New look, new name: elearning2.0 :: putting the 'oh!' back into elearning
27-October-2005
permalink email thisAfter many a month at the code-face without time for writing prose, I'm finally ready to start posting some of the ideas we've been developing about how small open standards and lightweight open services can make elearning work for real users. To reflect our new fired-up mission to communicate these ideas, I've changed the name of this weblog.
Why 'elearning2.0'?
There's a lot of '2.0' going around at the moment, and a lot of people must be wondering what all the fuss is about, and whether it means anything at all or is just venture-capitalist hype and hysteria. We think that it does indeed mean something - in the sense that a lot of hard work on the part of long-sighted web / service developers is starting to pay off in beneficial systems-effects, and that it's time to start communicating the implications and possibilities to the web-using public. A slogan is called for, and 'web2.0' is a good one for many reasons.
"elearning2.0" has been mentioned a few times by people like Stephen Downes. All of us seem to be using it as a slogan in about the same way: To suggest that the bad old days of Big Standards, Big Content and Big Systems can be viewed with some perspective now, and that open architectures and open pedagogies can synergise to create some great new learning experiences and opportunities.
To get a feel for the kind of stuff that the 'elearning2.0' slogan is inspired by, see my del.icio.us elearning2.0 tag, or indeed everyone's elearning2.0 tag. For a feel for what people are talking about when they talk about web2.0, see my web2.0/intro tag
Why "putting the 'oh!' back into elearning"?
Because I never could resist a pun (two-point-"oh!" - geddit?)... but also to emphasise that our mission as developers is to create opportunities for learners to enjoy compelling and rewarding experiences, not to create software architectures :o)
The new look is our first re-skinning of the KNotes blogging-for-Plone system
Over late October 2005, this weblog is also serving as a test-case for some work we're doing on KNotes, our open-source weblogging and discussion system for Plone. In the first place, it's meant to shake out issues in the rendering/markup architecture. Secondly, it's an experiment in re-styling from scratch starting from a 'foreign' (non MT2) stylesheet. If that means nothing to you, please just ignore it. Much credit to Frederico Oliveira of WeBreakStuff for the original stylesheet, and for having the foresight and generosity to open his gorgeous design work for re-use with a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.
Linking and trackbacks
When linking to this weblog entry, please use the 'permalink', which is http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0/entries/5962731587
