OLDaily

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

Innovating Pedagogy 2023
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, et al., Innovating Pedagogy, The Open University, University of Cape Town, 2023/07/06

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This (58 page PDF) is the eleventh in a series of annual reports from on " new forms of teaching, learning, and assessment for an interactive world." It's pretty good. The ten new forms range from AI tools to the metaverse to seeing yourself in the curriculum and pedagogies of care - tracking, in other words, what's current in the field of education and technology. Now there is a danger of this falling into a "pedagogy of x" format, but the authors appear to be aware of this, writing in the introduction that "we debated whether we were writing about one pedagogy or more." Ultimately, it doesn't really matter at this refreshingly descriptive level of analysis. The focus is pragmatic and forward facing without being pedantic and overly prescriptive. We are told about each of these ten areas. It makes for a great reference work keeping people up to date.

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WebAssembly runtimes will replace container-based runtimes by 2030
Jonathan Norris, Changelog, 2023/07/06

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This is the sort of thing I look for in posts: a specific prediction or projection, surrounded by good argumentation and a variety of perspectives. Here's what this post says: "The advantages of WebAssembly (more), with its tight security model, very fast boot-up time, scalability at the edge, much smaller footprints, and portability across environments will really drive a shift away from container-based runtimes for things Kubernetes and edge workloads by 2030." However, "for that to happen, it would have to become just as easy to use the Wasm replacement for Docker." Also, "a more approachable, higher-level language is important as an entry point. I think that's one of the challenges with WebAssembly right now: the best environments are lower-level environments, things using Rust, or C++." Now for me to determine whether this prediction is viable, I would need to actually learn WebAssembly and assess its potential for myself. So, into the 'heap of learning' it goes, and I'll get back to it at some point.

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Generative Textbooks
David Wiley, improving learning, 2023/07/06

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We've discussed the idea of AI-authored open educational resources for some time now, so it's interesting to see what David Wiley does with the idea, now that we're in a world of Stable Diffusion and GPT-4. Here's his vision: "what if, in the future, educators didn't write textbooks at all? What if, instead, we only wrote structured collections of highly crafted prompts? Instead of reading a static textbook in a linear fashion, the learner would use the prompts to interact with a large language model." Now I don't want to be critical... but... why would the teachers write the prompts? It seems to me that if you were going to approach it this way, it would make more sense for educators to create scenarios where students would need to write their own prompts to move forward through whatever challenge is provided (and, structured that way, the scenario could include more than just GPT prompts, but also involve other creative activities).

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Post-AI Assessment Design
Philippa Hardman, The Learning Science Newsletter, 2023/07/06

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As Philippa Hardman writes, "As initial fear of AI among educators turns more and more into curiosity, the question I get asked most is: how can I assess learning if ChatGPT can write assignments?" This post offers a three-step guide: first,w rite inquiry-based objectives that "focus not just on the acquisition of knowledge but also on the development of skills and behaviours, like critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and research skills"; second, "design projects that learners will complete to hit the objectives"; and third, "create a comprehensive mark scheme that considers not only knowledge acquisition but also skills development and methods demonstrated during the inquiry process." This would probably address the problem, at least for now (later, it might just be a fancy way of training the student's personal AI). But it seems like a lot of work.

p.s. I'm always wary of Substack posts because they walk a fine line between open access and paywalls. But the model used by Philippa Hardman offers a nice middle ground: the posts are always open access, but a subscription is available if you want to comment on them or ask follow-up questions. This model doesn't block anyone (because, after all, you can always comment on your own blog or Mastodon account) but it does offer a tangible benefit for support.

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What to know about Threads
Mastodon Blog, 2023/07/06

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Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko weighs in with some matter-of-fact answers to questions about Meta's new Threads service. Mostly he allays fears about Threads being able to track Mastodon users, insert ads into their feeds, or do anything else Mastodon users are trying to escape. Otherwise, he welcomes Threads. "We have been advocating for interoperability between platforms for years," he writes. "The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralized social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Which in turn, puts pressure on such platforms to provide better, less exploitative services. This is a clear victory for our cause, hopefully one of many to come." Yeah.

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Threads
Instagram, 2023/07/06

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So I created an account on Meta's Threads (so you don't have to). You have to install it as a mobile app, even though posts do appear on a web site. You have to log on with your Instagram account (I had to actually create one just for this purpose). It's not available in  Europe (where Meta is running into even more legal challenges). It's the most basic bare-bones version of an ActivityPub you can imagine. No hashtags, but it does include quote-tweets. I made two posts. You can see them in the image. The first, which is located here https://www.threads.net/t/CuW2yCjO_84/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== is "not available.The second, which is located here https://www.threads.net/t/CuW3GX-uG-o/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D is available. You can refer to 'Mastodon', you can link to mastodon.social, but references to (eg) @Downes (ie., downes@mastodon.social) fail.

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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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