Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada as a specialist in online learning and new media.
Currently based in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Institute for Information Technology, Stephen has become a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata, weblogs in education, content syndication, digital rights and related issues. Stephen is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily (short for Online Learning Daily), which reaches thousands of readers across Canada and around the world.
How I Know What I Know about Online Learning
Online learning, as with other internet disciplines, sweeps across boundaries, disrupting and changing the very nature of enquiry into the domains it touches. It can be argued that traditional research methodologies are of little use in such an environment; it is difficult to measure the impact of an intervention in such a rapidly changing and chaotic environment. Stephen Downes has earned a reputation as a researcher in the field of online learning using methods that might be seen as unorthodox but which (he argues) produce reliable results. This presentation will look at these methods, seek to identify a basis for practice in them, and will offer alternative approaches for researchers.
Presentation: Stephen Downes: iPED2008