#stephen downes

I Will Not Post This Dave Pell, Life, Philosophy, 2014/12/26

Subtitled "the coming age of self-censorship" this article discusses the way the internet critics pile on when you tweet or write something inappropriate - or, as in the case of Donald Sterling, get recorded tirading through a racist rant. The conclusion, writes Dave Pell, is that "these new realities will lead us down path towards self-censorship." He writes as though this is a bad thing. But let's think this through. The examples he raises are actually all pretty despicable. If by "self-censorship" he means "not launch into racist tirades," then my response is, bring on self-censorship. Students are always taught "be careful what you pur on Facebook." But a much better lesson is, "be careful what you do." Not because it might end up on Facebook, though it might. But because, if it's wrong when it's all over the internet, it was wrong when you did it in private too. This and the next item via Doug Peterson.

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Outside the Skinner Box Gary Stager, Independent School Magazine, 2014/12/26

Gary Stager reprises his restatement of Seymour Papert's educational philosophy in this article touting learning by creating and by programming. "The satisfaction, personal efficacy, and knowledge construction resulting from the act of making something is well established," he writes. "Schools embracing the energy, tools, and passion of the Maker Movement recognize that, for the first time in history, kids can make real things - and, as a result, their learning is that much more authentic."

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Gates’ strict open access policy may have domino effect  Tania Rabesandratana, SciDevNet, 2014/12/25

According to this article, the open access policy adopted by the Gates Foundation may cause others to adopt the same requirement. When it is fully implemented in 2107, the policy will require that authors publish papers funded by the foundation in open access journals without an embargo period. Between now and then there is a transition period that accommodates embargoes. The author also quotes a journal publisher expressing concerns that the policy will make it difficult for authors in developing nations to publish locally. I still question this argument. The developing world will not be helped by preserving bad business models there. The sooner it can adopt global practices, and enjoy the same benefits as we have in the western world, the better.

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10 Trends to Personalize Learning in 2015 Barbara Bray, Personalize Learning, 2014/12/25

There are some interesting thoughts in this post. The ten trends are divided into four quadrants: learning culture, learning environments, partnerships, and deeper learning. This allows Barbara Bray to look beyond technology and think about things like belief systems, competencies, advisories, project-based learning and assessment as learning. She writes, "It is about the learner making learning personal for his or herself. It is about teacher and learner roles changing....The current system of content delivery and focusing on performance instead of learning is not making positive changes for our children and their future."

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Five Reasons the Conversations Have Moved from Twitter to Voxer  John Spencer, 2014/12/25

I don't know whether Voxer will replace existing social networks, but John Spencer's five reasons were enough to convince me to pay the $2.99 a month (quoted from his post):

The lack of badges, and metrics "likes" or "favorites" means we aren't playing Relational Fantasy Football. There are no rockstars.

We don't have to put on a public persona.  On Twitter, it often feels less about talking with one another and more about talking to the public.

While Twitter feels like this massive, loud meet-and-greet, Voxer feels like a hangout.

The multimedia element allows it to still be asynchronous (similar to Twitter or Facebook) while still feeling like the person is physically there.

Sometimes someone has a longer thought that deserves a little extra time.

My user name on Voxer? Downes.

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A 2014 (Personal) Blogging Retrospective Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2014/12/25

Michael Feldstein writes a detail, clear and really honest blog post about the history of his own blog and the role it played in his career. I guess there are three major stages there: his early blogging days, in which he became part of the educational blogging community; his "war" against the Blackboard patent (and we all owe him a debt for that); and his post-lawsuit days in which the blog matured and his career flourished. I've always enjoyed Feldsteins informed and in-depth analyses; he is the type of blogger who goes well beyond the superficial to understand not just how things work the way they do, but also why. I still think he is more corporate-friendly and big-institution-friendly than I am, but there's no reason he needs to agree with me on these points, and the world is a far more interesting place with his perspective in it.

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If you were to Start a School from Scratch….  Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, LangWiches, 2014/12/25

I've actually thought about this question quite a bit. New Brunswick has legislation that makes it comparatively easy to start colleges and even universities, so I've idly scoped out all the buildings in the city, pondering amenities and sitelines, and thinking about the possibilities. Moncton could use a polytechnic (I always thought Saint John made a mistake in refusing one a few years back) with a strong liberal arts element, along the lines of MIT. I'd develop on an engaged and community-focused curriculum focused on projects rather than content. It would be bilingual. And I'd take the advice in this post:

hiring teachers "who can demonstrate skills (not just talk about them) and are experiencing a connected learning network as they are building their own digital presence "

supporting networked students

"including documenting and reflecting as an integral part of the student work flow /learning process"

I think it would be good, and it's the sort of core presence (and not a withdrawn and distracted academia) that is key to a region's cultural and economic growth.

