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by Stephen Downes
Dec 16, 2016
Presentation
The Future Trends Forum at the Campus Technology conference, 2016
Stephen Downes, Dec 09, 2016, Bryan Alexander, Boston, Massachusetts
Feature Article
On Teaching Critical Thinking
Stephen Downes, Dec 15, 2016.
As someone who was teaching critical thinking for a living well before anyone thought to call it a '21st century skill' it bothers me to no end to read articles like this arguing that we should not be teaching critical thinking in schools.
It feels to me that the critics of critical thinking do not understand what critical thinking is, nor why we would teach it.
[Link] [Comment] [Tweet] 66167
European MOOC model
OpenUpEd, 2016/12/16
As the article notes, Europe has embraced the MOOC and is creating its own distinct flavour (one that I would say is closer to the original MOOCs than the commercial American products). This article summarizes that movement with reference to numerous resources, including two surveys of the HOME project (Higher education Online: MOOCs the European way), the 2015 JRC-IPTS survey on open education in Europe, and the Porto Declaration on European MOOCs signed by more than 70 organizations.
Mwabu and Onyx Connect have joined forces to locally produce the Mwabu e-learning tablet.
Staff Writer, IT News Africa, 2016/12/16
Onyx Connect is a South African startup with backing from Google. Mwabu's head office is in Cambridge, UK, with a branch office near Durban. "Mwabu and Onyx Connect have joined forces to locally produce the Mwabu e-learning tablet. The partnership will allow Mwabu to locally produce e-learning tablets which will enable easy distribution of their e-learning content." It makes sense in all sorts of ways to manuacture them locally. The core technology (eg., "circuit-board designs and raw components") will be imported from China.
Online Course Quality: What do Nontraditional Students Value?
Emily Hixon, Casimir Barczyk, Penny Ralston-Berg, Janet Buckenmeyer, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2016/12/16
One reason I'm linking to this item is that it focuses on nontraditional students, which makes it a welcome relief from most similar work (it would be even better if it extended to non-students, but that may be asking a bit too much). The nontraditional students value about what you might expect: clear instructions on how to get started, clear assessment criteria, and access to technical support if something goes wrong. I would like to have known what traditional students favour more, but beyond saying they don't like the start-of-course introductions, the article doesn't really address that.
Why the Coming Jobs Crisis Is Bigger Than You Think
Art Bilger, Knowledge@Wharton, 2016/12/15
This has come up in other discussions as well. "No matter which political party holds the White House or Congress, over the next 25 years, 47% of jobs will likely be eliminated by technology and globalization." Well then, won't new jobs replace the ones we lose? Maybe not. "What would our society be like with 25%, 30% or 35% unemployment?" asks venture capitalist Art Bilger. I think we can imagine, since it's a reality faced in various nations around the world today. But it raises the question: what should we be training our children and youth of today for? Job training seems so irrelevant in a world without jobs.
Designing bots
Mary Treseler, O'Reilly, 2016/12/15
What this makes me wonder is what the best way to think is when creating bots. Consider this: "A designer who thinks in systems will get to know their users’ problems better and will be able to see the point where the bot technology won't be able to solve problems anymore." OK, fair enough. So thinking in systems is one way to approach bot design. But is it the best way? What would the alternatives be? I tend to think in terms of spaces and affordances, not systems. I think of open-ended possibilities, not ways of reaching objectives. But is that appropriate to a bot? I'm not sure, but we need to ask the question. As Desiree Garcia says, "I think there's a need to have a point of view, to note the ways we may be setting precedent for product design throughout the industry, and to know how to articulate it inside our multidisciplinary teams and throughout the broader design community."
What Matters Now: A New Compact for Teaching and Learning
Various authors, National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, 2016/12/15
The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) has released an update (24 page PDF) on its original report released 20 years ago. "We have squeezed all we can out of the hard rind of econo-metric formulas," they write. "Now it is time to activate the human factor - the motivation and intelligence of students and educators - to reorganize schools around what drives learning." I'm not sure there was any juice in that particular rind to begin with. But the turn is a welcome one. So if for the most part their focus on teachers and teaching - not the traditional people and roles, but a redefined set of activities and relationships between them and the students and the community. The report also appears to recognize that there are many other system-wide factors to consider - a shift in demographics in the U.S., where a majority of students are now people of colour, and the gripping reality of poverty, where 50 percent of students qualify for free or subsidized lunches. The report came out in August but SmartBrief revisited it this week.
