OLDaily

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

Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
TechDirt, 2025/03/05

---

My understanding of 'democracy' is as valid in China as it is in Canada as it is elsewhere: it is, as I say in my vision statement, "where each person is able to rise to his or her fullest potential without social or financial encumbrance, where they may express themselves fully and without reservation through art, writing, athletics, invention, or even through their avocations or lifestyle." That has never been a problem for either my readers or my employers, and while I've stayed away from traditional partisan politics, it has never been an issue for me to push back against the wealthy and powerful who "break the rules in pursuit of personal and economic power at the expense of safety and user protections, all while wrapping themselves in the flag of 'innovation'", as Mike Masnick says in this article. It is the changes that have been happening in society, not just south of the border, but also in our own corporate-owned media and in societies around the world were advocacy for democracy has become a politically-charged statement. I'm with Mike: "So, here's the bottom line: when WaPo's opinion pages are being gutted and tech CEOs are seeking pre-approval from authoritarians, the line between 'tech coverage' and 'saving democracy' has basically disappeared. It's all the same thing."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Constructivism, Relativism, and Chemical Education
Eric Scerri, PhilSci Archive, 2025/03/05

---

I did not know that "the dominant school of chemical education researchers appears to support a variety of (constructivist and relativist) positions" but it does not surprise me that it is true. Even without reference to "the views of Herron, Spencer, and Bodne" the whole idea of a lot of science education is to give students hands-on see-for-yourself exposure to scientific principles and scientific methodology. This article (11 page PDF) argues against that approach, mostly with statements like, "the statement that 'truths are independent of the context in which they are observed' is essentially correct" and "the statement that 'knowledge is constructed' is either plainly incorrect or so uncontroversial as to be superfluous." This to me represents a naive understanding not only of science but also of language; the terms 'correct' or 'true' literally mean 'correct in a model' or 'true in a model' (or else they mean nothing at all; pick one).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Google Cuts Off uBlock Origin on Chrome as Firefox Stands Firm on Ad Blockers
Megan Crouse, TechRepublic, 2025/03/05

---

Google finally rolled out the changes that permanently disable Ublock Origin on its Chrome browser, meaning users will no longer be able to block advertising. According to this article, "the problem started with Manifest V3, Chrome's new extension specification, which is supposed to improve privacy." By 'improve privacy' what Google means is 'disable your ability to block requests'. Firefox (which is the browser I use) meanwhile has reaffirmed its commitment to support ad-blocking. What's interesting about all this is that there has been a flood of posts on Reddit (which recently struck a $60 million Google training deal) criticizing Firefox for all manner of woes, from being slow, and broken, and having bad terms of use - none of these seem directed at readers at all; the purpose seems only to be to place them on Reddit, perhaps reflecting the suggestion in MIT Technology Review that "your most important customer may be AI", not people.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

The EU Digital Identity Wallet: A Beginner's Guide
Dock.io, 2025/03/05

---

As this story reports, "With the approval of eIDAS 2, 400 million EU citizens will soon have a EU Digital Identity Wallet containing legal credentials issued by their national governments." eIDAS stands for electronic IDentification, Authentication, and Trust Services. As Entrust says, "As a comprehensive EU regulation, it unifies all European eID and trust services under a common legal framework." Here's a full guide and outline for the system that will be used for education credentials, payments, and travel, among other uses. Similar discussions are being held around digital government in Canada. The Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) argues Canada needs a digital ID framework and is working toward a Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Self-regulation connects through trusted relationships – Education Gazette
Education Gazette, 2025/03/05

---

According to this article, "Research shows that self-regulation skills in the early years are one of the most important factors in predicting how a person's life unfolds. For young children, these skills are learned and practised within trusted relationships." I've never been comfortable with the concept of 'self-regulation', which speaks to me in terms of 'abstinence' and 'restraint' instead of 'creativity' and 'initiative'. Anyhow, this article goes on to describe ENGAGE, a program started in 2016 Aotearoa New Zealand. "The programme aligns closely with Te Whāriki (New Zealand's early childhood curriculum) and He Māpuna te Tamaiti (116 page PDF), ensuring its relevance in early learning environments across the country."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Fair-code
Fair-code, 2025/03/05

---

This type of license (not actually a license) has been around since at least 2020 but I ran across it while looking at the n8n workflow automation tool (which would be really useful but is too expensive for individual users like me; I can download it but the useful features are removed). The idea if fair-code is that it is software that is "is generally free to use and can be distributed by anybody, has its source code openly available, can be extended by anybody in public and private communities, is commercially restricted by its authors." In other words, it's the non-commercial license applied to open source, made necessary because large corporations would take open source software, set up commercial hosting service, and not contribute at all to the software.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

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.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed