OLDaily

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

The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
Thea Lim, The Walrus, 2024/12/06

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This article laments the 'ludic loops' that define us in the algorithmic age, that is, the design of the internet stops us from ever switching it off, "It moves at the speed of light, with constantly changing metrics, fuelled by ... repeated cycles of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback" - in other words, it works exactly like a Jackpot 6000 slot machine." But instead of tokens or dollars, what we're playing for is "your sense of self". But external validation is as old as the concept of 'self-worth' itself. Michelangelo didn't paint for free. Da Vinci had to earn a living. Any time we depend on such externalized criteria, whether an author waiting for the reviews or the big price shortlist, or the Reddit reply guy playing for 'likes', we run this risk. The cure, though, is to get over ourselves. Am I another Descartes? As popular as Wittgenstein? Why would it matter? If we want, we can play the game, but the only way to win is to stop playing.

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A New Infrastructure for Learning Credentials
Mike Flanagan, Getting Smart, 2024/12/06

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This item is the latest in a series of posts that didn't really catch my attention until now. It's based on the idea of "Horizon Three" or "H3", which is the name for the "future-ready" educational system that follows in sort of a third wave that follows after 'traditional' (H1) and 'efficiency' (H2) learning. The concept is described more fully in this Google Drive PDF document (24 pages). What is it, exactly? It's a lot of stuff we've seen elsewhere, a mix of good and bad, including learner-driven school models, business and community partnerships, national competition for models, publicly funded supplemental and enrichment programs, mastery-based and embedded assessments, student ownership of credentials data, and more (see specifically pages 18 and 19 of the document). This approach is framed in terms of defining philanthropic support for education initiatives (which is why it flew beneath my radar; I usually just think of these as policy advocacy initiatives to find ways to support privatized education systems). Anyhow, worth knowing about.

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PD12M
Source.Plus, 2024/12/06

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From Alan Levine comes this link: "At 12.4 million image-caption pairs, PD12M is the largest public domain image-text dataset to date, with sufficient size to train foundation models while minimizing copyright concerns. Through the Source.Plus platform, we also introduce novel, community-driven dataset governance mechanisms that reduce harm and support reproducibility over time." Search could be better, but the images are great.

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The Biggest Week In AI Ever (Again!)
Conor Grennan, AI Mindset, 2024/12/06

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In case you thought Amazon was being left out of the AI boom, this article offers an antidote. Here's Amazon's plan: "They're offering their own models (Nova). They're investing in the current leader (Anthropic). They're building the chips (Trainium). They're creating the infrastructure (Project Rainier)." See also: Amazon's easy 17 step process to gain access to its Nova pro model.

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Analyzing the Impact of AI Tools on Student Study Habits and Academic Performance
Ben Ward, Deepshikha Bhati, Fnu Neha, Angela Guercio, arXiv, 2024/12/06

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David Wiley in LinkedIn summarizes this paper (7 page PDF) as follows: "According to a new study, using generative AI reduces the amount of time students spends studying and improves their GPAs, but may be habit forming." He follows it with a winky face, probably because the key word here is the word 'but'. I mean, if it reduces study time and increases GPA, who cares if it's habit forming. But the hesitation is there, even in the original paper, as the authors conclude, "challenges like over-reliance and curriculum integration persist." If you don't like a thing even when it's successful, what do you like?

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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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