OLDaily
by Stephen Downes
June 2, 2014
“Not Interested in Being #1:” Shanghai May Ditch PISA
Yong Zhao,
June 2, 2014
This is interesting, especially in the light of other reports (rumours?) that China as a whole (instead of selected districts) will participate in future PISA tests. According to this item, Shanghai is reconsidering its participation. "One of the shortfalls of Shanghai education masked by its top PISA ranking, Mr. Yi, pointed out, is excessive amount of homework, according to the story.... Their skills and qualities should also be acquired from a variety of activities such as play, online activities, and games instead of merely completing academic assignments or extending homework time."
New Face of Provincial Identity Management
Ian Bailey,
BCNET Conference 2014,
June 2, 2014
I've tried - I've really tried - to get past the first minute of this video. Several times, in fact! But I can't get past how unenthusiastic Ian Bailey's voice sounds as he tells us how enthusiastic he is about identity management. I know this is important and that at some point I should view the video - but I'd do almost anything for a transcript right now, so I can avoid that presentation. (See the top of the page for other important presentations from the BCNET Conference 2014 (which I'll view if I can ever get past this one)).
What Harvard and MIT could learn from the University of Phoenix about analytics
Phil Hill,
e-Literate,
June 2, 2014
Phil Hill is critical of the new data being released by Harvard and MIT from their edX-based MOOCs. "At first I was eager to explore the data," he writes, "but I am not sure how much useful insight is possible due to how the data was collected... this data only tells us very shallow usage patterns aggregated over the entire course – did they look at courseware, how many video views, how many forum posts, final grade, etc. [and] ignores student goals or any information giving a clue on whether students desired to complete the course, get a good grade, get a certificate, or just sample some material."
Interview with Steve Pettifer, computer scientist and developer of Utopia Documents
Richard Poynder,
Open, Shut?,
June 2, 2014
As this article notes, "Critics of the PDF also dislike the fact that it permits only passive reading. This means that scientists are not fully able to exploit the dynamic and linked nature of the Web." It seems like a small thing - and in the world of HTML I guess it is - but the world of PDF readers is beginning to move into the real of interaction with live data (including tables and references) with Utopia Documents, developed in 2009 and being released as open source software this week. So, for instance, when a document in Utopoa is opened, "a sidebar opens up on the right-hand side and fills with relevant data from external databases and services like Mendeley, SHERPA/RoMEO, and Wikipedia." This post interviews Utopia developer Steve Pettifer.
Business School, Disrupted
Jerry Useem,
New York Times,
June 2, 2014
Good article in the New York Times on the struggles of Harvard Business School, which depends on being elite, is coping with the arrival of online learning, which depends on being egalitarian. The school's response is to create a new type of credential, the Credential of Readiness, or CORe, which students can take online. They have also been dabbling in MOOCs with edX. So what is the risk to Harvard Business School that online learning will render it irrelevant? I'd say it's substantial. Not that elite students will stop needing to establish exclusive connection, which is the primary function of HBS. But that they may begin doing it elsewhere.
Coding for journalists: 10 programming concepts it helps to understand
Paul Bradshaw,
Online Journalism Blog,
June 1, 2014
This article won't teach you how to program - not even close. But if you're involved in any discipline employing computer technology - such as online learning - then the language of programming seeps into everyday language. That's where this article comes in - it will help you understand the real meaning of such arcania as lists, loops and APIs. Why does this matter? Because these terms have specific and precise meanings when used by programmers. Take 'objects', for example. To a layperson, a 'learning object' is more or less the same in meaning as, say, a 'learning thing'. But to a programmer, an 'object' is like a template with built-in functions. A 'learning object' is a piece of code that can be customized for specific applications. The implications of this difference shaped our understanding of online learning for a decade.
Internet Trends 2014
Mary Meeker,
Business Insider,
May 31, 2014
Mary Meeker's annual state of the internet report has come out and once again it is probably the most insightful snapshot of the state of play as you're going to see. My only complaint is that at 165 slides, it's too short. The trends won't be a surprise to anyone following the internet closely, but it's good to have real data to support beliefs about the rise of mobile, the proliferation of apps, etc. There are also some unexpected insights, such as "the edge is becoming more important than the node" in social graphs. Don't miss this one. Image: JD Lasica/Flickr
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