The crazy argument for Zero pedagogy Pedagogy does not matter. It has always been a discipline aimed at making people learn something they don’t particularly want to learn. If we can truly provide open access to all the resources necessary for learning, then it won’t matter what order, format, etc. …
My contribution on the subject of Space to the 2012 MOOC MOOC.
Introduction Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs for short, have been getting a lot of attention recently. There have been several high profile posts (see here for a summary) complaining about the lack of clarity about what constitutes a MOOC (and I think this resulted in a more generalized MOOC backlash). This …
Recently, one of my favorite titles of a blog post has been “Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads” – I like when righteous indignation is given a full-throated expression. And that is despite the fact that, at least up to a point, I am one of those primitive screwheads myself. Timothy Burke …
Educational theorist and provocateur Stephen Downes made really persuasive video on the difference between a Virtual Learning Environment and a Personal Learning Environment. This got me thinking about how this difference is relevant to the area of federated, open research. And I think the analogy is pretty much on the money. …
What it is I’ve written a lot on this site about the idea of using crowdsourced funding to support research efforts. Here’s the first example of that sort of thing that I’ve come across. What Works in Development: 10 Meta-Analyses of Aid Programs is a funding call for $10,000 to …
I didn’t even have to watch the whole video about Hypothes.is to know I want to give them some money on Kickstarter. It hits all the right buttons: distributed, open, platform independent, … But I’m not sure about the direction of its foundational metaphor: peer review for the internet. It …
I wonder if it’s the increased popularity of Vampires and their undead natures that has contributed to the spread of the un- prefix in education. If so, then it’s yet another feather in the cap of the cultural genius that is Joss Whedon. What do the different versions of un- …
It looks like just at about the same time I started this blog, Haiyan Zhang, who blogs at the awesomely named and beautifully designed site: http://blog.failedrobot.com, was putting together OPENIDEO, an online community-based development platform. It is similar to Quora in principle but rather than solving lots of little questions, …
The Royal Society just released a second report on Neuroscience in the Brain Waves policy series this one focusing on its relationship with education: Neuroscience: Implications for Education and Lifelong Learning. While it is a very good overview (I particularly welcome the cautious and sober approach to the results warning against …