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Learning Electron - Part 2
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 15, 2019
Continuing from Part 1 The story so far In Part 1 I covered the basics of Electron up to and including building executable applications from the Node.js application.
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
Connectivism and Language Learning
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 26, 2018
This is in response to the following question from a student in Iran: I am going to start an academic project on the application of connectivism in the context of foreign language acquisition.
Learning Electron - Part 1
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 13, 2019
Over the holidays this year I indulged myself in some guilt-free play: learning Electron. I ran across it reading my Medium feed, via this article demonstrating how to build a sound-machine app using Electron. I didn't build the sound-machine, but I built a bunch of other stuff.
Approaching E-Learning 3.0
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
SEPTEMBER 18, 2018
Who is this course for? If you're reading this, then this course is for you. You've demonstrated the main criterion: some degree of interest in the subject matter of the course. You might be thinking: this course looks too difficult, too technical, or too high level.
New Issues for OERs
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 18, 2019
This is based on my contribution to the new Creative Commons 'Education Platform' discussion of issues related to open educational resources (OERs). This is the next step following the development of a set of principles for the Platform. (I’m
The Wrong Choice
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
DECEMBER 30, 2018
Joanne Jacobs links to an article titled Why I Wish I Hadn’t Gone to College by Keri Savoca. Savoca writes that she would have been a lot better off had she spent the 11 years doing something else. "I
What is Digital Literacy?
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 4, 2019
Short response to a questionnaire. What is Digital Literacy Digital literacy is a type of literacy, specifically, the type of literacy that arises in the digital context. By 'the digital context' we mean the multimedia and inter-networked context enabled by digital technology.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 5
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 21, 2018
We launched the course this week and I did a bunch of things to get ready. This summarizes them in no particular order (except that they were all done in the last few days in a frantic rush). Videos Videos are an important part of any MOOC and these MOOCs are no exception.
E-Learning 3.0 Course Synopsis
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 8, 2018
Getting Ready Connectivism is based on the idea that knowledge is essentially the set of connections in a network, and that learning therefore is the process of creating and shaping those networks.
Open Science Value Proposition
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
DECEMBER 13, 2018
I am participating in a series of Open Science consultations within NRC, an effort that I hope will have long-term value for the organization and for Canadians.
The Fabrication that is OER
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JULY 13, 2018
OER stands for 'Open Educational Resources' and as readers know I have been a long-time proponent of free and open learning resources. So why would I call them a fabrication in the title of this post? It's a response to OER @ 16, "Where are You?"
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 10
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
Harvesting, Again I'm having issues with the harvester again. There are two distinct problems: - The harvester isn't harvesting - When I do harvest, it's downloading things that were downloaded before I'm going to deal with the second thing first.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 2
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
In the previous segment I decided to create a course with modules and sections, and set up the modules. I'll fill out the actual content of those modules over time. But now I need to stance face-to-face with something I've been dreading.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 12
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
DECEMBER 2, 2018
The Badge API and Setting Up Badges This actually represents almost a week's worth of work.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 6
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 25, 2018
Ethics I've just finished sending off the ethics review board (REB) documents for research ethics review. This is something I should have done in August, not October, and something that was done in all our previous MOOCs, but by someone else more competent than me.
Plans
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 4, 2019
As always, I (a) have plans, and (b) know that the plans never survive very long. That's OK; I include options and backups in my plans, and I'm always ready with the tools I need to take advantage of any opportunities that arise. Courses Offering online courses allows me to test my ideas in the real world, both in terms of the course design and software itself, as well as in terms of the ideas presented through the course. Last year's E-Learning 3.0 course was an excellent example of this.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 1
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
One of the fun things about working with software I wrote myself is that I get to try new things. For example, instead of creating a course simply by filling in boxes in predefined forms, I can think about the structure and format ahead of time and design it exactly how I want.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 11
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 27, 2018
Badges I looked at openbadges.me and Badgr and selected the latter mostly because it's where the Mozilla Backpack project landed. My allegiance will last as long as it works.
12 Deeper Tips for Great Public Speaking
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
MAY 21, 2018
Steve Wheeler posted a nice article called 12 Tips for Great Speaking today.He's s had a lot of experience on the public speaking circuit and there's no doubt his tips hit the mark. I've also had some experience on the circuit, so I thought it would be useful to add to his remarks.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 8
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 30, 2018
Syndication Syndication is the core of the cMOOC approach to learning and we haven't talked about it at all yet. It's pretty easy to get caught up in things like video events and content and to forget that the true purpose of the course is connection.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 4
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 10, 2018
Activities Each week of the course will feature some events. These are mostly live video conferences with guests. I also want to be able to show slides and to include the activity feed. I've been creating these using xSplit and then broadcasting the entire screen, but it's a bit unreliable.
Critical Thinking for Educators
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
MARCH 30, 2018
"Pick any article from the newspaper," I would say to my students. Bring it in and we'll analyze it." This was one of my favourite - and my most effective - activities in my critical thinking classes. I never knew what the students would bring in. With each article we would have to begin afresh.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 9
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 4, 2018
The RSS Feed The course isn't truly distributed until it has an RSS feed. We'll use the course newsletter as our RSS feed, except we'll publish the output in rss2 format instead of HTML. So, exactly as before, we'll build the RSS page in the page Editor.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 7
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 27, 2018
[ Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7] OK, I've put on some Cœur de pirate and am set for today's work. Feeds One of the key attributes of gRSShopper is the harvester.
