OLDaily

Do the “basics” change over time?
George Couros, The Principal of Change, 2017/07/06

The short answer to this question is "yes". But I don't think they hop from topic to topic, and I don't think they're something that communities simply decide for themselves. What happens, I think, is that the basics get 'deeper' over time (I put 'deeper' in quotes because it sort of means 'more basic', sort of means 'more widely applicable', and sort of means 'less immediately applicable'). That's why we see the basics migrate over the centuries from 'read a language' to 'write clearly in a language' to 'engage critically with a language', say, or 'perform addition and multiplication' to 'use variables in formulae and expressions' to 'work with numbers and sets'. Each of these reflects increasing knowledge of these fields, as well as increasing complexity of their application in day-to-day life. I think the information and digital age forces us to change the basics again, not simply by hopping to a new '21st centiry literacy', but by pushing deeper once more, into the nature of information.

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Why I’ve just ditched my cloud-based password manager
Doug Belshaw, Open Educational Thinkering, 2017/07/06

I never used LastPass but I did use software from its parent company, LogMeIn, including Cubby and Join.me, along with the flagship LogMeIn application. But price increases, dubious practices and poor customer service led me to quit all their services. So I can imagine the feeling that my passwords would be unsafe in their hands (I changed all my passwords when I closed my account but I still get service emails from them, proving my data still exists on their system). The alternative described here, LessPass, is a clever browser-based method that will generally successfully obfuscate your passwords. I use a similar method, but I keep the algorithm in my head, so I can use it anywhere. But it would be nice not to have to type the thing out every time (especially since my passwords are typically 20 characters long).

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The New Class of Digital Leaders
Pierre Peladeau, Mathias Herzog, Olaf Acker, Strategy+Business, 2017/07/06

Does this sound familiar: "ad hoc digital initiatives spread throughout a large organization, lacking central oversight; a traditional culture that resists change; a gap in the talent required; and legacy systems and structures that threaten to derail their ambitions?" The role of a chief digital officer (CDO) is to make this mélange work cooperatively. The trick, said one CDO, was to show "there were real advantages to cross-company alignment and coordination in the world that we were going into."  This is a fairly detailed article looking at the role in some depth.

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Trolls, Catfish, Cyberbullies--Oh My! How to Help Students Stay “Internet Kind”
Donnie Piercey, EdSurge, 2017/07/06

According to Donnie Peircey "The trouble is many of our students operate under the assumption that a divide exists between the 'real world' and the 'digital world.'" It's like the people at the other end of the line aren't real, and so it's OK to behave badly toward them. "As educators, our goal should be to eliminate this divide," he says, referencing Google's "Be Internet Awesome" resources. This initiative would be more credible if it weren't unrelenting marketing - this is exactly one of the things that leads people to believe there's nothing but a machine on the other side.

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Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom
Alan Maley, Nik Peachey, British Council, 2017/07/06

In 2010 Alan Maley and Nik Peachey released Creativity in the English Language Classroom (180 page PDF) which blended langiage learning with creative activities. This book (208 page PDF) is a follow-up to that effort. It incorporates the same activity-based model, but this time focuses on the United Nations sustainable development goals. It's an audacious project, one which if widely implemented would have a beneficial effect on global attitudes, but which may face political challenges. But so what? It's something that should be taught! I'd love to see it adapted into a MOOC for wider reach and effectiveness.

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