OLDaily

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

Canadian journalism is in deep trouble – academics can help
Dax D'Oraziod, University Affairs, 2024/08/15

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Contrary to the title, the suggestions in this post won't help journalism so much as replace it. Journalism doesn't have a content problem so much as it has a sustainability problem. Still, I approve of the call for more people to act as public intellectuals. Dax D'Oraziod offers three suggestions: first, recognizing the importance of communicating research to the public; second, formally including journalists in research projects; and third, adding knowledge mobilization to academic professional development offerings.

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Memory & Models: The Power of The Analogies We Live By
Nafez Dakkak, Nafez's Notes, 2024/08/15

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When people talk about 'executive function', 'cognitive overload' and 'encoding', they're using the metaphor of the mind as a computer to describe learning and cognition. It's exactly the wrong analogy, as Nafex Dakkak argues in this post. And this wrong analogy is misinforming efforts to build AI tutors. Instead, "for tutors to be effective they need to be able to better understand a learner's context, background and surroundings." Also, "we need to move beyond the notion that effective tutoring can only happen one-to-one through direct instruction at a desk."

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Values-based tugging
Christina Hendricks, You're the Teacher, 2024/08/15

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Really well-written post that looks at the question of how we approach complex issues in our work and life. There is, of course, no shortage of these. Where do we even begin? Christina Hendricks looks at the issues as a web or a net where everything is interconnected, and you can respond only by tugging at it. But you need solid footing, she says, and one good place to start is our values. But are we doing enough to support people in this? "How much have I really spent time supporting students to  define and articulate their own values in addition to applying them through writing arguments?" I think there's a case to be made for this - though I like to think that, in addition to values, I draw my conclusions based on fact, evidence and experience as well.

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Change blindness
Ethan Mollick, One Useful Thing, 2024/08/15

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Some people write that there has been no real progress in generative AI. How can you say that? In this post, Ethan Mollick writes that "things have changed very quickly, as the examples in this post have hopefully demonstrated." He looks at things like image generation, chatbots, video generation, and more, in each case showing how much better the algorithms perform a day than they did a mere 22 months ago.

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How do we transmit culture when it cannot be put into words?
Helena Miton, Aeon, 2024/08/15

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When I first saw the title of this post, my reaction was to say "culture isn't transmitted, it's regenerated". As a critic pointed out, that's kind of what the article says. If I had to put it in a single sentence, I'd say the author argues as follows: a lot of cultural practice is passed on as embodied knowledge, and "f a learner focuses only on mastering those particular traits that matter to a practice, everything else may suddenly click into place more easily." These bits are often described metaphorically: 'swing through the ball', 'box with your elbow', and the like. To me, the distinction between 'embodied' and other types of knowledge is a bit of a chimera (as all knowledge is embodied). And it really does come down to stimulating physical activities that can 'regenerate' cultural knowledge.

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Teaching Executive Functions to All Students
Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy, 2024/08/15

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I honestly think terms like 'executive function' and 'working memory' are out-of-date computational metaphors for more complex types of processes based on pattern recognition. And I certainly would not recommend systems based on pens, paper and binders. So why reference this item? It isn't the specific process, but the thinking behind it: using regular access to students to build habits of mind that will serve them well in the future. This will be a bit different for each student, but includes things like scheduling, planning tasks, organizing information, making learning logs, etc. Today, I do these sorts of things with task, calendar and logging tools. But getting into the habit of using them - that's the crucial park. See also Sarah Kesty, Edutopia. Via Dawn Ahukanna.

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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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