OLDaily

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

Schools can feel totalitarian to many students
Scott Mcleod, Dangerously Irrelevant | @mcleod, 2024/01/09

---

Grade 7 was the year my rebellion against school started. I still feel it was justified. As Scott McLeod suggests here, schools can be perceived as totalitarian regimes. To the students, who are told when to speak and when not to, when to stand, and where to be, they can certainly feel like that. I still remember being sent to the office for punishment after convincing everyone in the line to get into class to make clanking chain noises, as though we were prisoners. Because we were prisoners. That was just the beginning of many more incidents. My own experience, though, doesn't even compare to some of the cases McLeod documents here. I think people tend to forget than when talking about how great in-person school is. But me, I never forget. Image: Schools, Prisons and Foucault.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Myths are models
Clark, Learnlets, 2024/01/09

---

OK, I'm going to give Clark Quin his argument here, stated in the title. Myths are models. It's interesting to me because my Master's thesis can be summarized in one simple sentence: the model isn't the reality. Now everyone knows that, of course. But they still make inferences from the model to the reality, legitimate or not. But Quinn says, "Myths are models that aren't appropriate for any situation." That's just not true. Like any model, some parts of a myth are relevant, and other parts aren't. For example, "images are processed 60K faster than prose" is, says Quinn, a myth. But what even does "images are processed" even mean? The point here, and everyone know it, is that we look at an image and grasp what it's saying immediately, while looking at text takes a little more time. The number (which presumably Quinn is focusing on) doesn't even matter. Working with models takes a subtle touch. Labling one a 'myth' and saying it isn't appropriate in any situation isn't that. Image: Menzies.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

University enrols two AI students - fascinating experiment
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2024/01/09

---

OK, first of all, this is a stunt. Having said that, I'm sure we all wonder what would happen. "Current LLMs can crush high stakes exams in HE," writes Donald Clark, "but this attempts to track the learning experience of students, so can make its own decisions, choose courses and generally have the agency of a real student." Clark doesn't give us a link, but you can find a recent Michigan article here and the original coverage from last week (there's no press release from Ferris, though there's a good article on lithography).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Intelligence Socialism
Carlotta Pavese, Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind, 2024/01/09

---

How do we decide whether something (a person, a behavior, a field of study) is intelligent? Carlotta Pavese defines 'intelligence elitism' as the theory that "there is a big divide among skills when it comes to intelligence, and the divide tracks the distinction between theoretical or intellectual skills—such as math or chess—and practical and embodied skills—such as carpentry, tool use, or sport skills." On this account (56 page PDF), 'intelligence socialism' is the response that "there is no principled difference in intelligence that tracks the divide between theoretical or intellectual skills and practical and embodied skills." Here, as in all things I guess, I am a socialist. This paper considers a number of arguments for intelligence elitism - that theoretical skills are generative, for example, or that they demonstrate cognitive control, or that they are uniquely human - and offers responses to each.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Potential rule changes from US Department of Education eliminating IA/EA?
Brandon Board, Google Groups, CCCOER, 2024/01/09

---

I've written before about something called 'inclusive access' whereby publishers set up a deal with universities to charge for textbooks as a part of tuition costs, thereby forcing every student to buy a copy (instead of, say, sharing one copy with each other, or buying used). This discussion thread points to an initiative by the US government to disallow this model. As Nicole Allen writes, "the Department has proposed eliminating the books and supplies provision due to concerns over transparency and student choice—concerns which have long been echoed by student and consumer advocates." I like this because it highlights some good work being undertaken by groups like SPARC in the background with little fanfare or applause, but getting good results like this.

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