OLDaily

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

What inner speech is, and why philosophy is waking up to it
Daniel Gregory, The Conversation, 2024/02/05

---

This article is far too short. That's what I said to myself as I reach what felt to me to be a premature conclusion. For one thing, I wondered about other sensor equivalents of inner speech: for example, inner audio (especially for musicians), inner visualization, even inner smells. But also - and critically more important - is inner speech the same as 'thinking'? I remember when learning French the advice to "think in French". I was used to rehearsing French phrasing in my inner voice, but wsn't really able to 'think' in French. Or so I thought, until my instructor explained that what I was doing was what he meant by 'think in French'. But is there a deeper, non-linguistic (non-sensory) type of thought? I'm qute certain there is - otherwise, how could we 'control' inner thought? But this deeper layer of thought must be sub-symbolic, and perhaps, sub-conscious.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Mind-Body Problem: What Are Minds?
1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology, 2024/02/05

---

This is a very introductory article, but if you haven't considered the question in any sort of depth it's an invaluable starting point. The article outlines three major theories of mind: mind-body dualism, mind-body identity (a.k.a. identity theory); and functionalism. In my own work I've never flt that mind-body dualism is plausible, though it is widely popular as (what might be called) a form of folk psychology.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Policy Insights - Models of Philanthropy in Education
Arushi Terway, Moira V. Faul, NORRAG, 2024/02/05

---

Philanthropy enables "high net worth individuals" to "use mechanisms drawn from business to achieve their philanthropic goals," but this often comes with strings attached for those being funded. For example, as Stephen J. Ball writes, "Soft privatisation through these donations allows private actors to craft a space for themselves in the education policy sphere of voice and influence." This is just one of many scenarios considered in this volume (60 page PDF) of short articles written by experts in the space. The first set of articles examines general trends, and the remaining four sets look at specific regions.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The beginner’s guide to magic links
Bettina Specht, Postmark, 2024/02/05

---

Our jargon for the day is 'magic links', though as Doug Belshaw reports, they are not ready for prime time. This post is an introduction. "Just type in your email address, get a link emailed to you, click on it, and voilà: you're in. It's a frictionless, almost magical login process." Ah, but what if you read your email on a separate devive from your browser, as I do? Won't work. What if your email redirects the message to oblivion (increasingly common these days)? Won't work. More on magic links: from Okta, Beyond Identity, WorkOS, Ping, Hacker News, LoginRadius.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Exa
Exa, 2024/02/05

---

According to the website, "Exa is a knowledge API for LLMs." It operates in two modes: 'search', where you enter a natural language request and receive a list of websites from the database; and 'content', where you recieve text or, if desird, excerpts, from the web results. It's not free (of course) and is intended to be built into other applications using an application programming interface (API). Via Alan Levine.

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