OLDaily

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

Why 'free' proprietary software will always end in tears
Dave Lane, 2023/10/03

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Long-time readers will know how often I'm posted about the sad results when some 'free' proprietary software suddenly imposed user fees, or worse, disappeared entirely, taking all your data with it. Just recently: "They'd just used SurveyMonkey to send out a time-critical survey for prospective attendees of a conference they were organising... using the 'free tier' (which they'd apparently done plenty of times previously)... when they went to the results, they found an unexpected limitation: they could only view the 'first 10 responses' under the free tier. To view more, they'd have to upgrade to the premium version." Surprise! No surprise. Dave Lane makes the argument, and this is a post that should be widely shared. Image: Reddit.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Return to Office Is Bullshit And Everyone Knows It
Soatok, Dhole Moments, 2023/10/03

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This is a long and (as you can tell) strongly worded screed, and yet, I am in total agreement with it. I know my own managers don't like me bringing it up, but I won't let it go. The implication is that we weren't productive (or even working!) during the pandemic, and yet, the opposite is true for many of us. The same is true of online learning. No, not everybody thrives online; I get that. This applies especially to managers and teachers who like to orate in front of a room. But for those who work best online, it should be an option. We've proven it works. The argument that it doesn't is a chimera.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Sustainability Models
Paul Stacey, paulstacey.global, 2023/10/03

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This is a nice presentation of a number of open educational resource sustainability modes. It takes as its point of departure the UNESCO recommendations on OER (fourth action area), which "does a good job of identifying the scope of considerations that should factor into a sustainability model." However, says Paul Stacey, "it does not provide actual examples. You must devise your own." This can be a barrier for people, so this article fits nicely into that gap. For those who may not know of it, here's a link to my OG OER sustainability paper, from back in the day.

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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