OLDaily

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

Making Code Explain Itself – Observability Through AI
Elizabeth Lawler, Shane Hastie, InfoQ, 2024/03/08

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I'm linking to this only because it make me realize that if we make code explain itself, we are requiring it to be able to reflect on its own internal processes, building in the possibility of self-reflection, which would have the unintended side-effect of creating self-consciousness.

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Our AI in Education Maturity Model - an update for 2024
Michael Webb, JISC, 2024/03/08

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The shift from the previous version three years ago is from the acquisition of AI tools to staff training and skills. As it stands the model is looking like SAMR for AI. At the most 'mature' level we read that "there will be two main outcomes. The first is that AI will support the delivery of learning that optimises opportunities and outcomes for all learners. This represents a more nuanced take on the idea of personalised learning. The second outcome is that the right tasks will be automated, freeing staff time for creativity and human interaction." Optimized and transformed.

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Open Access fees are exorbitant
George Veletsianos, PhD, 2024/03/08

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Honestly, honestly, stop publishing in journals that charge you thousands of dollars to publish. I know, there's the argument, "the system is structured in such ways that my junior co-authors would benefit from being published in this journal." No; your colleagues benefit from publishing with you. Meanwhile, you are the one making the journal valuable. High-profile academics who publish in expenmsive journals are just enabling them and making it harder for early career academics. And we can't depend on "Google scholar's approach of identifying articles and placing publicly-available versions in search results." We both know Google can be paid to do something else.

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How your brain filters out distractions to focus
Brown University, Futurity, 2024/03/08

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Cognitive load theory takes another hit. "When people talk about the limitations of the mind, they often put it in terms of, 'humans just don't have the mental capacity' or 'humans lack computing power,'" Ritz says. "These findings support a different perspective on why we're not focused all the time. It's not that our brains are too simple, but instead that our brains are really complicated, and it's the coordination that's hard."

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Uber Builds Scalable Chat Using Microservices with GraphQL Subscriptions and Kafka
Rafal Gancarz, InfoQ, 2024/03/08

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This item reports that Uber has "replaced a legacy architecture built using the WAMP protocol with a new solution that takes advantage of GraphQL subscriptions." You can read about it on the Uber blog. Here's similar work as described on the DoorDash blog listing the (many) issues with existing Web Application Messaging Protocol (WAMP) architectures. The development is representative of a wider shift toward GraphQL over WebSocket solutions (see here). "Recently, InfoQ reported that The Guardian is also using GraphQL in its newsroom collaboration and asset-sharing tool, Pinboard." More.

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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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