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MOOCs are closed platforms… and probably doomed Daniel Lemire, 2014/12/25

"Do not be fooled by how savvy MOOC advocates sound," cautions Daniel Lemire. "They do not understand what they are doing." He doesn't mean me, of course. "The actual MOOCs that colleges publish are closed platforms, as per Wikipedia’s definition," he writes. Interestingly, you can walk into any university classroom and sit in on a lecture, and nobody will care (if they notice at all). That's because lectures are a hard sell, he writes. And consider this thought experiment: what if the degrees were free, if you passed the tests, but each hour of lecture cost twenty dollars. "You know what is going to happen? Nobody but the instructor will show up." Colleges are still selling the content - and that's why they canot afford actual open MOOCs. But this will change. "Colleges that try to lock down course content, let alone the content of their MOOCs, are signalling that they have no clue about the business that they are in."

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The Only Person Who Behaves Sensibly Is My Tailor Charles Jennings, Workplace Performance, 2014/12/24

I'm not sure I agree completely with this article but it's a good read and worth the time invested in it. Charles Jenning begins with a quote from George Bernard Shaw: “The only person who behaves sensibly is my tailor. He takes new measurements every time he sees me. All the rest go on with their old measurements.” This is fair enough and makes a good point. But what should be measures? Jennings argues that the focus should be on outcomes, not process. "Activity data provides few if any insight into the effectiveness of learning and provides only limited insight into the efficiency of learning activities," he writes. Maybe so, but not everybody is seeking the same outcomes, nor should they be expected to achieve the same outcomes. Jennings writes, "It is clear that the annual performance review, a metrics approach based on ling cycle times and relatively stability, will give way new, more nuanced approaches. A parallel path to learning metrics." (p.s. the fish image is from the NSW government. Why a fish? It is a tailor - a type of fish that showed up in my image search for tailor, and a good example of a good, but unexpected, outcome).

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The New Era of Smart, Connected Products Irving Wladawsky-Berger, 2014/12/24

"We wanted flying cars," complained Peter Thiel, "instead we got 140 characters." Have we stopped solving the big problems? It may seem so, says Irving Wladawsky-Berger in this article, but with the age of smart devices almost upon us, we may be in for more big changes soon. As Kevin Kelly says, "Everything that we formerly electrified we will now cognitize,” he said. “There is almost nothing we can think of that cannot be made new, different, or interesting by infusing it with some extra IQ… This is a big deal, and now it’s here." These enhancements break down into four major categories: monitoring, control, optimization and autonomy. I think I would add communication, coordination and cooperation, creating, effectively, products that work as teams.

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Models For Designing Your Personal Learning Environment Connie Malamed, The eLearning Coach, 2014/12/24

This article draws from several sources to draw out some concepts involved in designing a personal learning environment. A PLE, suggests Connie Malamed, is "a self-directed and evolving environment of tools, services and resources organized by a person seeking a way to accomplish lifetime learning, to create, and to connect with others of similar interests." And "because it is collaborative, information may be continually created and shared. In the workplace, designing a personal learning environment has the potential to partially replace conventional courses," she adds. See also building a personal learning ecosystem.

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The Six Deadly Sins of Training Donald Clark, Big Dog, Little Dog, 2014/12/24

Good longish article that doesn't just mention the six items but also takes the time to explain each in some detail. The six sins are:

Failing to align Training Goals with the Business Goals

Failing to Identify the Type of Performance Problem

Failing to get Support from the Leadership Team

Failing to Identify the Correct Setting for the Learning Process

Failing to Include Enough Activities and Practice Time to Reinforce Skills

Failing of the Learning and Development Team to Learn from Their Successes and Failures

"One of the major misconceptions of ADDIE or ISD is that it was created to only build classroom training environments, yet the reality is that it emphasizes other solutions first — you should too."

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Above-and-Beyond Responses Lee Rainie, Janna Anderson, Jennifer Connolly, Pew Research Internet Project, 2014/12/24

More predictions, in two parts (part 1, part 2) - I don't generally like prediction posts, but I indulge in them, from time to time. Vint Cerf, for example, advises us to "look for losses in intellectual property and via ‘data pollution’." Jeff Jarvis adds, "There will be continuing attacks bringing continuing damage. The question is how big an industry that will spawn in securing systems against such danger and mitigating risk." Jerry Muchalski writes, " Targeted attacks should rise, as should dysfunctional ideas (memes), spread to sew discord or doubt. Far too much of the world’s computing capacity is defenseless. Anything with firmware that can’t be upgraded securely in the field is vulnerable."

