OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics. We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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Ending the year in style(s)
Mirjam Neelen, Paul A. Kirschner, 3-Star Learning Experiences, 2022/12/13

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I appreciate how well and how carefully this article is written. It is of course the usual argument against learning styles, this time objecting to a linkage between learning styles and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The authors won't cite the article they're responding to (saying "this is not about criticising an individual") but this makes it really hard to know whether they're presenting the argument fairly. Anyhow, the key message is that accommodating for diversity doesn't mean catering to individual preferences, but rather, "considering what makes individual people 'unique'." Individual preferences cannot be relied upon ("people have food preferences, too!" but following them "wouln't be healthy"). We're all the same when it comes to learning anyway ("our sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory plus the principles guiding their functioning are essentially the same for all of us") and so "we shouldn't waste money on designing different pathways based on learning styles." I think there are numerous flaws in this argument - diversity does include preferences, people's food preferences do matter (can you imagine feeding everyone the same diet?), the common architecture they describe is incorrect (brains are not computers) and elides actual differences in learning, education shouldn't be reduced to creating 'learning paths', and there's no one best way to teach any given content or skill.

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Detecting and Preventing Paper Mill Publications at the Royal Society of Chemistry
Laura Fisher, Nicola Nugent, Anna Pendlebury, EON, 2022/12/13

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The authors describe the Royal Society of Chemistry's strategy against paper mill publications. "Paper mill companies produce fake data and images, and compile these into manuscripts that researchers can buy authorship on, often paying a higher rate for first or corresponding author positions." Obviously researchers (and therefore educators) have to rethink the whole concept of reporting research in the form of research papers, especially as it is a metric that can be easily gamed with the right tools and services.

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Chinese students use remote access software to cheat on US college entry exams
Viola Zhou, Rest of World, 2022/12/13

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"For just $5,000," writes Viola Zhou, "students can buy their way to ace Toefl and GREs... Despite the best efforts of test agencies, Chinese companies are still offering a variety of methods that cater to people at different locations with different levels of English proficiency. The services are sometimes more affordable than legitimate test-prep courses." There are some zingers in this article. For example: baofen means "guaranteed scores" in Chinese; Chinese authorities have little interest in how they exploit the security lapses of international tests; and proctoring services cannot detect difference in Chinese facial features.

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First suspicion of algorithmic discrimination successfully substantiated
The human rights institute of the Netherlands, 2022/12/13

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Maybe the tables have been turned on AI-proctoring, as a Dutch court decides that companies will have to show that they do not discriminate (Wesley Fryer is enthused at being able to use automated translation to read Dutch language coverage of the case). This is similar to a Canadian privacy commission ruling back in November. "Online proctoring tools for conducting remote exams do not go far enough to ensure free, clear and individual consent from Canadian students whose biometric data they collect, according to a new report published by the University of Ottawa and supported by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada."

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You've got Mastodon questions, I've got answers
Ed Bott, ZDNet, 2022/12/13

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More Mastodon / Twitter stuff: Tom MacWright does some development with ActivityPub makes some interesting observations: "it's going to be a lot more complicated than RSS." Yes (which is why I haven't attempted to code for it yet, only for the Mastodon API). More: the highly opinionated guide to learning about ActivityPub. Mike Lapidakis shows that you need a lot of resources to run a Mastodon server, and that probably applies to ActivityPub in general. Jon Udell shows some dashboards built for his Steampipe client.

The United Federation of Instances (UFoI) has set up shop. Basically its a group of instances that agree not to block each other, and to follow a certain code of conduct. It has attracted a lot of criticism and declarations by some that they will not join UFoI. Proponents try to clarify misconceptions. You want governance? That's what you get.

The collapse of Twitter credibility makes Muguel Guhlin rethink some of his choices for blogging platforms (I'm still surprised Google hasn't killed Blogger). Boris Mann is experimenting with the fediverse and microblogs. Also, remember Twitter Blue? It's set to relaunch with actual verification - so, just like it was before, but now with a fee. But they'll do it without Chuck Pearson, who writes a fine example of quit-Twitter lit.

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25+ Years of Ed Tech: 2022 - AI Generated Content
Martin Weller, The Ed Techie, 2022/12/13

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An EdTech AI Multi-Post Update - Martin Weller declares 2022 to be the year of AI-generated content. "The year started with fun AI generated images and ended with ChatGPT promising the end for humanity as we know it." It's funny; generative analytics wasn't even a category in 2021 when I wrote my Ethics course; I had to add it. And now it's everywhere. And remember: I also predicted the rise of deontic analytics. So get ready.

Making things with chatGPT: solve Advent of Code puzzles in seconds; write a blog post on using AI in the classroom; write a blog post on features of Canva; write a formal lesson plan; use unexpected words, write a Socratic dialogue and detect AI-generated writing (from Tony Hirst); Steve Krause says AI can save writing by killing the college essay (which, as we've seen, is dead and so is high school English).

Greg Rutkowski is not happy his distinctive style dominates AI-generated art. Meanwhile, the developers of Lensa - which produces various versions of your face - are defending themselves against accusations of stealing content. More. No only that, it's easy to trick Lensa into making NSFW images. More. That's it for the last three days. Phew!

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