(via Stephen Downes) Not terribly much new in this article for anyone who has a working knowledge of RSS, but a good primer for those who haven’t. And as Stephen notes, some relevant and interesting vision included:

Downes paints the picture of the future of learning: A “desktop e-learning application that plugs into the learning object repository network and is able to search across a wide number of collections and retrieve exactly the learning you want in a given circumstance.”

I think I’ve pretty much decided that I want a full time job just bringing Weblogs and RSS ideas and practices like this to schools. That would be too much fun.

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Coupled with the Blogs and RSS Webquest from a couple of days ago, George Siemens’ presentation The Art of Blogging makes this a blue ribbon week for blog education. No doubt this is indicative of more and more interest in Weblogs and a greater number of teachers who are using these technologies. It’s really fun to watch.

Some of the highlights:

Most important point for educators/trainers to understand:
Learning is not simply a content consumption process. Learning is also a content creation process. This can’t happen if the flow of knowledge is one way.

It’s amazing how much more that whole constructivist concept has been coming up in my discussions with teachers these days. The ability of students to contribute to the body of knowledge by using Weblogs is one of their key strengths.

Reality

RSS will be bigger than blogging
Not everyone is a blogger
Everyone is a potential RSS subscriber
Personal blogging and work may not always be wise
How does this translate into learning, personal knowledge management, knowledge sharing, conversations???

Instructors can engage learners…and introduce learners to others in the field (i.e. tap learners into a learning pipeline that lasts beyond a “course”)
Learners can develop own reputation (eportfolio)
Institutions can share knowledge via simple, social tools

That distinction in the potentials of blogging and RSS is obviously important. And as I’ve been trying to work through all of this blogging stuff, always in the background is the literacy aspect of these technologies. In the light of what we see coming down the pike, we need to reassess how we teach kids to find and manage information. And secondly, I love that concept of learners developing their own reputations. I’ve got to make some time to develop that idea for my school.

This is all great stuff and just gets me more and more energized about the potentials here.
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