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The Agile Classroom Douglas Kiang, Edutopia, 2014/12/24

In the last year especially I've been steeped in project management theory as leader of our Learning and Performance Support Systems program. I can certainly understand the need for it in a wide variety of projects; even projects oriented toward exploration and discovery benefit from an organized approach. But is it an appropriate methodology for designing learning or classroom activities? I would not say "no" without careful thought. More significantly, is it worth sharing the methodology with students as the learning is designed? This might make even more sense.

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Margery Mayer’s 2015 Personal Statement: Frank McCourt, the Storytelling Machine of Heart and Wit Margery Mayer, EdSurge, 2014/12/24

Despite myself, I found myself enjoying these 'personal statements' from EdSurge:

Jaime Casap, Global Education Evangelist at Google: Beating the Low Expectation Syndrome

Margery Mayer, President of Scholastic Education: Frank McCourt, the Storytelling Machine of Heart and Wit

Dale Stephens, Chief Educational Deviant at UnCollege: The Power of the Alternate Path

Wendy Kopp, CEO and co-founder of Teach for All: The Choice to Be 'In the Arena'

Frank Catalano, edtech analyst and consulting strategist: Harnessing the Power of Information

John DeGioia, President of Georgetown University: Formation, Inquiry and the Common Good

And if that's not enough for you, here's EdSurge's Fifty Stories from Fifty States (actually 52 stories).

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Microsoft is Dumping Clip Art. What Are You Going to Do? Tom Kuhlmann, The Rapid E-Learning Blog, 2014/12/23

No more clip art? What will we do now? Microsoft will offer a Creative Commons - default Bing search instead. Tom Kuhlmann writes, "dropping clip art is probably a good thing for course designers. It forces us to be more intentional about the graphics we use in our courses. It also puts some pressure on organizations to finally commit some of their training budgets to graphic and visual design resources." But Creative Commons users who Freaked out when Yahoo started selling their photos had better prepare themselves for additional surprises. Meanwhile, Kuhlmann writes, "you’ll need to verify that the images you use via the Creative Commons search can be used for commercial work."

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Learning’s first principle – the most important thing i learned this year Dave Cormier, Dave's Educational Blog, 2014/12/23

The first principle Dave Cormier writes about is this: do they care? He writes, "Our job, as educators, is to convince students who don’t care to start caring, and to encourage those who currently care, to continue caring." In the comments comes an unexpected treat from David Wiley, an old paper on the same subject. "Why bother learning how to use all these 'effective instructional strategies' when people aren’t even going to engage with them?" he wondered. My take is different. I see education less as an enterprise in making people do what they don't want to do, and more as one of helping people do what they want to do. And there's something wrong with the selection mechanism when a student can pay and spend four years at a university and still not be engaged in learning.

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Strength in numbers John De Jong, Pearson, 2014/12/23

So what's the link between Pearson and the PISA assessments? I don't know either, but after reading this odd post I begin to suspect there is one. Why is it odd? Well, first, it conflates the emergence of the World Wide Web with a political campaign, saying (erroneously) that they both "show the power of a shared ambition and a collective approach." The web is exactly the opposite of a "collective" approach; each site is developed independently, the only links between them being, well, links. So why this odd definition of "collective"? Because the author thinks it applies to PISA as well. "Every three years around 70 countries volunteer to take part in PISA, which looks at the skills and knowledge of 15 year olds." Well, yes, but they don't represent any sort of collective effort (otherwise we'd see Americans involved in the testing of Chinese students, and vice versa). And the respective countries don't share common goals. It's unlikely even that they share the definition of "skills and knowledge" imposed on them by PISA (because otherwise national curricula would reflect these same topics, which they do not). Since I presume that the author knows better than to make such facile comparisons, I conclude they are deliberate, which makes me suspect something is up.

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Predictions for K-12 Education in 2015 Don Kilburn, Pearson, 2014/12/22

Not all 'predictions' articles are actually predictions. Very often they reflect aspirations or intentions. I think this post from the Official Pearson Blog qualifies as one of these. Among the 'predictions':

Continued Focus on Rigorous Learning Goals

Increased Use of Data to Improve Individual Student Outcomes

Emphasis on Ensuring That Students Are Not Just College-Ready, but Career-Ready as Well

These are predictions? Seriously? No, not hardly. They are things the company would like to see emphasized. These, in turn, map back to corporate marketing strategies and product lines. And a big part of that is standardized assessment so the company can make money off adaptive learning products. See here and here.