How to Develop a Mentor Program for Millennial Employees
Samantha Welker, TTC Innovations, 2016/12/15
A large organization I know launched a mentor program for new employees by asking for volunteers, matching them with partners, then leaving them to do whatever. That's a program that's ineffective by design. People aren't born being mentors; it's a skill that needs to be honed over time through learning and development. This article is hardly the last word on the subject, but it's a start. Mentors need to know why they're doing it, have some sense of what they should be doing while they're doing it, and be able to monitor and track results. People acting as mentors should have ongoing support and feedback. Related: Mentoring's promise and limits, the Atlantic..
The 12 Apps of Christmas 2016
Various authors, 2016/12/15
It's a fun thing, though shouldn't it be called the 12 apps of the holiday season? #jk "This short free course is for anyone who is interested in mobile learning, specifically the potential mobile apps hold for learning and teaching. Over 12 consecutive weekdays, starting Dec 1st, take the time to read 12 short case studies written by educators from Ireland, the UK and America, and be inspired by the work that they are doing."
Tap into These 5 Tips for Mobile Learning
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2016/12/15
These five tips are practical and, according to the article, effective. It was the first tip that drew me in: find out what devices students are actually using and align support accordingly. In this case, the trend was toward Apple. But it won't always be - you have to check. The second tip was also a winner: teach not just for consumption but also for curation. And the mechanism suggested was a good one: have the class go out and take pictures of injustice, then (as a group) select the one they want to use. The quality goes down a bit from there but it's still worth reading all three pages.
Forgetting is Easy But So Is Reinforcement
Ryan Eudy, eLearning, 2016/12/14
One of the reasons I'm enthusiastic about practice and engagement in a discipline is that these provide natural environments for the reinforcement of learning. The need for reinforcement - or as it's sometimes called, spaced learning - is well documented. As Ryan Eudy says, "There are many good psychological theories about what is conducive to remembering. In a nutshell, these theories agree that information is not so much 'stored' and 'retrieved' in the brain as it is connected, rehearsed, and reconstructed." Yet it is often overlooked in real learning and development situations. There are ways to address that, but first managers have to get past the 'brain as bookshelf' model of learning. Related: Duolingo on How We Learn.
Temporarily embarrassed millionaires
Bonnie Stewart, the theoryblog, 2016/12/14
Understanding this mindset is key to understanding a lot of what happens in the mythologizing of learning, writes Bonnie Stewart: @socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” The idea is that people don't address underlying socio-economic causes of poverty because they don't see themselves as poor. "I’m particularly interested in how we fight the strange cocktail of victimization and entitlement that hate leeches onto and deploys in its service," she writes. "I’m interested in how media and social media are part of the problem, and what we do about it."
Connectivism: A Learning Theory for Today’s Academic Advising
Zack Underwood, NACADA Academic Advising Today, 2016/12/14
This isn't exactly the Connectivism I know, but the application is interesting. Zack Underwood repositions connectivism as a means of integrating past knowledge with new knowledge, thus addressing some issues in academic advising.
