Presentation
Beyond Assessment - Recognizing Achievement in a Networked World
Stephen Downes, Jul 11, 2014, 12th ePortfolio, Open Badges and Identity Conference , University of Greenwich, Greenwich, UK

ePortfolios and Open Badges are only the first wave in what will emerge as a wider network-based form of assessment that makes tests and reviews unnecessary. In this talk I discuss work being done in network-based automated competency development and recognition, the challenges it presents to traditional institutions, and the opportunities created for genuinely autonomous open learning.

[Link] [Slides] [Audio]

Extended Artificial Memory. Toward an integral cognitive theory of memory and technology
Lars Ludwig, Kluedo, Jul 11, 2014

Lars Ludwig wrote to tell me about work he has done on the possibility of extending memory with machines. "This thesis is a contribution toward an integral cognitive theory of memory and technology. It, furthermore, develops a theory and prototype for technologically extending mind (memory and thinking)." I didn't have a chance to read the whole dissertation, clearly, but what I read was enough to pique my interest - for example, his discussion of the various and different meanings we have for the term 'memory'.

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Report: Open Access to Journal Articles Gaining Acceptance from Researchers
Leila Meyer, Campus Technology, Jul 11, 2014

More evidence of the increasing acceptability of open access research. "The report, "Taylor & Francis Open Access Survey, June 2014," is the second annual survey of journal authors on their opinions toward open access publication... Compared to last year, the survey found that attitudes toward open access are becoming increasingly positive... the number of respondents who strongly agree that 'pen access offers wider circulation than publication in a subscription journal' increased from 38 percent to 49 percent."

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21st Century Literacy: New Initiative Makes the Case that Learning to Code is for Everyone
Mimi Ko Cruz, Berkman Center for Internet, Society, Jul 11, 2014

You have to admire their capacity to win research grants. "With a recently awarded $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the researchers (an interdisciplinary team of researchers from MIT’s Media Lab, the University of California’s Digital Media and Learning (DML) Research Hub, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society) aim to engage a broader range of young people in computer programming by building on their interests in areas such as music, dance and sports."

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Net Neutrality Offensive
Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, Jul 11, 2014

Academic groups are (once again) stressing the importance of net neutrality. “I think it’s hard to downplay how important free, open and readily accessible internet is to colleges and universities throughout -- including the students, the faculty, the administrators and staff that have to run the institutions.”

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