OLDaily

Differentiation, individualization and personalization: What they mean, and where they’re headed
2017/08/01

Mostly we read about 'what they mean' and a lost less about 'where they're headed', but as a template to distinguish between these three concepts this post will do as well as any.

• Differentiation: "The teacher drives instruction and adjusts lessons that are best suited for each particular group."
• Individualization: "The teacher still drives instruction – but, unlike differentiation, an individualized lesson is designed to accommodate the particular needs for an individual learner."
• Personalization: "The teacher is no longer the sole driver of instruction – each learner now collaborates with the teacher to drive his or her learning."

What distinguishes different types of personalization are the elements the student can control or influence. In most cases, these are solely delivery related, such as pacing or modality. The learning outcome, in all three models, remains as defined by the institution.

Enclosures:
-

[Link] [Comment]

How to make a racist AI without really trying
Rob Speer, ConceptNet blog, 2017/08/01

This post works on several layers. First, it makes the obvious point that it is very easy to create a racist artificial intelligence (AI). Second, it makes the less obvious, but much more important, point that making a racist AI is the default if you use standard techniques. Using the most popular website crawl data, the most popular sentiment lexicon, and the most popular AI engines, you inevitably get a racist result (for example: Mexican food is rated worse than other foods, typically Black names are rated lower than other names). Third, the author also shows how easy it is to correct for built-in racism (i.e., if you get a racist result, you're not really trying). And fourth, at a meta level, is the use of the notebook format to present the results, so you could work directly with the code yourself if you wanted to. The challenge to learning analytics is, of course, how transparent will LMSs be in showing their analyses, and how can we be sure they didn' simply take the path of least resistance to create racist results? And what other, less obvious, biases are built into our data?

[Link] [Comment]

The Spotify of the textbook world takes off as Bibliotech is go
JISC, 2017/08/01

Before using something like Spotify as an analogy, it is always best to make sure they aren't in danger of going bankrupt during your press announcement period. The idea here is that Bibliotech provides a textbook marketplace for students, negotiating collectively with publishers, and provides textbook rentals "for as little as £2.99 a month" per title. But there are some big differences. Spotify provides access, while in Bibliotech students purchase access to "bespoke e-textbook packages which match institutions' reading lists." Prices are determined by the publisher. Rentals are for 12-month periods. I expect to read a study in three years saying that savings were minimal or negligible. 

[Link] [Comment]

‘Motrain’, Virtual Coin-Based Corporate Learning Motivation App For Moodle
Moodle News, 2017/08/01

Is a virtual currency the one thing you thought the learning management system was lacking? Me neither. But here it is, nonetheless. "Motrain rewards students who interact with Moodle content with virtual coins." These coins can be exchanged for prizes at the LMS manager's discretion. Suggestions in the post include "A day or week of parking in the Director’s parking spot, a week of telecommuting, take-out or a night out for the office." The likely result is to introduce LMS managers to the downside of gamificaton, where people are working to earn points, rather than to learn the material.

[Link] [Comment]

Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 is Released
Chris Ferris, Jonathan Levi, Hyperledger, 2017/08/01

From the website as Fabric 1.0 is released: "Hyperledger Fabric is a blockchain framework implementation and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Intended as a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture, Hyperledger Fabric allows components, such as consensus and membership services, to be plug-and-play. Hyperledger Fabric leverages container technology to host smart contracts called 'chaincode' that comprise the application logic of the system." A lot of this will be invisible to future application developers, and doubly invisible to users.

[Link] [Comment]

Sorting things out: A typology of the digital collaborative economy
Lene Pettersen, First Monday, 2017/08/01

This paper presents " a framework — a typology — based on the literature and an analysis of 54 services in the collaborative economy (e.g., Airbnb, Uber, and Blablacars)." Pettersen idetifies four major online business models: business as usual, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and collaboratives. There are three types of product: assets, services, and gifts. However, "Based on dimensions and definitions, the models business as usual, entrepreneurs, and cooperatives are not listed in the typology as part of the collaborative economy. Collaboratives, however, hold all the characteristics that are at the heart of the collaborative economy." 

[Link] [Comment]