OLDaily

Presentation
Your Instant Decentralized Learning Community
Stephen Downes, Mar 08, 2021, INTED, Online, via Zoom

In this hands-on interactive session Stephen Downes will lead participants as they create a distributed online community, thus modeling a practice that can be used for any class or learning group. Participants learn how to use their own website or blog to keep connected with the community using content syndication and to connect them with social media sites. Downes talks about the dynamics of distributed online conversations, demonstrating with examples how these can combine digital learning with individual agency, as well as providing links to people and resources beyond individual courses and platforms.

[Link] [Slides] [Audio] [Video]

7 powerful alternatives to Microsoft Lists
Kenneth Franks, JotForm, 2021/03/08

Doing some background for my talk today opened me up to a product category that was sort of new to me (and is in many ways similar to some of what I'm building myself in gRSShopper). The category begins as the humble list, but quickly evolves into data tables, which in turn evolves into some sort of hybrid between spreadsheets and databases. It all sounds complicated - and it can be - but some of the platforms, like JotForm and AirTable, look relatively easy to use. There's also Microsoft Lists, as the title suggest, which is really built into Teams and/or OneNote (it's all so very unclear - and it's not just me; just try to get started using this documentation) and there's Google Tables, a beta project available in the U.S. only. Like all databases, though, while it's neat to put all your data into tables, the real change is how you get it there and how you use it. Still, these services start you thinking, and their existence tells me I'm on the right track with gRSShopper.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Hear me out!
Alexandra Mihai, The Educationalist, 2021/03/08

I've added this as a resource in the podcast section of my Quick Tech Guide and I'm linking to it here because it is at once comprehensive and concise, providing a good overview and introduction to podcasting. It outlines the advantages of using audio, some audio application ideas, practical guidance, and a list of resources to take you further.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The changes we need: Education post COVID‑19
Yong Zhao, Jim Watterston, NEPC, Journal of Educational Change, 2021/03/08

The points made in this short and clearly written journal article can be summarized as follows: we need a new curriculum that focuses more on basic (and human) capacities rather than 'template' content knowledge. Additionally, this curriculum should support personalization by students. Curriculum needs to be seen as evolving, and supportive of student self-determination. School practices should be co-developed with students. Instead of direct instruction, pedagogy should focus on authentic and significant problems. We need to move teaching and learning online, because this allows students to be distributed across the community. And "being disconnected physically can result in being more broadly connected virtually." Covid may have propelled us toward these changes, but these are changes we've needed for a long time, which is why I chose to illustrate this post with my 2006 Schools 2.0 diagram.

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Hooked on lecturing?
Alastair Creelman, The corridor of uncertainty, 2021/03/08

This is just a short three-paragraph post but it's worth once again highlighting how difficult it is for (most) teachers to get away from lecturing. As one commenter says, "they are easy to make; they are familiar; and they let the lecturer perform... any other format take a lot more work." I can confirm all of that, and I would add, I personally learn a lot when I prepare and give a lecture, since all that hands-on work is a great learning experience. Meanwhile, if you do anything else, you're putting the success of your event (and your reputation!) in the hands of attendees who might not want something more active.

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Gravity assist: propelling higher education towards a brighter future
Michael Barber, et.al., Office for Students, 2021/03/08

This report (160 page PDF) takes its inspiration from an interplanetary probe launched in 2006 called New Horizons that relied on a gravity assist from Jupiter in order to reach its destination, the planet Pluto. In the same way, the Covid epidemic has propelled the education sector much more quickly toward its own brighter future. This report outlines what it calls "the six components of successful digital teaching and learning" and offers a plan to complete the journey (though honestly, they should count down through the six steps). The short video on the web page gives you a good overview of the six steps (but again, play the steps backwards and they make more sense) but the full report provides the best reward for time spent. Via Jonathan Baldwin.

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Can We Re-engineer Scholarly Journal Publishing? An Interview with Richard Wynne, Rescognito
Alice Meadows, Tim Vines, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2021/03/08

This line of reasoning is new to me, and it definitely needs to be aired. The argument here is that the value publishers provide is not the content or even the peer reviewing, but rather, a set of assertions that come with every article. What are these? "Assertions are explicit or implicit authoritative statements of fact about a document...  some examples: “Who created the document”, “Where was the work done”, “When was it released”, “Who funded the work”, (etc)... Think of it this way: the value is not in the content, it is in the assertions — scholarly publishers don’t publish content, they publish assertions." Now all this is what I would call 'metadata', and I have to wonder, is it true that the value is in the metadata? Well, Richard Wynne has a reason for arguing this way, promoting "Rescognito as an Open Access platform where organizations and individuals can make assertions about research outputs and activities." Well it's a great idea, but it will take a lot of cvooperation from authors, publishers and reviewers.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Please support Web Monetization if you want (fewer) ads on the web
Adrian Todorov, hello, world, 2021/03/08

The presumption is that web monetization would mean fewer (or no) ads. But why should we believe this? We pay for cable TV and yet still have to watch ads. We pay to go to movies and still are shown ads. We pay to see sporting events, which are covered with ads. Nothing about payment stops ads. If anything, it encourages a commercial model, which has the effect of *increasing* the number of ads. No, the way to avoid ads is to produce our own content, not to pay for someone else's. Image: CNBC.

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