Author: Downes

The DefinitionOpen educational resources are materials used to support education that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by anyone.Stephen H. Foerster wrote: > Stephen Downes wrote:> > Open educational resources are materials …

A reader asked:I read an article that was published in March 2011 edition of IRRODL: “Proposing na Integral Research Framework for Connectivism: utilising Theoretical Synergies”, from B. Boitshwarelo (Botswana).I founded it very interesting. H…

This is an illustration of the Google Plus Ecosystem I created to try to explain the flow of information through Google Plus from its (currently undocumented) sources through to its (currently broken) output.

Just testing: #change11

Responding to Martin, who in the comments of this post says “I do worry that this kind of fine hair splitting/navel gazing is ultimately unproductive and offputting.”Martin, I don’t think these issues are fine-hair splitting. They represent, from my pe…

I’m so much in a “not writing” mode these days it pains me to put metaphorical pen to paper to author these words. Maybe I’ll be more interested in writing when it’s fun again.So we have this discussion back and forth about the merits of MOOCs. We have…

In response to David W. Campbell, who writes of the fracking issue, “I think a government could be brought down over shale gas. It seems quite easy to whip up public anger over these types of flash point issues. I suspect, but hope I am wrong, the Lib…

Just setting up the gRSShopper graph systemURL: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?api=graph&apikey=[key]&cutoff=[unixdate]       unixdate: cutoff is the unix date; the API will deliver results only greater than the…

Responding to Warren Kinsella, who waxes enthusiastic about a united left.

The thing is, a united left will bleed support from its margins to the Conservatives. It would bleed those people who supported Ignatieff, who supported Paul Martin, who suppor…

June 12, 2011, Moncton, demonstration in support of the Maeng family, who had earlier been required to return to Korea because Immigration Canada had deemed that their son would pose too much of a burden on the health care system – this after they h…

Artwork in City Hall

I got an email a few days ago inviting me to the launch of the Plan Moncton video and report at the City Hall Council Chambers at 4:00 p.m., so Andrea and I went down to take part, since we had been to the open house and contrib…

Day One

So I’ve upgraded my desktop to Windows 7 in my office today, and this is what I’m doing to personalize it after I’ve got the basic system installed. This is the second time I’ve set up a Windows 7 environment; I have been using it on my deskto…

DePape was protesting two things. First, and most obviously, she was protesting against the Harper government. But second, her point was that Parliament doesn’t work. The system we have now allows Harper, with the support of 25 percent of Canadians, …

SADI stands for Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (something you won’t find on the SADI Framework website no matter how hard you look) and is a relatively lightweight way to serve and access database information for the Semantic Web. This po…

Responding to Boone Gorges and D’Arcy Norman, both of whom talk about recovering their content from the hosted sites and silos online.

It’s interesting watching this because for me the reverse is the problem – I already self-host most of my stuff,…

I think the point about economic footprint is well-taken and worth making not only in this context but in other contexts as well.

For example, when I sponsor projects in Kiva, I select projects that have a greater economic footprint – projects that …

Third Atlantic Workshop on Semantics and Services – blog summary – part 2.
A Semantic Web based Framework for Modeling and Simulating Clinical PathwaysAli Daniyal
The problem is the analysis and execution of clinical pathways for decision suppo…

Third Atlantic Workshop on Semantics and Services – blog summary

Leveraging Semantic Web Technologies for Improved Decision Making
Samuel Chance, Novexcorp

Told some ‘Alabama’ jokes, to illustrate the importance of context. With a lot of cont…

Over the last couple of weeks I participated in a debate on whether OER projects should favour commercial use. The debate, available on the WSIS Community Platform, was quite an interesting debate, but there were numerous complaints from people who wan…

Based on points submitted beforehand, and the discussion at the final plenary. Paul Stacey created a slide show based on the contributions.

Global

– it’s not about e-learning, it’s about we-learning. The idea that post-secondary education will be ava…