OLDaily

No Need to Ask: Creating Permissionless Blockchains of Metadata Records
Dejah Rubel, Information Technology and Libraries, 2019/07/12

This article (17 page PDF) works really well on several levels. First, it will reward a careful reading with a really good overview of blockchain technology, one that is technologically detailed, but reasonably accessible. Second, it identifies some of the issues around an educationally-relevant application area, the creation and maintenance of bibliographic records. And third, it presents a solution to some longstanding issues in digital metadata: centralization and a lack of traceability.

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What are the drivers and innovations shaping tomorrow’s higher education landscape?
Maria Spies, FutureLearn, 2019/07/12

The four over-riding trends, as identiifed by Holon's Maria Spies:

• collapsing learning-work boundaries
• new ways of engaging with a global cohort of learners
• microcredentials, nano-degrees, digital badges and a revival of competency-based education.
• technology-led personalized education

Now while I think that these four storylines capture the bulk of what we're reading in the education business press, I don't think that any of them is particularly relevant as a predictor, and the latter three might actually be active forms of misdirection.

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Amazon Alexa will now give medical advice from the NHS
Michael Grothaus, Fast Company, 2019/07/12

There's a ton of coverage of this story, and deservedly so. And I think it's not a big leap from offering health advice to offering learning support generally. Following the official announcement, the usual angles are covered in the stories - the risk to user data, the argument that you can't automate everything and you'll never replace doctors, the risk to our 'mental instincts', the "it's sinister" argument.

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We’re told that too much screen time hurts our kids. Where’s the evidence?
Andrew Przybylski, Amy Orben, The Guardian, 2019/07/12

This is a good question: "in a world witnessing ecological destruction, political polarisation and growing social divides, should fears about technology really occupy the limited space in the forefront of our minds?" Even more, where is the evidence that screen time (a euphimism that conflates television with internet use) is actually harmful? "It’s probably best to retire the idea that the amount of time teens spend on social media is a meaningful metric influencing their wellbeing." Agreed.

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Watch Moodle Grow and Blossom
Moodle, 2019/07/12

Just what the title promises. This is "a very visual representation of the growth of Moodle over the past 17 years. Gource is a program which displays software projects as an animated tree with the root directory at the very centre, while directories appear as branches with files as leaves. Look at our ‘Moodle tree’ and literally watch the developers’ work over the years!"

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