Better education can combat cyber-bullying, not legislation, expert says
Globe, Mail, Jill Mahoney, September 30, 2013

The thing with cyber-bullying and other inappropriate web use is that authorities seem to pretend that students and young people came up with these ideas all by themselves, and that if they are taught (or legislated into) proper behaviour, this would address the problem. But young people learn what is right by observing their parents and other adults. If they see, say, political advertisements demeaning and denigrating opponents, they learn that this is appropriate. If they view scantily clad teens in advertisements and Disney shows, they learn that this is appropriate behaviour. If they see Paris Hilton become well-known as the result of an explicit video, then the making of explicit videos is normalized. The same newspaper that ran this story is quite happy to run scandalous exposés of public figures. If we want to see an end to cyber-bullying and other inappropriate behaviours in our youth, then we as adults need to desist as well. But of this, I see no sign, and the pious denouncement of teen behaviour continues apace.

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IMS Global Announces Learn ing Analytics Interoperability Framework
Press Release, IMS Global, September 29, 2013

Announced by IMS: "IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global) has announced initial public release of the breakthrough Caliper Learning Analytics Framework and associated Sensor API (application programming interface). The Caliper standards based framework will leverage and incorporate a set of defined, standardized metrics and learning outcomes, such as (but not limited to) the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) framework’s data models, Common Core Standards, and CAS standards for student developmental and learning outcomes for education."

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Froebel and the pedagogy of computing
Miles Berry, An Open Mind, September 29, 2013

Nice article describing the thinking and influence of 19th century German educator Friedrich Fröbel. Known as the inventor of kindergarten - "children's garden" - Froebel emphasized the importance of natural environments and play. "One of the things which set Froebel’s kindergartens apart from other schools of his day was the emphasis on providing children with an incredibly rich environment in which to learn, not so much through being taught as through purposeful exploration and discovery." And Miles Berry notes the distinction between play and 'play'. "There’s a difference between play and playing games. There’s more freedom in the former, there are rules and objectives in the latter." Image: Wikipedia.

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Financing Canadian Universities: A Self-Inflicted Wound
September 29, 2013

This is a five-part article (part one, part two, part three, part four, part five) that really could have been done in one long post. But it's worth reading even if inconveniently presented. Though if you don't read it, here's the takeaway: while funding for Canadian universities has increased, in real terms, over the last three decades, the number of faculty per student have actually declined. Faculty salaries as a whole have remained relatively constant, though. What's happening is that universities are shifting their focus to research, paying some faculty much more, and increasing the cost of physical plant and, yes, administration. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is how faculty:student ratios can fall by 20% while income per student rises 40%.  And it’s worth underlining here: virtually all of this has to do with changing priorities within the academy."

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What Blackboard, Desire2Learn, and Udacity Should Learn from SJSU
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, September 29, 2013

What the SJSU report tells us, says Feldstein, is that "however different the scaling model is for MOOCs, they are still online courses and have similar success factors." More here.

One of the keys in learning on your own is learning where and how to find help. I can't count the number of times I've tracked down an error message or coding problem in discussion forums or product websites. The same is true of online learning in general. But it takes extra work to do this, so a key factor in how well we learn online is how much effort we put into it. So one key design principle, reports Michael Feldstein, is to encourage this additional engagement. "Basically, if students are falling behind (or failing), they get increasingly insistent messages pushing them to get help. At its heart, it is really that simple." Now it's not simply a matter of getting them to do more.

In a follow-up post Feldstein distinguishes between effort and engagement. "When we talk about a problem with student effort, we tend to ask how we can get students to do more work. When we talk about a problem with student engagement, we tend to ask how we can get students to want to do more work." This changes how we design our program, and impacts outcomes.

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