By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Using Gamification to create a Blogging Culture
Sumeet Moghe, The Learning Generalist, 2015/01/23

I like the way this experiment begins: "How about we used the same money that we’d use to hire a journalist, to instead engage ThoughtWorkers in writing about their work lives". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Mirage of Measurable Success
Matt Crosslin, EduGeek Journal, 2015/01/22

Interesting article that despite the title is more concerned with the evaluation of dalmooc, which I think was intended to be an instance of a dual-MOOC (ie., both cMOOC and xMOOC). The inevitable result was that some people thought it was more cMOOC than they expected, while others thought it was more xMOOC than they expected. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Hippocratic Oath for Ed-Tech
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2015/01/22

I think this is a good idea. That's why I proposed it in 2008 and revisited it in 2010. "Drawing from the Hippocratic Oath, perhaps it would insist that students be recognized as humans, not as data points. It would demand a respect for student privacy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Gaming in Education: Gamification?
Elliott Bristow, The Edublogger, 2015/01/21

During my education my school went through several attempts to create a house system, first with six houses (named after Greek letters: I the Psi house leader), then with Canadian scientists (I was in Banting house, but the system was wrecked by the wags who named theirs the Best house). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Other 21st Century Skills: Educator Self-Assessment
Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education, 2015/01/21

I'm noticing a drift in recent years away from actual skills toward what might be called 'character' traits - things like resilience, grit, self-reliance, and hope. These are the dog whistles reflecting a particular view of learning and education, suggesting is based more around character than what you know or can do. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Seeking the unique pedagogical characteristics of social media
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, 2015/01/21
Short brisk post about social media which touches on the pedagogical characteristics. Bates writes, "social media now enable teachers to set online group work, based on cases or projects, and students can collect data in the field, without any need for direct face-to-face contact with either the teacher or other students." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Open Letter Regarding the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
Heather Dalal, ACRLog, 2015/01/21
Have we entered the age of the 'literacy wars' without even knowing it? It seems that the definition of literacy itself is up for grabs, and people and organizations are positioning themselves behind different schools (presumably for political advantage, though I will say some of the motivation escapes me). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. News Feed FYI: Showing Fewer Hoaxes
Erich Owens, Udi Weinsberg,, Facebook Blog, 2015/01/21
I'm sure it's not in reaction to my recent complaints (heh) but Facebook is announcing changes that will slow the propagation of fake news. This is hard for Facebook because everything in the service is about generating feed-forwards, comments and reactions. Facebook has none of the inherent friction a proper network would have, because it's bad for advertising. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MMCP: The “Critical” in Critical Pedagogy
Sean Michael Morris, Hybrid Pedagogy, 2015/01/20

I pretty much agree with this: "Critical pedagogy could be thought of as a philosophy of teaching that shows more than tells.... 'Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention,'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Transferring Expertise: The Best Way to Move Tacit Knowledge
Nancy Dixon, conversation matters, 2015/01/20
"Even given a long history failed attempts to "capture" expertise," writes Nancy Dioxon, "we just can’t seem to get past this idea that an expert’s mind is like a filing cabinet where we can just wisk out a file and hand it over to someone else." That's why the picture of education and learning as knowledge 'transfer' is wrong. More...