If you want some heady reading for the weekend, this post on cognition and representation is the ticket. It offers a good development of the physical symbol system hypothesis and "the attempt to identify the code, or the codes, in which knowledge is supposedly represented." In particular, "What all of them appeared to have in common is the idea that mental representations are coded symbolically and are structured and computable." This is a view with which I disagree. To the extent that I am willing to countenance representations at all (and I'm sceptical here) I am more inclined to Searle's line of reasoning, "the most radical criticism of the classical view is the claim that the mind/brain is indeed a representational organ, but that the nature of representations is not that of a formal code." It's not a long paper, but it will keep you working for a while. Maurizio Tirassa and Marianna Vallana, Cogprints, July 30, 2010 4:26 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

David T. Jones makes the good argument that the very people calling academics Luddites are themselves Luddites. He argues that they employ an old-style top-down methodology that takes no account of the context of application. "Rather than tell academics what to do, you need to create contextualised experiences for academics that enable appropriation of new models of teaching and learning. What most senior managers at universities and many of the commentators don't see, is that the environment at most universities is preventing academics from having these experiences and then preventing them from appropriating the new models of teaching." David T. Jones, The Weblog of (a) David Jones, July 30, 2010 4:19 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Randall Munroe, XKCD, July 30, 2010 4:13 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

If alternative data storage systems geeks you out, you'll enjoy this discussion of non-SQL databases. "Brian Aker lists the features found in No-SQL, as well as the method of organizing and creating data within it. He also describes the general use of schemas and correlational systems in everyday language. His critical analysis of SQL as a whole encompasses several faults, too, including limitations on efficiency, organization, and the encoding language; it quite possibly has an element of satire to it. In this lecture, there is also a glimpse into data collection as a whole." Brian Aker, IT Conversations, July 30, 2010 4:11 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Nice video explanation of Metaweb. "If you are interested, you can join the freebase community that is part of Metaweb. Through Freebase users can add content to the open database, creating entities. Although I signed up as a member, the registering process had a glitch in Firefox at first, I could access it through Internet Explorer. When I tried a bit later, Firefox was working ok as well for accessing Freebase.
" Inge de Waard, Ignatia, July 30, 2010 4:09 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Wow, CoSN may have set a new record for claiming to lead while trailing badly. Ian Quillen writes of a new CoSN report released Wednesday "pushing for the educational use of new Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)." Or, writes Quillen, "or the acronym literate among us, a better summary might be: LMS + CMS = LCMS (FTW!)." Those of us who have been around long enough will recall Maish Nichani's article of almost exactly that name, LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs], first published May 02, 2001. That leaves CoSN just under ten years late in calling this "new." As for "FTW" (For The Win)? Well, your call. Ian Quillen, Education Week, July 29, 2010 4:16 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Have eBooks really come of age, or are bloggers just jumping on a recent media bandwagon. There's no question perceptions of eBooks are being helped along by advertising for the Kindle, Nook and iPad. But I think overall sales of these devices are still quite low - three million iPads sounds like a lot (I can't find Kindle sales figures) but in a world of seven billion people, and one billion internet users, it's a drop in the bucket. Christine Cupaiuolo, Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, July 29, 2010 3:56 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

David Wiley provides readers with a full summer of afternoon reading as most of his papers are now available. "My blog contains over 600 posts, but my longer writing typically goes to more academic outlets like journals. Thanks to the help of the amazing folks at BYU's Scholar's Archive (our institutional repository), much of my peer-reviewed work now has a stable home online, too. I've gathered up links to these peer-reviewed articles as well as whitepapers and other long pieces on a new page called Articles." David Wiley, iterating toward openness, July 29, 2010 3:40 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

The first post in the new iPad Curriculum blog covers the topic of Go Sky Watch Planetarium (it's a bit revealing that there are no links in the article to the application; you don't get to link to it unless you're Apple). The new blog, writes the author, "I will post app and web app reviews, highlight educational tools that work seamlessly on the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, and give tips and tricks for using the iPad/iPod Touch in the classroom." I personally wouldn't dedicate a blog to a single platform, but I'm sure some people will find this new blog useful. Kelly Tenkely, don't forget to put your name on your new blog somewhere; I had to go back to your old blog to find it. Kelly Tenkely, iPad Curriculum, July 29, 2010 6:17 a.m. [Link] [Comment]

There is such an irony in getting a lagging group, teachers, to change so that they can lead the change. The expectation that the adoption of new technology will be led by the teachers, once we get them to adopt this new technology, seems absurd. What we are seeing is that students (and the people who will eventually employ students) are adopting new technology, and teachers (followed, even more slowly, by administrators and professors) are scrambling to adapt. Jim Shimabukuro, educational technology & change, July 29, 2010 6:06 a.m. [Link] [Comment]

