OLDaily

Docker Compose: A better way to deploy Rocketchat, Wekan, and MongoDB
Dave Lane, OERu Technology, 2017/05/30

I'm posting this mostly for my own future reference. It's basically a set of scripts that allow you to automate a cloud-based web application. Rocket.chat is an open source messaging application similar to Slack. Mongo is a no-SQL database engine. And Wekan is a project management tool. 

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Create Web Pages for Free and Save Them as PDF
Tom Kuhlmann, The Rapid E-Learning Blog, 2017/05/30

What I love about the internet is that there are ways to do almost anything you want. Suppose you wanted a nice PDF document, for example, but don't have any software other than your browser. There's a way to make one! Here's a PDF I made of my website home page. Just for fun.

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User Facing State
Scott O'Hara, CSS-Tricks, 2017/05/30

I've been thinking a lot lately of non-linear languages. The idea has been around for a while. You might recall the concept from the movie Arrival. Fast-forward now to this article describing what the author calls 'user facing state' " talking about how to let our users know about state (think: whether a button is disabled or not, or if a panel is active or not)." In a certain non-trivial sense a web page (or any other visual representation) is a non-linear language. And thought of as such, the concept of reading and writing in a non-linear language isn't so far away from our everyday experience as one might thing. Now, let me talk to you about reading a city...

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After the Hype, Do MOOC Ventures Like edX Still Matter?
Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2017/05/30

This is an interview with Anant Agarwal, chief executive of edX, so the answer is going to be 'yes'. But don't think of it as a technology project. Agarwal at one point says, "one of the big innovations, really, at edX has not been technology-focused. It has to do with policy and new credentials." The interviewer, Goldie Blumenstyk, sputters in response: "But does that really — that doesn't help educate the world, which I think was the big vision and maybe too much of the hype." 

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With state budget in crisis, many Oklahoma schools hold classes four days a week
Emma Brown, Washington Post, 2017/05/30

It's hard to imagine a four-day school week. It would have been my dream in my childhood, of course (exceeded only by the three-day school week). But no doubt it's a source of concern for parents and teachers. The shorter week is a cost savings measure, of course, though one wonders how much it actually saves. But it raises the question of how shorter school weeks could work with online learning. And how you manage something like this with childcare and meals for students whose parents can't afford it.

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