OLDaily

Presentation
Distributed Learning Technologies and Next Generation E-Learning
Stephen Downes, Oct 18, 2019, ,

[Slides]

Streamsheets Documentation
Streamsheets, Cedalo AG, 2019/10/21

How many ways could we use something like this? "Streamsheets are server-based spreadsheets that consume, process and produce data streams. Data streams can originate from many sources, such as sensors, machines, websites, data bases, applications and many more.... All of this is happening in real-time.... Streamsheets allow you to send, publish, store or provide data, hence, they not only consume data streams but produce them as well." It's an IFTTT (or Yahoo Pipes, for us old-timers) for open data using spreadsheets. Start reading the documentation at the 'Introduction' section (which really ought to precede 'Installation'). Source and code is available at GitHub.

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Transformation From RTVUs to Open Universities in China: Current State and Challenges
Weiyuan Zhang, Wei Li, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2019/10/21

In 2012 China undertook a transformation from the previous generation of open universities - known as Radio and Television Universities (RTVU) to a model based on this mandate: "The open universities are the main force for building public service platforms for continuing education, providing services to the whole society, building a convenient, flexible and personalized ICT-based learning environment for learners, and facilitating the construction of Lifelong learning system and learning society." This article (20 page PDF) overviews that transformation, including the new institutions' new emphasis on open educational resources (OER), qualifications and a credit bank system, and issues and challenges being faced by the system today.

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Rewriting a History of Open Universities: (Hi)stories of Distance Teachers
Kyungmee Lee, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2019/10/21

This article (15 page PDF) is a good way to open IRRODL's special issue on open and distance universities (ODU) even if it is based on only eight interviews of instructors from two open universities. The article revolves around three themes: "a) openness: excessive openness and a lost sense of mission; b) technological innovation: moving online and long-lasting resistance, and c) teaching: transactional interactions and feelings of loneliness." In this it manages to capture the tension on ODU today: "The people who started this university purposely went out to find every radical thinker they could find... a bunch of rebels. They are my age or older, they are on the way out." Everybody else, it seems, is becoming an ODU. What makes these institutions distinct? Or needed at all? Image: NPR.

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Top 85 Learning Systems for 2020
Craig Weiss, The Truth and Realities of E-Learning, 2019/10/21

Normally I would not post a 'top 85' list, but I want to encourage the practice of not requring companies to pay money for entry into the listing process, though it does require that vendors answer questions about the content marketplace on their system, implementation, and a set of five use cases. Also, the list does not include SuccessFactors, Oracle or Coursera. I don't do LMS surveys (people always ask, as though I do) but my experience with those confirms that they should be nowhere near a list of 'best' learning systems. The presentation of the list itself is disappointing - you'll have to register at some website even for the links to these vendors (as though you couldn't find them) along with any supporting information.

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