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Real talk Vyvyan Evans, Aeon, 2014/12/23

"For decades," begins this article, "the idea of a language instinct has dominated linguistics. It is simple, powerful and completely wrong." There is no language instinct - yes, we have the capacity to learn a language, but what`s key here is that language is something that is learned, and not the basis for learning. And the arguments against Chomsky`s theory of a universal grammar`should also cause you to doubt theories of learning based on similar ideas (especially, for example, Piaget or Pinker). We learn language the way we learn everything else: by observing examples of language being used, by imitation and practice, and finally, by reflection. And the ability to use language is a type of recognition, no different from recognizing Aunt Lucy, and not some artful manipulation of codes and rules. If this long article doesn't convince you to abandon the innateness-of-language theory, then I don't know what will.

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The End of Sitting Ronald Rietveld, Erik Rietveld, Arna Mackic, RAAAF [Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances], 2014/12/22

As we get away from classrooms we begin to look at new ways of creating environments for working together. The modern design - offices with desks, tables and chairs - is no real improvement on the classroom. This research project looks at alternatives, designing various shapes based on the different ways we can lean or stand when working with each other. I'm not sure I like it - it probably has the acoustical problems inherent in open-concept workspaces, and there's no place to put down my coffee or to grow a plant. But I like the thinking behind it. More from Wired, Science Alert, Fast Company, etc.

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How to Write a Resume That Stands Out Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review, 2014/12/25

Yes I know, there's a million of these articles out there already. But this is short, clear, and really good. It made me rethink how I wrote my own c.v. (you get to call a resumé a c.v. is you're looking for an academic position). Not that I'm looking for a job (I have really enjoyed the last year at NRC as a program leader) but it makes me rethink how I would organize my accomplishments and those of the people who work with me. As the article says, "'I managed a team of 10' doesn’t say much. You need to dig a level deeper. Did everyone on your team earn promotions? Did they exceed their targets?"

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The moos you can moo Mark Liberman, Language Log, 2014/12/26

This article looks at news reports that anthropomorphize elements of scientific reports and, as a consequence, misrepresent their conclusions. In this case, scientists examine how cows use distinctive calls to communicate with offspring. The news media adds a human element to this behaviour by saying these are "names" for the calves. What's happening is that the news media, by describing cows as though they were human, are essentially making stuff up. Geoff Pullman writes, "They actually print what are obviously lies, even when the text of the same article makes it clear that they are lying."

I think the same thing happens in educational writing. If this article, for example, we are told about "the brain’s danger detector, the amygdala, being down-regulated, trading energy normally spent on vigilance for heightened focus and enhanced recall." But the brain is doing no such thing; that is aninterpretation of a set of neural phenomena. Or this: "the human brain locks down episodic memories in the hippocampus." Or this, "the eyes and hands of children save memories for them." Assigning cognitive functions to things that do not have cognitive capacities is pernicious anthropomorphism, and it imposes a theory of self on the evidence that has no basis in reality.

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Article at the Open Badges in Education workshop Hans Põldoja, hanspoldoja.net, 2014/12/24

Post linking to an article on the use of open badges in education. Covers badges briefly and most notably, identifies the following use patterns (quoted from the post):

composite badges can be achieved by completing multiple assignments;

activity-based badges can be awarded automatically based on measurable learning activities;

grade-based badges are based on the grades that the learners have received;

hierarchical badges are divided to several levels, some of which may be composite badges based on lower level badges.

Interestingly, as the author notes, none of these are based on learning outcomes, showing that there is still a gap between the implementation of badges and the ideal envisioned.

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The conundrum of creating an open course in a closed site – Storyboard OOC update Gabi Witthaus, Art of e-learning, 2014/12/23

So this, I think, is the opposite of a MOOC: "We chose to use a platform that requires people to have accounts and sign in, in order to be able to set up and manage the groups effectively." Ironically the letter they choose to drop MOOC is not 'O' for 'Open' but 'M' for 'Massive'. It's true that if the course is not open, it won't be massive, but the really important bit is whether or not it's open. Additionally, setting up a course in such a way as to require management of groups is also contrary to the intent of MOOCs. So why not just call it an 'OC' (Online Course)?  Well, it wouldn't be very interesting if it were just one of those, would it? And that's why we're getting so much false-MOOC pollution.

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The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality Leo Mirani, Quartz, 2014/12/22

We need to be careful about which part of the new technology-enabled on-demand economy we are cheering for. Uber, for example, or AirBNB appear to be tech-enabled, but they're not, really. " In my hometown of Mumbai," writes Leo Mirani, "we have had many of these conveniences for at least as long as we have had landlines -- and some even earlier than that. It did not take technology to spur the on-demand economy. It took masses of poor people." This isn't exactly what we're trying to achieve in education. Via Kottke.

