OLDaily

The news industry’s $1bn question: Is Meta about to unfriend journalism?
William Turvill, PressGazette, 2022/05/19

I think this article raises a great question: why would Meta (aka Facebook) pay money to provide distribution services to commercial media? From their point of view (I would say) they should be paid to provide this service, not paying. Well, some say "the relevance and credibility of its platforms – especially Facebook – would crumble without professional news content." Really? Is that why people signed on to Facebook - to read newspapers? If I were at Facebook, I'd be thinking, "instead of paying some company to retread press releases, let's just link directly to the press releases." Others think maybe Facebook is "switching focus from 'links to news articles' to 'news content in the form of short videos'." Or - again - they could just go directly to the source, and rely on user-generated videos.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Incorporating AI and learning analytics to build trustworthy peer assessment systems
Ali Darvishi, Hassan Khosravi, Shazia Sadiq, Dragan Gašević, British Journal of Educational Technology, 2022/05/19

The authors example data collected by RiPPLE, "an adaptive educational system that dynamically modifies the level or form of instruction based on individual student skills or preferences," to study four aspects of peer assessment: individual reviews, assigning grades, feedback on reviews, and instructor oversight. For example, "we developed three quality control functions that automatically analyse the quality of provided comments and encourage students to improve their textual feedback." As a result, they found that "providing students with training, self-monitoring, and quality control features can help them offer lengthier and more useful comments to other peers.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

AI-generated essays - time to rethink written assignments
Alastair Creelman, The corridor of uncertainty, 2022/05/19

The basic message (and you've heard it here before) is this: "Students will employ AI to write assignments. Teachers will use AI to assess them. Nobody learns, nobody gains. If ever there were a time to rethink assessment, it's now." This post references another written by Mike Sharples containing some examples of AI-authored essays. The examples are plausible, right down to the fake references. Are live assessments ("like interviews, presentations, debates or round table discussions") the answer? My own thinking is that we'll simply stop 'assessing' and instead analyze the body of a person's actual professional work - however produced - in recruitment and employment decisions. Because at that point it doesn't matter whether or not they used AI if they're getting the job done. Image: cactus cowboy, Open Clipart.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Cognitive Science of Philosophy Symposium: Moral Dilemmas
Paul Conway, Guy Kahane, The Brains Blog, 2022/05/19

The question here, I think, is whether the posing of moral dilemmas teach us something new, or reveal what we already know (or believe). Most readers will be familiar with Philippa Foot's trolley problem, where we must chose between acting to kill one person, or doing nothing to allow five to die. It could be argued that the dilemma simply tells us whether or not we we are consequentialists (that is, we judge the ethics of an action by its consequences). I read this and wonder whether this is a question that could be asked of pedagogical approaches in general. Does role play, for example, teach us, or does it merely reveal who we are?

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Enhancing the Literacy and Basic Skills Program Through Integrated Digital Delivery: An Opportunity and Needs Assessment
Alpha Plus, 2022/05/19

I thin k it is generally accepted that you can't simply launch people into an online literacy and basic skills (LBS) program. This is one of those cases where people need in-person and often individual support to give them the tools they need to be successful online. At the same time, as a result of the pandemic experience, educators are seeing the benefit of online support for LBS students, which creates a need to strengthen and integrate online LBS support. That's the gist of this report (24 page PDF) prepared by Purpose Co (probably by Meg Saxby?) for Contact North and Alpha Plus. The report makes four major recommendations: provide access to technology devices, digital skills and tech support; provide an LMS and range of OERs; provide accessible provincial professional development; and develop system-wide coordination.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]