OLDaily

Announcing the CC Catalog API, Version 1.0
Alden Page, Creative Commons, 2020/03/20

You can access the CC Image search directly using this web site. Type in 'Gamboa' and you'll see my photo of a crocodile (from about three feet away, in the wild). What they are releasing here is an Application Programming Interface (API), that is, a tool that lets developers build an interface directly to the search from within their application. So (for example) a person writing an MS-Word plugin could use this API to make the images directly accessible within word. Lovely. And if you're wondering, there are  330 million and counting openly licensed images.

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Podcasting with students
Jennifer Casa-Todd, 2020/03/20

In her most recent edition of the Social LEADia podcast, Jennifer Casa-Todd interviews one of her own grade 10 students. I think this is a great idea; a class of 30 could make for 30 days of podcasts. As well, she offers a link to her interview with Grayson McKinney and Zac Rondot, "two teachers who podcast with their grade 4 & 5 students respectively," and a link to her interview with Hans Appel and his students "who create the Award Winning Culture podcast."

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OpenStax makes its online learning tools free
Betsy Foresman, EdScoop, 2020/03/20

According to this article, "OpenStax announced Thursday that it will provide free teaching resources through the end of the spring semester." Specifically, "the edtech publisher announced it will now offer free access to 30 online homework providers including OpenStax Tutor and Rover." It would be nice to see OpenStax return to its roots as an enabler of open online education; there's no need for Rice University to make money off the service.

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How I lead remote learning in Hong Kong during school closures
Ng Wai Ying, Microsoft Education, 2020/03/20

I liked this post from an educator describing his experiences - what worked and what didn't - during recent school closure in Hong Kong. Among the lessons: try first ("I started by selecting some of my Grade 6 students to help me pilot live lessons"); fostering student engagement and a positive culture ("I share examples of good student work online to provide recognition"); group writing and editing with tablets and pencils ("We use OneNote as a collaboration space for group work").

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Essays or Projects Instead of Proctored Exams: A COVID-19 Response
Jim Shimabukuro, educational technology & change, 2020/03/20

I've seen a few pages discussing how to lock down or proctor online tests while students are working from home, but this feels to me counterproductive. I prefer this approach described by Jim Shimabukuro. "This may be an opportune time to explore essay exams (or projects) that don’t require proctoring. These would be open-book and open web, and time limits could be imposed by controlling start and end times. Since online provides flexibility, students could be allowed to submit their exams within a 24-hour period. This would be a test of mastery rather than speed of recall.

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#remotelearning: Building Community and Skills
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, LangWitches, 2020/03/20

This post depicts the current work-at-home environment as an opportunity to do new things using online learning, for example, "to build skills that will support the now literacies (digital citizenship, information literacy, media literacy, network literacy global literacy)" and "to build skills that will foster a new sense of community (again not aiming to substitute the same in-person- community we are used to)." The text continues on well beyond the initial lists as the author plays some virtual games.

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