OLDaily

COVID-19: What comes next
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2020/04/16

The pundits have now swung into prediction mode (all the while saying predictions are impossible to make at this juncture), and here Michael Feldstein weighs in with what I think are some reasonable perspectives. Here they are (quoted and paraphrased):

• everyone will be cash-strapped - what that means is hard to judge
• online isn't going away any time soon, and (a) this impacts the need for sustainability, and (b) we will need to pay extra attention to equity.
• the curricular materials ecosystem is especially fragile - and while some may say "good riddance" there are still issues of privacy policies, procurement practices, or widespread literacy among faculty

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Facts v. Opinions - A New Common Craft Lesson
Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers, 2020/04/16

Common Craft have been doing fun informative videos since forever, and the need seems acute now to be able to separate fact from opinion, so this seems like a good link to pass along. Also, Richard Byrne has been creating short instructional videos for a long time, so he's a pretty good source for this link (you might get ideas looking at some of his other posts).

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Care Is Not a Fad: Care Beyond COVID-19
Maha Bali, Reflecting Allowed, 2020/04/16

I want to respond to Maha Bali's title by saying "yes it is." I've been watching the concept of care over the years move through the disciplines. I remember Jenny Mackness raising the concept in the context of our MOOCs five years ago, I remember it coming up at a public affairs conference I attended in 2017, I even presented on it last year in Brazil. But it's a fad only in the sense that everything is a fad - utilitarianism came in and out of fashion, so did pragmatism, so did egoism. And I think there's a lot to be drawn from the concept of care that is valuable. But history doesn't end at this point, and what we have to learn about ethics in openness will no doubt continue.

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The digital erosion of trust
David White, 2020/04/16

This post references and contains a link to the OER20 presentation given by the author along with Bonnie Stewart. In it the good point is made, "it could be considered caring to track students in digital platforms to understand how they are engaging with their learning. It can also be considered surveillance. In technology, care and surveillance tend to go hand-in-hand." But I'm not sure I agree with this observation: "Whenever we introduce something to increase ‘fairness’ we also reduce trust." I don't think so; I don't see how I could even begin to trust something (eg., the court system) if it were not fair. What I think David White may have in mind here are mechanisms that prevent cheating. But, of course, fairness doesn't reduce to preventing cheating.

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Updating Your Online Learning Strategy
Darcy Hardy, Blackboard Blog, 2020/04/16

I was listening to a webcast today where participants were talking about professors not being able to imagine any way of teaching online other than giving a lecture at the regular time. This brings to mind one of the questions listed in this article: "What have we learned about our current faculty development process during this crisis? How do we ensure faculty understand the use of technology and the pedagogy of teaching online?" In the future, the answer will have to be better than "we don't." This is just one of the questions offered as a checklist in this article on updating your online learning strategy post-pandemic.

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Getting Clearer: Dismantling Systemic Oppression in Public Education
Anthony Jackson, Getting Smart, 2020/04/16

Good article written from an American point of view about how a school district in Canada addresses and works against prejudice in its schools. The author remarks on how rare it is, but I would like to think similar conversations are taking place in schools across Canada (though I guess I can imagine some places where they aren't). From the article: “we saw intentionality around building the capacity of school staff to understand the roots of racism…to be comfortable having those conversations, and then creating units to have those conversations with students.” Another added, “Educators engaged students about privilege and identity. A focus on identity positively permeated the school.”

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Coronavirus: Teachers join forces to create online curriculum hub
James Carr, John Dickens, Schools Week, 2020/04/16

The resource, which will be called the Oak National Academy, "will consist of around 180 filmed lessons from experts across different subjects, covering from early years up to year 10." It will be based on the list of online education resources for home education released by the British government. According to the gov.uk website, these resources are "currently free", which suggests you should download them sooner rather than later.

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OAPEN launches on new platform
Elisabeth Ernst, OPERAS, 2020/04/16

The Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) Library system has moved to a new DS[ace platform. This enables new features, including "new browsing options based on license or publication type (book or chapter), and ... a REST search API for systems to search the OAPEN Library." It's worth noting that " OAPEN Foundation also manages DOAB, the Directory of Open Access Books, in partnership with OpenEdition."

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