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Ruth Barcan Marcus
Ballarin, Roberta, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2024/03/11

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My main association with modal logic is dentistry - specifically, after recovering from anesthesia for some particularly bad dental surgery, I recited some of the major systems of modal logic (pictured; the three dimensions are reflexivity, transitivity, and symmetry) as a check to make sure I hadn't lost anything during my unconsciousness. I hadn't, but I'd be hard-pressed to recite any of it today. Anyhow, Ruth Barcan Marcus contributed to the foundations of these systems (and the whole concept of modal logic took me through a tour of counterfactuals, possible worlds, relations and connections that informs my work today). She also authored what is to me the final statement on moral dilemmas, which as, as summarized here, "inescapable; and not because of our moral and cognitive limits, nor due to a fault in the moral code, but just because we cannot escape our condition of agents set in a world that we do not control."

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Philly Teen Gave Fruit Flies Anxiety to Understand What Makes Us Anxious
Jim Fields, The 74, 2024/03/11

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I've judged science fairs here in Ottawa and through this experience know that many many students can reach this level of achievement (even those in public school! though you'd never know it from the marketing on sites like the 74). That said, I do like the imagination here: Gavriela Beatrice Kalish-Schur made fruit flies anxious and observed the results by targeting "a certain brain pathway called IRE1". You can see the whole story on the YouTube video.

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MediaWise’s peer-to-peer global network launches in Canada
Jennifer Orsi, Poynter, 2024/03/11

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I've long supported the work MediaSmarts is doing and see this as a logical continuation. They're partnered with Poynter to create a Canadian teen fact-checkjing network. "Through short videos that will resonate with their peer group, teen fact-checkers will use — and teach — the tools real journalists employ to separate fact from fiction, like reverse image searches." The trick, of course, is getting people to watch and learn from the videos, and this is going to mean getting teens to engage with them in some way. I also wish there was a focus beyond teens . But one step at a time, I suppose.

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The De-Google Project
Tim Bray, Ongoing, 2024/03/11

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I'm of the same mind as Tim Bray when it comes to trying to find alternatives to Google when it comes to online services. I have a Google Workspace account, I use Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Drive, and Google Docs. For me iot's not the money (it's not too expensive and I'd be paying for these services no matter what) as it is my feeling that I just can't depend on Google. I'm rather everything I did was cloud-hosted and self-managed, but I have to say, it's not easy to do that. But it's getting better. Slowly.

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Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinker, 2024/03/11

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Short article with some detailed diagrams summarizing Bryan Mathers's session at Galway, Ireland, as part of the CESI conference. "The gift of a cartoonist is this: just by creating a few lines on a page, we can communicate powerful ideas. Even better, you already know how this universal visual language works."

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Beyond blended
Helen Beetham, Sheila MacNeill, JISC, 2024/03/11

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The theme of 'beyond blended' does less to unite this report (39 page PDF) than might be expected. As nearly as I can judge from reading the report, the term 'beyond blended' refers to "a more precise and nuanced vocabulary for describing different aspects of 'blended' learning." This vocabulary is, in the first instance, based on four aspects of learning that can be 'blended' (this is my own paraphrase): time (synchronous and asynchronous); space (place and platform); matter (tools, facilities, learning media); organization (groups, roles and relationships). Beyond that, the report can also be read as a series of sections on what can be learned from the pandemic, six pillars for designing, other design frameworks, etc. And that's what's produced in this update, as relayed by Elizabeth Newall in the Jisc blog, with links to these sections as stand-alone resources.

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State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Year-End 2023 Edition
Phil Hill, Phil on EdTech, 2024/03/11

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Phil Hill has released his latest summary of the North American LMS market. "The market continues to be a matter of Canvas and Brightspace winning new accounts, Anthology Bb Learn and Moodle losing accounts, with more variety for smaller institutions."

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Accenture to acquire Udacity to build a learning platform focused on AI | TechCrunch
Manish Singh, TechCrunch, 2024/03/11

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Normally I wouldn't care, but this marks the end of one long story in the MOOC saga. "Accenture announced today that was acquiring edtech startup Udacity to build a learning platform to teach clients about AI." We know what happens to products once they're acquired.

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AI-Generated Marilyn Monroe Chatbot Can Hold an Extended Conversation With 'Realistic Emotions' and Expressions, Company Claims
Todd Spangler, Variety, 2024/03/11

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What's key here is, first, there's a lot of video of Marilyn Monroe available to help with the illusion, and second, "Digital Marilyn is able to read users' emotions and respond accordingly via Soul Machine's proprietary camera and microphone technology." It's only chatGPT 3.5 so the emotion detection is probably pretty clunky, but I would imagine the result is still rather uncanny. I can easily imagine a service like MasterClass, which features famous people teaching courses,  adding avatars like this to its lineup. Via Fredrik Graver.

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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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