Loading...
[Home] [Top] [Archives] [Mobile] [About] [Threads] [Options]
by Stephen Downes
Nov 18, 2016
Feature Article
Open Learning in the Future
Stephen Downes, Nov 15, 2016.
My contribution to the FutureOER discussion. Formal learning will be less and less focused on resources, which will be available to everyone, and much more focused on activities. Tuition will pay for materials, environmental support and equipment, and professional assistance, often on an as-needed basis.
Share | The changing boundaries of the MOOC identity
Various authors, Federica, 2016/11/18
This is a MOOC created out of the presentations and discussions I and a dozen or so colleagues had at a colloquium on the Isle of Capri at the invitation of the University of Naples Federico II. The enrollment page is here. Only the first week is available so far, featuring short intro videos from each of us, but the next few weeks will feature the longer presentations from us all.
The Learning Analytics Roadmap: The Dalton Plan
Moodle News, 2016/11/18
This is an overview of how Moodle will approach learning analytics under the leadership of Elizabeth Dalton. "Dalton believed the offerings of analytics spoke too much corporate and too little actual intervention. It surprised her when the community seemed to forget or overlook that 'learning analytics are about learning'. It is understandable that marketing materials and approaches are made in the context of a business case, especially for learning organizations focusing on the enterprise. But she fears the 'metaphor is going too far'." The article isn't very informative, but you'll want to follow the Moodle Analytics series, the link to the video (a great talk from Dalton) as well as the reference to Schiro's curriculum theory.
The Capabilities, Opportunities and Motivation Behaviour-Based Theory of Change Model
John Mayne, ResearchGate, 2016/11/18
There are numerous behavioural change models, but John Mayne expresses surprise that they are not used more in educational literature. This is likely because behaviourist accounts have largely been replaced with the sort of cognitive modeling processes described in constructivism. In any case, Mayne here (12 page PDF) works with the Michie, Stralen and West (2011) COM-B model: "behaviour (B) occurs as the result of interaction between three necessary conditions, capabilities (C), opportunities (O) and motivation (M)." I wouldn't adopt this approach, but it's important to note because management programs tend to favour behaviour-based Theory of Change (ToC) models, and this is what projects (like Silicon Valley's) without a lot of educational background tend to produce.
The Coming Revolution in Email Design
Jason Rodriguez, A List Apart, 2016/11/17
Could we be about to see technological innovations in email? According to this article, email vendors are beginning to awaken to the possibility. "The email industry itself is in a state of reinvention," writes Jason Rodriguez. "The web is leaking into the inbox." We're looking at responsive layouts, animation and interactivity, semantic elements, and tooling and frameworks. Significantly, Microsoft (which has never supported HTML email properly) is taking more of an interest.
Stereotyping, Behavior, and Belonging in the Open Education Community
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, 2016/11/17
David Wiley comments on the role of commercial actors in the open space in light of yesterday’s revelation that Microsoft has joined the Linux Foundation. He writes, "The open source software side of the open house has absolutely no issue with commercial entities using or contributing to open source software." That's not exactly true, but the dissenting voices have long since been drowned out. Anyhow, it's not the same in the content world, but the fear of educators, he writes, is unjustified. "There’s no excuse for judging an organization based on whether it was incorporated as a for-profit or non-profit entity." Maybe, but that's not how commercial use is defined. It's when you slap a pricetag on a learning resource and prevent them from accessing it otherwise that people begin to question the practice. And remember, in most countries, education, unlike software development, is a public good. Which is why we resist the commercialization of learning resources.
HTML 5.1 is the gold standard
Philippe le Hegaret, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), 2016/11/17
As reported by the W3C: "A couple weeks ago the W3C Web Platform Working Group published HTML 5.1 as a Standard. It was merely days after the second anniversary of the advent of the 5th major version of the core language of the World Wide Web (you may read the press release we put out when HTML 5 became a W3C recommendation)." Best line of the day is from Ben Werdmuller: "According to software precedent, the next version should be HTML 7."
Is Audio Really the Future of the Book?
Rebecca Rego Barry, JSTOR Daily, 2016/11/17
I don't think anyone has seriously suggested that all books will be replaced by audio. It's far more plausible to suggests that all paper versions of books will be transferred to a digital format. Audio as a medium has its limitations. But it is a terrific medium to help occupy the mind while doing other things, like cooking, driving or trying to sleep. Hence the continuing popularity of radio and the recent rediscovery of podcasts. This article looks at the history of audio books - aka 'talking books' - from its origin in the 1930s. Audio books have always had their criticisms, as though they were some form of cheating. But there's also a sense in which audio is more. “Listening to authors read their own memoirs introduces an intimacy that cannot be achieved without the audio,” writes Amy Harmon.
