OLDaily

Amgen and Harvard Launch Free Online Science Ed Platform
Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, 2020/01/24

This feels more like marketing than it does a serious open education project, but I may be misinterpreting the intent. What I do know is that when I go to the LabExchange website the most striking feature is the big white bank of sponsor logos right across the middle of the page. The idea is that they "curate and create world-class digital content, delivered on a free, online platform that lets you integrate your learning and research experiences." I signed up for 'collaborate' and found my account linked to an EdX account I tried a 'simulation' to find it was an interactive where you drag content into the right box, and are scored 'right' or 'wrong'. I tried 'remix' but found I could only create a 'pathway' of their learning resources.

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Google Classroom rubrics and originality reports exit beta
Abner Li, 9to5 Google, 2020/01/24

According to this report, "After entering beta last year, Google is launching new rubric and originality report tools for all G Suite for Education customers." The display shows up automatically at the side of the page while you're marking the paper. It makes me think - why can't I have a tool that just reads what I type, and lets me know who has said the same (or similar thing) before, automatically finds and inserts references, and alerts me of any reports or studies that contradict what I'm saying? Anyhow. If you don't like the way TurnItIn uses student work, and you don't want to depend on the machine, there's also Urkund's anti-plagiarism system (this isn't a recommendation; I just saw them mentioned on Mastodon).

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Google publishes largest ever high-resolution map of brain connectivity
James Vincent, The Verge, 2020/01/24

Today's word is 'connectome', which is a "a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain, and may be thought of as its 'wiring diagram'." It's newly relevant because "Google and the Janelia Research Campus in Virginia have published the largest high-resolution map of brain connectivity in any animal, sharing a 3D model that traces 20 million synapses connecting some 25,000 neurons in the brain of a fruit fly." The article talks about the research being criticized as a waste of money, but I think it's the first real glimpse we have of actual knowledge (indeed, I think the relevant philkosophical; question today is whether the body's knowledge is equivalent to its neural connectome, or whether we need to include connections in additional systems (such as the immune system) to complete the picture.

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Hans Vaihinger
Timothy Stoll, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020/01/24

This is a great overview of a philosopher who was entirely new to me. The influence and importance of Hans Vaihinger is explained well in this article, as are his two major contributions: his two-volume interpretation of Kant (which describes the Critique of Pure Reason as a patchwork), and his Die Philosophie des Als Ob (PAO), which translates to The Philosophy of As-If. This is great stuff, worthy of a 21st century treatment. Drawing on Schopenhauer's idea that the intellect is “a mere tool in the service of the will”, Vaihinger argues that the purpose of the intellect "is therefore not “to be a copy [Abbild] of reality,” but rather “an instrument for finding our way about more easily in this world.” In other words, "the purpose of thought is “to calculate those events that occur without our intervention and to realize our impulses appropriately.” That accords well with the contemporary line of thought (with which I concur) that the brain is essentially a prediction engine. For a good object lesson on trusting sources, see also The Quote that Never Was, by Tessa Gengnagel, which is where I got the image.

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Soros gives $1bn to fund universities 'and stop drift towards authoritarianism'
Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 2020/01/24

So I guess the big news today is the announcement by George Soros that he will build "a new global network of universities designed to promote liberal values and his vision of an open society." Here is the full text of his speech. How fortunate we are to have billionaires who define public policy for us. What would make me happier? Billionaires paying their taxes. More *sigh* coverage: Fortune (naturally), Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, Times of India. The Chronicle has coverage but it's behind a paywall because, I don't know, there's no other way to learn the story?

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