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

Super Drug | No Mercy / No Malice
Scott Galloway, No Mercy / No Malice, 2023/07/07

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"What if there was a drug that extended life, made you happier, healthier, and wealthier, and strengthened your relationships?" asks Scott Galloway. "The good news: It exists. The bad news: It's being needlessly hoarded. This drug is higher education." He proposes a program to redirect the funds from now-defunct tuition rebate to top public universities with a directive to increase their enrolment. "The answer isn't which people, but more people." I agree with the sentiment, but not the implementation. I don't think spending more money on universities is the best way to increase access to education, at least, not on the terms outlined here. A 6% increase in enrolment isn't enough; if they want the money, universities should offer access to everyone. A 2% reduction in tuition isn't enough; in other content services price reductions have ranged from a one to two times order of magnitude (i.e., a reduction in tuition from $30,000 to somewhere between $300-$3000). If they won't do this voluntarily via financial incentives, regulate it. Education is too important to society to be left to founder during a time of market failure.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Flying the KITE High against Digital Colonialism: FOSS in the Era of EdTech
Michael Kwet, Bot Populi, 2023/07/07

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"While IT@School and its successor, Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), are scarcely known outside of India," writes Michael Kwet, "their success over the past two decades presents an important model for resistance to Big Tech." They emerged because "activists and teacher's unions pushed the Kerala government to make Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) mandatory in public schools." This article describes the 22-year history of the two projects, pointing to such things as KITE Open Online Learning (KOOL) platform for MOOCs, he Samagra eResource Portal learner management system and the E3 English Language Lab. In 2001, though, "the KITE project... deployed proprietary and Big Tech services that do not comport with user and community freedom," such as Google's G-Suite for Education platform, writes Kwet. " KITE also temporarily used Amazon Web Services. Today there's more push and pull between commercial and open source products, and public and private schooling. Kwet writes, " FOSS activist groups like the Free Software Community of India (FSCI) and Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) have demanded an excellent set of alternatives." However, this is a scant response to the wider influence of Western 'solutions', he writes, including weakened privacy, union, public option, and anti-trust laws.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Social to Antisocial
Tim Klapdor, Heart | Soul | Machine, 2023/07/07

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So I suppose I should round up the responses to the launch of Threads, Mata's answer to (the demise of) Twitter. Here, Tim Klapdor describes the social networks as performative, not social. "And every platform followed the same model — insular, monologic, performative, ad and surveillance driven, and increasingly toxic." John Gruber notes, "the timeline is algorithmic — it shows you threads both from people you follow and from people you don't." Dan Pontrefact writes Threads offers "a nostalgic alternative for users who miss the simpler and more intimate times of Twitter in 2008," but my own experience is that it's also filled with garbage.  Helen Blunden calls Threads a trap, saying "if you want to delete Threads, you'll delete Instagram as well" (not that this is a problem for me).

More: Axios reports that copying is what Meta does (often unsuccessfully); CNN: what you need to know about Threads; the same from How-to Geek; Almost every influencer will be hopping on it (though I'd add, we saw the same with Google+); Twitter is threatening to sue (more) Meta over Threads; Threads 30 million downloads and has 95 million posts aready; from the Guardian, "Could Meta's Threads deal a knockout blow to Twitter?" and "Zuckerberg's kindness pledge for Threads is 'absurd', says Molly Russell charity"; Poynter asks reporters, could Threads kill Twitter?

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Microcredentials, Open Learning and Transformative Ideas for Higher Education: An Interview with Mark Brown, Keynote Speaker at EdMedia2023
Stefanie Panke, AACE, 2023/07/07

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This article summarizes some of the work being done by Ireland's National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL), a research institute at Dublin City University (DCU), in the form of an interview with ITS DIRECTOR, Mark Brown. Highlights: a report on quality assurance in digital education for OECD; an Open Educational Resources (OER) project called ENCORE+; and Hacking Innovative Pedagogies (HIP), "where we are trying to rewild traditional models of higher education." The article as a whole focus on microcredentials and badges as well as open educational resources and practices.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

A comprehensive AI policy education framework for university teaching and learning
Cecilia Ka Yuk Chan, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2023/07/07

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Based on survey data, this paper (25 page PDF) proposes an AI education policy framework based on three dimensions: pedagogical, governance, and operational." The Pedagogical dimension concentrates on using AI to improve teaching and learning outcomes, while the Governance dimension tackles issues related to privacy, security, and accountability. The Operational dimension addresses matters concerning infrastructure and training." It's just one more instance of a flood of AI ethics and policy recommendations that have flowed forth since the arrival of generative AI over the last couple of years (here's another one from this week, and here's yet another one). Readers will find value in the set of main themes and subthemes of qualitative data management identified in the paper.

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What is a knowledge worker and what do they do?
IBM Blog, 2023/07/07

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As a researcher I am perhaps the quintessential knowledge worker, so of course this headline captured my attention. According to IBM, "a knowledge worker is a professional who generates value for the organization with their expertise, critical thinking and interpersonal skills." The sort of value they envision includes leadership, fostering teamwork, communication, and fostering a growth mindset. Now maybe I provide these things but not necessarily to my organization - that's one of the benefits of working in the public service: you get to provide more in the way of social good, rather than simply maximizing corporate or institutional value. Anyhow, this article is intended to promote tools like IBM's Watson to support knowledge workers, but until we get to that point (it's in the last section) it's useful and relevant.

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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