Stephen Downes

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Joy
Clay Burell, Beyond School, November 22, 2011.

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It's so nice to see Clay Burell post again, and he comes up with a gem, on an example of beautiful learning. "Joy chose to explore the Golden Age of Chinese lyric poetry of the Tang Dynasty. The result, below — technical quibbles aside — is evidence that Joy is aptly named. Give her a couple of minutes to get past her intro and into the heart of it all, and maybe you’ll get some of that ga-ga too." I watched the video - it's absolutely fascinating, and so worth watching.

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Learn ICT
Doug Peterson, doug – off the record, November 22, 2011.

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Doug Peterson writes, "I find the results confirm the way that I believe that teachers learn best." Now, to make the bridge from this to how students learn best.

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4 Stages of Personalization (Music Metaphors Included)
John T. Spencer, Cooperative Catalyst, November 22, 2011.

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It was at AusWeb 2001 I first heard of the difference between customization (the user sets preferences) and personalization (the system adapts to the user). This post expands that set of distinctions somewhat: standardization (you try to reach the entire class), differentiation (you try to reach different levels within the class), customization (you provide individual choices), and personalization ("students are free, empowered and ready to make learning personal"). The last category is laudable, but vague, and more likely to become something like 'personalization' in the AusWeb definition. So I prefer to think of student-defined learning as 'personal' learning. The difference between 'personal' and 'personalized' learning? It's like the difference between 'tender' and 'tenderized'.

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Flipped Classroom Full Picture: An Example Lesson
Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education, November 22, 2011.

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"The problem with the flipped classroom," writes Jackie Gerstein, "is that the major focus is on the didactic presentation of information, that it is still at the center of the learning experience." It does not need to be that way. In this post she provides a sample 'flipped-classroom lesson' which makes the point. "This lesson did not center around the content media, in this case the Slideshare, but on the students’ personal experiences, interactions with other students, and acquisition of tangible life skills." The key, I think, is the 'Experiential Engagement', the activity. For example, "the learners started off with the Lighthouse activity, where in partner teams, the sited person led his or her blindfolded partner through a series of obstacles. The goal of this part of the lesson was to provide an experience that overtly demonstrated the importance of listening." Then they can be sent out to review the 'flipped' bit of the lesson on their own. Finally, the experience is cemented with a 'so what' activity.

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Where Are the Philosophers? Thoughts from THATCamp Pedagogy
Prof. Hacker, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 22, 2011.

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The Chronicle's Prof. Hacker says "there are not... numerous examples of philosophers using techniques of the digital humanities to _do_ philosophy or using digital tools to teach philosophy." I comment in reply, "Well, I *think* I am doing digital philosophy, but philosophers (properly so-called) may disagree. But if we agree that philosophy is "the discovery, development, classification and analysis of human concepts and reasoning," then I am definitely doing philosophy online (perhaps even using the techniques of the digital humanities, whatever those are). Additionally, my background and formal academic training are in philosophy, up to my ABD (yeah, I'm one of those people more stubborn than their supervisor). But if you think 'doing philosophy' is 'being employed as a philosophy professor and offering classes', then I'm not doing philosophy. But who would want to define philosophy *that* way? To find people using new technologies, we have to look outside the usual places."

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The Wisdom of Motivated Crowds
Teemu Leinonen, FLOSSE Posse, November 22, 2011.

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Directly relevant to my talk this evening, Teemu Leinonen on motivation: "In a good course students should have the opportunity to practice leadership, gain knowledge, and be autonomous. Students should be provided ways to get social attention and opportunities to play and compete with each other. But this is not enough. Students should have the opportunity to make connections to deep philosophical issues, too: to obey moral codes, improve society and have connections to past and upcoming generations." He makes the point that "many courses (not only the MOOCs) are not motivating because they do not pay enough attention to the participant’s desires." I think that's true, and this is motivating me to examine the question.

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The State of Internationalization in Canada
Ken Steele, Academica, November 22, 2011.

