By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Simbot, Give Me Five
Yian Shang, Elena Zheleva, Source, 2016/04/28
This is the sort of thing I want to see enabled for a personal learning environment. It is, of course, a lot easier to do on a multti-user hosted platform such as Slack (using specialty applications called slackbots). More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Digital Durability? My Money is on the Individual
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, 2016/04/28
Alan Levine makes probably the most compelling argument of all in support of open content: "institutions pretty much just clearcut their web history." Unless the websites are saved by individuals (for example, the individuals who created them) these sites will simply disappear. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Love Letter to Online Learning
Michelle Pacansky-Brock, 2016/04/28
Discussion around the MIT Report on higher education reforms contines to echo around the blogosphere. It was referenced here in OLDaily three weeks ago. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In Search of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Secluded Hut in Norway: A Short Travel Film
Dan Coleman, Open Culture, 2016/04/28
I've spent a lot of time with Ludwig Wittgenstein in my head, not the least when I went searching for his hut at the end of the Sognefjord in Norway. Well, OK, I didn't exactly search for his hut, but I did once sail up the Sognefjord looking for huts generally, as depicted in this photo set. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. ASUGSV 2016 Highlights
Mitchell Weisburgh, PILOTed, 2016/04/27
Good quick overview of the ASUGSV Summit held last week in San Diego (ASU-GSV stands for Arizona State University / Global Silicon Valley). Some interesting bits (quoted):
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Sebastian Thrun, Modi and the Forgotten Promise of MOOCs
Anuj Srivas, The Wire, 2016/04/27
I think this is exactly the wrong lesson, but it's the one being drawn nonetheless: "The fatal flaw in the “classic MOOC,” as Thrun noted in an interview with PandoDaily, is that it is free. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. LaTICE 2017 in Saudi Arabia: Women must cover up
Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, 2016/04/26
In 1991 a 19-year old Gwen Jacobs took off her shirt on a sweltering Guelph, Ontario day and was promptly arrested. The case is well known for being the precedent that allows women to go topless in Canada. Mostly, though, they don't. "Women don't walk around topless because they get hassled, they get harassed if they do. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Case Against Reality
Chris Ashley, The Atlantic, 2016/04/27
I've always felt the case against realism is pretty definitive, so this article doesn't surprise me. And I love this analogy: "You could not form a true description of the innards of the computer if your entire view of reality was confined to the desktop. And yet the desktop is useful. That blue rectangular icon guides my behavior, and it hides a complex reality that I don’t need to know." More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Online degrees could make universities redundant, historian warns
Richard Adams, The Guardian, 2016/04/26
This is an odd article that one the one hand says that Oxford should embrace online learning to increase access and remain relevant, and that it should go private (but raising its own endowment) so it doesn't have to respond to government demands that it, um, increase access. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. To Make Content Findable, Put It Everywhere
Michael Caulfield, Hapgood, 2016/04/26
Mike Caulfield takes on a persistent truism in the OER world: that we need one central location where everyone can find open resources. This has never been true, and when tried it has never worked. More...
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