OLDaily

Education and Employment Should Be One System, Not Two
Doug Irving, RAND, 2020/01/08

According to this RAND report (56 page PDF), a systems approach should be undertaken to mesh education and employment such that individuals can "acquire skills that are in demand in the labor market" and "ensuring timely and appropriate matching and rematching of skilled workers with jobs." It's an oft-expressed view that I think misses the mark in a crucial respect: an individual's educational experience serves aspirational objectives (which may or may not include getting a job) while a person's employment experience serves existential objectives, recognizing today's economic reality that if you don't work, you don't eat. I would hope (where RAND obviously doesn't) that our aspirations can exceed the demands of mere existence.

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U.S. Appellate Court Enforces CC’s Interpretation of NonCommercial
Diane Peters, Creative Commons, 2020/01/08

This seems reasonable to me. A U.S. court has decided to allow "bona fide noncommercial reusers to hire out the making of copies of NC-licensed content, even to profit-making businesses such as Office Depot and FedEx Office." Any other interpretation of the non-commercial (NC) clause would be unreasonable. "After all, entities must act through employees, contractors, and agents as a necessity." So you can pay a student to make copies of a CC resource, or you can take it to the print shop and pay them to do it. Whatever. Note that what this ruling does not enable is the passing along of printing costs to the students.

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Africa ascending: Four growth markets to watch
ICEF Monitor, 2020/01/08

This is a quick look at four African nationbs (Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria) as emerging markets for education. They offer very different profiles; Egypt is linked to educational opportunities in the Middle East, while Ghana and Kenya are the recipients of a lot of Chinese aid, including scholarships and opportunities to study abroad. Nigeria's population, meanwhile, provides both challenges and opportunities. It is worth noting that many see education as an opportunity to emigrate, which while disappointing is understandable. And success in any of these markets depends on bridging the gap between access and quality, generating learning and credentials that will be recognized on terms that the population can afford. See also the first part of this report.

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HEWN, No. 337
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2020/01/08

There's an interestiung line of thought offered on Audrey Watters's newsletter HEWN: "one of the most frequent complaints I’ve heard: that I did not also write a list of 'The 100 Best Ed-Tech Achievements of the Decade.' And that somehow that means my analysis is incomplete." She responds, "education technology or otherwise — does not need my validation. It needs criticism.... there are not “two sides” — some good and some bad ed-tech — that exist in any sort of equal measure.... What if there wasn’t anything good about ed-tech? What if ed-tech is totally inseparable from privatization, behavioral engineering, and surveillance?" I happen to think there is something good in ed-tech, at least as I think of it, but her point is valid. You don't have to balance the 'good points' and the 'bad points' of anything. Indeed, much of the time, they won't balance at all. Via Jenny Mackness.

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Contained, Open Source Environments Compatible With Everything? What Elearning Professionals Should Know About Docker
Cristian T. Duque, LMS Pulse, 2020/01/08

If you're just reading about Docker for the first time, this is a good article to start with. Here's the promise: "Install, configure and deploy your LMS or elearning platform once in Docker, now you can make copies by the snap of your finger." Sounds great but it isn't always that easy to do the first bit (I still don't have a Dockerized version of gRSShopper, though not for lack of effort). But if you use Moodle, Canvas or Sakai, there are Docker versions available.

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Connecting Learning Analytics and Problem-Based Learning – Potentials and Challenges
Daria Kili ńska, Thomas Ryberg, Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 2020/01/08

According to this article (24 page PDF), " Learning analytics (LA) have not yet gained much interest among the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) practitioners and researchers and the possible connections between PBL and LA have not yet been properly explored." The authors intent to address that by looking for possible connections. They do find two examples; one, a PBL workshop enriched with a LA dashboard, was of limited use; the other, representing existing surveys from social sciences in a visual form, was more useful. They also find potential in self-directed learning, reflective writing, and discussion support. Image: Saqr, Fors & Nouri, Using social network analysis to understand online Problem-Based Learning and predict performance.

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