Author: Stephen Downes

Responding to a post from Beth Kanter My giving is focused and specific. In particular, I avoid charities performing functions that ought to be performed by the public domain. Specifically, health care and research, education and social welfare all ought to be managed by the government. These should not depend

Responding to questions from Vance McPherson 1) What is your response to Rita Kop’s suggestion that connectivism is a new epistemology but not a new learning theory? As I understand Rita, she understands the pedagogical aspects of connectivism to have already been present in constructivism, and hence, connectivism is not

David Hume’s philosophy of morality is distinct from most approaches in that it does not postulate some set of principles or criteria for moral behaviour. Rather, he argues that we are governed by a ‘moral sense’ that tells us when an act is right or wrong. “Extinguish all the warm

We all, as David Wiley writes, want to empower learners. While we read a great deal these days about education as job training and workforce readiness, what we really want to be able to do is to enable each person to make his or her way in the world, to

Responding to comments on the Globe and Mail article,  Moncton on top after surviving recession, government austerity. Also posted to Moncton Free Press. Bilingualism is an asset. Yes, it means you have to be more educated to get a job; speaking one language isn’t enough. But having a more educated

Responses to interview questions posed by Kevin Charles Redmon, Independent Journalist and Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism 1. Are MOOCs an idea that were floating around the halls of universities for some time now, or was the first one in 2008 really a watershed moment? Many of the ideas that

I have a quick Twitter poll – I’m considering offering a MOOC in logic and critical thinking starting in September… informal yet rigorous First question – would you be interested in this, looking at about 12-13 weeks Second question – I cannot offer certification (badge only) – would schools accredit

Notes from the April 11 talks at the Learning in a Digital Age Conference in Tallinn, Estonia. My presentation at the conference draws largely from these notes. Steve Wheeler – Creative Commons intro– Twitter intro – “Connect with professionals just like yourself all over the world” – Warlick: “For the

Responding to Harvard Business Review blogs, wherein it is stated, “Doctors in India and Rwanda do not know anything more about the science of eye care or cardiac surgery or treating HIV/AIDS patients. But they do know how to deliver quality care at lower cost. By comparison, there is something

I saw this thing from John T. Spencer consisting of the first two columns below, ‘Management’ and ‘Leadership’ respectively, and while I get that ‘Leadership’ is supposed to be something better and to be aspired to, it left me short. So I think there’s a need to characterize another attitude,

Responding to James Morton: You say “Judges shouldn’t be making social policy.” I respond that the policy was already made by legislators, and that judges are merely enforcing it. The policy was created when the Constitution Act was passed in 1982. This was not an act of the judiciary, but

Presented to EdgeX2012, Delhi, India, March 12, 2012. My name is Stephen Downes, I’m from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. New Brunswick is a small province on the eastern side of Canada, near the Atlantic Ocean. The entire province has about 800,000 people in it. The city where I live has

The whole argument that the NDP should move to the centre ignores the fact that the centre moves. Responding to David W. Campbell I hear this ‘pragmatist centrist’ argument a lot, and though I don’t speak for the NDP, I am a member, have been for decades, and have been

The purpose of the Senate is to To review and approve legislation passed by Parliament before sending it for execution by the Governor-General of Canada; to initiate non-financial legislation; to serve on and support Parliamentary committees, enquiries and other legislative practices. The value of the Senate is that it is

Clark Quinn is asking where the further developments in MOOCs will come from, suggesting “he courses really require effective self-learners”, and I see today that Tony Bates continues this line of questioning: To what extent do MOOCs really change the nature of the game, and to what extent are they

Contribution to #Change11 online course, February 27. The intent of these short contributions to the #Change11 course is to allow guest speakers to summarize their sum contribution to the field of online learning and new educational technology. Though I have recently become better known because of my contributions to connectivism

UNESCO recently launched a new OER logo. On 25/02/2012 9:19 PM, Cable Green wrote: UNESCO – please change the license from CC BY ND… to either CC BY … or CC BY SA… so we can all use it. I really wonder whether this narrow interpretation is accurate and in

I was asked to contribute my responses to interview questions on social media for a new journal called The Future of Learning and of course I was happy to send some thoughts along. When did you start getting interested in the potential of social media in education and why? It

Gary Edmund Carter (April 8, 1954 – February 16, 2012) (nickname “The Kid”) was an American former Major League Baseball catcher. During a 19-year baseball career, mostly with the Montreal Expos and the New York Mets, Carter was a premier catcher in the National League, winning three Gold Glove awards

(English version) Ces dernières années, j’ai travaillé sur deux grandsconcepts: d’abord, la théorie de l’apprentissage en ligne connectivist, quiconsidère l’apprentissage comme un processus de réseau et, deuxièmement, lemassif cours ouverts en ligne, ou MOOC, qui est une instanciation de ceprocessus. Ceux-ci, cependant, ne représentent que la plus récente de ce