Can Enlightenment Scale?
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, October 28, 2011.

I forget where I heard this but I heard it recently: the one thing that scales proportionately with student numbers is student numbers. And this is the key to understanding how new educational technologies scale. Not though industrialization, not through enterprise architecture, but by tapping students themselves to create the scale. This I think is what's behind MOOCs, what's behind drive-by creatrivity and the DS106 phenomenonon, and what's behind Michael Feldstein's really useful observations in this post. As he writes, "if we can create a world in which the average community college student asks her professors what their credentials are to teach their classes, then all else becomes possible in educational reform." I can just imagine to myself some monks looking at a room full of specially trained scribes reading and writing text in the old languages and asking, "Yes, but will it scale?"

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Vocational Education]

This Video Will Solve the Math Ed Crisis
Frank Noschese, Action-Reaction, October 28, 2011.

I really like it when people back up their opinions with actions. Like Frank Noschese, who was inspired by this recurrent complaint about math education: "the general public could care less about drilling versus discovery. The real problem with math education is... kids these days can’t even make change without a calculator." So instead of sitting on the sidelines complaining, Noschese took action, creating a video (and corresponding QR code to hand out at checkouts across the nation) on how to Count Money and Make Change. There is indeed a skill to it, which I learned through the school of hard knocks selling hot dogs and popcorn at a football stadium. Be sure to hand out the QR-code cards and "pat yourself on the back for helping to fix what’s wrong with math education."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Video, Online Learning]

Open Access Week Tidbits
Maura Smale, ACRLog, October 28, 2011.

It's Open Access Week in some parts of the edublogosphere, and this item has a round-up of a few interesting items. See also Mohsen Saadatmand. One of the items motivated me to do a search for an #occupyeducation tag - and yes, there it was. Here's the Tumblr group. Oh yes, and Douglas Rushkoff: "'Occupy' is anything but a protest movement. That’s why it has been so hard for news agencies to express or even discern the 'demands' of the growing legions of Occupy participants around the nation, and even the world. Just like pretty much everyone else on the planet, occupiers may want many things to happen and other things to stop, but the occupation is not about making demands. They don’t want anything from you, and there is nothing you can do to make them stop. That’s what makes Occupy so very scary and so very promising. It is not a protest, but a prototype for a new way of living." As illustrated above. I visited the Occupy site in providence, and it looked like nothing other than our bar-camp educamp edupunk alternative forms of learning. Not a coincidence.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Google]

Digital Citizenship and Social Action
Press Release, Imagine-action, October 28, 2011.

The Canadian Teachers' Federation is sponsoring school-based grants of $500 or so to fund student citizenship activities. My first thought was that it would be a good way to help then organize their local 'Occupy Wall Street' campaign, such as the Providence camp pictured above - but reading the suggestions, I guess not. The suggested projects are things like "Homeless Mission; Food Cupboard; Animal Shelter; Nursing Home; Boys and Girls Club; Group home, etc." - stuff government really should be doing, but I guess isn't. When I was in school my 'citizenship' activities consisted of things like Model Parliament / Commonwealth / U.N., debating and public speaking, social activism, community recycling program, development and food education (based on people like Francis Moore Lappe), and the like. Times change, I guess. But I'd still rather students see citizenship as governance rather than charity. See also Imagine-Action's main site.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Project Based Learning, Canada]

CIRA and Media Awareness Network help build kids’ cyber security smarts
Press Release, CIRA, October 28, 2011.

The Canadian Internet Registration Agency, which manages the .ca domain (and of which I am a member) has released some internet safety materials. "While studies show Canadian youth are more tech savvy than older Internet users, they are also more likely to take security risks online. Winning the Cyber Security Game aims to give students in Grades 5-8 tools and strategies to mitigate and prevent negative online experiences.... The new teaching unit complements the Cyber Security Consumer Tip Sheet for adults released by CIRA and MNet in April 2011." Just to be clear, this isn't an online game - it's a PDF that you're supposed to print and, I guess, use in the classroom. While I'm sure the objective is laudable, I can't help but think that this represents a bit of scope creep for the Agency, which should maybe sticking to managing the .ca domain registry.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Gaming, Adult Learning, Marketing, Experience, Canada, Security Issues]

Social Login Offers New ROI from Social Media
Larry Drebes, Harvard Business Review, October 28, 2011.

Good overview of the idea of 'social login' with an outline of business implications. Social login "allows visitors to a website to log in using their Facebook, Google, Twitter, or other social media account rather than having to register a new one." As for impact, "social login can be a huge marketing 'force multiplier' in every business's two core tasks: acquiring customers, and selling them products and services." HBR is so much better when it sticks to nuts-and-bolts coverage like this, than when it verges perhaps carelessly into more political domains.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Twitter, Marketing, Google]