OLDaily

How to Build a Very Slow Movie Player for £120 in 2020
Tom Whitwell, Debugger, 2021/04/05

This is the best thing I've seen over the weekend, at least so far. The article describes in detail how to create a framed picture you can hang on your wall displaying a movie very slowly (think: it takes a year to play 2001: A Space Odyssey) using a Raspberry Pi and an e-paper screen. Using e-paper means power consumption is minimal, because there's no backlighting, and the components themselves are so thin "it can be mounted in a normal Ikea picture frame." I want one. Yes I do. Via Ian O'Byrne.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Disabling video may be better for online teaching and collaboration
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2021/04/05

This post cites a study that suggests that audio conferencing might be better than video conferencing for learning. "Taking 198 people, in 99 pairs, doing 30 minute sessions and six tasks, (the researchers) found that video dampened or impaired then ability to speak in turns and get the problems solved." Why? Audio "allows us to take an almost intimate role in the conversation," suggests Donald Clark. "It also reduces cognitive load for novices, a major inhibitor in learning." If this is true, I suggested on Twitter, then it should also be true for in-person learning. But probably there's more going on than was captured in this study.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

A three module teacher’s guide about Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom is now available on Commons
Melissa Guadalupe Huertas, Nichole Saad, Diff, 2021/04/05

According to this article, "the resources of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program are now available on Wikimedia Commons." They consist of a booklet intended for students (10 page PDF) and three resource modules to support teacher professional development (module 1, module 2, module 3 (66,60 and 53 page PDFs)). There's a master resource page for other versions and languages (Spanish, Arabic and Tagalog) but it's not easy to use). The manuals are clearly intended to be printed out (there's space to use for notes) and used in a training program, as it was for the session reported in this post. I'm not sure a PDF training package was the best way to present this to teachers or adult learners generally.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

‘Learning literacy’ and the currency of a knowledge-based economy
Elizabeth Hibner, Chief Learning Officer, 2021/04/05

This is another 'literacy' to add to your list of literacies. In this post, 'learning literacy' means something like 'knowing how to learn', though I would think there is an affective element as well, something along the lines of 'being willing to relearn'. The author frames learning literacy as an imperative: "For many workers, it’s upskill, reskill or be left behind." What being 'left behind' varies from society to society; in some, it's an opportunity to pursue a secondary interest or perhaps try to start a business, while in others it means the loss of health care and other social supports. I've always felt learning should be something you want to do, not some sort of servitude, but obviously not everybody agrees.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]