David Wiley's instance of OE at openeducation.us. Participants are asked to engage in academic work, bootstrapping the content for the next wave. Earn badges. And Wiley's method gets promoted. I like it - and the badges, well, they are hypericonic.

to read

Siemens and Conole. Editorial intro to IRRODL special issue on connectivism. The entire issue is brings us up to speed for 2011 on PLEs and MOOCs. "As the first full journal issue, that we’re aware of, devoted to connectivism, this special issue of IRRODL presents a somewhat confusing landscape. Some themes are emerging around the relationship of connectivism to existing theories of learning and social interaction (communities of practice, actor-network theory, and activity theory being most prominent). Critiques of connectivism also reveal themes: the need for ongoing research, the suitability of existing theories in answering the questions that connectivism attempts to address, and the status of connectivism as a theory of learning."

via Tech-Rhet. Bar charts. Online is more work for less educational quality, and practiced mainly by the tenure-track faculty. I'm assuming this refers mainly to institutionalized CMS stuff. That's my over-generalization for the day.

Open Ed Special Edition

"MOOCs embody, rather than reflect, practices within the digital economy" and other premises. nice reflexive piece on designing, practicing, and convincing deans that MOOCs are worth trying

Brief entry and extended discussion on DE including Walden, Phoenix, and state unis, being self-taught, the value of a degree. Anecdotal, but broad.

Two points here: Nixty social couse management software that leverages profs, and "the fact is that most people who can afford to go to college in the US want the experience of actually going to college. Those of us who would love to go back to college but don’t have the time to take off from careers or raising families, could use Nixty, but the problem is what I call the “Rosetta Stone dilemma.” I love Rosetta Stone’s software, and I think the approach to learning languages works – but the bottom line is there’s no short cut to the hours you need to put in to really learn a language fluently and I just don’t have those hours."

PLE/Critical Literacies open course from Plearn CA. Start here to see how the model works.

A list of tools and toys - sites and applications - for the very traditional way of teaching first-year comp. I wouldn't call this best practice so much local practice, and I don't see these so much as tools for learning as tools for teaching. Perhaps a counter-list is in order.

Reentering SL, writer finds it pretty vacant now that gambling's been banned and the adult interactions have been moved to another space. Comments suggest that there are still events going on in academic spaces.

V good overview article, mainly because it mentions, if not develops, implications and human requirements for each of the principles. Beneath it all: Excellent DE courses depend on excellent teachers.

This article explores excellence in web-based teaching. Drawing on the views of experts in the field and the perspective of their own years of experience, the authors compiled a list of 9 principles to provide direction in the search for online excellence. The principles include: the online world is a medium unto itself; sense of community and social presence are essential to online excellence; in the online world, content is a verb; great online courses are defined by teaching, not technology. The list is not intended to be an exclusive set of principles or a comprehensive guide to online teaching. Rather it is a collection of important ideas and suggestions for teaching excellence in the online world.

They worry about the quality of online courses, say teaching them takes more effort, and grouse about insufficient support. Yet large numbers of professors still put in the time to teach online. And despite the broad suspicion about quality, a majority of faculty members have recommended online courses to students.

That is the complicated picture that emerges in "The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences With Online Learning,"

Yes, yes. The halo effect is wearing off and we're beginning to see a new exchange on (American) DE opening up.

Yet another social media exchange. Similar to a wiki page in that comments and layers are associated with the specific target. Unlike a wiki and more like a blog in that the target itself is not modified but layered. But the layering is interesting. It means that a target can have different sets of commentary and notes: a different story for the same diegesis, different emphases of the same ground ...

Meh

Athabasca University Press

ArsTech on School of Everything. Nifty idea and might be worth using it as a model for creating an online version of a f2f class. But nobody's there.

Changes in technology and the concepts of learning objects.

Fair ov of how Phoenix organizes a course - using canned syllabus and trophy instructor to moderate the discussion.

when
using platforms most frequently positioned in leisure-based environments, institutional and ideological blockages
to creating a successful learning experience and scholarly environment.

Video + Microblogging = Rich User Experience A news piece announcing use of Seesmic with twitter clients

Martin Weller's vid on the OU's developing use of broadcast materials: remixing.

Miln - abstract to come

No Blackkboard, d2l, or WebCT in sight.

Special issue on mobile learning: usability issues, reading, etc. Agnes Kukulska-Hulme from the OU has a solid ov.

Videos, including Englebart's demo and old Apple promos

critique of stock cms - and education grounded in them - as info delivery. followed by catalog of alternatives

survey making some loose claims about quality, but also showing a rise in DE. Shows that perceptions about quality have risen among CAOs (who have reason to claim high quality) but doesn't address actual measures of quality.

Once again, how not to do DE

Doug Brent. Issues of IP, of textualizing courses for DE - course as thing - vs a course as a performance - an act. "Unless an instructor is uncommonly strong–willed, traditionalist or lazy, face–to–face courses evolve through a natural process of

Schwartz

I don’t think I care if learning objects are dead or not. My primary interest always has been, and I suspect always will be, in increasing access to educational opportunity to people who have been denied that right for any of a variety of reasons.