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:…
Stephen Downes
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.…
International MOOCs Past and Present
OpenLearning.com, a venture born out of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. Starting this week, you can begin taking two of their courses (Observing and Analysing…
The Paradox of Democracy
During my days as a student activist studying philosophy in Alberta one wag described me as "a moderate socialist and a radical democrat."That description is probably still apt 20 years…
Predators and Producers: Whither Flat World
In what was probably an unintentional release of the information, Flat World Publishing made the world aware this weekend that it is ceasing distribution of digital textbooks without charge. Readers…
Learning in the Digital Age: The Reality and the Myth
Let me tell you story of the great bear. It’s a story from First Nations People who lived near where I was born in Canada, the Iroquois people. It’s a…
Improving Canadian Postsecondary Education
We can read about ‘five ideas to reform post-secondary education in Canada in a University Affairs article by columnist Léo Charbonneau. The strategies (proposed by a Globe and Mail reporter…
Aggregation Workflow in gRSShopper
A few points: First, on workflow, which is the topic of this post. Here’s how gRSShopper currently works. It’s more detailed than suggested in the post, but contains the same…
The 30 Percent Solution
Let me be clear. If there is a way to reduce the cost of education by 30 percent while keeping the quality the same, I’m all for it. Who wouldn’t…
Downes’s Business Hopelessness Scale
Certain businesses – Down East Coffee on St. George, for example – give you pleasure when you deal with them. Others, however (and the list is long) seem to go…
Whose Connectivism?
I would like to make just one point, that it is not “Siemen’s ‘Connectivism,'” that he gave a name to a theory and approach a number of us had been…
Daniel on MOOCs
I previously posted an item on Sir John Daniel’s discussion of MOOCs, but I have added more extensive comments on Tony Bate’s review – I rather suspect it is much…
The ‘Course’ in MOOC
A discussion taking place on the OER-Forum Discussion List. Posts by other people in italics. Abel Caine wrote, “I have to intervene with the developing country perspective. Millions of smart,…