Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Challenges (and Future) of Networked Learning
Stephen Downes, [Sept] 05, 2014, Online, to Medellin, Colombia, via Vidyo

A conversation about challenges (and future?) of networked learning. A broad understanding of the meaning and potential of networked learning can help educational institutions to rethink their role beyond the provision of LMS and centralized information systems. What skills are needed? More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Tropes vs Anita Sarkeesian: on passing off anti-feminist nonsense as critique
Ian Steadman, New Statesman, 2014/09/05
Misogyny is of course not limited to video games, but it is of particular concern there, and its prevalence explains why critic Anita Sarkeesian raised $158K from more than 6,000 backers to make a series of videos on "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games". As Ian Steadman writes in this commentary, it's nothing we wouldn't expect from informed critique in any other discipline. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The End Of Neighborhood Schools
Anya Kamenetz, NPR, 2014/09/04
So I found this interesting, especially the way the discussion looked at two major aspects of the New Orleans school reform: first, the conversion of the system to public to private charter schools (and consequent firing and de-unionization of the school system), and second, the conversion from neighborhood schools to a city-wide system that offers choice. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Top independent school puts lessons free on iTunes
Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 2014/09/03
Something like a MOOC has reached the grade school level in Britain. The Stephen Perse Foundation school in Cambridge, an 'independent' (ie., private) school is placing its course materials on iTunes. "The school has been building digital support materials for each subject, including video, audio, written materials and links to online resources. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning Analytics and Ethics: A Framework beyond Utilitarianism
James E. Willis, III, EDUCAUSE Review, 2014/09/03
This is an unfortunately superficial treatment of ethics as it relates to big data analysis. The title itself ("Beyond utilitarianism...") treats an entire family of theories as though they were one - but there is a world of difference between (say) act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism (it's like the author never read Mill on the subject). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Open Access Interviews: Paul Royster, Coordinator of Scholarly Communications, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Long, interesting, and important essay by Richard Poynder on open access (20 page PDF). The context is an interview with Paul Royster (pictured), who has established the second largest institutional repository in the US at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with some 60K open access works. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reflecting on reflection
Harold Jarche, 2014/09/02
I have often described the 'Downes Theory of Education' (which is not original to me, and which is too simple to be called a theory) as follows: "To teach is to model and demonstrate; to learn is to practice and reflect." So much writing focuses on the first pair of activities; the bulk of educational literature is focused on how to teach. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The challenges of open data: emerging technology to support learner journeys
Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu.org, 2014/09/02
One of the consequences of an outcomes-driven competency-based education system is that it creates the risk of running through the gamut of issues surrounding metadata that characterized the development of online learning resources. This appears to be the basis for the development of LMI in Britain - labour market information. Graham Attwell describes and links to the "LMI for all" API in this presentation. More...