OLDaily

Future Formula Part 2: Faculty Spend and the Limits of Online Learning
Richard Garrett, Encoura, 2019/05/31

The focus of this discussion, both in the EdVentures study a few weeks ago and a bit more recently on Campus Technology, is that we still spend a higher percentage of money on teachers (as opposed to tech) in online learning. To me, the far more significant take-away is that "online schools spent far less on the combination of instruction, support and service than "conventional" schools ($5,110 per student compared to $32,580)." This is not a small difference; it is a huge difference. Some people suggest that this means we could cut education spending by more than 80%. On the other hand, I see this as saying we could be educating six times as many students for the same money. (These stats are of course selective and probably not representative, but my argument remains the same).

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Women’s minds matter
Sally Davies, Aeon, 2019/05/31

This is an interesting post on a number of levels. The central premise is essentially that cognitivism, by separating rationality from the influences of the human body, is "a profoundly gendered blueprint." It's also wrong. I would like to argue, however, that it's wrong because it's wrong, not because it is gendered. It's being gendered is an undesirable consequence of the philosophy, and possibly a reason why so many people still cling to it, but at core it doesn't just deny women their humanity, it denies humans their humanity.

Let me explain (as this is is a position I have taken in the past and maintain to this day). "Within a broad church that can be called – not uncontentiously – embodied cognition, a growing number of psychologists, scientists and theorists are approaching mental life as something that is not just contingent on, but constituted by, the state of our bodies." The author cites, with approval, psychologist James J Gibson, who argued that the computational mind, manipulating content-bearing representations, was not the correct way to understand perception. This is also my view, and is one of the core differences between my own view of education and that of most other researchers in the field of education (at least, to my perception).

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Responding to Critical Reviews
Eric Hellman, Go To Hellman, 2019/05/31

Writing about the Recommended Practices for Improved Access to Institutionally-Provided Information Resources draft document (41 page PDF) (referred to as RA21), drafted by a committee of mostly publishers and scientific organizations, Eric Hellman concludes, "RA21 received 120 mostly critical reviews from a cross-section of referees, not a single one of whom is the least bit an idiot. Roughly half the issues fell into the badly-explained category, while the other half fell in the 'fundamental flaws and careless errors' category. RA21 needs to go back to the chalkboard and rethink even their starting assumptions before they can move forward with this much-needed effort."

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Towards a Roadmap for Open Access Monographs
Janneke Adema, Knowledge Exchange, 2019/05/31

I learned through an email today that The Knowledge Exchange have just published the report Towards a Roadmap for Open Access Monographs (44 page PDF). The report contains recommendations that we hope will be building blocks for further development of OA monographs within the open research culture." The document summarizes the results of the Knowledge Exchange Stakeholder Workshop on Open Access and Monographs, which took place in Brussels in November 2018. There were two major workshops: a funder panel, and an author engagement workshop. The recommendations abre about what you would expect: models for sustainability, openness about publishing costs, technical requirements, and the need for data about open monographs.

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Auto-Scaling Moodle Architecture on Amazon Web Services (AWS 2019 Update)
Joseph Thibault, LMSPulse, 2019/05/31

This report from LMSPulse (formerly Moodle News) focuses on auto-scaling architectures for Moodle using cloud services. It's an update of a post from MediaAgility that has since disappeared. There's a 6.5 minute video and a graphic (which is probably the easiest way to see the architecture). The diagram illustrates the use of a load balancer to distribute requests across two instances (the idea is you scale by adding instances), one of which handles email notifications. These are backed by syncronized database instances, and all are connected to cloud asset storage (S3 buckets) distributed via a content distribution network (CDN).

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How Are We Creating a Safe Space for Open Pedagogy?
Heather M. Ross, McToonish, 2019/05/31

Heather Ross expressed the concern that some forms of open pedagogy might not be safe for some marginalized groups, and lists a number of examples. While I very much agree that we should avoid harming people with open pedagogy (or openness in general), I want to point to two important caveats: first, openness is neither the cause of nor the solution to these groups' marginalization, and shouldn't be expected to be able to make things right. And second, consequentially, we should not use these concerns to turn our back on open pedagogy or openness in general. Note also Ross's reference to the book A Guide to Making Open Textbooks With Students. Image: Here (author unknown).

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