Designing E-Learning 3.0 in gRSShopper - 3
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 8, 2018
[ Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - ] I have the basic structure of the course in place and now I want to fill it out with some content. The course starts in a couple of days and it's important to ensure people have something to see and work with.
State of the Universe
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JANUARY 1, 2019
Yes, the world probably existed before me, and it will probably continue to exist after I'm gone, but for me, my life is the universe, and vice versa. This is the state of it. This coming year I will turn 60, which I suppose will leave me in a state of reflection for the next twelve months or more. It's hard to know how far to plan ahead. I'm as eager to start new things as I ever was, but there's a horizon there.
What Peace Means to Me
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
MAY 15, 2018
I read today in an article that "Modern liberals have no working theory of authoritarianism. Of its causes. Its spark. Its fuel." I'm not sure that this is true, and I'll return to this article a bit later in this post. First I want to return to my visit to Colombia a couple of weeks ago.
Assessing Evidence in CPD: Meeting Standards and Missing Goals
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 1, 2018
This is a summary of the talk "Assessing Evidence in CPD: Meeting Standards and Missing Goals" (aka Baffled, Befuddled and Bemused) by Michael Allen, at the 10th National CPD Accreditation Conference. In the media, we often see conflicting information abut science, especially nutrition studies.
An Emoji Language
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
SEPTEMBER 3, 2018
Reading this month's First Monday , which was a special issue on the emoji, inspired me to a creative thought, which I document here.
What's Interesting
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
APRIL 30, 2018
We have a new organization and a new manager, and one of the questions we as staff are being asked is "what's interesting?" with responses to be at least one sentence and less than one page. This is my submission.
Teaching in the Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 16, 2017
Summary notes from the Tony Bates presentation at the World Conference on Online Learning , Toronto. Building an Effective Learning Environment What is knowledge, and how does learning occur. Analogy: coal.
Dan Pontefract: Open Thinking
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Notes from Dan Pontefract's talk at Focus 2018, Montreal Beginning with the idea of being distracted, rather than ruminating in thought. We have accepted that. That's what's happening in society - technology aids and abets it. Do we have to outsource our thinking to Siri or whatever? I'm not sure we have figured out what is the right amount of tech. Consider the problems created by distracted driving. Why is that happening? This is outsourced thinking.
The Future of Learning Management Systems: Development, Innovation and Change
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 18, 2017
Phil Hill Summary notes from the presentation at from at the World Conference on Online Learning , Toronto. Slides: [link] We forget about the perspective of time. Let’s look at 2011-2017. Thrun was saying (2012) 50 years from now there will only be ten institutions delivering higher education.
Let's Take the Digital License Quiz
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 26, 2017
This article in a London School of Economic blog touts the benefits of the digital driver’s licence created by the Alannah & Madeline Foundation in Australia, and notes that some 22% of Australian schools have registered for it.
A Quick Definition of Neo-Liberalism
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 20, 2017
In response to Alex Usher (and in anticipation of future posts in his series): This is an interesting start, though I would have hoped for a more tightly bound definition at least by the end of part one. Each of the four senses of neo-liberalism that you raise can be qualified in important ways. -
Engagement in a Time of Polarization
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
FEBRUARY 27, 2018
I'm preserving my contributions to this online discussion because other people's discussion boards tend to disappear over time. Also, the course is (I think) hidden behind a login. A Wider Sense of Polarization, Its Purpose, and Its Resolution I was disappointed in Tufekci's Chris Gilliard's paper.
Open Learning, Open Networks
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
JUNE 7, 2017
Open online learning entered the mainstream with the growth and popularity of MOOCs, but while interest in open online courses has never been greater MOOCs represent only the first step in a broader open learning infrastructure.
Consciousness
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 13, 2017
Consciousness seems to be mysterious to most people. How does subjective experience arise?
gRSShopper in a Box
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
AUGUST 2, 2017
My pre-conference workshop for Online Educa Berlin has been announced and this seems as good an occasion as any to summarize what I've been up to lately.
Elements of a Successful Panel
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 6, 2017
Congrats, you have an all male panel ! Follow the #allmalepanel hashtag on Twitter and you'll find that there's no end to the creation of bad panels and the commentators that justifiably criticize them.
The Morality of the More Powerful
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
APRIL 21, 2018
My own sense of morality has always been from the perspective of the more powerful. This is not because I am the most powerful person in the world; far from it. Indeed, I am always sensitive to the actions (and frequent immorality) of those more powerful than I. But that does not change my perspective. As a result of my birth, and as a result of my upbringing, I have tremendous advantages over most people in the world. It's not just privilege, though it is certainly partially that.
Working Memory and Object Permanence
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
OCTOBER 20, 2017
This is pretty speculative, but it makes sense to me and I'd like to get the idea own on (digital) paper in case I don't get the chance to come back to it. It is well known that we have different types of memory: working memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER
Stephen Downes: Half an Hour
NOVEMBER 8, 2017
David Wiley offers a provocative perspective titled If We Talked About the Internet Like We Talk About OER: The Cost Trap and Inclusive Access. Here's how he sets it up: Imagine that – somehow – you’ve never used the internet before. A good friend and long-time internet user finds this out and begins trying to describe to you how awesome the internet is. However, for some inexplicable reason, all of his arguments for why you should be on the internet focus on cost.
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