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Copyright 2010 Stephen Downes Contact: [email protected]

Coursera has obtained the endorsement of the U.S. government, which is promoting it to some 21 million U.S. military veterans. The "partnership provides one free Coursera Verified Certificate to every US Veteran to help improve employability skills in high-demand fields such as data science and entrepreneurship." Tressie McMillan Cottom responds: "I emailed my chair and said, 'they’re turning my dissertation and manuscript into a satire.'" Coursera, she writes, probably found "employers aren’t nearly as interested in training workers as we seem to think they are." So what they need to do is convince the labour market to pay a premium for their credentials. "Endorsements are not a small matter when you’re trying to convince people that your piece of paper is valuable.

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Data is Just A Clue to the End Truth David Crotty, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2014/11/14

"Show them pieces of the picture, so they can stand back for a little bit and let it pass, and come away with a deeper understanding." And "look after truth and goodness, and the beauty will look after itself." These are the essences of data visualization. This, and the idea that it is a human trait (and capacity) to look at complex disparate data and to identify meaningful information that emerges from the chaos. To me (and not to the video) this means that misperception is as important as perception. An example: I originally read the title of this article as "Data is Just A Clue to the End of Truth" and this altered my perception of the article and the video, and let me see something different in it. Any data visualization employs the designer, the data, and the viewer - perception (and recognition) require all three. In what sense, therefore, does data 'reveal' truth? No - truth should go into data visualization, but what comes out is beyond truth.

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Convivial Tools in an Age of Surveillance Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2014/11/14

Audrey Watters talks about "how we can push back on the hype surrounding ed-tech disruption and revolution, how we can ask questions about whose revolution this might be — to what end, for whose benefit — and how we can, should, must begin to talk more seriously about education technologies that are not [built] upon control and surveillance." I like especially the section about Alan Kay "pushing forward a vision of what we now call 'personal computing.' Not business computing. Not cryptography. Personal computing.... It’s 'personal' because you pour yourself into it — your thoughts, your programming." Why then is education technology about "control, surveillance, and data extraction?" I also like the suggestion that "what we need to build are more consensus-building not consensus-demanding tools." Except, of course, we shouldn't care about the outcome of such tools. We should care about the process. See also The Future of Education: Programmed or Programmable.

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Mozilla Open Badges Various authors, Mozilla, 2014/11/14

If you want to get started with badges and don't know where to start, this is the place to start. It's the Mozilla Open Badges wiki page, and it has the basic information, likes to starter kits, and links to a bunch of other resources. "A digital badge is an online representation of a skill you’ve earned. Open Badges take that concept one step further, and allows you to verify your skills, interests and achievements through credible organizations and attaches that information to the badge image file, hard-coding the metadata for future access and review."

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How Online Journals Increase Student Communication Skills Patricia Fioriello, Kids Learn to Blog, 2014/11/14

Oh hey, remember when blogging was the next great thing to help kids learn to communicate on the web? They still are! The trick is to get started. "We encourage starting things simply. Have your child start by describing his day. What did he eat for breakfast? What did he and his friends talk about at recess? Did anything good happen today? Bad? This will get the child in the writing mood and get the basics down quickly." Nothing fancy. Just write. It doesn't have to be good. Just write. This applies to everyone, not just kids.

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Keep on Co-Claiming Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, 2014/11/14

I don't know whether "co-claim the web' will earn as much traction as "reclaim the web" but I enjoy Alan Levine's efforts to find something like a middle ground here. The middle ground is more or less what I do as well - I still use services like Flickr and Twitter and Facebook but I would not be lost or despondent should they suddenly shut down. Anything I actually value that I host on those services is well backed-up elsewhere. And so I can use them for their primary purpose: to share, to intermingle, to fine weirdness and serendipity (like the 'default' tag on Flickr).

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OSGi Core specification Various authors, OSGi Alliance, 2014/11/13

Interesting: "The OSGi Core specification delivers an open, common architecture for service providers, developers, software vendors, gateway operators and equipment vendors to develop, deploy and manage services in a coordinated fashion. It enables an entirely new category of smart devices due to its flexible and managed deployment of services. OSGi specifications target set-top boxes, service gateways, cable modems, consumer electronics, PCs, industrial computers, cars, mobile phones, and more." This is a long and complex specification, but it also points the way to the underlying service layer that will characterize the next-generation internet.

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Designing Critically: Feminist Pedagogy for Digital / Real Life Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, Aimee deNoyelles, Hybrid Pedagogy, 2014/11/13

This article outlines what the authors call a feminist pedagogy for digital and real life. I can't say I've thought of these as particularly feminist, but they write: "feminist tenets that define and drive my classroom are: (a) breakdown of hierarchy, with students and teachers setting the curriculum and engaging in critique and assessment; (b) participatory learning, with the emphasis on learning for students’ own purposes and goals; and (c) the belief that knowledge is socially constructed and evolving."

