http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49524

The main thrust of this report is that "The forces now confronting higher education have been called 'a perfect storm. They are serious challenges. Universities must offer more varied provision to a growing number of students in an era when they can no longer depend on ever-increasing allocation of funds. These are challenges to institutions set up to cater for a different age." (p. 24) In particular, universities need to respond by reaching out. "Their reputations, networks and spaces are a driving force for research and collaboration. This is the way in which universities are becoming 'edgeless'. They are not disappearing, either into the virtual world or out of existence. They are present in new places, in new ways." (p.34) The good stuff in the report begins at page 55 where the authors discuss the details of managing an edgeless university. Additional commentary on the report from Leigh Blackall, George Siemens, Derek Wenmoth, Rich Hoeg, daniel Livingstone, Steve Wheeler, Brian Kelly and the launch event podcast from JISC. Peter Bradwell</a>, Demos, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Connectivism, Networks, Podcasting, Research, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Paradigm Shift] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49523

It's a U.S.-only list, and it's a list of education reporters, which means more politics than pedagogy, but hey, someone out there is interested in this list, right? Meranda Watling</a>, Meranda Writes, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Twitter] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49522

Could this court case become important? I don't know - I think, in the end, user needs will prevail no matter what the court rules. Still, the case is interesting. What Power.com is trying to do is to allow you to log on to all your social media accounts simultaneously. But Facebook says this violates their terms of service. And in particular, what facebook wants is for people to use the facebook Connect system to log on to Facebook, and not credentials stored in Power.com. Power.com replies that the data belongs to the user and that Facebook has no right to prevent access to it. "Facebook is attempting to prevent Power from providing tools to Internet users that allow those users to exercise ownership and control over their own data." More from Marc Canter. Ben Parr</a>, Mashable, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Books] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49521

eFramework, which was discussed here yesterday, has released its technical model. It contains three parts: the rationale, the technical model itself, and considerations for implementation in an enterprise architecture. The rationale is very similar to that of learning objects: "In the service-oriented view of software design, only one spell check service is needed. This service exists somewhere on the internet, and provides a standard interface by which other applications can make use of it." Sounds good in principle. Collapses under the weight of service architecture, access federations, and localization requirements. That doesn't mean a return to the world of silos. But the model of "one spell-checker to rule them all" simply has too many downsides. Various Authors</a>, e-Framework, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Learning Objects] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49520

Sbout what you would expect from the title, with a good summary of web 2.0 learning environments as defined in the literature along with an example implemented in MediaWiki with connections to external resources executed using Yahoo Pipes. The article then goes on to describe the types of learning that took place in the environment and the roles of students and instructors, with examples. The authors then discuss evaluation, especially as it addresses workload ("only those system components should be integrated for which the contents are graded for assessment") and conclude "the use of Web 2.0 tools does not only contribute to building up necessary knowledge autonomously in terms of content, but users also train the media and information competencies required for working with the respective tools." ingo Blees and Marc Rittberger</a>, elearningpapers, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Assessment, Web 2.0, Yahoo!] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49519

I respond to Bud Hunt, who writes, "that writing, or at least composition, remains about the closest thing to learning in a bottle that I've found so far." Shared as part of the document here. This is an interesting exercise in collective writing using a tool that is new to me. Stephen Downes</a>, Half an Hour, July 10, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49518

I think a most readers will like this paper a lot, though I found the presentation stilted. It's a case study of an educational project for 13-17 year-olds conducted in Second Life. The authors found, "only approximately one quarter of students accounted for almost all time spent in Schome Park." The authors report that some student learning occurred and that they became more aware of the new role of teachers in such an environment. What I want to know, of course, is what the people who weren't captured by the automatic sensors and wiki logs (ie., the three quarters who didn't participate) were doing. Julia Gillen, et.al.</a>, elearningpapers, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Second Life, Learning Communities, Online Learning Communities, Project Based Learning] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49517

This paper looks at some of the competencies that will be required of lifelong learners in a digital era. Competencies identified included filtering competencies, social competencies, multilingual competencies, and civic competencies. It's interesting to compare this list, which feels very traditional, with the lists being offered on the Learning Circuits blog in answer to this month's big question, "what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?" be sure to check out Nancy White's three-part answer. Sylvia van de Bunt-Kokhuis and Mary Bolger</a>, elearningpapers, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49516

Facing a redundancy package from his current employer, Rhys Moult has started a new venture, We-Learn, and launched his personal blog at a new site. It's a tought time to start something like this and we wish him the best. Rhys Moult</a>, Rhys at Work, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Online Learning, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49515

