OLDaily

Will Blockchains Revolutionize Education?
David McArthur, EDUCAUSE Review, 2018/05/23

The idea of blockchain has caught the imagination of decision-makers recently not only in finance but also in government and education. This article is a pretty good overview of how blockchain technologies might be applied in education (specifically, to support competencies and credentials, beginning maybe with badges), along with an outline of some of the costs and limitations of the technology. Some of the major differences between government and educational applications and financial applications include the use of 'permissioned' ledgers, which limits who can add data to the blockchain, and interoperability with government and educational data systems. See also: Cross-Platform Scaling:The Way Forward for Businesses on Blockchain.

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How To Engage In The Comments: A Journalist’s Guide
Alexandra Bowen, The Coral Project, 2018/05/23

Although addressed to journalists, this article is nonetheless a good guide for educators as well. It describes why you should engage with comments, how to respond, and how to deal with negative or abusive comments. It's from the Coral Project, which is a service that provides "open-source tools and practices for newsrooms of all sizes," including in particular a commenting service. I've discussed it before.

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Self-Proclaimed Alternative to College Closes After a Year
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, 2018/05/23

This is the story of MissionU, an alternative college that closed after one year and one 25-person cohort in data analytics and business intelligence. It focused on one year of practical experience rather than a four year program, and it didn't charge tuition; students would pay 15% of their income once they made more than $50 per year. We don't learn why it closed other than that "the company appeared to close when things 'got a little hard,' speculating that applications for the second cohort of students were down significantly." It also burned through $11.5 million in investment capital, which suggests there were other issues as well.

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No one’s ready for GDPR
Sarah Jeong, The Verge, 2018/05/23

After four years of deliberation and two years of preparation, as the deadline for GDPR implementation approaches in a matter of days, the inevitable caterwauls of "nobody is ready for GDPR" have commenced. Oh, there are complaints: the law is too complex, business systems are too complex, the penalties are too harsh. And on and on. But if the ownership of the data is unclear, that's because they took it without asking. If it's scattered in various databases, that's because that's how they decided to store it. “For many years it’s been, ‘How much data can we trick people into giving us?’ and ‘We’ll figure out how to use it later!’ That is not going to be an acceptable way to operate anymore under GDPR,” says Straight.

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Libraries Face a Future of Open Access
Joseph Esposito, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2018/05/23

This post crosses the line and the publishers should consider retracting it. Joseph Esposito accuses librarians of alliance with sites as Sci-Hub and ResearchGate in order to enforce demands such as those made by Swedish libraries: "open access to all articles in Elsevier journals published by researchers affiliated to member organisations; reading access for member organisations to all of Elsevier’s journal content; and a 'sustainable price model that enables a transition to open access'."  So, "Having grown up in New Jersey, I have some qualms about what it means for anyone to form an alliance with unsavory characters." writes Esposito. "What do you do when they ask for a favor in return?" There is utterly no evidence of such an alliance, and this article is as fake as fake news gets.

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Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Launches Online Education Partnership with Coursera
Goldman Sachs, 2018/05/23

This is a MOOC with what I think is the most unusual certification requirement I've ever seen: "Women business owners with at least three employees and $50,000 in annual revenue are eligible to receive a certificate upon completion." It's more of an entrance requirement than a certification plan, I think, but if you restricted entrance it wouldn't be a MOOC. The course is an expansion of a  Goldman Sachs program called 10000 Women, "a global initiative that fosters economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital." I prefer to call it 10000 Leads and to view it as a data collection and marketing exercise.

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