Via elearningpost, here’s a decent, unbiased, and hype-free comparison of weblogs to discussion boards. Different tools for different tasks. Right on.
MemeStreams Update
Tom Cross of MemeStreams contacted me to let me know that an API is in the works (though it may take them a while to get it done due to workload and bandwidth issues). If you have any use cases that might help the MeamStream folks think through their design, you might want to drop […]
The Chronicle: 8/13/2004: Professors Seek Compensation for Online Courses
According to this article in the Chronicle, it looks like an increasing number of institutions are putting the screws to their faculty to do more online learning work for less money. The story starts with an anecdote about a county college in California pressuring faculty to use sabbatical time for online course development. It continues […]
Is Johnson's "Clustering Emergence" Really Small-world Network Formation?
I was thinking some more last night about Stephen Johnson’s new position that there are separate types of clustering and adaptive emergence as I was reading Albert-Laszlo Barabasi’s book Linked (which I am enjoying immensely, by the way; more on that in a later post). I suddenly had a flash of intuition that what Johnson […]
Constructivism, Cognitivism, and Behaviorism in Weak Science
TCRecord just published a great example of the kind of weak science that strikes me that as a perfect example of why I don’t bother to read the academic literature on learning theory with any regularity. The article starts off well enough: Teachers exert the greatest influence in the classroom through the way in which […]
Steven Johnson Speaks (Again) on Emergence in the Dean Campaign
Johnson has a chapter out [PDF] in a new online book about “Extreme Democracy,” which includes contributing luminaries such as Clay Shirky and Joi Ito. In his chapter, Johnson clarifies how his thoughts about emergence in democracy have evolved since his book came out (and since the Dean campaign crashed and burned): Watching the Dean […]
Weblogs and Communities of Practice
Here’s a thoughtful post comparing communities of practice to networks of weblogs, apparently distilled from a discussion group at the Blogwalk conference. The short summary: Weblogs are more respectful of their authors and of their audience Weblogs are better connecting tools Communities are better social structures for problem-solving, knowledge stewarding and innovation Communities of practice […]