OLDaily

Software Engineering – Then, Now, and Next
Mary Poppendieck, 2022/04/15

Software engineering perhaps isn't the first think to spring to mind as new or exciting or relevant, but the history traced in this very good article is the history of a series of key developments both in the field of ed tech and in the field of information technology generally. A lot of today's really important new tools are the result of developers trying to solve persistent issues over time - server virtualization, for example, developed to create Amazon Web Services, which was in turn created to address the company's data management needs. The same with things like dev-ops and distributed databases. So even if you're not excited by the title of the article, have a look.

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Teaching sociologically: Critical pedagogy in the age of neoliberalism
Dane Norris, BERA Blog, 2022/04/15

The key point being made here is that "education could be conceptualised as the space wherein the fight for the future of society, for the ideologies, narratives and political structures that will govern our children and our children's children, is taking place." There's a sense in which this is true, and a sense in which it is to be lamented, since at its heart it is a vision of education as propaganda, whether you are on the neo-liberal side, or whether you are, as is the author, opposed to it. Now no doubt people would say that the two sides aren't equal, and that there's rather more propagandizing on one side than on the other. There's a point to this too. What to do? My only real answer is to work as hard to help people develop their own skills and capacities, and to be as independent as possible from the influence of propaganda. But humans are so easy to persuade; it might be an impossible task. Image: Wikipedia.

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10 UX Design Trends to Follow in 2022
Monique Roberts, Udacity, 2022/04/15

I think this article on design trends is very much hit and miss. Data visualization, 3D immersive visuals, and inclusive design all popular this year. But others either aren't popular or shouldn't be (sometimes it's hard to tell which): scroll-triggered animation, bold typography, and gesture control (which never caught on with Kinnect and still isn't a thing).

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Do You Have the Skills to Succeed in the Online Learning Industry?
Matthew Lynch, The Tech Advocate, 2022/04/15

My own answer these days might be "no" because there have been so many changes over the years. While I've been focused on trends and new instructional technologies, actual practices have changed and developed, and it's impossible to be everywhere. The core tech skills I have - graphic, audio and video editing skills. I don't use the software suites (Articulate, Captivate) at all because of cost. Nor do I use LMSs much, because of relevance, but to get a job you'd probably want some experience (advice: download Moodle into a cloud environment and mess around with it). Matthew Lunch also says that a "college degree in education is required along with knowledge about learning theories, instructional systems, learning models, and adult learning principles." Tony Bates, who linked to this item, "the logical way is to get the qualification first and the experience later, but many people of necessity go the opposite route," which says a lot about what's wrong with the qualification system.

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Integration of Instructional Design and Technology: Volume 2
Rob Power, et.al., PressBooks, 2022/04/15

The most significant thing about this new volume, I think, is that it was "written and compiled by participants in EDUC5103 (Winter 2021 and Winter 2022) at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada, to support fellow teachers in their efforts to effectively leverage technology for online, blended, and emergency remote teaching." Topics covered include instructional video, communities of practice, project-based learning, and more. This to me is what open learning and OER are about.

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