OLDaily

Online Teaching with the most basic of tools – email
Tannis Morgan, explorations in the ed tech world, 2021/04/22

I would take this post as a starting point, something along the lines of "OK, you did remote teaching, now what should we make of this online learning thing?" It takes us back to basics, where online teaching is about the interactions (more) between students and content, instructors, and each other (which we know is essentially the transactional distance theory of online learning). We could sharpen our understanding by including elements of design, as briefly mentioned in the post, or we could add depth to our interactions by considering social, cognitive or teaching presence (more). This is where we get beyond content, and incorporate things like discussions and group work. From there, the world of online learning opens up, and you can think about things like analytics for design, networks for interaction, and environments for learning activities.

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Data Literacy Learning Catalogue
Statistics Canada, 2021/04/22

This is a set of 18 learning resources that are useful not only as learning resources but also as de factor defining of the concept of data literacy. They are divided into four categories: "find-gather-protect; explore-clean-describe; analyze-model; tell the story." As I look at this I see the elements of the universal "aggregate-remix-repurpose-feed forward" strategy that defines online learning in general. If you're looking for a place top start with data literacy, start here, with this 4-minute video. "The data journey represents the key stages of the data process. The journey is not necessarily linear. It is intended to represent the different steps and activities that could be undertaken to produce meaningful information from data."

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Scholarly Communication and Scholarly Publishing
Jean-Claude Guédon, Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association, 2021/04/22

This post discusses a framework for digital publishing characterized by the following components: the inside-out library (see also) that "sets the library as the institution that identifies and gathers the research results of its own institution"; platforms that handle relationships "between individuals and documents, between documents, and between individuals"; and a shift in emphasis by funding organizations that currently hold the for-profit publishing system in place. "The present scholarly publishing system distorts the communication system that the production of knowledge requires," writes Jean-Claude Guédon. I would argue that it similarly distorts the concordant system that education as a whole requires. Image: Lorcan Dempsey.

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Fifteen journals to outsource peer-review decisions
Cathleen O'Grady, Science, 2021/04/22

I have often read about the value provided by publishers in both the editing and review of academic articles. But it may be that these aren't actually core to the publication industry. "Some scholarly publishers have already outsourced operations like copy editing and printing. Now, 15 journals are outsourcing something central to science itself: the peer-review process." They will instead accept without further review articles offered by a non-profit “peer community” organization. So what is core to publishers? Well, subscriptions, of course.

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Rhetoric or game changer: Social dialogue and industrial relations in education midst EU governance and privatisation in Europe
Tore Bernt Sorensen, Emiliano Grimaldi, Tomasz Gajderowicz, European Trade Union Committee for Education, 2021/04/22

The core this report (246 page PDF) is the first chapter, which "identifies a tension between a declared commitment to social dialogue, inclusion  and  stakeholder  involvement,  on  the  one  hand,  and  an  embrace  of  performance-oriented policy instruments and privatisation, on the other." This is set in the context of "a vision where lifelong learning, knowledge, economy and society are brought together." The result is an increasing "institutional lock-in" of educational policy "establishing more direct links between technical work and strategic priorities." This is having the effect of pushing forward privatization and creating a "burgeoning" education industry "encapsulated by the multiple ICT based instruments initiated by the Commission that targets schools and teachers." This creates "serious challenges regarding social dialogue in the  unfolding  trajectory  of  EU  multi-level  governance." See also the executive summary (5 page PDF). Via Checkpoint e-learning.

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USDA Issues Pandemic Flexibilities for Schools and Day Care Facilities through June 2022 to Support Safe Reopening and Healthy, Nutritious Meals
United States Department of Agriculture, 2021/04/22

From the earliest days of OLDaily I've been saying that there's no technology that will do more to support learning than one ensuring that children are properly fed. So I applaud the extension of the nutrition program in the U.S. and argue it should be made permanent. "Students’ success in the classroom goes hand in hand with their ability to access basic needs like healthy and nutritious meals. It’s critical that our efforts to reopen schools quickly and safely include programs that provide access to free, healthy meals for our most vulnerable students." My view is that a lot of 'educational reform' is nothing more than a dance allowing people to sidestep the basic need to address issues of poverty. But maybe in the last year we've learned that the health of one is the health of all. See also: school lunches from around the world.

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Europe fit for the Digital Age
European Commission, 2021/04/22

Here is the final draft of the European Commission's proposal to regulate artificial intelligence and machine learning. The proposal defines a set of 'high risk' AI applications and creates rules and obligations limiting when they can be put into use. "AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people will be banned. This includes AI systems or applications that manipulate human behaviour to circumvent users' free will (e.g. toys using voice assistance encouraging dangerous behaviour of minors) and systems that allow ‘social scoring' by governments." Here (81 page PDF) is the full resolution consisting of 69 articles plus annexes.

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Responsible learning analytics: creating just, ethical,and caring
Teresa Cerratto Pargman, et.al., Open University, 2021/04/22

This is just an outline for a workshop, and therefore pretty short, but I think it efficiently gets to the core of the difficulty we face in the ethics of analytics: "Neither ethics of justice nor ethics of care, on their own, can "sufficiently  address and accommodate the complexities, intersectionality and multi-dimensional nature of individuals and different relations in different contexts." Quite true. The authors suggests that we need to approach the subject "from a dialectic and relational stance between justice and care." If only it were that simple. But the ethics of justice and care are just two of many approaches to ethics. I can only say, you're going to need something bigger than dialectics. See also Accessible Learning, Accessible analytics, a workshop outline with one of the same authors. Image: Online Learning Insights, the ethics of learning analytics (2012).

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