Thank You, Pearson: OER, Metadata, Gateways, and Elephants
Bill Fitzgerald, FunnyMonkey, 2016/11/16
There's debate about Pearson's approach to OER, especially through it's Equella service (acquired in 2009). Lisa Petrides posts on 'open source pillaging': "see how our non-commercial resources are used inappropriately here." Bill Fitzgerald responds that Pearson is doing the community a service. "Pearson is helping to expose more people to OER, and subsequenty increase the adoption of OER," he writes. "By selling access to communities around OERs, Pearson provides a gateway, exposing many people to OER who might never have used them otherwise." But if they're using them simply as yet another commercial resource, where's the benefit in that?
4 learning and development trends for HR leaders to watch in 2017
Tess Taylor, HR Dive, 2016/11/16
It's not the first 'end of the year' article (believe it or not) but it's early. Too early, in my view, but I digress. Anyhow, it makes four predictions, which I quote:
Video will continue to enable micro-learning Millennials will continue to value learning and development as a prime benefit Gamification and virtual reality will continue to enhance learning experiences Mobile learning will continue to expand employee development goalsWell, *yawn*. All of these (very vague) things are happening now. If you're going to write an end-of-year article, try to be useful. How will video be enhanced in 2017? What impact will defining learning as a benefit have? What new features or types of gamification can we expect? How will be define employee development goals? Come on - if you're going to predict, try to actually engage with the topic.
In defence of the humanities: Why studying philosophy in a world where welders earn more still makes sense
Robert Fulford, National Post, 2016/11/16
It's telling that this defense of the most non-utilitarian of disciplines appeals to a utilitarian argument: "Properly applied, the humanities teach us how to formulate our views, articulate them and defend them." That's a side-benefit, but hardly the core of philosophy or any of the humanities. I studied philosophy motivated by a spirit of discovery and creativity, a desire to explore ideas and perspectives and points of view. I didn't care (and still don't care) whether welders make more money than me (I hope they do; welders offer a valuable service to us all). Philosophy doesn't need defending. The reduction of all things to monetary value needs defending.
'Augmented Intelligence' for Higher Ed
Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/11/16
As the story says, "IBM picks Blackboard and Pearson to bring the technology behind the Watson computer to colleges and universities." Watson is IBM's flagship analytics engine. Pearson is working on an “intelligent tutoring system” while Blackboard is working on "tools for advisers and faculty members."
What Edtech Can Learn from Theranos
Jennifer Carolan, EdSurge, 2016/11/16
How do we explain the high-profile silicon Valley failures in ed tech? Jennifer Carolan suggests we can learn some lessons from their failures in other domains. First, "Education expertise, which is critical to building great education startups, has been undervalued in edtech." Second, "top performing edtech companies almost always have at least one investor with deep experience operating and investing in the space." And third, "efficacy matters even if it is hard to demonstrate."
Oxford University to launch first online 'Mooc' course
Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 2016/11/15
This of course is happening more than eight years after the launch of the first MOOC. One wonders why it's the cause for a news story.
On metadata
Daniel Lemire, 2016/11/15
Daniel Lemire is exactly right in this article, and we forget it at our peril: "Most metadata is unreliable. Maintaining high-quality data is simply hard work. And even when people have good intentions, it takes more mental acuity than you might think." And the system is not set up for it. "One of the problems with metadata in the real world is that you are in an adversarial setting.... you still have to worry that they are going to lie to you."
Aaron Perzanowski: The End of Ownership
David Weinberger, Joho the Blog, 2016/11/15
Summary of a talk on the new state of 'ownership' in the digital age. "What rights do people think they have when they ‘buy now.' Aaron and Jason did an experiment that showed that if people bought through a 'buy now' button, they thought they have the right to keep, device, lend, and give their copy. People make this mistake because they port over their real-world understanding of buying." In 20 years, will we be free to use our education as we wish, or will our knowledge of, say, calculus only be licensed for particular uses?
YouTube has (apparently) reinstated RSS feeds
Brian Schrader, BiteofanApple, 2016/11/15
Brian Schrader writes, and I echo every word: "Well if there's something I wasn't expecting to find tonight, it was that apparently YouTube has decided to allow users to follow channels via RSS again, and unlike the last few years, this time it actually looks to be officially supported! I have no idea when this feature was added, but it's the first time I've seen it. Most articles about YouTube's RSS feeds are either hacks or from ancient history. I don't know what mad(wo)man is behind this, but I love them."
Auckland Startup Launches Revolutionary eLearning Platform
Modlettes, 2016/11/15
I think the Modlettes product looks really interesting but it's quite expensive to get started (for me, at least) and the two-week trial doesn't really give me the capacity to try it out with a larger audience. The idea is that "any member of a user organisation can be given permission to create and upload Modlettes to their organisation’s channel, all with just a few touches on their smartphone." The authoring tool permits you to upload content, but ideally it would allow you to make the content on the fly - don't just 'upload' video, record video. For what they deliver, it's way overpriced, but the concept is good.
Via Quartz I came across this excellent website devoted to what is best described as folk art. But what art! Articles include a Japanese exhibit of rocks that look like faces, layered yarn portraits of South Africans, a fiery-throated hummingbird, urban geodes on the streets of L.A., Japanese candy sculptures, toilet paper rolls squished into funny faces, a 2017 letterpress lunar calendar, a metropolis of more than 600 paper sculptures, and much more. Things like this inspire people, and they should be seen.
