OLDaily

How you can make a progressive web app in an hour
ryanwhocodes, freecodecamp, 2018/09/10

OK, I spent way more than an hour on this. Be warned. So, a progressive web app (PWA) is a web page that functions offline as well as online, and is typically used on a mobile device. It does this by means of a 'service worker' that manages a local cache of static resources and intercepts calls to remote servers to cache results and use the cache is the dynamic results aren't available. The article I'm linking to here won't really show you how to make a progressive web app, but it does provide a template for one. If you want to actually make a PWA then go to this Google page and follow the step-by-step instructions. Now I made a simple weather app you can see here but be warned - it doesn't work out of the box. It worked OK locally using the Chrome server, but I had to move all the images to make it work on my website, and it was a bear getting it to work on Firebase (probably because of caching issues).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Official: Google Chrome 69 kills off the World Wide Web (in URLs)
Shaun Nichols, The Register, 2018/09/10

This, I think, is going to become a bigger issue, and it has a lot to do with the way the underlying structure of the web is beginning to change. On the surface, web browsers (specifically, Safari and Chrome) have begun to obscure the URL. The URL identifies the web site address of the page you're looking at (and usually, but not always, corresponds to a specific IP address, which is the site's numerical address). This is being done iteratively - the new version of Chrome removes the 'https' and the 'www' from URLs. Why? The Register's theory is hat this is " hiding the fact that a webpage is served using Google's phone-friendly site-gobbling AMP system." But I think it has to do with the use of content distribution networks (CDN) generally, and with the idea that the URL is becoming disassociated with the IP address generally.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The YouTube stars heading for burnout: ‘The most fun job imaginable became deeply bleak’
Simon Parkin, The Guardian, 2018/09/10

I can sort of relate to this article, because I do most of my work on the internet, but I havern't had anything really go viral, and I don't depend on having thousands of views for my faily income (good thing, too). But all that plus a deeply impersonal algorithm that rewards constant and sustained production while providing little or no support against the difficulties of an online life have left a lot of internet stars (it's not just YouTibe and Twitch) depressed and burned out. In the internet is the place we will work and learn in the future, we need to learn how to make it more human and more forgiving.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Automation, A Moodle Admin Must. Is AI Next?
Cristian T. Duque, Moodle News, 2018/09/10

This post references Andy Schermuly's discussion of automation in the context of the LMS in eLearning Industry. Schermuly discusses automation in the State of Arizona, Choice Hotels International, Avis Budget Group. In the current article Cristian T. Duque addresses the lack of focus on automation in Moodle, and perhaps more significantly, points out that a lot of automation is form-driven. "During onboarding, learners go through exhaustive questionnaires. Dozens of fields to fill out, each of them informing future segmentation and delivery." This, to my mind, creates sources of error, and is very inefficient. So I think with Duque that there's a wider question to be asked about automation, and whether the automation process itself can be automated. But you don't need AI for a lot of this, just connected data.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

CDSWG20: Competency Data Standards Work Group
IEEE-LTSC, 2018/09/10

This is a new IEEE-LTSC working group that's just getting started (its first meeting is/was today). The formal name is CDSWG20 P1484.20.1. You can go to this page and sign up for the mailing list and membership (like all IEEE-LTSC working groups, membership is based on participation - participate, you're a member). " The Competencies WG 20 intends to take the Credential Ecosystem Mapping Project’s mapping of competencies metadata and update RCD to represent the most common elements that are found in multiple standards addressing competencies and competency frameworks." Image: Alberta Education.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]