OLDaily

Feature Article
Lessons From the Pandemic
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2020/12/08

As we all know, when things shut down beginning in 2020 we had to adapt to working and learning from home. We made the rapid transition to what we called ‘remote learning’ and later, when we knew what we were dealing with, we were able to return to the classroom. Whatever learning looks like will emerge from the lessons of those months. What were those lessons? We should eventually coalesce around some core ideas.

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Students Struggling in Virtual Classrooms Show a Glaring Problem in Our Schools
Todd Stanley, edCircuit, 2020/12/08

I think this important realization is only beginning to dawn on people: "My daughter has been in schools for 10 years, and in that time, did not have a teacher who taught her to learn independently." In othger words, "Schools need to stop giving students the fish and instead, teach them how to catch them for themselves. Then learning at home wouldn’t be such a problem. Of course, this still requires the teacher in the virtual setting to provide projects and other open-ended learning in order for the students to put this skill to use. If you are simply downloading worksheets, doing Quizlets, or listening to a lecture, they are still being given the fish." Quite so.

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MTC Mastery Transcript
2020/12/08

According to the website, "Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) member schools are public and private high schools from across the United States — and several are from around the world. A growing group of MTC member schools are now using the Mastery Transcript as their official school transcript." Specifically, "the MTC has co-designed and built a software platform that schools use to publish Mastery Transcripts for their high school students and deliver these transcripts securely to college admissions readers and/or employers."

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The inaugural issue of the Journal of Social Media for Learning
Sue Beckingham, Social Media for Learning, 2020/12/08

Congratulations to the Journal of Social Media for Learning, which launched their first issue this week. "The journal’s ethos is centered around the creation of a supportive space where all colleagues, but particularly those new to publishing, can contribute to the scholarly discourse about their academic practice, and if they so wish, secure opportunities to gain experience of peer-review and journal editing." Articles are open access.

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How education leaders tried to stave off disaster in 2020
Betsy Foresman, EdScoop, 2020/12/08

The most commpin prediction I'm reading these days is something like this: "post-pandemic students are likely going to want to take advantage of the flexibility of online and hybrid learnings, prompting schools to continue evaluating the university experience... Most students are non-traditional in some way and institutions will have to cater to the needs of those students and they’re going to want flexibility." Meanwhile, institutions are still trying to bring sometimes recalcitrant staff up to speed with new (twenty-year old) technology and to offer m ore than just lectures in classrooms.

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A Mom’s View: Online Learning Isn’t Working for Students, Parents or Teachers. Here’s What’s Happening in My Home
Melissa Smith, The 74, 2020/12/08

We keep to keep in mind that The 74 is an advocacy publication supporting 'school choice' (aka charter schools) and so has an interest in pushing back against online learning. Still, it's hard to deny some of the concerns raised in this article, even if the scenario seems extreme (caring for a 5-month old, working from home, and trying to make sure two school-age children do more than watch YouTube or TikTok videos). It should be easier to keep track of student work and there should be fewer e-learning applications. But also, it shows the danger of "the old days when we simply checked homework logs" - if compliance is based on oversight, rather than motivation, then taking away the oversight takes away the compliance.

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What is OpenSimulator?
OpenSimulator, 2020/12/08

Worth noting: "OpenSimulator is an open source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application server. It can be used to create a virtual environment (or world) which can be accessed through a variety of clients, on multiple protocols, see Connecting. Optional Hypergrid allow users to visit other OpenSimulator installations across the web from their 'home' installation or grid. In this way, it is the basis of a nascent distributed Metaverse." I haven't tried using it, but I wanted an example of a decentralized virtual world in my records.

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