Ria #33: Dr. Inger Mewburn On Supporting & Training New Researchers
, Ecampus Research Unit | Oregon State University,
In this episode, Dr. Inger Mewburn shares about her experiences as a research educator and blog writer.
You’ll Know the Drones Are Coming When…
Tony Hirst, OUseful Info, 2016/11/15
So, if a delivery bot using the sidewalk crosses the street at a crosswalk, does the driver have to give way and stop? This is the very relevant question asked by Tony Hirst as new technologies are forcing us to thing of devices as ethical objects. Do their rights sometimes trump ours - for example, if I am demonstrating in front of a political office and impede a sidewalk-using drone, have I committed an infraction? I've seen a few things recently depicting the AI phenomenon not as an intelligence question but as a test of ethics - for example, this article from O'Reilly, and episode 334 of Spark on CBC. Does an AI have an obligation to the truth, or to respect individual privacy, or is it waived from the limits that would constrain humans?
Meet the new IFTTT
IFTTT, 2016/11/14
IFTTT - which stands for "If This Then That" - has long enabled people to partner their services with each other. For example, when I post a new photo on Flickr, I use it to repost it to my art blog and send a notification to Twitter. I also use it to create some RSS feeds out of social media to make keeping track of the industry that much easier. A similar (but expensive) service is Zapier. Anyhow, IFTTT has overhauled its technology, switching from 'recipes' to 'applets'. Applets can do much more than exchange content, for example, this: "Center the map on your home. When you arrive, your Android device will be unmuted, automatically and the volume will be set to 80%."
Why do we test school kids anyway?
Finn Poschmann, Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC), 2016/11/14
The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC) is an "independent think tank" that offers business-friendly advice to governments and lobbyists. Normally they steer away from education, but occasionally offer an item like this recommending that we adopt a pro-testing standards-based system that is definitely not constructivist or 21st-century learning. Finn Poschmann cites "evidence" (from another 'independent think tank', the C.D. Howe Institute; actually a link error but probably this) to argue "too much emphasis on using differently coloured blocks to represent 100s, 10s, and 1s, and not so much on “what is 7 times 12?” seems to cause problems for kids in later years." The evidence seems to say the opposite; the highest-achieving students are in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, and these are also the most progressive schools in the country. It's where progressive education is steadfastly resisted - as in Canada's Atlantic provinces - where we see poor test scores dragging the nation down. See also: high poverty school succeeds by focusing on adventure, the arts, project based learning.
Linked Research
Sarven Capadisli, 2016/11/14
Linked Research "is set out to socially and technically enable researchers to take full control, ownership, and responsibility of their knowledge, and have their contributions accessible to society at maximum capacity." The idea is to have open calls for publication and open reviews. The site is brand new; the most useful bit so far is the resource page. Maybe it will go nowhere, but maybe it will become part of the Solid (decentralised personal data storage) and Linked Data Platform: (W3C standard for RESTful read-write Linked Data resources) ecosystem. See this paper from the same group from 2015.
Towards a Trusted Framework for Identity and Data Sharing
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, 2016/11/14
Good article discussing the emerging distributed framework (a la resource profiles, now known as trusted data ecosystems) for digital identity. Two specific technologies are discussed: a blockchain enabled system called Enigma, and a lighter weight framework called OPAL. "Enigma, is a decentralized computation platform enabling different parties to jointly store and run computations on data while keeping the data completely private... a much simpler and easy-to-deploy version called OPAL (OPen ALgorithms) will soon be ready for pilot testing in a few European countries.
The Failure of the iPad Classroom
David Sax, The Walrus, 2016/11/14
I think it's far too soon to say the use of technology in learning has "failed". But sceptics will enjoy this thorough denouement of educational technology. But a strand of thought half way through caught my eye. It was this: the fear that computer screens will "will replace more valuable, sensory activities, such as putting their hands through a box of sand, or eating a tub of Play-Doh." And I wondered: what is the impact of sand on test scores? How about clay and paint? I don't think we'll find a significant difference, but the argument against technology is based on exactly that sort of data.
Differences in Learning Style Preferences: A Study of Mainland Chinese College Students Studying in Hong Kong
Kin Man Chow, British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 2016/11/14
There has been considerable argumentation in recent years to the effect that learning styles do not exist. Such argumentation, though, is firmly rooted in western culture. What of the learning styles of different cultures? This paper examines attitudes toward learning in Cantonese and non-Cantonese students studying in Hong Kong, and 'local' Hong Kong students. It concludes that there are significant differences, and suggests these are based in Hong Kong students' greater facility in English, which leads them toward a more visual orientation. Similar results have been found in previous work. The paper (36 page PDF) is the subject of an open peer review process, and you can read earlier versions as well as reviewer comments. Image: South China Morning Post.
This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.
Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.
Copyright 2016 Stephen Downes Contact: stephen@downes.ca
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Loading...
Loading...