Inputs for an Article
Brief quotable answers to a request for input to a forthcoming article on open online learning. Do you want to reduce the ‘lurkers’ as used in an article on your…
Stephen Downes
Sustainability and MOOCs in Historical Perspective
Stephen Downes: Thank you everyone. Buenos Dias. It’s a genuine pleasure to be able to be back in Bogotá, back in Colombia, and to be able to speak with you…
Feel Want Willing
Another response to a Joanne Jacobs blog post, this one called ‘To fix college, ban ‘I feel’‘ When I was working for Texas Instruments I took a number of courses…
Why Numbers Exist
by Stephen Downes One exists to show us the wayIt is the self, it is todayIt is the place where we departed Without which we’d never get started Two exists…
Poor Snow Removal
Hiya City of Moncton (Please distribute to Council) February 28, 2013. The snow-blower came up my road today, which is nice, because it gets too narrow to drive on, especially…
Current e-learning practice
I was asked, what areas would you recommend I focus on … to illustrate current e-learning practice? If it were me, I would do a three-stage presentation: – first, I’d…
My Scholarly Contributions
I was asked, “I am interested in your perspective on what you feel may be the greatest scholarly contribution you have made in the area of online learning, particularly your…
Where’s Our Corporate Tax Referendum?
The big news today is that New Brunswick Premier David Alward is willing to consider a referendum on the HST. CBC News reports, “the provincial government could hold a referendum…
Progressive Taxation and Prosperity
Responding to Justin Fox, editorial director of the Harvard Business Review Group, How big should a government be? in the Harvard Business Review blogs. Interesting discussion overall, and it would…
What Makes a MOOC Massive?
Responding to a LinkedIn Discussion. When people ask me what makes a MOOC ‘massive’ I respond in terms of the *capacity* of the MOOC rather than any absolute numbers. In…
Income Support
Responding, again, to David W. Campbell, on EI and local labour market distortions First. A statement that something “has a distorting effect on local labour markets” suggests that there is…
The Times & Transcript Comes Out Swinging
Our local newspaper in Moncton, the Times & Transcript, came out swinging today with an article attacking citizen journalism authored by new columnist Steve Malloy. The title sets the tone:…
Income Inequality and the Wealth Tax
Responding to Branko Milanovic, Lead Economist in the World Bank research group and a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, Why Income Inequality Is Here…
People don’t need experts; they just need someone who knows
This is a really good analysis. I think you correctly identify the missing bit – helping students over those rough patches. Interestingly, to my mind, although the problem of understanding…
2012 in Words and Pictures
It’s Mayan Apocalypse day, I’m listening to 2112 as I type this, and it seems appropriate to reflect on the end of the world through the words that caught my…
Badges and How I’d Make Them
This is my first set of submissions for an online course in digital badges being hosted by BC Campus's Scope Forum. I'm not really sure how I got enrolled, but…
Free and Not Free
So Everton Zanella Alvarenga tossed a hand-grenade into the OER discussion group: "An interesting text by Stallman... On-line education is using a flawed Creative Commons license ... 'the CC-BY-NC and…
Suppose the Irvings Had Not Set Up Shop In Moncton
Responding to David W. Campbell, Thanks, Robert. What’s next?Suppose the Irvings had not set up shop in Moncton...Would we have a transport company, like Midland? Almost certainly! In fact, we…
Advice for the UNESCO OER Mapping Project
Email written as advice to the UNESCO OER mapping initiative.This is beginning to read and sound very much like the debates around learning object metadata of the 1990s. I know…
A Pathway for Advancement
Interesting commentary from Kevin Willey, which I quote at length from LinkedIn:Performance management is nothing more than buzz words in the government departments, and I speak from experience on this.…