OLDaily

We need to transform education for this generation to be prepared for the future
Silvia Montoya, Manos Antoninis, World Education Blog, UNESCO, 2022/09/15

The authors define 'prepared for the future' in terms of 'a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics' combined with 'completion rates' to reach their overall conclusions. The results are that "While 90% of children and adolescents in Europe and North America are prepared for the future and 75% in Eastern and South-eastern Asia, less than 10% in sub-Saharan Africa can say the same." This to me argues less for a reform of the education system and more for a reform of the global economic system. But I would imagine they're not allowed to say that, so 'reform the education system' it is. Here's the new UIS data that formed the basis for this article.

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Defining Different Modes of Learning: Resolving Confusion and Contention Through Consensus
Nicole Johnson, Jeff Seaman, Russ Poulin, Online Learning, 2022/09/15

Researchers (20 page PDF) survey staff and instructors from a wide range of U.S. institutions and find a surprising degree of agreement in the definitions of major terms in the field. Specifically, they find agreement that 'online learning' means "all instruction and interaction is fully online (synchronous or asynchronous)". Meanwhile, 'hybrid learning' means "a blend of online and in-person instruction (online instruction is synchronous or asynchronous)". Additionally, 'hyflex learning' means "means that students can move between online and in-person instruction as they see fit (also referred to as multi-access or co-modal Learning)". 'In-person' means "all instruction takes place in an in-person setting". Meanwhile, 'synchronous learning means "instruction takes place in real-time and requires student presence (in-person or virtual) at a set time". The results allowed the authors to create a revised spectrum of learning modes (illustrated). Via WCET Frontiers.

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The Decline of American Higher Education
Alex Usher, Higher Education Strategy Associates, 2022/09/15

Alex Usher reviews two books on the topic and offers interesting and engaging commentary, but what was of most interest to me was this remark: "The problem is that working from case studies alone tends to blind you to counter-factuals." A counterfactual (usually spelled without the hyphen) is a (generally true) conditional (if-then) statement in which the antecedent (the 'if' part') is false. For example: 'If Mars were bigger, it would have stronger gravity'. Usher writes (correctly, in my view) that overlooking counterfactuals is "a blind-spot of a lot of books". And this is important because we don't really understand things if we can't consider alternatives to what actually happened. If tuition costs had not risen, for example, would there still have been a backlash against the U.S. higher education system? How we answer this question matters. Image: NBC News.

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Ethereum’s massive software upgrade just went live — here’s what it does
MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 2022/09/15

Ethereum has completed 'the Merge', a software update that converts the blockchain from a 'proof-of-work' system to a 'proof-of-stake'. The change effectively reduces their energy consumption to about one percent of what it was previously, removing a major objection to the use of blockchain systems. It also reduces security risks by protecting against '51% attacks'. Now Ethereum has other challenges to address: the cost of transactions, the speed of transactions, and creeping centralization.

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