OLDaily

What Modular, Stackable Learning Means And Why It Will Transform Learning In The Workplace
Anant Agarwal, EdX, 2020/01/23

This is just a quick bit offering some definitions from edX. Modular learning is "unbundling the traditional learning 'packages' - Associate’s, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees - into more manageable learning chunks that are also tied to real career and life outcomes." And stackable learning is "when you take certificates and credentials that you earn in edX programs and 'stack' them together to form a larger credential or degree." The article doesn't come close to delivering on the second part of the headline. After all, the traditional learning 'packages' are already unbundled - we used to call the unbundled bits courses. What would really be transformative is being able to take courses from multiple institutions. Ah but edX wants you to stay loyal to edX.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Standards for Writing Accessibly
Michael J. Metts, Andy Welfle, A List Apart, 2020/01/23

It's useful to keep these principles in mind when writing and designing text on web pages. Some things that resonated with me: "it’s extremely important to structure your longform writing with headers, short paragraphs, and other content design best practices." Oh yes. Also: "if there’s information critical to an action... place it before the text field or action button." Totally agree. Also, "try device-agnostic words that describe the action, irrespective of the interface, like choose, select, view" (Microsoft keeps telling me to 'double tap' when I'm using a keyboard, both confusing me and making me think of mobster movies).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

How I write backends
Federico Pereiro, GitHub, 2020/01/23

This is a good reference document for myself as I begin to think about how I want to write the next generation gRSShopper. It outlines a basic startup server configuration using a Linux OS, Redis database, Nginx server and Node.ja applications, with backup/sync on Amazon S3. I've looking at architecture B. Since this is in essence a personal application, it shouldn't need to scale beyond that (though there are scaling options if I'm wrong). For a messaging backend, maybe MatterBridge?

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Do you really need all this personal information, @RollingStone?
Doc Searls, Doc Searls Weblog, 2020/01/23

This article illustrates pretty clearly why I use the strong ad-blocking technology in Ublock Origin (and why I won't buy a Chromebook). " This kind of (stuff) is why we have the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). If publishers and the adtech industry (those third parties) hadn’t turned the commercial Web into a target-rich sucking environment for data vampires, we’d never have had either law."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]