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New online library aims to ‘equalise’ science education Alecia D McKenzie, University World News, 2014/11/13

I do sort of wonder why Nature would need support from UNESCO to do this (or why UNESCO would partner with them in what amounts to a pretty small-scale initiative), but there it is, the World Library of Science: "The library – WLoS – ‘contains’ more than 300 articles, 25 eBooks and some 70 videos, as well as a digital platform that “provides a community hub” for learning, according to UNESCO, which created the site jointly with the international Nature Education publishing group and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche." I can't help but notice the similarity in name with 'Public Library of Science', which this effort may appear to be attempting to undermine.

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The Red Pen Page Various authors, Education Post, 2014/11/13

Education Post has launched something they call the Red Pen page. It's such a brilliant idea I might steal it. Basically it takes an article published by whomever (the first two are from USA Today and the Poughkeepsie Journal) and in a second column posts 'red pen' comments highlighting and correcting errors in the story. "We take aim at the myths and falsehoods that can sometimes cloud the debate and prevent real conversation," the write. Of course, the risk here is that the corrections are selective and slanted. For example, the red pen criticizes the Journal for associating the Gates Foundation with Race to the Top, arguing the program is fully federally funded, which it is. But the Foundation was heavily involved and helped states financially in obtaining the grants. So the red pen can be as inaccurate as the article it criticizes. Via Alexander Russo.

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Why One Professor Thinks Academics Should Write ‘BuzzFeed-Style Scholarship’ Rebecca Koenig, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2014/11/13

I don't think you need to go full Buzzfeed on this, but there is good sense behind the idea that academic writers should write more accessible versions of their articles. I don't mean dumbing it down (though the author of this post may). I mean writing in clear English, organizing the subject in a compelling manner, and eschewing academic obfuscation that can be tentatively maintained as permeating relevant media in a semiotic-complex and modularily inspecific manner. If you've managed to read past the previous sentence you will no doubt enjoy the brilliant Buzzfeed versions of structuralism and post-structuralism.

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The Internet Archive launches its arcade: Classic games in a browser Christian Nutt, Gamasutra, 2014/11/13

From the 'mindless diversions' department of OLDaily: the Internet Archive has made available in-browser versions of classic arcade games, including Frogger, Joust and Galaga, to name just a few. Many of my old favorites are here (I was an arcade rat at the time the first video games came out; I actually paid money to play pong, and though I always preferred pinball (because you could get free games), I played many of the games listed here when they were new). "Archivist Jason Scott writes about the process of getting the Arcade up and running on his personal blog. He explains its purpose like this: '... my hope is that a handful, a probably tiny percentage [of players], will begin plotting out ways to use this stuff in research, in writing, and remixing these old games into understanding their contexts.'" Awesome.

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University rankings – a game of snakes and ladders Gary Barron, University Affairs, 2014/11/12

As I always say when the issue of university (or school, or reseacher, etc) ranking comes up: the purpose of university rankings is not to rank universities. It is to define a set of criteria that are deemed valuable by the ranking agency, and to encourage universities to embrace these criteria by means of shaming those who don't with 'lower' rankings. The differences in rankings described in the current article reflect the differences in the criteria deemed important by the respective ranking agencies. One ranking agency deems 'reputation' to be more important. Another deems publications in natural sciences, medicine and related fields as more important. Neither agency's ranking are relevant as anything other than a lobbying instrument, which is how they should be treated.

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Special Issue on Historic Design Cases Craig D. Howard, Colin M. Gray, International Journal of Designs for Learning, 2014/11/12

The International Journal of Designs for Learning has just come out with a really interesting collection of historic design cases. The nine cases span from 1959 to 2003 and examine such initiatives as the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction, Minimalist Instruction, and the Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour. "Without the documentation of these designed artifacts including the narratives of their creations, we take avoidable risks—a misconception that each new breakthrough is itself entirely new, repeating failures we as a field have already grappled with and sometimes overcome, and overlooking the insights built into designs we use every day."

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Improving the Utility of Large-Scale Assessments in Canada W. Todd Rogers, Canadian Journal of Education, 2014/11/12

Interesting paper about the potential for large-scale assessment (a.k.a. standardized testing) in Canada. Three major problems are presented: the reliability of the test results, the need to get results early enough to make useful changes, and the provision of resources to support those changes. The point of the paper is to describe what's needed to make the assessments work, but I think it's a lot more convincing as an argument to the effect that they don't work. "Principals and teachers must be provided with reliable profiles that can be validly interpreted, and they must have adequate time and assistance to make needed changes to enhance learning and achievement of all of their students."

