OLDaily

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

Extending AI chat with Model Context Protocol (and why it matters)
Matt Webb, Interconnected, a blog by Matt Webb, 2025/02/11

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The short version: just like a person might need a calculator to add some numbers, an AI may need to access to some tools to do its job. This creates a need for toolmakers to have a way to provide their tools to the AI. Enter "an emerging open standard from Anthropic called Model Context Protocol (MCP)." I like this article because I like the way it defined 'agents' in this content: "Agents are just AIs that can choose for themselves what tools to use and keep running it a loop until they're done." Here are some open source MCP servers. Have fun exploring. There's the MCP subreddit.

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Curmudgucation: AI Is for the Ignorant
Peter Greene, NEPC, 2025/02/11

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I saw this article (59 page PDF) mentioned on LinkedIn last week, had a look for myself, and concluded that the results were to be expected given how the question was set up. I was prepared to leave it there, but now the item is growing legs and needs comment. Here's the alluring argument: "people with lower AI literacy are typically more receptive to AI." Peter Greene immediately goes all-in on the conclusion: "To sell more of this non-magical product, make sure not to actually educate consumers. Emphasize the magic, and go after the low-information folks." But here's the thing: everything depends on how you define 'AI literacy'. Now there's just enough vagueness to prevent this from being a slam dunk, which is why I was content to leave things as they were, but it seems to me that if AI literacy is being defined as being more sceptical (which, arguably, it is in this paper) then you would expect people who are AI literate to be more sceptical. So the conclusion is: sceptical people are sceptical. Not a highlight in the annals of human factors research.

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Against AI-Shaming
Maha Bali, Reflecting Allowed, 2025/02/11

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I'm pretty happy to hear any argument about AI in education, for or against. That's why I align with Maha Bali's argument here that we should not shame people for their perspective on AI, whatever it is (provided, of course, that this perspective is shared respectfully and reasonably). I will confess, however, to being less patient with assertions about what AI can or cannot do, offered without evidence or grounds, or suggestions that a person's stance on AI either makes them a supporter or non-supporter of capitalism, billionaires, workers, social justice or the environment. Let's all take a deep breath here. We live on a pluralistic planet, even if this fact might distress some people, and there are going to be conflicting and yet equally reasonable points of view. It's often how we respond to conflict, rather than which side prevails, that makes all the difference.

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Why Blog If Nobody Reads It?
Andy Hawthorne, Andy's Blog, 2025/02/11

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We blog for three reasons, writes Andy Hawthorne: "Future you. Your posts become a time capsule of your evolving mind; One right person. Maybe one day, someone stumbles across your words at exactly the right moment. And that changes something for them; The work itself. Consistency beats virality. A hundred posts with depth will outlast a single viral hit." All true. But he did not mention the fame, glory and wealth. I wonder why not... Via Ed Summers.

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WikiTok
2025/02/11

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What if doomscrolling led to knowledge and awareness of the world instead of increased agitation about the state of the world? That's the apparent motivation behind WikiTok, which combines two cultural phenomena of the day: the breadth of coverage that is Wikipedia, and the easy interface that is TikTok. Visit; you won't want to miss this. Via Alan Levine.

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Majority support moderation on social media platforms
IDW, 2025/02/11

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According to this article, "the discussions and research on these issues focus mainly on the attitudes of companies, policy makers and the media. So far little attention has been paid to the opinions of social media users." What the social media users actually want, according to the article, is to be free of harassment, bullying, hate speech, and all the rest of what plagues unmoderated social media. However, "the results also show that we do not necessarily have a universal consensus with regard to all specific trade-offs between freedom of expression and moderation. People's beliefs are strongly dependent on cultural norms, political experiences and legal traditions in the various countries." Note that as of this writing the doi link to the original article is broken.

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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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