[PN] Signs of accomplishment (9 March 2004)

[waoe@mail.goo.ne.jp]

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* Reference Websites

Language Observatory: Scanning cyberspace for languages
http://www.language-observatory.org/

Caribbean Association for Distance and Open Learning Established
"The first meeting of the Caribbean Association for Distance and 
Open Learning (CARADOL) that was created with the financial 
support from UNESCO was held yesterday at the Distance Education 
Centre of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica." 
UNESCO, March 3, 2004
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=14622&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECT

* Periodical articles 

Stop Teaching My Kid
"most parents want an easy pass (in some cases, an easy A) 
rather than a course in which their children acquire real knowledge 
and skills." Whether or not this observation is statistically valid, it nonetheless speaks to a misplacement of value, replacing a desire 
for accomplishment (that is, learning) with a desire for a sign of 
accomplishment (that is, an A). It wouldn't be the first time people 
came to value the sign of something more than the thing itself"
[- the above commentary is by Stephen Downes, Canada - Ed.] 
Guest commentary by Elise Vogler
in Mark H. Shapiro, The Irascible Professor, March 4, 2004
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-03-04-04.htm

Learning in Communities
"why we want online learning communities and what makes these 
communities work... Probably the greatest misapplication 
of online community lies in the idea that it is an adjunct to, or 
following from, the creation and design of an online course.... 
the relation ought to be the other way around: that the course 
content (much less its organization and structure) ought to be 
subservient to the discussion, that the community is the primary 
unit of learning, and that the instruction and the learning resources 
are secondary, arising out of, and only because of, the community." 
Stephen Downes, Australian Flexible Learning Community, March 1, 2004
http://www.learnscope.anta.gov.au/learnscope/golearn.asp?category=11&DocumentId=5249

Collegially, Steve McCarty 
Professor, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japan (from April) 
http://www.waoe.org/steve/epublist.html 
E-mail (for Papyrus News): mccarty@mail.goo.ne.jp