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A scientometric analysis of global scientific literature on learning resources in higher education
Muhandiramge Kasun Samadhi Gomis, Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin, Mandeep Saini, Chaminda Pathirage, Mohammed Arif, Cell, Heliyon, 2023/05/02

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This article (14 page PDF) strikes me as an object lesson in how important it is to choose the right data to analyze. The authors looked at 4489 scientific articles on higher education between 1970 and 2022 from the Web Of Science database. The first sign that this is a seriously flawed data set comes with the identification of Nicolas Salamin, a biologist from the University of Lausanne, as the most frequent contributor with 20 articles. I can think offhand of dozens of authors who have contributed more than 20 papers to the field; clearly, though, they are not recorded in the Web Of Science database. So what do we make of the conclusions offered by the authors, for example, "the lack of collaboration between authors related to research on learning resources in HE?" Not to be too harsh, but this study isn't worth the paper it isn't written on.

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On the role of politeness in online human–human tutoring
Jionghao Lin, et al., British Journal of Educational Technology, 2023/05/02

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How do we develop sociability in online learning? "Directive instructions (ie, commands) such as 'Write this paragraph again' can restrict the student's work autonomy. To alleviate these negative effects of directive instructions, tutors can articulate their utterances as polite expression to show their respect to students." But does this actually have any effect? That's what this paper (25 page PDF) studies. In a nutshell, it's helpful, but not sufficient on its own. "In the most effective tutoring sessions, the tutors were likely to express politely at the beginning and gradually used more direct expressions to guide the students as a tutorial session progressed." I would note that expectations of politeness vary a lot by culture.

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Gordon Lightfoot
Susan Noakes, CBC, 2023/05/02

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"Gordon Lightfoot led the way and he showed us … that you can be true to your roots. You can draw on your influences at home and country and you can incorporate those inspirations into the fabric of your work and still be internationally successful."  -- Tom Cochrane

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Building Trust and Safety in Remote Teams at Shopify
Shane Hastie, InfoQ, 2023/05/02

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I honestly think the people who go on about the 'sociability' and 'culture' of working in person are like those people who print emails and store them in a binder because they like 'the feel of the paper'. This article offers an antidote to that way of thinking. "In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods spoke to Jesse McGinnis of Shopify about building trust and safety in remote teams and developing yourself as a leader." Many of the lessons learned echo what has been discovered over 25 years of online teaching and learning. It's worth noting that Shopify has embraced remote working and now has people employed all over the world. That's better, isn't it?

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Would AIs make better professionals than humans? - Home - Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog
Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blog, 2023/05/02

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I'm citing this short post mostly to attempt a course correction in the discussions about AI, specifically, it's not about decisions. Doug Johnson writes, "What might (and I emphasize might) AI offer in professional services that mere humans cannot? It probably has access to a larger amount of information and data on which to base decisions. It may be able to make those decisions in a more timely manner." Only a very small part of any professional's life revolves around making decisions. Being a professional mostly involves doing stuff: conducting an exam, writing a brief, doing an audit, designing a house, solving a crime, filling a root canal. These are all generative creative tasks. AI may or may not be able to do them. But it's not about whether an AI can make the right decisions.

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Since Some People Have Asked Me...
Anil Dash, Mastodon, 2023/05/02

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Interesting thread started by Twitter founder (and Bluesky founder) Anil Dash and attracting dozens of commenters comparing Mastodon to the nascent Bluesky social network. I don't have access to Bluesky yet so I can't compare them personally (the subject of invitations does come up in the conversation). Dash writes, "Bluesky is better at: Onboarding & signup experience, having fewer choices to make, quality of the default app, familiarity for people used to Twitter's design, discovery of other users within the existing service." Related: Blue Skies Over Mastodon.

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Elon Musk thinks he's got a major win-win for news publishers with micropayments
Joshua Benton, Nieman Lab, 2023/05/02

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This is a fun story about Elon Musk and a serious story about micropayments. Here's the fun part: "Musk — so resolutely convinced of his own genius — has dedicated himself to making old mistakes new again, compressing a lifetime of bad ideas into six short months." Here's the serious part: "Others have written about the problems with micropayments at great length, but here are... the most significant: nobody chooses to pay them, they're a pain, they don't raise enough money, and they would eliminate subscription revenue. "If you sell subscriptions for $15 a month, but you sell individual articles at 15 cents each, you're telling any subscriber who reads less than 100 articles a month they're an idiot and should give you less money."

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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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