Bud Hunt offers a one-line post, "that writing, or at least composition, remains about the closest thing to learning in a bottle that I've found so far," with a link to a fascinating co-creation tool called Etherpad. to record the responses. I like. I posted my own response to my blog as well as into the co-creation site.
Bud Hunt</a>, Bud the Teacher, July 10, 2009 [Tags: Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49508

Because the band lives just down the road from here, and because I don't really like United either (yeah, I've got stories). But most of all, because revenge is a dish best served digitally. Here's the backstory. Sons of Maxwell</a>, YouTube, July 9, 2009 [Tags: RSS] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49507

The Chronicle's Jeff Young may write that "the time of scholarly e-mail lists has passed, meaningful posts slowing to a trickle as professors migrate to blogs, wikis, Twitter, and social networks like Facebook" but from my experience, people migrate pretty easily from one community to another, with mailing lists being one of many nodes. These lists have a lifespan, though, and while some of the old standbys (like, say, DEOS and WWWDEV) may be hollow shells, littered with conference ads and calls-for-papers (the ubiquitous spam of academic) and not much else, the discussions flourish on other lists. You can't just camp out and sit on a list for life (though some do) you have follow your muse from one list to the next, one site to the next. Probably a tough thing for old-style print journalists to imagine. StevenB</a>, ACRLog, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Twitter, Mailing Lists, Experience, Academia, Spam, Web Logs, Ubiquitous Internet, Networks] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49506

Everybody loves a list with ten items. Here are the principles:
- self-learning
- horizontal structures
- collective credibility
- de-dentered pedagogy
- open source education
- connectivity and interactivity
- lifelong learning
- mobilizing networks
- scalability and simulation
Many of these trends will be familiar to OLDaily readers. The blog, which is a group effort from about 14 people, may be new, though. It looks like it's a professional enterprise, though it's difficult to tell who is behind it. Here are their Facebook and their Twitter pages. Via Milton Ramirez. Jason Flom</a>, The Edurati Review, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Twitter, Online Learning, Simulations, Networks, Open Source, Interaction, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49505

Lessons learned from OLPC that should probably have been anticipated ahead of time. Like: "Diffusing a new innovation requires understanding the local environment." And "Innovative technology can be disruptive and trigger a backlash from incumbents" And "Innovative information technologies do not stand alone." Via OLPC News. Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrickand and Prakul Sharma</a>, Communications of the ACM, July 9, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49504

Alfred Thompson shares, "The people at the Lifelong Kindergarten Research group at MIT recently unveiled ScratchEd a new community site for educators who are using Scratch." Scratch was designed at MIT and, as described by Wikipedia, "has the goal of teaching programming concepts to children and teens and letting them create games, videos, and music." Unlike Squeak, on which it is based, Scratch is dynamic, allowing code to be changed while running, and hence, users to interact with it and see what happens. Alfred Thompson</a>, Computer Science Teacher, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Video, Wikipedia] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49503

Is time and patience running out on eFramework, the collection of service descriptions for educational technologies? Andy Powell writes, "as far as I can tell the e-Framework consists only of a half-formed collection of unusable 'service' descriptions. So, how come this thing still has any life left in it?" Andy Powell</a>, eFoundations, July 9, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49502

Not that I think I'm Jack Kerouac. But I do know my books (were I to write any) would be pretty unappealing to publishers. Back in the age of books, that would be a problem. "They needed a publisher to print their books. Jeez. Glad that's over." Shelly Blake-Plock</a>, Change.org, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Books] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49501

The editors of Nature present the perspective that scientists are afraid of bloggers, because they will disclose results previously only heard in the sanctity of the conference symposium. While some may suggest requiring bloggers to stay silent about what they hear, the editors are more realistic: the only way to prevent coverage is to close the session entirely. Meanwhile, the Chronicle, living in some sort of mystical non-existing world, interprets this as recommending that bloggers ignore rules imposed on journalists - as though a journalist would ever feel bound not to report on a session at a conference (or anything else for that matter). Editorial</a>, Nature, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49500

The funniest thing about this is this. Word count: 3,379. Via TechDirt. Various Authors</a>, Wal-Mart, July 9, 2009 [Tags: Twitter] [Link] [Comment]

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=49498

Interesting post that looks at some of the dynamics of technology and education. In particular, Davin Heckman considers the implications of treating attention as a commodity and what happens when people - including students - ask what their time is worth. "These are all philosophical questions that revolve around 'the internet as factory," he writes. And we can ask, he writes, what sort of future we can imagine for ourselves when the most intimate aspects of ourselves are not for sale. "I would hope that the approach they take is one that
is critical, resistant, and ultimately radical... We need to figure out what we want to 'defend' and what we want to change." This post originally appeared (truncated) on the IDC list. Find more of Heckman's work here. Davin Heckman</a>, IDC, July 9, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]