OLDaily

We Can’t Handle What the Internet Has Done to Us
Jules Evans, OneZero, 2019/12/24

The funny thing, for me, is that I'm actually comfortable with all this chaos. The whole internet thing doesn't bother me. Why not? Here's how Jules Evans characterizes the problem: "Social media has also totally transformed our politics, in a decade. It’s ripped apart our sense of trust in media and politicians.... The trick mirror turns everything into a performance, so political debate becomes wrestling.... We have reached a stage of collective consciousness, through globalization and the internet, and we can’t quite handle it."

So why am I OK with all this? Maybe it's because I grew up in a small town, maybe it's because I was writing from an early age, maybe it's because I never trusted media and politicians, having seen from the inside how they fabricate reality, maybe it's because I read a lot of science fiction and to me all this is normal. But my advice is: don't lose your head over all this, it's not nearly as bad as you are being led to believe, and it serves only to obscure the real problems - the abuse of power, authority and wealth - that we have always had.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Connecting Learning Analytics and Problem-Based Learning – Potentials and Challenges
Daria Kilińska, Thomas Ryberg, Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 2019/12/24

This article (24 page PDF) is a survey of papers employing learning analytics (LA) to support core elements of problem-based learning (PBL), inclduing collaboration, self-directed learning, and reflection. "Perhaps the most important role that LA can play in the PBL process," write the authors, "is the one of supporting students in the development of their PBL-related skills." Worth noting is the authors' observation that the "majority of the described tools were directed to  facilitators rather than students," which, they write, "sits somewhat uncomfortably in a PBL context." Image: Saqr, Fors & Nouri.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Web 2.0 Technologies Supporting Problem-Based Learning: A Systematic Literature Review
Erhan Ünal, Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 2019/12/24

The more I see systematic literature reviews, the less reliable I think they are. In the current case (26 page PDF), the author surveys the literature between the years 2004-2018 to find articles investigating the use of web 2.0 technology in problem-based learning (PBL) and finds only 18 articles to include in the review, the vast majority of which use the wiki in PBL. It's hard to believe that the academic record on this topic is so sparse, even if the selection is limited to "only high quality peer-reviewed published articles". The author found "the most frequent finding was the effectiveness of Web 2.0 technologies supporting PBL." Given the paper selection process, I would have been shocked had there been any other result.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]