Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs
Merve Emre, Digg, 2015/10/09

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this item, but I can't resist passing it along. Sure, Myers-Briggs has had its criticisms in the past, but I haven't seen anything quite like this. "Reading through the earliest drafts of the type indicator, now carefully filed away in Hay's personal papers at Cornell University, I am perhaps more surprised than I should be by its racial overtones, its sexism," writes Merve Emre. "CAPT's reluctance to open the archive would seem to confirm my darkest suspicion: That there lurks some ugly secret behind the history of the type indicator that they want to keep locked and buried."

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Google wants to speed up the mobile web with AMP project
Cassandra Khaw, Ars Technica, 2015/10/09

I greet this development with cautious optimism. In a bid to respond to services like Facebook's 'instant articles' Google and Twitter are releasing an open framework that acceperates web and (especially) mobile delivery of articles. It does things like auto-caching, single-load Javascript, and the like. The consensus is that the optimal load time for a web page is 'instantly'. "How much quicker is "instantly"? According to Google, early testing with with a simulated 3G connection and a simulated Nexus 5 showed improvements of between 15 to 85 percent." See also the Official Google Blog.

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Higher Education for the Sustainable Future We Want
Contact North, 2015/10/09

This 9 page PDF document places higher education into the wider social context. "It is clear that 'business as usual' and 'more of the same' are not what is intended here. To meet the commitments and the expectations they give rise to, education systems are challenged to think differently and much more inclusively about their future." It identifies five major challenges to be met (quoted):

• Committing to Equity in Outcomes and in Access
• Rethinking What We Teach so as to Support Sustainable Development
• Strengthening and Expanding the Use of Online, Open and Flexible Education
• Supporting and Extending Learning for Life and Lifelong Learning
• Strengthening Collaboration and Co-Operation

It's hard to argue with any of those in principle, but the challenges, as they say, are always in the details.

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Refugees To Receive Free Education From Online University
Joseph Erbentraut, Huffington Post, 2015/10/09

I think this is a good initiative. "The Berlin-based Kiron University has partnered with more than 20 universities throughout the world in order to offer a free, three-year program that will grant students an internationally accredited degree."

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The eCOTOOL Competence Model
Cleo Sgouropoulou, Charalampos Thanopoulos, Christian M. Stracke, Simon Grant, Carolyn Owen, Lenka Fišerová, eCOTOOL, 2015/10/09

This is probably far more detail than you require in a competence model, but if you wanted to map every related aspect of a com[petence, this is probably what you would arrive at. "The eCOTOOL Competence Model is a general purpose model covering both the internal structure of a definition of competence, skill, ability, or similar concept, and structures of these. It was developed to achieve more functionality in a more general way than purely within a Europass Certificate Supplement."

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Onlea
Onlea, 2015/10/09

I got an interesting press release from Onlea in my email today (I looked for it on the site but it doesn't seem to be available). They are (self-styled as) "the world's first MOOC production company" (I have my doubts, but that's OK). But that's not what caught my eye. This is: Onlea is extremely grateful to be selected as the production company by Canada’s 19th prime minister, Right Honourable Kim Campbell, in her innovative approach to blended learning for students in the Peter Lougheed Leadership College. Onlea has produced the Foundations of Leadership blended course within Articulate integrated to the Blackboard platform. Watch the preview video of Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell." More about Kim Campbell.


 

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