OLDaily

Mind the Ethics Gap
Anne-Marie Scott, A placid island of ignorance…, 2020/09/08

This is more coverage of the case of Ian Linkletter, who is being sued by Proctorio for posting links to videos published as unlisted on YouTube. Anne-Marie Scott writes (and I agree) that "this entire case looks rather like an attempt to scare, and a rather hastily executed one at that." She points to Brenna Clarke Gray's defence of Linkletter and notes "whilst we have a strong culture of ethics review in our research activities, that stands in stark comparison to our operational activities." Good point, but I'm not really drawn to the argument that "the rise of edtech is underpinned by ideology." Indeed, I don't see how to support and defend public education without it. Those arguing for ethics in educational operation (and I am one) have to respond to a wide array of ethical challenges, such as accessibility and inclusion, and not merely more narrow concerns about commodification, market forces and privacy (which, if I may say perhaps a bit boldly, are very much first-world problems). Still, good post, well argued.

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Microsoft Announces the General Availability of Immersive Reader Service on the Azure AI Platform
Steef-Jan Wiggers, InfoQ, 2020/09/08

This is an interesting and potentially very useful type of learning technology. As described on the Microsoft website, "Immersive Reader... lets you embed text reading and comprehension capabilities into applications... with features like reading aloud, translating languages, and focusing attention through highlighting and other design elements." There's a software development kit (SDK), partnerships with content providers, and plans to integrate Picture Dictionary images. What's key to making this work is that they're not offering is as a platform, they're offering it as a cloud service applications can access as needed.

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The Video Format Battles: MKV vs MP4
Lakisha Davis, Metapress, 2020/09/08

It seems like a law of nature that we can't have something good without some other version of the same thing coming along. That's why we have Coke and Pepsi, Windows and Mac, Antz and A Bug's Life, Deep Impact and Armageddon. And so we have two video formats: MP4 and MKV. They are both containers, that is, they contain various encodings of audio and video tracks. They can both be used for different delivery formats (for example, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) or Apple’s HLS streaming (except HLS doesn't work with MKV)). MKV has minor advantages (for example, it can store audio tracks in multiple languages, and is better for ripping CDs because it can keep tracks separated; a limited version, WebM, is used for in-browser streaming), while MP4 file sizes are smaller and more likely to work on your device.m If you have an MKV you need to convert to MP4 (it's rarely the other way around) your best bet is probably to use the open source VLC application. Here's another video format battle article, a versus article, a how-to choose article, and a comparison table.

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Virtual Connection: The Rise of Experiential Learning Companies
Richard Garrett, Encoura, 2020/09/08

This Eduventures article argues that a new type of company is emerging called the experiential learning company (ELC). These new companies "create mentorship and work experience networks within schools, between schools and employers, or link individuals and employers directly." While they may use technology, they are not specifically educational technology companies, being focused on the 'value', not the 'enabler'. "The category is a refreshing instance of using standard online technology to accomplish things that colleges embody at a high level but struggle to pull off at scale," writes Richard Garrett.

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“Synch Video is Bad,” perhaps a new research project?
Steven D. Krause, 2020/09/08

Steve Krause has learned two things about online learning, he says: "asynchronous instruction works better than synchronous instruction... (and) video is not very effective." Now, after a pandemic that "makes the debate about laptops and cell phones in classes seem kind of quaint and old-fashioned and irrelevant," Krause observes that "a lot of my colleagues who are teaching online this fall for the first time are completely ignoring these best practices." They're teaching using live video, and they're actually being required to teach this way. Now I have no problem with some Zoom interaction - it's nice to know there are people in the world - but being online, on mute, with shoes on your feet from 8:15 to 3 every day is excessive (of course, it was also excessive when we made students do this in person, too).

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GDPR Violation: ScribD acquires PII on 500M users in a deal with LinkedIn
The HFT Guy, 2020/09/08

My main concern with Scribd's acquisition of SlideShare isn't so much the personal data - Microsoft probably made much more use of it that Scribd ever could - as it is with the fact that Scribd documents have been historically user-hostile and hard to read. So there is the risk that the company will lock down SlideShare content in a similar manner, all in a push to drive traffic and maximize profit. There doesn't appear to be any way to recover all my uploaded slide presentations (good thing I have full backups) but I'm still looking for an alternative way to embed them in web pages (note that since I have my own presentation pages, none of my URLs will need to change, though I may have to update the pages). More from Scribd, LinkedIn.

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Images of Learning through Music: The Sounds of Cognition
Laura Ritchie, International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 2020/09/08

I think this is key: "By accessing concept knowledge directly through representation and then experience, the need for translation of technical or theoretical material is bypassed." This is in contrast to, say, constructivism, where there is a focus on 'making meaning' by constructing theory and models. And it eliminates the ambiguity created by these more abstract forms of learning. "One of the most effective aspects of this practice is that people cannot refute the fact that they have accomplished these things. It is not a conceptual or theoretical discussion or learning experience, and so there is added meaning in the experience." (10 page PDF)

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