OLDaily

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

The information won’t just sink in: Helping teachers provide technology-assisted data literacy instruction in social studies
Mark Guzdial, Computing Ed Research, 2023/05/31

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This post summarizes a reserach report (44 page PDF) the most important result of which is this: "Making tools useful and usable does not predict adoption; context plays a large role in a social studies teachers' adoption." Or as I would reword it: it doesn't matter how easy a tool is to use if it doesn't do what people want it to do. The tools in question here were an OER to support data literacy in social studies education and DV4L, a Data Visualization for Learning tool for social studies teachers. "The characteristics of the individual teachers and the context of the teacher's classroom are critical factors that technology is unlikely to overcome." Image: HealthCatalyst.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Statement on AI Risk
Geoffrey Hinton, et al., Center for AI Safety, 2023/05/31

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Here's the statement, in full, signed by Geoffrey Hinton and a host of others: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." I have two thoughts. First, it seems to me that mitigating the risk of extinction by anything should be a global priority. Have we learned nothing from Oumuamua? Second, the ongoing risk of extinction from global climate change is notable in its absence from this statement. The authors are aware, I guess, that even an extinction level event won't capture the public imagination without the right publicity.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Dentsu’s new Web3 readiness tool shines light on the tech’s potential to complement AI
Antoinette Siu, Digiday, 2023/05/31

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Normally I prefer to wait for the thing being discussed to actually launch before linking to it here, but since so few people are talking about web3 at all these days, and because there's no way web3 is simply going to disappear, it seemed prudent to post this item as a reminder. The story (such as it is) is that Dentsu will be releasing a 'web3 readiness index tool' next month. It's "designed as a self-serve assessment that takes clients through a series of questions and then provides a score to reflect how they are doing with their Web3 efforts." I would classify it more as 'promotional' than 'evaluative', especially since most institutions' web3 readiness is probably around zero. But that's why it's important to share this.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Stop arguing about objectivity and start serving your audience
Kelly McBride, Poynter, 2023/05/31

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I've been followed by the debate over objectivity my entire life, in philosophy, in journalism, and in education. This article - a quick summary of the issue and then a discussion transcript - gets at some of the recent debates on the subject. Here's the challenge: "The objective of local journalism often is to fulfill a failing business model and as a result, the content that is created doesn't necessarily serve the needs of the audience." The same is the case in education, I would argue. And in this context, maybe objectivity isn't the right starting point - maybe the debate is over whether you serve your audience (and how that is defined, and how best to serve an audience, especially if that audience includes traditionally under-represented people (which, in my case, I certainly hope it does)). Because all journalism - and all education - has a purpose, And the question is whether we best serve that audience through affirmation of a point of view (as Fox does), or whether more traditional values (truth, empiricism, evidence, etc) hold more sway.

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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