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Ken Steele, author of the excellent Academica newsletter on Canadian higher education, discusses the sector's potential with respect to internationalization. He writes, "It’s a time of upheaval for higher education worldwide, and therefore a time of opportunity for Canada. I just hope we don’t squander the brief window of opportunity."

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Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop Images
Various Authors, Know Your Memes, November 21, 2011.

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Speaking of LOLcats - since the deplorable incident in which students were casually pepper-sprayed by a police officer, web pundits have been expressing their opinions in the richly textured language of LOLcats. Via Mashable.

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Links and Resources

(presentations include slides and audio recordings)
Videos: http://www.downes.ca/me/videos.htm
RSS Feed: http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.xml
Podcast: http://www.downes.ca/news/audio.xml

Key Articles

Scholarly Articles

Cites:294 Educational Blogging (Local copy)
264 Learning objects: Resources for distance education worldwide (Local copy)
134 E-learning 2.0 (Local copy)
126 Models for sustainable open educational resources (Local copy)
88 The future of online learning (Local copy
75 Learning networks and connective knowledge (Local copy)
70 Design and reusability of learning objects in an academic context: A new economy of education (Local copy)
59 Resource profiles (Local copy)
40 Learning networks in practice (Local copy)
33 Semantic networks and social networks (Local copy)
35 An introduction to connective knowledge (Local copy)
27 Design, standards and reusability (Local copy)
23 EduSource: Canada's learning object repository network (Local copy)
22 An introduction to RSS for educational designers (Local copy)

(Cites from Google Scholar for an H-Index = 14)

Recent Popular Articles

The Purpose of Learning, February 2, 2011.
The Role of the Educator, December 6, 2010.
Deinstitutionalizing Education, November 5, 2010.
Agents Provocateurs, October 28, 2010.
What Is Democracy In Education, October 22, 2010.
A World To Change, October 19, 2010.
Connectivism and Transculturality, May 16, 2010.
An Operating System for the Mind, September 19, 2009.
The Cloud and Collaboration, June 15, 2009.
Critical Thinking in the Classroom, June 5, 2009.
The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On, November 16, 2008.
Things You Really Need to learn: http://www.downes.ca/post/38502

Social Network

Twitter: http://twitter.com/downes
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/downes
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/
Google: http://www.google.com/profiles/sfdownes
Blip.tv: http://downes.blip.tv/
Contact: stephen@downes.ca Stephen.Downes@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Skype: Downes

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About Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes is a senior researcher for Canada's National Research Council and a leading proponent of the use of online media and services in education. As the author of the widely-read OLDaily online newsletter, Downes has earned international recognition for his leading-edge work in the field of online learning. He developed some of Canada's first online courses at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, Manitoba. He also built a learning management system from scratch and authored the now-classic "The Future of Online Learning".

At the University of Alberta he built a learning and research portal for the municipal sector in that province, Munimall, and another for the Engineering and Geology sector, PEGGAsus. He also pioneered the development of learning objects and was one of the first adopters and developers of RSS content syndication in education. Downes introduced the concept of e-learning 2.0 and with George Siemens developed and defined the concept of Connectivism, using the social network approach to deliver open online courses to three thousand participants over two years.

Downes has been offering courses in learning, logic, philosophy both online and off since 1987, has 135 articles published in books, magazines and academic journals, and has presented his unique perspective on learning and technology more than 250 times to audiences in 17 countries on five continents. He is a habitual photographer, plays darts for money, and can be found at home with his wife Andrea and four cats in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Vision Statement

I want and visualize and aspire toward a system of society and learning where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumberance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle.

Where they are able to form networks of meaningful and rewarding relationships with their peers, with people who share the same interests or hobbies, the same political or religious affiliations - or different interests or affiliations, as the case may be.

This to me is a society where knowledge and learning are public goods, freely created and shared, not hoarded or withheld in order to extract wealth or influence. This is what I aspire toward, this is what I work toward.

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Canadians who gave their lives in service in Afghanistan

Hundreds of my IAAF Track & Field Photos from Moncton 2010

My calendar

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