OLDaily

Feature Article
Ethics, Duty, Care
Stephen Downes, Online Educa Berlin, 2022/07/21

Why does it feel like so many discussions of ethics take it for granted that we all agree on core values? I have my own views on all of these, though recent events have shaken some of them. I wrestle with the fact that there's no right answer, and yet my position demands that there be an answer. Written for OEB 2022.

[Link] [Comment]

How Decentralized Social Media (DeSo) Wants to Transform Your News Feed
Colin Brightfield, How-To Geek, 2022/07/21

Here's the gist: Decentralized Social (DeSo) "is a way of social networking built on open blockchain technology without a central authority that owns and operates the network, creating new opportunities for how we can use social media and giving more power to you, the user." This article describes the motivations for a web3 free of the limitations of existing social media networks that "are not portable nor composable and operate in closed ecosystems that do not talk to each other." It describes the Lens protocol "that is changing the nature of social media in Web3 by creating an open, decentralized, and composable social graph" and suggests "we can update the whole concept of what a community really is... and explore new ways to visualize, build, display, and interact with a social graph." The catch: you need to 'connect your wallet' in order to use it - a compatible wallet, that is. *sigh*

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Augmented reality in architecture and construction education: state of the field and opportunities
Aso Hajirasouli, Saeed Banihashemi, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2022/07/21

What attracted me to this article (28 page PDF) was the detail the authors get into, including for example a table of various types of augmented reality (AR) technologies, the tools they use, and potential augmented parameters (illustrated). The article itself is based on a systemic literature review (which means it misses a lot of informal and current work). It does, however, draw some useful connections, including linking some specific pedagogical approaches (constructivism as defined by Lord, experiential teaching as defined by Kolb) and provides detailed charts of applications of AR-based technology in construction and architecture higher education.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Matthew Ball on the metaverse: We've never seen a shift this enormous
Janko Roettgers, Protocol, 2022/07/21

Matthew Ball is a Amazon Video executive-turned-VC who has written a book on the metaverse, so it's not surprising to see him tout it as an enormous shift, comparing it to the launch of the internet itself. Maybe not. But the interview is useful in clearing up some misconceptions. For example,  the idea that the metaverse is immersive virtual reality. "That's an access device," he says. "It would be akin to saying the mobile internet is a smartphone." The metaverse is the interoperability (and hence, as I've said before, persistence of objects) between one virtual environment and another. This was the dream decades ago of interMUD and possibly an important innovation of the future. But this history tells me it won't be - can't be - one single company that implements it. Anyhow, this interview is far too short but still worth thinking about.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Investigation of open educational resources adoption in higher education using Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory
Leila Jamel Menzli, Lassaad K. Smirani, Jihane A. Boulahia, Myriam Hadjouni, Heliyon, 2022/07/21

Part of the project work I'm doing for the upcoming year centres on technology adoption and innovation diffusion theories. I'm focused on the practical here: how do we select and adopt the right technology or innovation most effectively? So this may flavour some of the content selection for OLDaily, beginning with this article (12 page PDF) that explores "the Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) of (Rogers, 2003), a theory that concentrates on determinant attributes of users' perceptions and use of innovations," from the perspective of OER adoption. See section 3 for the coverage of technology acceptance models. The paper describes a survey methodology and questionnaire (because the theory is based on perceived advantage or value) applied to faculty at 25 universities in Saudi Arabia. "Relative advantage-has a direct and significant impact on OER adoption," write the authors, citing numerous cases of similar findings. Similarly, observability has a positive impact on OER adoption, which complexity is negatively correlated.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]