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

The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence
Nathalie A. Smuha, Cambridge University Press, 2025/02/26

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I haven't had time to read this volume (and honestly, it's going to take some time) but it is now available as an open access publication (460 page PDF) and I can already tell it will be required reading for those interested in the field and particularly relevant in the "current AI spring". The first part offers six essays on AI, ethics, and philosophy. The next part offers another six on AI, law and policy. And finally, eight essays look at AI across sectors. "While it may be tempting to treat AI as an entirely novel and different phenomenon stemming from human ingenuity, this attitude not only feeds an excessive hype but also risks overlooking the ingenuity that humans have shown throughout history... It is, furthermore, a convenient position for those actors who would prefer not to draw any lessons from past governance experiences" (their emphasis). Via Stephanie Moore.

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Creative Commons response to the UK Consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Creative Commons, 2025/02/26

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In their submission to the U.K. government Creative Commons consider AI as a special case of text and data mining (TDM) and argues, "A TDM exception is consistent with copyright's purpose and function... people observe the ideas, styles, genres, and other tropes of past creativity, and use what they learn to create anew." They should have stopped there. Instead they say "we are also supportive of preference signals that help people state how they wish for their works to be used" and suggest that "they could be part of a legally binding 'rights reservation' or 'opt-out' scheme," raising the question of why Creative Commons would now be arguing in favour of extending copyright. They should be arguing in favour of open-source AI including open data, not coming up with new ways to close access and promote commercial AI. Thanks to Michael Bommarito for giving this document - found only on LinkedIn - a web-based home. 

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2023-2024 Student Basic Needs Survey Report
The Hope Center, 2025/02/26

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As the blurb states, "this report shares findings from 91 institutions across 16 states that participated in Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP) and fielded The Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey between Spring 2023 and Summer 2024." It reports the following: "59% of students experience at least one form of basic needs insecurity related to food or housing, including." It's good to see statistics like this reported (especially at a time of record corporate profits) but I would have to ask why  the authors focus on students only. Understanding that people without access to education face similar hardships is key to understanding one of the major roles of education in society. Via Robin DeRosa.

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Center for Digital Thriving
Emily Weinstein, et al., Harvard, 2025/02/26

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Allan Levine tagged this for OEG Connect and I have to admit I don't get it. I don't get why the wealthiest educational institution in the world needs to divert "generous founding grants from the Susan Crown Exchange and Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates Company" in order to fund something like this. I don't know why it needs the branding and marketing and Instagram  account. I don't know why their Teaching Digital Well Being report (48 page PDF) directs me to Common Sense Media resources I have to sign in to view. I don't know why you have to vote on your personal values, and why this is the set of values to choose from. I don't know why they didn't realize the five rights framework they linked to is a sports betting site. I don't know why they spend so much time on so-called thinking traps. They mention supporting agency for young people, but spend so much time - as in the section on tech habits - focusing how how what young people do is wrong, and why they should change.

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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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