OLDaily

Europe's Gaia-X cloud computing platform takes shape
Reuters, 2020/06/04

European Union nations are intent on reducing their reliance on overseas cloud service providers such as Amazon and have set in motion a project called Gaia-X to serve as a competitor. "The entity managing the Gaia-X platform will be registered as a company under Belgian law and will function as a non-profit, according to a status update on the project seen by Reuters." More: DCD. "German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier announced the birth of Gaia-X back in October (before falling off of the stage)."

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Work in 2030
Alex Usher, Higher Education Strategies Associates, 2020/06/04

Good discussion and review of a work futures study Ahead By A Decade: Employment in 2030 published last week by the Brookfield Institute in comparison with similar work done by the “Canadian Occupational Projection System” (COPS). COPS has difficulties with resource sector employment employment, which depends so much on world prices, and public service employment, which depends on demand, and it does not handle disruptive innovation well, say Alex Usher. Brookfield, meanwhile, is "working out what kinds of disruptive change might affect the labour market over the next decade." But it lacks the range and depth of input COPS has. The result is "COPS and Brookfield are using fundamentally different and, I would argue, equally unreliable methodologies.  But – and this is the good thing – they are symmetrically unreliable." So, says Usher, the truth probably lies somehwere in the middle.

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MoodleNet
Moodle, 2020/06/04

MoodleNet version 1.0 has launched. It's "a new open social media platform for educators, initially focused on the collaborative curation of collections of open resources. MoodleNet will be an integral part of the Moodle ecosystem, sustainably empowering communities of educators to share and learn from each other to improve the quality of education."

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We’ve Surveyed 82 School Districts That Launched Remote Learning Amid the Pandemic. Here’s What Did (and Didn’t) Work This Spring — and What It Means for Next Year
Robin Lake, Bree Dusseault, The 74, 2020/06/04

School districts started slowly in response to the nation-wide shutdown. But "Two months later, 61 percent of a larger sample set of districts (50 of 82 districts reviewed) provide remote learning plans that include formal curriculum, instruction and progress monitoring, and 99 percent of districts we reviewed (81 of 82) are providing students access to a formal curriculum." The issues were what you would expect: difficulties for special needs students, bandwidth limitations, and difficulties tracking students. Challenges still lie ahead: "No district we reviewed has yet launched a comprehensive reopening plan, and just 22 percent have named a process or timeline for developing 2020-21 fall reopening plans."

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Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots
Jim Waterson, The Guardian, 2020/06/04

The age of the robot teacher takes another step closer. As reported here, "Dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software." More here. This is part of what have been ongoing efforts to automate journalism and continued work to evaluate its impact on society. One wonders how automated journalism systems would manage the current flow of fake news, the ongoing pandemic (and related misinformation), and the recent wave of protests in the U.S. To get some idea, perhaps, have a look at the automated news feeds produced by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

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Prebunking the conspiracy theorists
Harold Jarche, 2020/06/04

Some very practical advice on how to handle fake news and disinformation drawn partially from the conspiracy theory handbook and partially from George Lakoff's work on frames. Let me quote from the latter: “1) Repetition strengthens the synapses in neural circuits that people use in thinking 2) Whoever frames first has an advantage 3) Negating a frame activates and strengthens it.” The third point is especially important. After it has gained currency, it's too late to debunk fake news - every act of debunking actually reinforces people's belief in it. How to respond, then? Proactively. "You read the signals from the edges. It’s tough but not impossible. It’s what good Intelligence is based on. You do this — 1) Systemically e.g. the Finns are less susceptible to fake news because of the school system & universal service 2) By watching for weak signals in forums and other alt media 3) Tell a more compelling story e.g. the film Casablanca (1940) — it takes a village to raise a citizen.

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‘It’s never okay to say no to teachers’: Children’s research consent and dissent in conforming schools contexts
Perpetua Kirby, British Educational Research Journal, 2020/06/04

This article "discusses the implications for educational research when the values of consent are in conflict with a schooling focused on conformity." Schools are, as the author notes, "problematic sites for consent." Attendance is compulsory and adherence to the learning culture is mandatory. This study adopts a methodology attempting to "disrupt educational conformity." But it's not as simple as asking them whether they consent, because saying "no" to the teacher is not allowed. The author observes a variety of other ways students indicate dissent - becoming distracted, playing with paper, making irritating noises, or simply disengaging. Obviously this raises ethical issues around conducting research with student populations. And it should - I think - raise ethical issues about how we manage the practice of educastion in general. Imahge: the Atlantic.

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