OLDaily

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

Why did the #TwitterMigration fail?
Bloonface, Café Lob-On, 2023/06/17

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What we have here is someone who has been on Mastodon for about eight months declaring that the "migration" from Twitter has "failed" because Mastodon is too hard to understand and use, because people don't are about "features" like decentralization and non-corporate ownership, and because purists are too stringent in their demands for the "right" sort of use. As usual with a post like this, there's a grain of truth to each point that is made. And I don't actually think Mastodon as such will be the long-term future of decentralized media; it' not intended to be that. I think the whole idea of a "migration" from Twitter to Mastodon - from one mass medium to another - is misguided. Perhaps better is to think of it as a diaspora. The future (ideally) will be where there is no one place where everybody goes, but a diversity of places, each with a different focus or emphasis, and all with the capacity (but not the obligation) to interoperate wit each other.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Easing Back Into This Thing We Used to Call the World Wide Web
D'Arcy Norman, D'Arcy Norman, PhD, 2023/06/17

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This article (and also this one from Luke Waltzer) reflects the "energy online about bringing the old web back, or bringing the humanity back to the web, or just trying to make some art, dammit." I don't want to be the one who says "I told you so", but I've never seen the wisdom of converting my entire online presence to social media, never joined the cool kids in teir witty quips and comebacks, and thus have been blogging and making art all along as my contribution to "the non-corporate, non-monetized, non-advertised, non-user-tracked, human-scale online experience." To be clear, though, this has meant that my readership has dropped steadily over that time, so it's a good thing that I don't depend on likes, follows or subscriptions to make a living. One of the major challenges for decentialized media will be how to replace the affordances (ie., fame and fortune) that centralized media promise to (at least a small privileged subset of) its users. Image: also D'Arcy Norman.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely
Jay Peters, The Verge, 2023/06/17

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The ongoing battle between Reddit management and community moderators continues apace over the issue of whether the company should start charging for access to its API. These charges would kill many of the tools moderators use. While many communities have blocked access by going 'private', my favourite protest was r/pics, which now posts only 'sexy John Oliver' pictures. You can find the back-and-forth on the r/ModCoord subreddit, which reports how the company is planning to replace moderators and force the communities (called 'subreddits') to open again. "The important takeaway here," write the moderators of r/antiwork, "is Reddit does not care about this community and Reddit does not care about you." Ultimately this will be true of any for-profit company and its users, something educators should very much take into account when making technology or service provision decisions. But the members care. As EFF writes, "It's the latest example of a social media site making a critical mistake: users aren't there for the services, they're there for the community. Building barriers to access is a war of attrition."

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Why remote work is the opportunity of the century for cities
Mike Elgan, Computerworld, 2023/06/17

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Readers will know of my frustration with my employer's 'back to the office' dictate. Decades from now, this sort of resistance to remote working will seem silly and unreasonable. The putative purpose was to increase sociability and culture, but the actual environment is empty and culturally void, lacking even a cafeteria or employee commons. The real reason (to my mind) is to fill Ottawa's office buildings again, which I suppose would help local businesses. But it makes no sense! Ottawa has a housing problem, and half-empty office buildings staff must be coerced into using. The city is also suffering from a dysfunctional transportation infrastructure. Why not convert the offices to housing, thereby revitalizing downtown (especially at night), easing traffic, and letting people work where they work best?

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

WhoCanUse
2023/06/17

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The colour scheme I've chosen for my website is not accidental. Oh sure, I could follow 'the blue and the green' standard used by websites everywhere, but according to WhoCanUse my website colours score much better for accessibility (interestingly, I followed a link to the site (via Alan Levine) and there were my selections, still there from the last time I visited it, ages ago). Image: what bot design and mullets have in common, in honour of Jakob Nielsen.

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Network Know-How Guides
Network Impact, 2023/06/17

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Oh, I really like these guides. They're based on the recognition that people are "organizing strategic networks—rather than relying on conventional, centralized organizations—to have a positive impact on a pressing social challenge." The series of six medium-length guides (downloads here) identify and explain key network organization principles. The advice is solid and well-founded, clear and easy to follow, and supported with examples and worksheets you can use with your own networks. To get a sense, have a look at the Starter Guide (28 page PDF) or Mapping Networks (26 page PDF) resources.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Rural Schools under Focus. Case Studies on innovative practices
2023/06/17

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This resource (159 page PDF) offers 19 case studies of innovative practices in rural schools. The topic is especially interesting to me because my own education took place in a small rural school. As the report notes, "two major and interconnected issues emerge when considering small and rural schools: the efficiency problem, and the inequality of the provision of education." They often deal with lower socio-economic status students. Or students who need to work on the farm. What the case studies have in common is that they are each embedded in their own context; universal prescriptions don't apply here. In one case, the school is like a 'school on wheels' because everybody drives to it; in another, the the school takes advantage of a natural setting to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Some suffer from staff turnover, some are working to create collaboration networks with similar schools around them. There's an executive summary if you prefer.

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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