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OLDaily - Text Edition by Stephen Downes Feb 15, 2017


We Are Not Agreed
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A few days ago University Ventures authored a piece
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in response to a post from the New America Foundation
comparing
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Republicans who defend for-profit colleges to climate
change deniers. The unattributed University Ventures
article argues "this piece re-fights yesterday’s
war... the many challenges and opportunities facing higher
education lend themselves to bipartisan consensus –
perhaps more than any other area of public policy."
Bipartisanship is of course a U.S. phenomenon. But it is
worth noting that there are many things U.S. lawmakers
agree upon that are opposed in corners around the world. I
find myself frequently occupying those corners, and today
is no exception. So, setting aside the for-profit colleges
debate for another day, I'd like to take the time to point
to the points where I disagree with what is taken to the
the emerging consensus.
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Ellucian Stops Support for Brainstorm, its CBE platform
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"Winter is here," writes Phil Hill as Ellucian ends support
for Brainstorm
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the competency-based education platform it acquired
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two years ago. This signals a permanent shift in the
market, he says. "The business of Ed Tech is changing, and
more decisions will be based on whether product lines have
a real chance to become self-sustaining based on
near-term revenue." We also reasd that " Ellucian is
also putting Banner 8 into sustaining support mode and that
customers need to be off that version by the end of 2018."
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How Google Chromebooks conquered schools
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This is an interesting statistic: "Chromebook's share of
the U.S. education market was 49 percent last year, up from
40 percent in 2015 and 9 percent in 2013, according to IDC
figures released this week." Who would have thought it? But
the Chromebook has several advantages: it's cheap, it's
lightweight, and it provides access to a full set of tools.
That said, "Macs and Windows laptops are still dominant on
college campuses." But will this change? And could it go
international? The answer to the latter question might be
"no" - for example, "Chromebooks are useless in China
because the device depends on Google services that aren't
available there." But the concept would work, wouldn't it?
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European MOOC Platform Expands to 5 U.S. Universities
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I can think of all sorts of policical questions that might
be asked in the U.S. following this announcement
(especially if the British import succeeds where the
US-based alternatives failed). On the other hand, there is
the global trade argument: "The partnership with
FutureLearn will allow the universities to extend their
reach internationally and tap into new communities of
potential learners, according to a statement from the
company."
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Copyright 2017 Stephen Downes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
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