OLDaily

Coming Home: Returning to a Pedagogy of Small
Tanya Elias, Here to There, 2018/08/20

We know what the problem is. "What happens when software engineers begin to believe that they can solve complex social problems in which they have neither background nor context? What happens to us, to our world, when we start to believe that they can too?" But where does the problem originate? It's  in power and interactions, best studied by looking at (say) people like Foucault or Skinner, not algorithms or data sets. " Foucault (1988) identified four main types of technologies that are in constant interaction with one another. These four technologies include production, sign systems, power and self." And this takes us from the men who imagine things like the XPrize to the children who organize their learning themselves.

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The Need for Revolutionary Networks
Chris Unger, Getting Smart, 2018/08/20

When NorthEastern talks about networks, it appears from this article that they're talking about broadcasting networks, not human networks. "Ultimately," writes  "the power of revolutionary networks is to first clearly and powerfully point out a need (in short, intellectually and viscerally manifest a call to action), then to imagine new possibilities, and then to connect one another so that we can collectively create a new reality." No, that's not how it should work. We all have our own individual nereds. We don't all fall into line under one call to action.

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Reclaiming Educational Reform
Benjamin Doxtdator, Long View on Education, 2018/08/20

Benjamin Doxdator gives a testy review of Ted Dintersmith's book on education reform, What Schools Could Be. "When people like Dintersmith spin the myth that high school doesn’t give students any hirable skills, it isn’t a neutral description of the economy, but rather part of an agenda to absolve corporations for stagnating wages and precarious work." This reminds me of something else I read today, It's not technology that disrupts our jobs, it's the change in society that precedes the technological change and makes it possible. "It’s worth stressing that the “technology” of temp work — and the possibility of replacing entire work forces with it — existed for years before corporations made the decision to start adopting it."

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Could this be the worst piece of online learning ever? Let me explain why it may well be…
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2018/08/20

The example makes this worth passing along, though I'm not sure someone who laces text with profanities should be trusted to talk about what constitutes appropriate e-learning (it's not that I'm a prude, it's that some people do find the language offensive, and pointlessly offending readers makes for bad e-learning). Anyhow, the real star here is Pew Die Pie, a YouTube celebrity who takes a piece of Defense Department e-learning in this hilarious (and exhausting) video. Yes, it really is everything e-learning shouldn't be.

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