Nov 28, 2008

Does learning value shift from content to context?

Interesting thought. Just read the article:

http://www.icwe.net/oeb_special/news110.php

From the article:
In a recent research report from a global corporation, I read the following
provocative statement: "In the age of free content, the future (and the money)
is in context." Hence the question: Is this the emerging reality and what does
it mean for the publishing industry?
Nobody can deny that the production of
quality content has significant costs attached to it, especially for
peer-review, quality control, author compensation, versioning, marketing, etc.
Looking at educational content, the requirement of a "facilitated context" via
teachers, tutors and co-learners comes up immediately. A free "content object"
by itself may not be of much value. However, when integrated into a well-
orchestrated learning process as its context, it may be very powerful.

Nov 2, 2008

The Saber - educational currency

I read in the Flemish magazine 'Klasse', that Brazil experiments with a new currency: the saber (knowledge in Portuguese). The Sabers are given to 7 year old children, who can use it to 'pay' older students for tuition and guidance on any of the topics they have trouble with. Those children can then do the same for asking coaching of even older ones, all the way up to the ones going to university. Those 17 year olds can actually use the Saber to pay for their tuition fee.

I must say I never heard of it before but I'm curious to see how well the experiment does...

Nov 1, 2008

101 free learning tools

Free 101 learning tools by Zaid (slideshare)
101 Free Learning Tools
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: thinking tools)