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Move over MOOCs – Collaborative MOOC 2.0 is coming Yojana Sharma, University World News, 2014/11/12

This is an article about the development of cMOOCs - only they're being called "MOOC 2.0" and being touted as a new invention. Because that's how the world works. And, frankly, I applaude the initiative. "Many conventional MOOCs are developed and designed for Western teaching and learning experiences, says [Professor Auh Yoon-il of Kyung Hee Cyber University], the lead project designer for MOOC 2.0. 'But the general consensus here [among those working on MOOC 2.0] is that MOOCs education must be a collective effort from all parts of the world.'  What is important, according to Auh, is that to avoid a 'type of neo-colonialism', receiving countries must collaborate in devising the MOOCs their students will study." More coverage from Korea's Joongang Daily. And here is the Kyung Hee MOOC 2.0 website.

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Accidental Exposure Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, 2014/11/12

After again being confronted by students angry that their dissertations are being sold on Amazon, ProQuest has announced that it will stop selling them on Amazon. It will still keep selling them, of course, just not in a place where students might accidentally find out. "We discovered that the language in the contract was not clear enough about the scope of the distribution,`said a VP at ProQuest. Yeah, right. The FAQ refers to it as "dissemination" and you have to read through three quarters of the document before you find the word "sell", and students have to "embargo" their work to prevent this. If they were being clear and honest they would put the word in the first paragraph and give students a way to opt out of commercial distribution while retaining non-commercial distribution.

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Federated Education: New Directions in Digital Collaboration Mike Caulfield, Hapgood, 2014/11/11

I think that this is quite a good proposal that has many merits. It begins by pointing to what is probably the central problem with Wikipedia: obtaining consensus within a very large community. "You go online to share it and you’re teleported past the personal and dialogic and suddenly find yourself having to defend the inclusion of this fact or this edit... And it gets worse, because if you lose that battle (notability, accuracy, citations, linked ideas — whatever the battle is) your contribution disappears." Caulfield then describes as an alternative the federated wiki, where an idea (or item about content) will migrate from person to person before a consensus is developed (if ever). My own approach would probably be less 'tribe' centered and less consensus centred. I don't think there's a whole lot of value in either. But the idea of a piece of content moving from person to person and growing and adapting (which a record of these changes) as a lot of merit, and is worth investigating further.

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The Data on Diversity Beryl Nelson, Communications of the ACM, 2014/11/11

Diversity is an asset in pretty much any working or learning situation, but diversity can be a challenge, especially with participants who are not accustomed to diversity. This can result in bias and stereotyping among members, causing them to misrepresent or filter what other group members are saying or doing. "Even a small bias can result in a large difference in the representation of minorities at the top levels of a company." To address these issues, some effective practices include: making data available, creating a critical mass, embracing of differences, and sponsorship of women and minorities. "An organization that says 'we value diversity' is more trusted than one that says 'we are color blind.'" Good article, very detailed, worth the read.

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Managing Open Access publication Owen Stephens, Jisc Monitor, 2014/11/11

If you're reading this article and wondering what APCs are, you're not alone. There are dozens of things it could be, and the author doesn't even bother with a link, let along an expansion of the acronym. From the context, after a bit of sleuthing, I figured out that it probably means 'article processing charge'. But it's very unfriendly of the author not to tell us this. Don't do this! Having said that, I think the project being described is interesting and applies equally to open educational resources. The purpose is to "write a system specification for an application to support data and workflows related to the costs of OA publishing and/or funder mandates." I imagine that publication costs cannot be escaped, though I would personally place the emphasis on cost-effective institutional repositories rather than expensive publisher services. (p.s. the author attribution is a guess, because this information is also not provided).

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Advantages and Disadvantages of SCORM 1.2 vs 2004 Erik T. Lord, eLearning Chef, 2014/11/11

Any digital technology that lasts for more than ten years has to be considered a success. "Despite the growth and excitement around the xAPI (TinCan) spec, SCORM remains the most popular and supported method of ensuring a standardized communication between an online course and the LMS." The secret is, it just works. "There’s a reason most eLearning content is still built for SCORM 1.2…it simply works and generally satisfies the tracking requirements many organizations require."

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Photos from Armenia and Georgia Stephen Downes, Flickr, 2014/11/10

I've been in the Caucasus region for the last week or so. Here are photos from Armenia and Georgia: Sevan Lake, Armenia; Khor Virap Monastery and Mt. Ararat, Armenia; Tbilisi, Georgia; Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple, Armenia; Yerevan, Armenia.

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Why Google wants to replace Gmail Mike Elgan, Computer World, 2014/11/10

One of the values of traditional email and RSS is that you choose exactly what you want to see; if there is filtering and organizing, you do it yourself. This runs against the Google business model, which selects these resources for you (and charges customers for premium placement in those listings). So - argues this article - the release of Google's Inbox means they are working toward the end of regular email.

