OLDaily

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

Scholarly Social: Findings from the SSP Social Media Survey
Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen, Anne Stone, Jennifer Regala, Susan Willner, Jackie Lord, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2023/12/21

---

This article outlines results from the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) survey of social media use. Participants were recruited from the readership of the Scholarly Kitchen, but were also recruited via social media, which had to have influenced the results. As expected, people (though not institutions) have been leaving X/Twitter in droves. The survey suggests they're landing mostly at Bluesky and Threads, with some representation at Mastodon, but this is probably the influence of the recruitment process, which would reach more widely across Twitter clones than across decentralized social media.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

ALT redux
David Kernohan, 2023/12/21

---

This is a look at the history of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and the fine art of prediction in ed tech. Prediction has been a subject of OLDaily over the years as well, and I would humbly say I've been pretty good at it. That said, I did enjoy David Kernohan's discussion, especially the classification of prediction tropes ('flying car predictions', 'extrapolation predictions', 'swedenborgian predictions'). I also liked his attempt to identify and code ALT sessions for every year since 2002 (though the colours are so similar it's really difficult to identify which is which on the chart - the trick is to navigate your mouse over the precise point where a line crosses a year to see the little popup). The top topics year in and year out are 'course design', 'students', 'interfaces' and 'content' - which tells us more, I think, about a conservatism inherent in education (even in ed tech!) that makes good prediction a lot harder.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Orbit Model
Orbit Model, 2023/12/21

---

I wouldn't call this unique - the idea of levels of engagement and 'attractors' at the centre of communities has been around for a while. But this website takes the metaphor and runs with it, developing a comprehensive and consistent vision. I like it. "People love the things that bring them happiness and value, especially their favorite communities and people. In the Orbit Model, we prefer words like love and reach to words like engagement and influence. Using the words that members do helps us stay grounded in their experience." Via Joss Colchester.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Learning Design for an age where old norms are fading away
Neil Mosley, Neil Mosley Consulting, 2023/12/21

---

"If learning is continuous, why isn't a person's relationship with the university also continuous?" This question posed by Stanford University's Open Loop project opens this discussion of learning design for lifelong learning. As an aside, the answer seems pretty evident: the four years of a student's life are also among the most expensive; nobody can continue a relationship with a university without going broke. This question is not addressed by Neil Mosley; instead "The core of my model revolves around three key aspects: levels of collaboration, design representation, and evidence and underpinning of decisions and actions." Whatever you think of Mosley's views, do spend some time with the Stanford project, which looks interesting (though it too says nothing about affordability).

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.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed