from Duluth, where I am attending (but not presenting) at the Desire2Learn user conference, an unusual experience for me. Early impressions include taking note of some insider expression s ("publish up") and thinking that the white shirts worn by every D2L staffer (and there are a lot of there here) is a little bit cult-like. Today's presentation by Ruth Clark was weak, in my view; Will Richardson and Nancy White are on tomorrow and Wednesday. You'll get much more coverage of the conference at Barry Dahl's Desire2Blog site. More...