OLDaily

What It Takes to Be an Effective Public Scholar
Frederick Hess, Education Next, 2022/01/10

I believe I am an effective public scholar, though I can't imagine I'm on Frederick Hess's list of those "who had the biggest influence on the nation’s education discourse last year," mostly because I don't really think that's the mark of being an effective public scholar. So too with his criteria: "disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive commentary, and speaking in the public square." These are the marks of a successful lobbyist, not a public scholar. I fear he has confused the two professions. Image: the same article, on Hess's own website, sort of.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The ASA controversy on P-values as an illustration of the difficulty of statistics
Deborah G. Mayo, Error Statistics Philosophy, 2022/01/10

This is another article on a subject dear to the hearts of educational researchers: statistics. Specifically, Deborah Mayo comments on "a 2019 editorial by some of the authors of the original statement (recommending 'to abandon statistical significance') and a 2021 ASA task force statement, much more positive on P-values." Mayo is more positive with respect to P-values, while at the same time asking statisticians to be clear about the complexities and ambiguities inherent in the discipline. After all, "probability modelling in data analysis is essentially about whether and how often things that did not happen could have happened, which can never be verified." Not everybody agrees; "Researchers often wish to turn a p-value into a statement about the truth of a null hypothesis, or about the probability that random chance produced the observed data. The p-value is neither.”

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

A New Measurement Framework for the Digital Economy
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, 2022/01/10

I hadn't really thought of it this way (because I don't care) but on reflection it turns out that the vast bulk of my contribution to the world does not contribute one iota to the GDP (except perhaps through some very indirect measures). So much the worse, I say, for the GDP as a measurement tool. There are two problems with GDP. First, it does not measure the value of things that are free, even though society benefits greatly from them. Second, it does measure the value of things that are not free, even if they represent no form of production at all (for example, bank profits). It's not clear to me, additionally, that we should measure 'benefit to society' in terms of 'capital' at all. A peaceful moment is worth nothing, yet it is everything. Image: Big Think, The Gross Failures of GDP.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Coaching as a learning reinforcement method
Panos Malakoudis, Chief Learning Officer, 2022/01/10

I'm linking this mostly to note the reference to Kolb's experiential learning cycle (and to suggest once again that education qua discipline should stop naming things after people, and start naming things according to what they are; there is in fact a long history of research into each of these things, and naming them after certain individuals trivializes the work that came both before and after). Anyhow, the point of this article is to examine the role of coaching in experiential learning. As Timothy Gallwey says, "Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Crypto Theses for 2022
Ryan Selkis, Messari, 2022/01/10

This is an absolutely outstanding bleeding-edge looooong overview of the coming year in blockchain and associated technologies. If you're at all interested in web3, DAOs, decentralized storage, or crypto technology, you want to take a Saturday and read this cover to cover. On the way you'll encounter concepts like the flippening, the use of RabbitHole for learning, the evolution of owned media, and so much more. Really. If you're serious about hard tech, don't miss this one. 165 page PDF.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]