OLDaily

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

The State of Neocities
Biko Batanari, 2023/05/15

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In the beginning there was Geocities, a platform that allowed everyone to build their own website and make it available to the world for free. It was filled with hundreds of thousands of (usually bad) home pages. Acquired by Yahoo and eventually closed, Geocities faded from the internet long after being abandoned by most of its inhabitants. Then came Neocities, a phoenix rising from the ashes. It's sometimes today thought of as being a part of the indieweb, though the connection is to me a bit hard to draw. But Neocities is dying as well of the same disease that killed Geocities - abandonment and indifference.

Biko Batanari explains, "One possible reason why people don't stick around is not that hard to conclude: HTML and CSS is daunting...  The idea of having to learn new skills to do something that you were able to do already (i.e. sharing your stuff) is not going to appeal to everyone... Personal websites have their place, but with the amount of dead sites on Neocities it's clear that many people simply don't have a use for them, no matter how much 'Old Web Movement' stuff gets touted. No matter how good it is to create a personal website, the conclusion is simple: not everyone needs one, wants one, or even should have one. Their needs can be—and are often fulfilled—elsewhere. It's more of a sad fact than something to be bitter about."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Internet Isn't Meant To Be So Small
Kelsey McKinney, Defector, 2023/05/15

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I might file this under 'internet culture' or 'fediverse' or some such thing, but the point is a lot wider. Here's the nutshell: "the internet wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be six boring men with too much money creating spaces that no one likes but everyone is forced to use because those men have driven every other form of online existence into the ground. The internet was supposed to have pockets, to have enchanting forests you could stumble into and dark ravines you knew better than to enter. The internet was supposed to be a place of opportunity, not just for profit but for surprise and connection and delight." There's a lot more to this post than this bit of wrapping up, but I will say much of what Kelsey McKinney writes resonates with me as well, and it is the big internet, not the small internet, that remains the internet of my dreams.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Guardian editor reveals investigations and 'legal attacks' drive reader contributions
William Turvill, Press Gazette, 2023/05/15

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I support a few online news outfits financially, sending contributions to our local rural newspaper, Wikipedia, and a few others. One of those others is the Guardian. Partially it's to reward them for publishing without a paywall (though they annoyingly throw login barriers up from time to time) and partially it's because of the reason outlined in this post: "what readers really wanted to give us money for was the most serious, most difficult investigative reporting." This is where most media has failed. Even as it asks readers to support it financially, it continues to represent mostly the interests of its corporate owners. Why would we pay for that? The same is true (or will hold true) in education. People will pay - voluntarily - when education actually benefits learners, and does so in a way more tangibly than helping them get jobs and serve corporate interests more effectively.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Brains Blog
Zoe Drayson, The Brains Blog, 2023/05/15

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This is as very well written short article outlining Muhammad Ali Khalidi's book Cognitive Ontology: Taxonomic Practices in the Mind-Brain Sciences, which "offers a compelling non-reductionist approach to understanding the furniture of the mind: the 'real kinds' of cognitive science." The point of departure is David Marr's 'three levels' analysis of neural mechanisms:

• Computational: What computations does the central nervous system perform and why?
• Algorithmic: What representations and procedures are used in the neural computation?
• Implementation: What the physiological mechanisms that bring about these representations and carry out these algorithms?

"Khalidi wants to 'add an ontological dimension to Marr's methodological and epistemic account of the computational level,'" writes Zoe Drayson. "He argues that the taxonomy of Marr's approach provides the metaphysical structure of cognition, such that 'the computational level is the proper domain of the cognitive.'" Drayson criticizes with a very light hand, calling this a "bold move" rather than rejecting it out of hand. Anyhow, this article rewards a slow and careful read, and the work of David Marr (which amounts to much more than this) is foundational and influential. The Brains Blog is posting a series of articles from Al Khalidi and commentators this week.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report Teaching and Learning Edition
Kathe Pelletier, et al., EDUCAUSE, 2023/05/15

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This is the teaching and learning trends version of EDUCAUSE's Horizon Report (55 page PDF). It's based on five sets of trends (each defined with evidence and implications), picks six key technologies (with an overview, relevance, and set of examples), creates four briefly outlined scenarios, and draws seven implications (each a short essay by a contributor). I like the use of evidence and examples, which add a lot to this report and may offer its main value to readers.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

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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