OLDaily

Elon Musk claims he has acquired Twitter "to help humanity"
Alex Hern, The Guardian, 2022/10/27

One of his first moves as chief, suggests the article, will be to restore Donald Trump's account. The acquisition - not yet completed as I write - is sure to send the internet into a tizzy. An exodus to the fediverse is expected, though it's not clear how large it will be. Should the acquisition be completed, I will set up an alternative OLDaily fediverse feed people can subscribe to, in addition to my existing presence as @downes@mastodon.social.

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Ten advantages of face-to-face instructor-led training
Daniel R. Tobin, Chief Learning Officer - CLO Media, 2022/10/27

Daniel Tobin lists ten types of instances in which he says face-to-face instructor-led training is still the best solution. But this list is hardly convincing. The very first item, for example, is that people are "better able to focus on what is being taught" in an in-person environment. My own experience is quite different; how often have I struggled to stay awake in a hot and crowded room while the instructor drones on! And by contrast, online I'm often so focused I forget to restart the music and just work in silent noise-canceling headphones. Talk about focus! The remaining nine items are equally weak, with quite good cases to be made for the online alternative. We should stop romanticizing non-existent in-person contexts and deal instead with what they're like in the real world.

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LEGO is discontinuing MINDSTORMS in 2022
Chris Wharfe, Brick Fanatics, 2022/10/27

The Mindstorms project has been a favourite of schoolteachers for decades, but "the company says its priorities now lie in 'LEGO Education and other Build & Code experiences'." I'm not sure what that means exactly, nor whether it will continue to support anything like robots in the future.

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Citizens’ social media can provide an antidote to propaganda and disinformation
Robert W. Gehl, The Conversation, 2022/10/27

This article criticizes a recent Per report saying, "While the report is well-researched and reveals a great deal about the current state of digital media, news and right-wing propaganda, it is wrong about alternative social media." In particular, writes Robert Gehl, the report treats alternative social media sites as though they were stand-along entities, and then argues that the largest of these are far right sites like Gab and Truth Social. However, fediverse entities are interconnected, and many are deliberately kept small, so it's misleading to treat them as stand-alone alternatives. And importantly, "Importantly, these sites can defederate with those who act unethically."

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Xbox's Phil Spencer says the metaverse is a "poorly built video game"
Jay Peters, The Verge, 2022/10/27

In this article, Microsoft's CEO of gaming, Phil Spencer, describes the metaverse as "a poorly built video game." He adds, "For me, building a metaverse that looks like a meeting room... I just find that's not where I want to spend most of my time." I think the same sentiments could be applied to VR approaches to online learning.

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