OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

Why Numbers Exist
Stephen Downes, TikTok, 2023/04/05

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Just some fun to celebrate the day.

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The Three-Legged Stool: A Manifesto for a Smaller, Denser Internet - Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure
Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci, Michael Sugarman, Ethan Zuckerman, Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, 2023/04/05

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This white paper (30 page PDF) proposes "a public sphere supported by these three legs: (it) consists of many different platforms with a wide variety of scales and purposes; users can navigate with a loyal client that aggregates, cross-posts, and curates; (and it) is all supported by cross-cutting services rooted in interoperable data." There's a lot to like in that, but the paper as a whole feels like a compromise to me, preserving things like big platforms and app stores, while trying to incorporate small platforms, open standards, and microservices. Can big and small live together? In the forest they can; the tallest elm and the smallest elm peacefully coexist. But a forest has limits; the elm can only grow so large and is limited in its effects on other life. But a contemporary capitalist society is scale-free: the large grow to disproportionate size and wealth, and the small are acquired or eliminated, standards are enclosed and become proprietary, and services are allowed to exist only if they submit to rent and restrictions. Via Johannes Ernst.

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Are we on the verge of having a 'Universal Teacher'?
Donald Clark, 2023/04/05

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I understand why teachers are so resistent to the idea of AI teachers; it's hard to believe an AI could do what they do, and the use of an AI to address the problems of the profession smacks of tech solutionism. But as Donald Clark correctly points out, what we're trying to support with AI is learning, not teaching. "The Universal Teacher is not a teacher at all, it is the learner learning from the cultural achievements from the past. The Universal teacher is us being taught by our own hivemind, a supermind. This is not a mind like ours but it does mediate what we already know so that we can all progress. We can all be in this together. We are being taught by our collective self and that may be the fundamental beauty of this idea."

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Seven Major Developments in AI and the Assessment of Learning | Welcome to TeachOnline
Contact North, 2023/04/05

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Quick article highlighting the use of AI in assessment. "Given the growth of the AI-enabled tools described, we can expect to see more assessment-only credentials, such as those offered by the University of Wisconsin, more deployment of assessment on demand and more use of competency-based assessment." P.S. for a big surprise, highlight some of the text in this article! To whomever did that: nicely done.

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Archives for Assignment
Open Pedagogy Notebook, 2023/04/05

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I was just browsing through stuff, following a link to this item from Mastodon, that seems obliquely related to the OER23 opening keynote by Rikke Toft Nørgård (no audio or video, unfortunately). It's a list of assignments from 2018 collected in the open pedagogy notebook and includes things like 'Zines as Open Pedagogy' and 'Student-Created Group Genetics Worksheet'. Not all of the links work, unfortunately (and now I'm also worried about the durability of Google Docs links). Related, sort of: A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning, Laura Czerniewicz, et al. Also related: Tom Farrelly, Can you gasta?

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AI and robots fuel new job displacement fears
Jennifer A. Kingson, Axios, 2023/04/05

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The emergence of AI in everyday life means that we have to look anew at what people need to learn in school. "Robots tend to replace manual laborers, while artificial intelligence threatens knowledge workers," writes Jennifer Kingston. AI has evolved rapidly, overtaking many human skills and abilities. Indeed, the new technology is forcing us to redefine what we mean by intelligence, writes Ross Dawson. According to Accenture, each layer of the generative AI stack will rapidly evolve, impacting a wide range of industries. Average people will be able to rewrite their own software, for example. Or take advantage of AI for finance and investing. "Companies should therefore dramatically ramp up investment in talent to address two distinct challenges: creating AI and using AI." And we're seeing wider trends taking shape in the workplace, including a renewed emphasis on responsible tech, asynchronous work, and hybrid work environments.

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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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