OLDaily

Project Oak
GitHub, Google, 2019/06/28

Something interesting from Google. "The goal of Project Oak is to create a specification and a reference implementation for the secure transfer, storage and processing of data." The thinking here is that while we can lock down and encrypt data when we're transferring it, when it gets into the recipient computer it is unlocked and any system on the computer can access it, making it insecure. So this project posits what are called "enclaves" in recipient computers where all the data processing will happen in an area locked away from the rest of the computer. "Enclaves protect data and code even from the operating system kernel and privileged software, and are intended to protect from most hardware attacks." Of course, what enclaves also protect data from are computer users. They are the modern incarnation of 'trusted computing' - that is, a part of your computer that you can't access, and hence is 'trusted' by content providers (like the purveyors of digital rights management solutions). Beware the Oak bearing gifts.

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Mobile phones to be banned in Victorian state schools from 'first to last bell'
ABC News, 2019/06/28

The reasons for the ban in the state of Victoria, Australia - so far as I can gather from this article - are that they want students to talk to each other in the schoolyard, they want to end cyberbullying, and they want teachers to focus on schoolwork. As someone who went to school before the days of mobile phones, let me say this: students still won't talk to each other in the schoolyard, there will still be bullying, and students still won't focus on their schoolwork. A mobile phone ban is an example of magical thinking, and I'm quite sure nobody advocating the ban can describe exactly how better education will result (in a way that is not pure speculation).

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The Indian EdTech Market — 240+ Startups that are Building the Future of Education
Sankaranarayanan, Medium, 2019/06/28

This is from April but popped up on Reddit today and I thought it was worth sharing. " A whole new world of innovation is happening," writes Sankaranarayanan, "yet so-called unicorns (like BYJU’S) steal the attention, money, talent and skew everything." This article redresses that imbalance and provides an overall look at education technology investment in India. Some notes: "we won’t see a lot of OpenCourseWare like NPTEL and IGNOU anymore as the barrier for entry is high," he writes. "Instead, we will see more startups working on freemium gamified apps for language learning and more niche online learning platforms."

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Why free college is a bad idea
Doug Johnson, The Blue Skunk Blog, 2019/06/28

Recently a U.S. presidential candidate announced a proposal to pay off all student debts. What surprised me was not the announcement so much but the wave of teachers and professors denouncing the idea. There is this myth, you see - and it is a myth - that people won't value something if it's free. Really? The next time you breathe, tell yourself that. The next time you make a friend, tell yourself that. The next time you fall in love, tell yourself that. The next time you wank down an open road, tell yourself that. Tell yourself that you value none of these things because they're free. See, here's the thing about this sort of argument - they're always about other people. Of course, I would have valued my education no matter what, but other people, they're of lesser moral character (insert apocryphal example here) and they would abuse it. Bah.

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Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games
Sam Kabo Ashwell, These Heterogenous Tasks, 2019/06/28

Choice-based games (aka branching scenarios) are a staple in game-based learning. For the most part, I'm not a fan, except for the open map format (another form of openness). The patterns range inntype from heavily branching (time cave) to almost linear (the Gauntlet). There are common sub-patterns within the patterns, things like bottlenecks, loopbacks, and death-dead-ends. See also A Beastiary of Player Agency for a really good look at choice or agency in computer game.

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