OLDaily

Intro to Firebase and React
Simon Bloom, CSS-Tricks, 2017/06/02

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Firebase is a new service from Google enabling you to create and manage a cloud-based database. Reach is a Javascript library from Facebook that creates dynamic forms. Combine the two together and you get an innovative serverless application. This post documents creating a demonstration app in which "you and your friends will be able to log in and be able to see and post information about what you're planning to bring to the potlock." Why is this relevant? Imagine an online course as a database interface rather than a series of content pages.

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Toward a Canadian Knowledge Transfer Strategy: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
Michael Geist, 2017/06/02

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Presentation by Michael Geist to a Canadian government committee on a study on intellectual property and tech transfer. He suggests that the government should look at knowledge transfer more broadly, and focus less on IP and patents. "The emphasis on university-based patenting is misplaced. It can have a corrosive effect on universities, who forego important, publicly-funded research in favour of potential licensing or patenting opportunities.  With properly funded institutions, there is no need to chase licensing dollars." I've made similar arguments internally, with respect to government-produced research, and called for open access to government resources, publications and data.

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Scholar.Social: A Mastodon Network For Teachers
Aaron B. Smith, Academic Aesthetic, 2017/06/02

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This post introduces scholar.social, a Mastodon server for teachers and educators. "scholar.social is not JUST for teachers, but anyone involved in academics. The tag line they use is  'The Mastodon profile that you’re not embarrassed to put on the last slide of a presentation at a conference.'"

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Facial recognition tech makes it official: There is no privacy anymore
Cate Lawrence, ReadWrite, 2017/06/02

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This has actually been going on for a while, but now it is becoming commoditized and widespread: "electronic billboards in restaurants and shopping precincts that utilize advanced facial recognition techniques to not only provide personalized advertisements but also measure and record the consumer and their response." Of course the proprietors don't tell you that they're doing this, but sometimes their actions are exposed by accident. There's probably no stopping this. And there's no escape for students. "Today we’ve seen the use of a French education provider utilizing the tech to determine if students are paying attention during remote learning."

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Friends don’t let friends use Facebook
Doug Belshaw, Open Educational Thinkering, 2017/06/02

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According to Doub Belshaw (assisted with quotes from others), "Personalised advertising isn’t useful. It’s invasive, and it’s used to build a profile to manipulate you and your ‘friends’."  If we say this about personalized advertising, what do we say about personalized content? If personalized content, working exactly as intended on Facebook, is so harmful, what are we to say about personalized learning? There's a big gaping question here that people are not answering.

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A toolkit for predicting the future
The Economist, Medium, 2017/06/02

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It's a toolbox with only three tools, but they're good tools:

• History lessons - patterns from the history of technology, eg., new forms of crime, concerns about privacy, etc.
• Uneven distribution - in some places, the future is already here, so look for them (eg. in 2001, mobile handsets with cameras and colour screens were commonplace in Japan)
• the imagined futures of science fiction - not only predictive, but often inspirational
  

My key tool has always been to focus on the human side of the equation. What will people do, what will people want to do? If tech is the driver, what is the attractor?

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