OLDaily

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

dApps Are About Control, Not Blockchains
Phil Windley, Technometria, 2023/11/21

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A decentralized app (DApp) is an application that runs on decentralized data. The idea is that you, rather than the app provider, controls the data. As Phil Windley writes in this post, people think of DApps as running on blockchain ledgers, but this need not be the case. "Using smart contracts on a blockchain is one way to do this, but there are others, including peer-to-peer networks and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)." He offers a few examples of different types of DApps, including some that run on his own Picos. DApps are potentially useful for edge computing, that is, computing that runs on your own personal device. "Erica Pisani discusses what the edge is, how running code and serving data on the edge can improve the performance of services, and how to leverage these tools to maximize performance."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The end of anonymity on Chinese social media
Caiwei Chen, Rest of World, 2023/11/21

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I've seen a lot of people call for a policy like this here in the west, so it's interesting to see how it will work in China. "Chinese social media platforms like WeChat, Douyin, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo now required popular users' legal names to be made visible to the public." The result? Some are just quitting social media, while others are purging followers in order to stay below the cut-off. The social media influencers report fears of abuse and doxxing from people who can now identify them.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The AI Pedagogy Project
metaLAB (at) Harvard, 2023/11/21

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This website is designed as a starter site for educators. There are two major sections: one offers guidance and resources on AI, and the second is a set of sample AI assignments for students (add your own using the form provided).  The first section is divided into three parts: a straightforward description of AI, an interactive form where you can chat with an AI right in the website, and a set of curated resources on AI. It all looks neat and clean and quite useful if you're in need of such a resource. Via Jerry Crisci.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Economics of Vouchers
Tim Stahmer, Assorted Stuff, 2023/11/21

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I know this argument has been made before, but we have new data, and I don't want to miss this expression of it. "How can parents make a meaningful choice for their children without solid information about the school? ...  The public is simply told that choice is good and that the "free market" will fix everything. Which is crap since choice, in schools or anything else, is worthless without good information."

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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