Why Faculty Still Don’t Want to Teach Online
Robert Ubell, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/12/14
Online learning is a lot more convenient for students, offers potential cost savings for institutions and public education systems, and often offers a superior learning experience thanks to the affordances learning technology offers. Yet one of the major roadblocks to implementing online learning, one of the major roadblocks to all the socio-economic benefits more equitable access to higher education offers, are the professors themselves. And the resistors are - quite frankly - quacks. As the story notes, "professors with the deepest resistance are those with the least familiarity with digital instruction," and "solid research over many years has failed to support the overwhelming negative attitudes that most faculty members hold toward virtual learning." If I did the same thing, the academics would be all over my case. But because they're professors.... ooo-ooo-ooooooo
FutureLearn and Deakin University the first to offer range of degrees delivered entirely on a MOOC platform
FutureLearn, 2016/12/13
The title above is of course the title the FutureLearn used on its press release (as is my custom, my post titles follow the article titles). But they should be advised that something is a MOOC only if it is open. And these programs are definitely not open - "Students will enrol for free in a two-week ‘taster’ course. If they decide to continue and become a degree student they will pay £1,500 or AUD $2,600 for the equivalent of one university subject. Each of these subjects will be made up of a program of five short FutureLearn courses." It doesn't say how many programs make up a degree, but never mind. These courses are expensive. And it's not a MOOC platform any more if you lock it up and charge people their life savings for admission.
Innovate Learning Review
Innovate Learning Review, 2016/12/13
I just got a launch announcement for this zine in my email, and the logo says it's still in beta, so I'm assuming the sparse population of articles in the website will begin to fill out a bit. The purpose of ILR is to provide "a curated hub of the latest insight into the issues, practices, research, ideas, discussion, and resources from innovative learning professionals around the world." According to the blurb it is "original as well as aggregated and curated in content, crowdsourced with content recommendations [and] interactive so content and dialogue flows both ways." So we'll see. It's sponsored by AACE and SITE, and fronts their publication portal LearnTechLib.
Strategic Plan 2016-18
eCampus Ontario, 2016/12/13
eCampus Ontario has just released its strategic plan for 2016-28 (21 page PDF). It will be guided by four overall goals: enhance the student learning experience, support faculty development, enhance member capacity and participation, and build eCampusOntario’s organizational capacity. hard to argue with those. What I found interesting in the document was the description of what students want. It's great that they actually asked them. 90% "would choose online delivery over in class because it "allows me to have control over the time and place I learn."
Internet Comments Are Awful. Could They Be Awesome?
Steven Melendez, Fast Company, 2016/12/13
This article looks at some of the work in the online comment space (also known as the Great Cesspool of the Internet) offering "a mixture of technical innovation and social incentives could make online comments readable—and even engaging." For example, Civil - "The online equivalent of taking ten deep breaths before picking a fight." Or the Coral Project, which has a tool called Ask for embeddable comments and feedback, as supporting tools called Talk and Trust. Or the Engaging News Project, which has an embeddable quiz widget. Or of course Disqus, which is used here at OLDaily. Of course, these are all aimed at publishers, and not really suitable for blogs or personal publications.
Ria #37: Dr. Jamison Fargo On Working With A National Research Center
, Ecampus Research Unit | Oregon State University,
In this episode, Jamison shares about his experience as a researcher with the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans and his work as a biostatistician.
Are you ready for blended learning?
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, 2016/12/12
The key question to emerge from Tony Bates's review of a survey on learning technology in universities: "What happens when we go to 85% or more of the teaching being blended? The current learning technology support model just won’t be able to handle this expansion, certainly not at the rate that it is being predicted." But if universities have no realy idea how to implement blended learning, why would we think this is the way forward?
What I have learnt from the course "Advanced Theories of Communication”
imcyndi, Tomorrowland, 2016/12/12
A lot of what underpins communications theory as described here also underpins theories of transactional distance in education theory (see the work of Michael G. Moore for example). The idea is that "the process of communication involves the process by which a sender conveys a particular message to the audience" and "effective communication occurs when the receiver can acquire the exact meaning intended by the sender." Pretty standard stuff. About three quarters of the way through, the author looks inward and discusses the elements of dialogue with oneself. I like this a lot, but it makes me wonder, when we communicate with ourselves, is communication always effective? I don't think it is, for a variety of reasons. And I ask whether communication is really the sending of a specific message with any sort of meaning at all. Via Pierre Levy.
What I Learned Recreating One Chart Using 24 Tools
Lisa Charlotte Rost, Source, 2016/12/12
This is a great example of a personal professional development project, and Lisa Charlotte Rost is not only walking away from this exercise with knowledge and skills she can bank on, she provides the rest of us with an excellent understanding of the range of data visualization tools available today (and more importantly, what sets them apart from each other).
