OLDaily

The Topologies of Data Practices: A Methodological Introduction
Mathias Decuypere, Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 2021/01/20

This is a lovely paper on a number of different levels, not the least of which is the helpful poster-style image that accompanies the text (view first!). The paper proposes a topological overview of data practices in academia "that is interested in their liveness, that is, in how they emerge, develop and unfold" which "allows us to see data practices as complex assemblages that have no unifying essence, but that are instead continually being put together." This is the best bit of the discussion. The resulting IUDE model identifies four strands describing data practices: "Interface (on), User (with), Design (behind) and Ecology (beyond)."

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Student Identity Matters — Online, Too
Ashley A. Adams, Campus Technology, 2021/01/20

Here's the premise: "In higher education, we pay attention to who students are — to how they show up on our campuses and how they engage the university. But often that doesn't happen enough in online learning environments." I'm not sure this is true, either on traditional campuses, where it's pretty easy to be anonymous, nor online, where it's pretty hard to be anonymous. In any case, Ashley Adams argues, "we need to make an extra effort to center our student's identities." It is less about your political identity," she says, "and much more about your humanistic identity: who you are, what you care about, your values and ideals. There's no discipline that's beyond identity work." I'm not sure I agree with this, but I'm not so sure I disagree either. It feels to me like the subject is being magnified beyond its actual importance, but I'm aware this feeling might be based more on my own perspective than anything else, and it may reflect my role as a researcher rather than someone who works directly with people day in and day out..

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Effort to Debunk Education Technology Falters by Overstating Its Own Case
Michael B. Horn, Education Next, 2021/01/20

I listened to an interview with Justin Reich on CBC's Spark this afternoon and heard basically a restatement of the criticisms of ed tech pundits (and especially people like Audrey Watters) and the solutions experienced designers have been proposing over the last few years. And if we ask why CBC would interview Reich over any of a hundred more qualified people, well, let's observe that he published a book and works for MIT, and that's all you need to know. This review of Reich's book by Michael B. Horn (one of those hundred people) echos my own sentiment (keeping in mind that I haven't read the book, there being no open access version online), calling it "a sensible, but hardly novel, appeal for 'methodological pluralism'." It's not clear how far Reich's research extends, as he described MOOCs as "simply a vehicle for traditional teacher-directed 'instructionism'." Horn also writes that Reich "misreads the most recent research on Teach to One" and "doesn’t grapple with these more nuanced parts of the theory of disruptive innovation."

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