OLDaily

Feature Article
The Failure of Reason
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2019/06/07

I think that things like logic, reason, mathematics and inference are wonderful tools. As Descartes so helpfully explains four centuries ago, they helps us make clear what is inherent in the ideas and options we already have. But we cannot base a society, a democracy, on them. We cannot count our way to justice, we cannot infer our way to decency.

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The Learning Styles™ Industry Versus Learning Preferences
Matt Crosslin, EduGeek Journal, 2019/06/07

Matt Crosslin sets out the sceptics' argument: "Learning Style skeptics do not contend that 'there are no learning styles.' We believe that there is no proof of the pre-dominant Learning Styles™ Industry claim that people learn better mostly or only in their preferred learning style. This is a huge difference." And from there the rest of his argument is reasonable. However. There is a Learning Styles Skeptics™ Industry and its predominate refrain is that "there are no learning styles". With the idea being that the content dictates the mode of presentation, and that the same presentation works equally well for everyone (who are, of course, directly instructed).

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Walmart Expands Employee Tuition Benefits
Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed, 2019/06/07

According to this story, " Walmart this week announced that it is expanding a debt-free college tuition benefit for the retail giant's roughly 1.4 million U.S. employees." Called Live Better U, the offering consists of courses and programs offered in partnership with Guild Education, which acts as a broker for university courses. Guild also offers programs for other companies, including Lowe's and Disney. The more organizations like Guild grow, the greater will be the pressure on universities to lower prices.

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