July 2, 2013
Fujitsu and MIT Announce First-of-its-kind Breakthrough Higher Education Learning Platform
Fujitsu,
July 2, 2013
This is interesting. MIT and Fujitsu are announcing something called 'Guided Learning Pathways' based on learning "nuggets". "By breaking domains into atomistic concepts and populating each concept with a wide variety of learning nuggets, GLP will be able to eliminate the Industrial Age 'course' and tailor each individual’s education to suit their interests. As shown in Figure 1, each learner can follow his or her own pathway through the material." That sounds a lot like learning objects, of course, but the project adds the idea of OERs and MOOCs to the mix. "The future seems bright for the many GLP concepts that have been demonstrated by independent organizations, such as personalized digital learning, massive enrollments in online classes, and collaborative, online learning." Once upon a time I had a plan for a distributed learning object repository network (DLORN), made up of open educational resources. This is similar (in my mind) to that. See also eCampus News.
Effets Durables
Michel Denis,
July 2, 2013
Our own MOOC en français will take place starting January. If you can't wait, there's this: "I would like to announce to you and to the world-wide MOOC community that the first french c-MOOC on Sustainable Development & Alternatives for the World, will begin on October 1st. More details are available on: http://www.effets-durables.org/"
Alternatives to Google Reader
alternativeTo,
July 2, 2013
It's official, Google Reader is gone (I checked this morning) but there is a lengthy list of alternatives.
Pearson introduces the OpenClass Exchange
University Business,
July 2, 2013
An unlikely source, Pearson publishing, is launching an OER repository venture. "The OpenClass Exchange will include a catalogue of over 680,000 items, including videos curated from YouTube EDU, Khan Academy and TED Ed. The OpenClass Exchange will also include a collection of complete OER college courses from the Open Course Library, built by educators for educators." I've long urged other LMSs to take the lead on this, but I imagine now that the floodgates will be opened. See also the Open Class Blog. Via Academica.
Google Faces
Christian Loclair,
Onformative,
July 1, 2013
I've talked about perception (and knowledge) as pattern recognition quite a bit over the years, and used the example of the 'Face on Mars' more often than I can count. But this project takes the concept to the next level: it employs a face-dfetection algorithm to recognize patterns of faces in Google Maps satellite version (aka Google Earth). I wish it told me more about the algorithm that is used (the face tracking library written by Jason Saragih), but the article while long on examples (and they're great examples) is short on explanation. Via Strange Maps.
Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in a Distance Learning Course on Mathematics Applied to Business
José Bidarra, João Araújo,
EURODL,
July 1, 2013
This paper examines the use of a personal learning environment (PLE) in the context of a Moodle-supported business course. While PLEs confer advantages, there needs to be an implementation strategy at the campus level as well. Otherwise the result is as follows: "PLE’s allow many students to exercise a greater control over their learning activity, but it also show that Moodle is (still) the most important component of their learning environment at Universidade Aberta. It remains the key environment for contact with teachers, to access content, to allow for individual assessment, and to reach the institution." My own take is that the PLE is best suited to a MOOC-like learning environment, but the PLE-MOOC combination has yet to be implemented in any meaningful way.
High School Open On-line Courses (HOOC): A Case Study from Italy
Enrique Canessa, Armando Pisani,
EURODL,
July 1, 2013
People have asked me frequently whether I know of any examples of MOOCs in the K-12 sector. Here's one: a MOOC designed for high school "aiming to support the training and basic scientific knowledge of young students from the Liceo Ginnasio Dante Alighieri in Gorizia, Italy." Has it worked? "In only few months the use by students of the www.OpenDante.it video archive for HOOC has growth from 30 % to 97 %. Feedback from students and Parents on the use and impact of making HOOC available on the web are encouraging."
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