Experience of disadvantage: The influence of identity on engagement in working class students’ educational trajectories to an elite university
Tamara Thiele, Daniel Pope, Alexander Singleton, Darlene Snape, Debbi Stanistreet, British Educational Research Journal, 2016/12/12
A willingness to work hard, an ability to resist negative social pressure, and a desire to prove sceptical parents and peers wrong - these are traits that characterized those from disadvantaged social groups who did attend a top-tier university, as compared to those who didn't. These are the conclusions of a British Educational Research Journal study published today. It all rings true for me (despite the small size of the study, which should invite caution). People may read this and say "oh yeah, you need grit." Or some such thing. But to me it speaks to the wider social conditions we need to address to help people move beyond a disadvantaged background and achieve more in life.
Transforming the Value Proposition
Patricia McGuire, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/12/13
I think it's more than just American education that has "lost the narrative" and I think it was in need of a rethink well before Trump. And I've also expressed my scepticism in the past about the ability of the higher education sector to reform itself. I continue to be sceptical. Higher education as a whole, as Patricia McGuire says, "has been adrift in a devolving eddy of self-pity, whining about overregulation while obsessing about bracket placements and rankings, pandering to political and philanthropic overlords while remaining largely silent on the great social issues of our times."
So what's needed? McGuire identifies three major areas of change:
Expand access to college - "change the interior circumstances of costs, culture, educational programs and pathways that would enlarge the pipeline and ensure success... focus on students and less on institutions." Reform the cost-price structure - college is "entirely too expensive for most people to bear, even with generous financial aid" and "debt burdens are impossibly heavy." Reclaim their voice - "the young [should] perceive clearly where we elders stand on issues like human rights, world poverty and hunger, good government, preserving the fragile ecosphere..."These issues have all received priority in these pages. As, I believe, they should.
Why Indian students drift to foreign universities
Neera Sanotra, Exams Watch, 2016/12/13
This article should be an eye-opener for those arguing for 'traditional' education and pedagogy. It is precisely to escape that model that Indian students head elsewhere for their degrees. In India, "education is more theory-based rather than practical thus creativity is not at all encouraged. Education is based on rote-learning and is exam-oriented... Education thus becomes a mere formality. The acquisition of a degree does not equate with real learning." By contrast, "In foreign universities, education is given and absorbed by practical measures. There is more hands on experience and thus the learning acquired is real and has depth... through research-oriented assignments and project work. The aim is to make the students independent and themselves responsible for their learning." Yet it is surprising how many people in our system argue for the former and not for the latter.
Education Technology and the Year of Wishful Thinking
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2016/12/12
This is the first of Audrey Watters's series on trends in education for 2016 and it's pretty good, even if I disagree with the main metaphor. She depicts 2016 as "a terrible, terrible year" because of the celebrity deaths, bad election results, war and killings. My own observation is that it's business as usual with a bit of a demographic kick as the post-war baby boom reaches its inevitable conclusion. But her observations about the danger of quackery in ed tech are spot on, and she lists a number of 'trends' as indicators: chatbots, blockchain, Pokemon Go, 3D printing and wearables. If your pundit gushed about one of more of these this year, there's a good chance they're a quack. Not because they're failures. But because they're fads, and quacks jump on fads (trying to be the 'first' and make a name for themselves, as Dean Groom pointed out earlier this week.
Your Ellie – On the Primacy of Networked Knowledge
Amy Burvall, AmusED, 2016/12/12
I commented to someone this week, "For all my talk about networking, I'm not a very good networker." Maybe when you don't have it you see what it is more clearly? So consequently, I don't have what Amy Burvall's daughter would call "an Ellie" - a close (and more organized) friend she calls instead of using antique technology like a website. This reminds me of a survey we did when researching for MuniMall in the 1990s - we asked municipal officials where they got the information they needed, and the number one answer was to "'call someone they know." Burvall suspects we prefer this method because it's more human. I suspect it's rather because it's more efficient.
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Copyright 2016 Stephen Downes Contact: [email protected]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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