I don't know why Anya Kamenetz is surprised to find most professors don't use social media tools. Check their age, then poll the general population of that age, and you'd probably find similar trends. It's not that they're not trained (come on, this software is dead simple to use; small children teach themselves) it's just what they're doing now is working for them (alter all, they are university professors!) and there's no real reason to change. Change will not come from within the system, certainly not when change undermines the system. Anya Kamenetz, DIY U, July 29, 2010 5:57 a.m. [Link] [Comment]

If you want to sell your magazine through iPad, you have to sell it through Apple (which will take 30 percent). The company will not allow you to sell subscriptions on your own website. Ryan Chittum writes, "Apple justifies its controlling instincts by saying the iPad (and iPhone) are a 'curated platform.' But that has little to do with letting non-pornographic magazines sell subscriptions. Apple's behavior is setting it up for some serious antitrust scrutiny down the line. It will be well deserved. Meantime, the media had better get hold of this tiger before it gets hold of them." Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review, July 28, 2010 3:46 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Larry Ferlazzo introduces us to Drag On Video, which lets us splice YouTube videos in a web page and display them as a single unit. Warning! This will eat time if you let it! Still, I can't get over how fun this is to play with. Larry Ferlazzo, Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…, July 28, 2010 2:43 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

I still think there's something odd about the way websites have become 'apps' in Apple's world. But that said, here is a list of "top 10" education apps for the iPad. The list sounds remarkably like a list of websites: Evernote, MobileRSS, Pulse, FreeBooks, Kindle, Dragon Dictation, Seesmic or TweetDeck, iWiki, Delicious, YouTube and iTunes. I was thinking today about how really Apple is trying to replace the web with its own version, iOS, rendered as apps. Maybe Android is trying to be that too. On the other hand, my Palm uses WebOS based on Webkit. And it seems to me that we don't have to replace HTML, Javascript, CSS and the rest to have mobile platforms. Jeff Cobb, Mission to Learn, July 28, 2010 2:08 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Shades of Rocketboom, it's e-Learning Today TV! I'm not sure how long they've been broadcasting, but this 9-minute video - and handy links page that is attached - is basically a talking heads newscast, but it's nice and light and will be of interest especially to people in the K-12 sector. I think I've got the right website (the videos are mirrored all over the place). There doesn't appear to be a feed specifically for e-Learning Today TV, though. Denis Soukhanov, Learning Today, July 28, 2010 1:57 p.m. [Link] [Comment]

Skillsoft surveyed workers in medium and large European companies asking how they like to learn. "They like freedom and flexibilty yes – but also ... they want learning on demand, when it's needed. They can then carry out what they have learnt straight away – with the ability to go back over something again if they haven't quite comprehended the first time." The sense I get reading this is that there is a fair support for classroom learning, but also that people would really like to have the materials later at their fingertips when they need them, whether or not they attended the classroom learning. Via email from Donald H. Taylor, Learning and Skills Group. Various Authors, Skillsoft, July 28, 2010 6:11 a.m. [Link] [Comment]

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I don't know whether to be outraged or just gaga with bemusement at the Chronicle of Higher Education's latest folly. The article in question is titled "YouTube Better at Funny Cat Videos Than Educational Content, Professors Say." There is, in fact, no reference to cat videos anywhere in the article, nor possibly in the researchers' work (I've written them and asked, but haven't received a reply back). Rather, what we have is a short article telling us that "while many students turn to YouTube when looking for help with their homework, it can be hard to find good-quality educational clips there." This, of course, is outrageously false. And badly argued. As Alan Levine summarizes, "Two experts in biology looked at web videos for keywords in their discipline, and they found it wanting. Therefore, the only thing YouTube is Funny Cat Videos." Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, July 27, 2010 [Tags: Video, Research, Quality, YouTube] [Link] [Comment]

Oh, I think this point in defense of lectures is exactly right. "If you recognize that the complete sentence is 'Lectures don't work…for inexperienced or lazy learners,' then you realize that using 'active learning' with professionals at a formal conference is insulting to your audience. You are assuming that they can't learn on their own, without your scaffolding." Now, sometimes they can't actually learn, even if they are professionals - if they are learning outside their domain of expertise, for example. But people who are interested and motivated and able to learn on their own need little help - they'll turn a lecture into active learning in their own way, through note-taking, engaging with the speaker, or simply listening with an active, questioning mind. Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, July 27, 2010 [Tags: Online Learning, Experience] [Link] [Comment]

Very nice talk from David Gauntlett titled "Making is Connecting." The thrust of this 9 minute video is that new media supports creativity, and this creativity creates happiness through meaningful work and ties with community. Tim Kastelle relates this to his own work (and unknowingly, to mine): "we connect ideas to people. This is the outbound side of Connection. I write about the idea connections that I make in my blog – as people read it, they start connecting with the ideas. I give as many public talks as I can..." Tim Kastelle, Innovation Leadership Network, July 27, 2010 [Tags: Video, New Media, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]