OLDaily

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The future of higher ed: Why colleges must invest in AI, the metaverse, and blockchain
Gary D. Alexander, eCampus News, 2025/01/29

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It's nothing anyone wants to read but I may as well pass it along. It's a familiar argument: "The choice is clear: adapt or be left behind. For those willing to embrace the possibilities of innovation, the future is bright–and the time to act is now." Now I don't disagree that these are important things for institutions to explore, but they're all still in the research and development phase. That means it would not make sense to invest any more than the minimum in commercial systems. But it makes a lot of sense to tinker around the edges, working with open source versions, exploring applications and affordances, and of course, helping student develop new skills as they emerge on these rapidly changing platforms.

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Bloggers Anonymous: “First Things First”
Jim Groom, bavatuesdays, 2025/01/29

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I'm sorry, I can't wrap my brain around the idea of bloggers needing to sign up for live meetings on a Discord server to communicate as 'Bloggers Anonymous'. That's kind of like alcoholics getting together Sunday afternoons to solve crossword puzzles. But hey, if it's your thing, here's the invitation to "a community of practice that encourages blogging as a means to help kick an addiction to corporate social media." I think it's more like Twitterers' Anonymous for Bloggers.

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Engaging Connections: Cooperative Learning in an Online Asynchronous Setting
Nicki May, V.N. Vimal Rao, EDUCAUSE Review, 2025/01/29

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I like the language used in this post as it suggests it allows autonomy alongside working together (unlike collaborative learning, where everybody has to be on the same page). "Cooperative learning is an evidence-based instructional practice that emphasizes active student participation and engagement. Cooperative learning posits that structuring the learning environment to optimize peer interactions will lead to better student learning outcomes than other instructional practices, a finding well supported by empirical evidence.Footnote5 Establishing a cooperative learning environment rests on five pillars: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing."

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Copyrightability
United States Copyright Office, 2025/01/29

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I have no idea whether the U.S. government will support the findings of this report beyond next Tuesday, but the conclusions are reasonable on the face of it. The findings:

• no need for legislative change;
• use of AI tools to assist does not affect copyright protection;
• copyright protects the original expression even if the work also includes AI-generated material;
• copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material where there is insufficient human control;
• this must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis;
• prompts do not alone provide sufficient control;
• authors still entitled to copyright even aftre their content appears in AI-generated outputs;
• no for additional copyright or sui generis protection for AI generated content.

Full report: 52 page PDF.

 

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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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