OLDaily

Empathy as an investigative tool: how to map systems to come up with story ideas
Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism Blog, 2020/02/19

This is a pretty good article for journalists discussing how to map systems to come up with story ideas. It does lean heavily on a trait in journalism I dislike - the idea of picking one person to build your story around. I know (and the article makes much of this) that this depends on and brings empathy into the reporting. But it also leads to misrepresentation, and it also tends to push people into pre-set roles (like 'victim' or boss 'who calls the shots'). But still - this is a minor point to complain about in what is otherwise a strong article that gets into the sort of detail you want to get into not only when you're a journalist but when you're looking into anything at all. It's a good class exercise, for example. Make the connections and follow where they lead and you'll be much less likely to be fooled by fake news or even a shallow representation of the real news.

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Dozens of Colleges Pledged to Enroll More Low-Income Students. So Why Did Their Numbers Go Down?
Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2020/02/19

The short answer to the question in the headline is that they didn't provide financial support and services. "A focus on widening the recruitment funnel might be a start, but unless it’s accompanied by equally deliberate attention in a college’s admissions decisions and financial-aid packaging, it won’t accomplish much." Which I think should seem pretty obvious. But there's never been a shortage of people claiming that financial aid has no impact, so I guess the people at these unnamed colleges thought it didn't matter.

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Relaunching the Open Education Policy Registry
Jan Neumann, Leo Havemann, Javiera Atenas, Fabio Nascimbeni, OER World Map Blog, 2020/02/19

I don't have a lot to say about this but I want to note the fact that it's happening (I guess you could count me as among those not so interested in open education policy (mostly because I find it too narrow a focus for initiatives that should have a much wider scope)). As the article notes, "Creative Commons launched the original OER Policy Registry back in 2012." In 2018 it was merged with the OER World Map, which is UNESCO supported. Now it appears some members of the recently established the OE Policy Lab will be relaunching the policy registry as a separate initiative. I find the article deliberately vague about who owns it, who manages it, and who funds it. Less opacity would generate more trust.

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