OLDaily

Noam Chomsky Explains the Best Way for Ordinary People to Make Change in the World, Even When It Seems Daunting
Josh Jones, Open Culture, 2020/06/08

So many people want to make change by forcing other people to do things. But I agree with Noam Chomsky here. “The way things change,” he says, “is because lots of people are working all the time, and they’re working in their communities or their workplace or wherever they happen to be, and they’re building up the basis for popular movements.” If we want change, we have to do the work.

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Taking Back the Narrative of Ed Tech
Shea Swauger, 2020/06/08

This post summarizes a dispute between Shea Swauger, who wrote a review of algorithmic test proctoring, and Proctorio, a company involved in the industry. First they asked him to retract, and then they wrote a column in response in Inside Higher Ed. It's an odd response, asking that we recognize a distinction between 'facial recognition' and 'facial detection' technology, and agree that "there is a potential threat to society when students are not expected to meet integrity standards set forth by their institution." In any case, Swauger's main point still stands, I think: "Biometric-based authentication technologies like facial recognition, fingerprint/retinal ID, voice, or keystroke recognition should never be used in an educational setting. There are too many privacy, security, and equity risks to justify any potential benefits."

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Professional Learning Framework for the Teaching Profession
Ontario College of Teachers, 2020/06/08

I read this document (24 page PDF) as part of my research into ethics for learning analytics (and I note, in passing, the almost complete absence of references to ethics for teachers among the discussions of learning analytics). What caught my interest in this document was the progressive and wide-reacing account of professional development it provides; it's far more than mere classroom training, and includes a wide degree of involvement in the community as part of its desciption of educational opportunities. I look at this framework (pictured - click here for large version) and realize I do all of these things to learn. I've done them all my life, which gave me a huge advantage over those who stayed with classroom training. And it leaves me wondering, why isn't all of our education for young people (up to and including university students) structured this way?

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