OLDaily

Any technology is educational technology?
Hannah Mathias, ALTC Blog, 2019/04/17

The version in my RSS feed doesn't have the question mark in the title, which may reflect shifting thinking after publication of this summary of a meeting of the M25 Learning Technology Group in London discussing "technologies that aren’t obviously or ‘officially’ ed-tech, but nonetheless are being adopted for teaching and learning." There's a good list of examples, including uses of Kahoot, Microsoft Teams, Wheel Decide, and Slack, and the launch of the IMPLEMnT website (blog posts here) to document case studies. That said, the examples illustrate the distinction between instructional technology, which includes technology used in the classroom, and e-learning (or online learning), which contemplates a strictly online approach, and sometimes needs more support for interactivity than these technologies provide.

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‘Jupyter Graffiti’ Interactive Screencasts Make Their Debut in Our New C++ Nanodegree Program
Will Kessler, Udacity, 2019/04/17

This is a pretty neat idea and a nice evolution of the use of interactive Jupyter Notebooks (discussed previously) in online courses. "Jupyter Graffiti are recorded, interactive demonstrations that live inside your Notebooks... Since a Graffiti “video” is a live replay of the instructor’s interactions, you can pause it any time — and when it’s paused you can dive in to play with the instructor’s work right in the Notebook (execute it, copy it, change it, execute it again)— and then resume playback when you’re ready." This is a nice blending of the instructor role, which is to model and demonstrate, and the learner role, which is to practice and reflect.

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Nothing Fails Like Success
Jeffrey Zeldman, A List Apart, 2019/04/17

I think this article does a good job of laying out the problem even if it only hints at possible solutions. Here's a clip: " Buying something you can’t afford, and borrowing from organizations that don’t have your (or your customers’) best interest at heart, is the business plan of most internet startups. It’s why our digital services and social networks in 2019 are a garbage fire." Quite so. But if the VC model isn't working, what will? Self-payment?  The IndieWeb, or "products of IndieWeb thinking" like Micro.blog? Or "are these approaches mere whistling against a hurricane?"

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This web pioneer is taking on Google with a privacy-first browser
Mark Sullivan, Fast Company, 2019/04/17

I'm interested in this project - called Brave - for two reasons. The first is that it's built with the Electron framework, which merges (Node.js) Javascript functionality with a Chromium web browser engine. I've discussed it before. And second, because it explores the possiblity of an ad-free and tracking-free business model for the web, where you pay content producers using a digital token system enabled through your browser. Bother of these could potentially impact educational technology over the next decade or so. One note of caution - Google is keeping some elements of Chromium to itself, blocking open source solutions like Brave from (say) streaming media.

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API Secrets Mean the End of Standalone Single Page Web Apps and Why Serverless Isn’t Exactly What it Says on the Tin
Tony Hirst, OUseful Info, 2019/04/17

This is a really good introductory-level article about the design patterns behind the changing web and how we migrated from simple pages anyone could learn how to create to complex server- and API-supported web applications. The article trails off a bit in the last few paragraphs, as though Tony Hirst ran out of time, but no matter, it's still worth reading and passing along. And it points to the mechanics behind some of the new things people will be able to do with the new web.

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