details of a global brain
Tech Support
»The technical support team at B. F. Yancey Elementary keeps the school’s 43 iBooks in good order, tutors students, organizes websites and shows parents how to make presentations. The average age of the team is eight years old.« [Apple Hot News]
RSS & Education
Marry Harsch: »The implications of RSS file syndication for the academy—in particular, its potential to expand the scope and prominence of self-published Web content—are significant, especially when files are produced from the content of a professional’s weblog. In essence, RSS syndication technology provides a bridge between isolated Web content and interested information consumers in multiple…
That Tricky Word, ‘Design’
Peter Merholz talks about dismissing the word »Design« in the marketing language of his company Adaptive Path: What’s wrong with “design”? Well, there’s nothing wrong with the practice, but plenty wrong with the word’s associations. […] Design, with a capital D, ought to stretch beyond tactics, and into strategy. Design methods are brilliantly suited to…
Students teaching with blogs
Jill Walker: »One thing I’ve really liked in the student weblogs I’ve been grading is that there are a lot of posts that are really useful. It’s so different from exams where only the examiners are ever going to see all the work students have done. For instance, a colour blind student teaches other students…
JournURL: More BBS/Blog Fusion
»Another entry in the fusion of the BBS and Blog patterns, JournURL, an attempt to create a CCMS (that’d be Community Content Management System to you and me.) The focus here is improving on the model of simple comments for supporting real discussions in weblogs: “Robust threaded and linear discussion that encourages extended conversations and…
Defining blogs
I really wonder why it seems to be so hard for people to define what a weblog is. Yes, there are many different styles. Yes, it’s not the technology. And no, it’s not depending on the number of links in the weblog posts itself. I wrote about it when I compared weblogging with DJ-ing: It’s…
Longer comment
Mike Edwards has a longer comment in reaction to the »Weblogs and Discourse« paper. And there’s other very interesting comments on kairowsnews.org.
Discourse about ‘Weblogs and Discourse’
The paper »Weblogs and Discourse« got encouraging feedback. I am glad about that I I’d like to share the links to all those people I found that commented. Note to self: Some may even be starting points for further investigations. John Palfrey: Worth a read if you’re thinking about the Web and paedagogy. Reece Lamshed:…
Why running a weblog
Dave Winer: People talk about reasons to have a weblog, how will you measure its success. I wanted to say You’ll know when it works, you won’t need numbers. You’ll get an idea you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. A business contact. A bug report. An old friend finds you. You get a job. You hire…
Weblogs as an alternative to LMS
Charlie Lowe pointed me to a text he wrote for the Computers And Writing Conference 2003 conference. It’s about Weblog CMS’s as alternative to Learning Management Systems (like Blackboard; see screenshot). He looked closer at PostNuke.
Transcripts of WBS 2003 conference
Heath Row is really fast with the keyboard. So there are almost complete transcripts of the panels available (there are also some alternative transcripts from Denise Howell). They haven’t provided an overview of the transcripts, so I add that here: Postlude XVII: Live Blogging XVI: Using Weblogs in Large IT Organizations XV: The Open Source…
Instructional Design for Flow in Online Learning
Sandra C. Ceraulo: This tutorial describes how the instructional design of an online course can facilitate an optimal learning experience for the student. The optimal learning experience is the state termed “flow.” Flow, as defined by creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Me-high Chick-zhent-me-high), is the “state in which people are so involved in an activity…
WMD and lies
This article by John W. Dean reads like the worst thing that could happen to the world is an impeachment of the president of the United States. The article is titled “Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?” What a strange question is that? If there is something that seems to be…
Weblogs in education – part 2
David Carraher identifies a fundamental issue: “There are barriers separating teacher education, curriculum development, and research about learning and teaching.” I don’t know if he makes a general argument about the development of education systems or if he just reflects on Harvard. From my local experience here in Germany I can say that there are…
Students and Deuterolearning
Spike Hall: For the moment I say that the pay-off of learning-to-learn, aka deuterolearning, is an achieveable, and eminently worthwhile, goal. Weblogs, I believe, are a possible mechanism. [Connectivity: Spike Hall’s RU Weblog]
Thought provoking
Jay Cross about the »Weblogs and Discourse« paper: »This is thought-provoking if you’re contemplating the interplay of blogs and learning.«
Blogging a chore to students?
Stephen Downes comments on the »Weblogs and Discourse« paper: For those students who find writing a chore, blogging is a chore. Those students who wouldn’t write a journal, or a news article, or a letter, won’t write a blog. If we have to convince people to blog, to in some way grade them or mark…
Scholars Who Blog
David Glenn: n their skeptical moments, academic bloggers worry that the medium smells faddish, ephemeral. But they also make a strong case for blogging’s virtues, the foremost of which is freedom of tone. Blog entries can range from three-word bursts of sarcasm to carefully honed 5,000-word treatises. The sweet spot lies somewhere in between, where…
How to deceive
Someone called »Billmon« made a collection of statements about weapons of mass destruction from members of the US administration.
What experts say now
The Guardian: »Denis Healey, Labour ex-Foreign Secretary: “[…] The really criminal thing was that they wouldn’t let Blix go back. Here is a man of outstanding ability and honesty. I think this will be very damaging in Britain. Unfortunately, less so in America where the public doesn’t care as much.”«
Got any book recommendations?