The Specialist and the Map
Matthias Melcher, x28’s new Blog, 2015/04/28

People have this metaphor of the map to understand the brain, and so they think there are 'areas' that correspond with particular sorts of knowledge. I don't think this is the case. Oh, sure, there is modularity on some very broad strokes, but get any more granular and there is no sense to the concept of a 'map' of the brain at all. Melcher notwithstanding, I think the map analogy misleads more than it illuminates.

[Link] [Comment]

From EDUPUNK to ds106... 10Q: Jim Groom
Steve Wheeler, Learning With Es, 2015/04/28

Steve Wheeler gets Jim Groom to open up on the questions we all wonder about: what is Bava anyways? And what's up with the reverend? " It's a mishmash of edtech, 80s pop culture, animated GIFs, retro toys, ds106 art, and all things cinema. It's a "b blog" in that it pretends to nothing more than schlock, and it achieves its goal regularly." Good read; don't miss this interview.

[Link] [Comment]

Social Learning Cannot be a Bolt-On Strategy
Sahana Chattopadhyay, ID, Other Reflections, 2015/04/28

I quite like the diagram, and I also agree with this sentiment: " Social Learning and social business go hand in hand. To facilitate social learning, an organization has to become a social business first....A truly social business encapsulates the necessary preconditions for social learning -- transparent, supportive and collaborative." What we also find, I think, is that learning outside the enterprise starts off (and stays) social, because that's how society (if not enterprise) is organized.

[Link] [Comment]

BBC is giving away 1 million mini computers
Mark Guzdial, Computing Education Blog, 2015/04/28

The full title of this post is: "BBC is giving away 1 million mini computers so kids can learn to code: Prediction — little impact on broadening participation." Mark Guzdial continues: "Why are people so excited about handing out bare board computers to grade school children? Is this just white males emphasizing the attributes that attract them?" But, frankly, this doesn't seem to be the case here. According to the BBC release, "Make it Digital will capture the spirit of the BBC Micro, which helped Britain get to grips with the first wave of personal computers in the 1980s." It also includes a bevy of partnerships that make the program more than just a large tech giveaway. Oh, sure, it could still fail. But it's not an automatic failure, and the upside is considerable if it succeeds. More: Mashable.

[Link] [Comment]

Saddest Tweets Ever
Chris Lott, FNCLL, 2015/04/28

Chris Lott now blogs at http://fncll.org and this week writes of an exchange wherein Gardner Campbell throws water on the possibility that he and Bryan Alexander might every collaborate in some sort of 'literature happening'. Writes Lott, "I’m just too tired for all the oh-so-wonderful projects that are oh-so-meta." It's funny how perspectives vary. I consider the stuff that focuses on popular culture and literature to be 'meta', while the work that I do, at least, is very much down-to-earth and practical. Sure, I like fiction, sometimes, but not so much I'd want to offer a course on it. P.S. don't click the link if some language offends you (I don't know why some people write using obscenities - it's like they're dismissing half their audience as being of no value before they've even said a word).

[Link] [Comment]

Corinthian, Heald colleges shut down abruptly
Jill Tucker, SF Gate, 2015/04/28

As the headline says: "A chain of for-profit colleges, including the 150-year-old Heald College, abruptly shut down Sunday, leaving 16,000 mostly low-income students to seek an education somewhere else." That's the danger of running an education system like a business. Businesses fail. All the time. More: Inside Higher Ed, Chronicle, LA Times, Corinthian Press Release.

[Link] [Comment]