Stephen Downes
@downes.bsky.social
Philosopher. Educator. Journalist. Programmer. Photographer. Cyclist. Socialist.
Thinking of my Obituary halfanhour.blogspot.com/2026/09/thin... Asking myself what my obituary to say isn't just some exercise to orient and make my life better, as suggested in this article.
Thinking of My Obituary
I'm getting old enough now that thinking about what I want my obituary to say is not some vague hypothetical but instead is something visibl...
halfanhour.blogspot.com
Survey results - halfanhour.blogspot.com/2026/09/surv... The survey is still open, if you want to get some last minute thoughts in.
Survey Results
Here's the question I asked and the responses: What work would you think is most useful and valuable for me to do over the coming months? A...
halfanhour.blogspot.com
I have a number of projects on the go and it would be nice to get a sense of what people feel is valuable. I want to hear from everybody (it would make me feel really good, in fact, to get a lot of replies). My survey tool is completely anonymous. Take the survey here. survey.mooc.ca/s/f77996c2a0
Work 2026
survey.mooc.ca
As an experiment, I spent a part of the morning chatting with ChatGPT about why the speed of light is a constant. Quite illuminating and I learned a lot. I put the article in my Substack, separate from anything else I write, and clearly labeled. Enjoy. stephendownes.substack.com/p/the-speed-...
The Speed of Light
Why is it a constant? Why can’t we change it?
stephendownes.substack.com
The objective of higher education, from my perspective, might better be characterized as 'socialization into a discipline'. www.downes.ca/post/79723
Higher Ed Needs to Prove Students Are Learning
Commentary on Higher Ed Needs to Prove Students Are Learning by Stephen Downes. Online learning, e-learning, new media, connectivism, MOOCs, personal learning environments, new literacy, and more
downes.ca
I don't know who the author is -- it shows up as "I Fucking Love Australia" -- but NYT or Washpost Opinion could sub this person in for half their current stable of worn-out op-ed writers and their traffic would skyrocket. You really ought to read this, and you'll learn some terrific Aussie phrases
Deb Chachra@debcha.bsky.social · last mo.This explainer out of Australia is genuinely useful background and analysis of what happened with the Canada-US trade deal last night. Note that it is extremely and delightfully sweary. Also there’s an appended glossary of Australian slang. ifloz.substack.com/p/king-carne...
Better no deal than a bad deal. We are not a U.S. colony.
My latest: The Present and Future Landscape of AI in Scholarly Publishing. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 27(3), 31–50. doi.org/10.19173/irr...
The Present and Future Landscape of AI in Scholarly Publishing | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
doi.org
It has taken a while but I have now been able to upload the video recording of my keynote in Ecuador, Technology, Diversity and Human Connection: www.downes.ca/presentation...
Technology, Diversity and Human Connection
Commentary on Technology, Diversity and Human Connection by Stephen Downes. Online learning, e-learning, new media, connectivism, MOOCs, personal learning environments, new literacy, and more
downes.ca
Enjoy a collection of 364 photos from my trip to Iceland: www.flickr.com/photos/steph...
2026 06 24 - Iceland 2026
28 days in the land of ice and fire (and wind and cold and rain and hills)
flickr.com
Slides and audio from my talk 'Technology, Diversity and Human Connection' in Milagro, Ecuador, are now available: www.downes.ca/presentation...
Technology, Diversity and Human Connection
Commentary on Technology, Diversity and Human Connection by Stephen Downes. Online learning, e-learning, new media, connectivism, MOOCs, personal learning environments, new literacy, and more
downes.ca
A few short slides and audio of my (mostly) Q&A session at the Media and Education Conference, Leuven, Belgium. www.downes.ca/presentation...
Framing the Discussion
Commentary on Framing the Discussion by Stephen Downes. Online learning, e-learning, new media, connectivism, MOOCs, personal learning environments, new literacy, and more
downes.ca
Slides and video from my workshop Personal Learning in the Age of AI are now available. www.downes.ca/presentation... demonstration of convergent fediverse discussion software; interactive practice using the software among participants to conduct an learning event
Personal Learning in the Age of AI
Commentary on Personal Learning in the Age of AI by Stephen Downes. Online learning, e-learning, new media, connectivism, MOOCs, personal learning environments, new literacy, and more
downes.ca
CList currently supports: - read from feeds, Mastodon, Bluesky, search - decentralized DID (& following by DID) - fully decentralized chat, annotations, collections, collaborative authoring - multiple editor types - publish to Blogger, WordPress, social networks - save locally & much more .../2
<div id="post"><div id="post-title"></div><div id="post-content">We *have* created artificial intelligence and given it rights. But the AI isn't a computer program, it is a corporation. https://therealnews.com/citizens-united-delaware-judge"</div><div id="post-references"></div></div>
Long weekend bikepacking video www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sdI... I took advantage of the really nice weather from Saturday to Tuesday that I went on a bikepacking loop north to the Ottawa River and south to Avonmore, staying at a couple of Hipcamp sites along the way.
Long Weekend Bikepacking
YouTube video by Stephen Downes
youtube.com
My proposal , 'Personal Learning in the Age of AI' has been accepted by OTESSA. Online conference (June 8-9) otessa.org/news/final-c... I will be summarizing work to date on CList and outlining my community-based approach to learning while everyone else is making tutoring chatbots.
otessa.org
After three days of the #OLDaily funding campaign, I'm at 7% of my subscriptions target.
With my retirement now just a few days away I have added the subscription links to my page so you can support continued publication of OLDaily. www.downes.ca
I've posted my LinkedIn Newsletter publisher script on GitHub. github.com/Downes/linke... It's tailored pretty specifically to my own newsletter but your AI could use it as a starting point for your own LinkedIn newsletter. Runs in a Docker container on my cloud VPS.
GitHub - Downes/linkedin_publisher
Contribute to Downes/linkedin_publisher development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
I have added two new repositories to github containing updated code from my CList project. KVStore github.com/Downes/kvstore is a very secure key-value store for account information; ProxyP github.com/Downes/proxyp is a proxy allowing web servers to access APIs where resource sharing is required.
GitHub - Downes/kvstore: Securely store key-value information
Securely store key-value information. Contribute to Downes/kvstore development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
I am interviewed on the history, present and future of MOOCs by Saffron Mccullough for the MOOC Institute. Topics range from the origin of connectivism, neural networks and what they need to work, and the impact of AI on the future of learning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wemf...
MOOC Institute Interview
YouTube video by Stephen Downes
youtube.com
Inspired by a few others, I've posted a page titled An Album for Every Year of My Life (So Far) ... halfanhour.blogspot.com/2026/03/an-a...
An Album for Every Year of My Life (So Far)
Inspired by Brain Baking's article like this , "Inspired by Tom’s One Album for Every Year of Life compilation, Robert created his own lis...
halfanhour.blogspot.com