Mike Elgan writes, "Google exists to mediate the unmediated. That's what it does. That's what the company's search tool does: It mediates our relationship with the Internet. That's why Google killed Google Reader, for example. Subscribing to an RSS feed and having an RSS reader deliver 100% of what the user signed up for in an orderly, linear and predictable and reliable fashion is a pointless business for Google. It's also why I believe Google will kill Gmail as soon as it comes up with a mediated alternative everyone loves"

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The Disconnect: Do we really have a skills shortage? Or just a communication problem Jessica Barrett, Calgary Herald, 2014/11/10

Our LPSS program is intended in part to address the skills shortage. But suppose it doesn't really exist. "We have not seen wages spike in response to a labour shortage, as would be dictated by the law of supply and demand." Maybe not, but many businesses are not viable if wages spike. Additionally, informal agreements often exist among employers about wage rates. So this data does not entail the conclusion that there is no skills gap. But suppose this is the case; what's happening instead? "We have a problem, not necessarily with the skills, but with how one describes the skills... Digital gatekeepers have none of the leeway inherent in an in-person exchange." Well if that were true it's the same as a shortage, so we should still expect a spike in wages. But what happens instead is that companies make do without. No doubt better algorithms would help (and we'll probably see a follow-up article in a few months that just such a process is being marketed by the main commentators in this article). But going back to the days of the personal interview is not an option.

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Academic citation practices need to be modernized so that all references are digital and lead to full texts Patrick Dunleavy, LSE Blog, 2014/11/10

I have long been frustrated in academic research by the lack of URLs referencing the cite papers. This article argues for a change in practice to the effect that all papers would directly link to the papers they cite. I have less faith in the author in the utility of the DOI system for legacy content - these are just as often broken as others, as publishers and universities change the URLs of papers and do not update the registry. I also like the idea of 'source quotes' to ease searching for relevant passages: "Source quotes replacing page references do not have to be memorable, nor must they be especially salient bits of text, nor very long ."

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Harvard secretly photographed students to study attendance Matt Rocheleau, Boston Globe, 2014/11/10

The lede captures it nicely: "Harvard University has revealed that it secretly photographed some 2,000 students in 10 lecture halls last spring as part of a study of classroom attendance, an admission that prompted criticism from faculty and students who said the research was an invasion of privacy." We are drifting toward a surveillance society, even in (especially in?) academic environments. And institutions should know better apparently don't.

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The times, they are (always) a-changin’ Melonie Fullick, University Affairs, 2014/11/10

Melonie Fullick argues that calls for universities to change are misrepresenting the complexity (and reality) of change in the system. "Universities already have changed, over the decades and centuries. It’s just that they’ve never changed enough for the present moment... I’d say the question is not whether universities will change – since this is ongoing – but what those changes will look like, how they will happen, and whose needs they will serve best." Interesting article with some valid points.

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Fall of the Banner Ad: The Monster That Swallowed the Web Harhad Manjoo, New York Times, 2014/11/10

The internet was originally a military and academic network designed for the free sharing of information and communications. As it began to be opened in the 1990s to allow commercial participation there was significant opposition to the introduction of advertising to the environment. These fears turned out to be well-founded, in my opinion, as much of what is bad about the web today can be traced back to the need to pursue clicks over content. I remember these first banner ads from Wired as I was a longtime member of the Wired online forums (called 'Hotwired Threads'). Today I am reading that sponsored posts are providing significant returns for advertisers. This next great retreat from meaningful content and communication will be equally harmful. Me need so much to be able to move beyond advertising, but the commercial interest is pervasive, and nobody seems to know how to escape the trap we set for ourselves 20 years ago.

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Connectivism and Composition: Toward a Networked Classroom Jason Tham, Weblog, 2014/11/10

Based on the slides this looks like an interesting talk, capturing the core ideas of connectivism. I also like seeing someone else with a proper presentation page, one including slides, audio, and eventually, a transcript. My only significant criticism would be the obligatory invocation of collaboration, which is quite unnecessary and misses some core points of connectivism. Collaboration is about everybody working for a single objective, while in connectivism people work on diverse objectives, interacting and cooperating on points of mutual interest.

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Knowmad Society John W. Moravec, Education Futures, 2014/11/10

Good diagram, overall. I don't know where it comes from, exactly; I found it on Facebook. I'm not sure how "not restricted by age" is a 'skill'. I would say "shares" rather than "invites sharing". I would say "cooperates and communicates" rather than "collaborates". I would say "investigates new technologies" rather than "purposively..." (dropping the 'purposively' to reflect the idea of exploration over dedication to specific outcomes). I would say 'disregards hierarchy' or 'eschews authority' or some such thing rather than 'thrives in flat networks'.

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