Author Archives: Norm Friesen
MOOCs, OER and PLAR: Prior Learning Assessment for Open Ed.
Just got this open publication, co-authored with Christine Wihak, published in the journal Open Praxis. Here’s abstract, etc: Recent developments in OER and MOOCs (Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses) have raised questions as to how learners … Continue reading
CanCore Archived – & some thoughts
I’ve revived the site for the CanCore Learning Object Metadata Initiative –complete with all the guidelines documents and updates to 2007. I’ve received the odd, periodic request for the guidelines in the last few years. It probably is a good … Continue reading
Wandering Star: The Image of the Constellation in Benjamin, Giedion and McLuhan
Just got word that this proposal was accepted for the “14th Jerusalem Conference in Canadian Studies” at the Hebrew University. It focuses on three great writers, and three very unique texts: Walter Benjamin’s notion of the “constellation” marks a particularly … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Theory, Media Theory
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Two Ed Tech/Media Traditions: Rationalist vs Romantic
Spoken language is the first and most basic medium, and various forms of writing come next. If this is true, then media have a long history. This is certainly the case for education & for learning speech & writing. I … Continue reading
Posted in History, Media Theory
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Open Textbooks, Educational Content & Knowledge
[slideshare id=15443685&doc=opentextbookseducationalcontentknowledge-121201133451-phpapp02] Open textbooks are an important step toward accessible and affordable education. But there’s a gap between what’s currently happening with open textbooks and what commercial publishers have long been doing. Until this gap is closed, commercial publishers will … Continue reading
Wittgenstein: Education as (Dog) Obedience Training ?!
I’ve been revising a paper for Phenomenology and Practice, and was disturbed to learn that Wittgenstein can be read as urging punishment and conditioning for education in ways that would have made the crudest behaviourist blush! It all goes back to the German … Continue reading
Foucault on Self-Care as Self-Bildung
Been reading Foucault’s Hermeneutics of the Subject, Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France from 1981-1982. In this text, Foucault articulates further his notions of “care of the self” and “pastoral power” (about which I posted this item a couple … Continue reading
Posted in Bildung, Michel Foucault, The Self
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Science (Scholarship) as Open Source Process
This very short piece from the late F. Kittler becomes increasingly relevant.as issues of open scholarship and open education become ever more established. For example: However, it was practical when some programmers at the MIT resisted venality and when a computer … Continue reading
Posted in Friedrich Kittler, Media Theory
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Foucault, Pastoral Power, Schooling and Subject Formation
David Hamilton, a remarkable educational theorist and historian, has concluded the following about schooling; i.e., about education as secular, public project: “It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that, on an international scale, schooling was conceived by Christianity and raised … Continue reading
Posted in Bildung, Michel Foucault
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Foucault on the Lecture
Just came across this excellent interview with Michel Foucault from Partisan Review way back in ’71. Foucault articulates a rather original position on the lecture as a pedagogical form. He defends it for being as at least “crudely” honest about the … Continue reading
Posted in Lecture, Michel Foucault
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