OLDaily

The impact of conformity in education
Dave Cormier, Dave’s Educational Blog, 2019/02/27

According to Dave Cormier, "When we identify the technology and not the people beyond we missed the systemic cultural practices that are helping to shape the people who are the bad actors on those platforms." Technology may be an enabler, but it's the people who actually behave one way or another. That's why "we need our schools to replicate models of inclusivity and equity that are not about the imposition of conformity. That means that we accept people the way they come in the door, and we help them come up with answers that belong to them." Image: ThoughtCo.

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Advancing academia with Wikipedia
Sharon Aschaiek, University Affairs, 2019/02/27

Short description of how universities are designating Wikipedians in residence (WIR) to support the institutional mandate through the coordination of editing and other activities related to the online encyclopedia. "Wikimedia offers free recruitment, training and content creation support to institutions seeking WIRs. According to the organization, these services fall in line with its goal to encourage cultural and educational institutions to share their resources freely on Wikimedia sites."

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MOOCs and the Master's Degree
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2019/02/27

You have to read to the end of the second page of this three-page article, but the gist is this: "the MicroMasters effort has become a branding and recruitment coup — whether for career acceleration or master's gateways — that should lay poaching worries to rest." While it may look like a very small number of students pass through the MicroMasters and into the institution, the number is still in the thousands, and moreover, "there was no record of them having ever had interest in UMUC before" and "the data was showing a MOOC student population quite different from what UMUC was accustomed to attracting to its online programs."

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Analysis — What If We Personalized Education Funding? How Routing Dollars to Students Instead of Schools Could Fund a More Nimble System
Travis Pillow, Paul Hill, The 74, 2019/02/27

The idea touted in the title is being floated by a publication created to support the charter school movement. It would also be supported by proponents of a voucher movement. I don't agree with it, but think it's important to look at the argument. As I read it, I consider the provision of other services - health care, say? From where I sit, it makes the most sense simply to fund the services directly and ensure that people can access them as needed, so we don't have the overhead of distrfibuting vouchers (or whatever), collecting payments, and all the rest. And it is moreover not clear what problem the use of vouchers solves (unless you are trying to insert private providers between the funders and the users of the system).

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