OLDaily

Amazon Braket – Get Started with Quantum Computing
Jeff Barr, Amazon Web Services, 2019/12/03

Quantum computing may seem like the far-away future, but if this article from Amazon is to be believed, you can start working with it today. Mind you, claims of 'quantum supremacy' (that is, a quantum computer that performs a function that a traditional computer cannot) have yet to be proven. Still, "This new service is designed to let you get some hands-on experience with qubits and quantum circuits. You can build and test your circuits in a simulated environment and then run them on an actual quantum computer."

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The Manifesto
Michael Allen, Julie Dirksen, Clark Quinn, Will Thalheimer, Serious eLearning Manifesto, 2019/12/03

This was cited on LinkedIn over the weekend; I missed it when it came out earlier this year. It's another entry to the heap of manifestos. This one comes from toe corporate perspective and reflects it (it feels like reading TQM): "Through continuous assessment of learner performance, the elearning experience can optimize use of the learner’s time, individualize the experience for full engagement, address needs, optimize practice, and prepare for transfer of learning to performance proficiency."

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O.K. is rude
Mark Liberman, Language Log, 2019/12/03

It's easy to forket that there was a time before 'Old Kinderhook' gave us OK, so I can't argue against the Japanese-sounding oh-so-firendly 'kk' as a replacement. Not that I am likely to start using it, because I'm just not a part of the kk generation. So I'll continue to punctuate my posts from time with a heartfelt OK. kk?

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OEB Berlin… AI, video, learning analytics, data, and schnapps!
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2019/12/03

I was invited to Online Educa Berlin (OEB) for a few years in a row, enough to make Berlin in December feel like a regular event, but then they stopped inviting me, so now I rely on posts like this one from Donald Clark to keep up with events. It seems like OEB was its usual self, with some high points, some misses, and in all a convivial mix of academic and commerce. I note Clark's critiques well - "One feature of learning conferences is a general refusal to face up to political issues such as cost and inequality. It is assumed that education is an intrinsic good, no matter what the cost. No reflection on WHY Brexit, Trump, Gilet Jaunes and other political upheavals are happening, only a firm belief that we keep on doing what we do, no matter the cost. This is myopic." I agree. Ebba Ebba Ossiannilsson and I discussed similar themes during our off-time here in Brazil. There will be change, becaus the current state is unsustainable, wheher people want to talk about it or not.

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Implementing Active Learning and Student-Centered Pedagogy in Large Classes
Nisha Malhotra, Faculty Focus, 2019/12/03

This is a short article describing the results of what was essentially a trial-and-error process to implement active learning in an economics class. This experience is probably similar to the experience of others (assuming they don't give up upon reaching their first 'error'). But it's worth pressing on. " Students in these lectures are not only engaged in learning but are also involved in cognitive processes such as comprehension and evaluation. These processes then translate into (a) improved and deeper learning, (b) better grades, and (c) lower failure rates." Via Helge Scherlund.

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Ed-Tech Agitprop
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2019/12/03

Donald Clark said of this talk, "Audrey’s was so keen to show that everyone else was ideological that she missed the fact that hers was the most ideological talk of the three. But oh how academe clapped." I think that's a bit harsh. But at the same time I can find a reference to a "3D printed cat" anywhere online, let alone with reference to the OEB MidSummit in Reykjavik or the speakers with whom she shared the stage (Nell Watson and Tony O’Driscoll). So there's that. Her main point is to challenge the reskilling narrative. "Is technology changing faster than it's ever changed before? It might feel like it is. Futurists might tell you it is. But many historians would disagree." But she's wrong about that. The historians are wrong about that. That's not to say her overall point is wrong. But I think it needs to be made more precisely, with better evidence.

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Philosophical Intuitions and Demographic Differences
Justin Weinberg, Daily Nous, 2019/12/03

The argument here is whether people have similar intuitions about (say) moral problems around the world. Yale professor Joshua Knobe argues that philosophical intuitions are “robust across demographic differences”. Against him are Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh) and Stephen Stich (Rutgers), who have researched this question, and argue, "we identify 90 studies, with more than 75,000 participants, reporting demographic differences in philosophical intuitions!" Knobe's response? "Many of these studies are not concerned with demographic differences in the usual sense (culture, age, gender, etc.) but rather with individual differences in personality or cognitive style." Yes, well, maybe it's time to do away with "demographic differences in the usual sense", since (as the research shows!) there's more variation within such groups than there is between them.

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