By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Navigating the Emotional Side of a Career Transition
Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review, 2016/04/05
My time as the leader of the Learning and Performance Support Systems program has come to an end, and while I am still employed by NRC, I find myself a bit adrift at the moment. Which is natural. "People want to be respected and honored for who they are, and one’s chosen career is a big part of that. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Apple 'abandons' QuickTime on Windows
BBC, 2016/04/15

Thank goodness. Now if we could only get Apple to 'abandon' Safari on Windows (and everywhere else). Then all those annoying update messages for products I never use would stop. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. I Don't Care About Your Life
Jason Guriel, The Walrus, 2016/04/15

I realize that you don't care about my life (at least, not nearly as much as I care about it). That's OK, I can deal with that. But when I was taking religious studies courses in the 1980s I first encountered the 'confessional' course, where we were studying religion not only as a phenomenon but also as an expression of personal faith. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 20 Videos and a Poster Explaining Logical Fallacies
Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers, 2016/04/15

I have it in mind to one day update my logical fallacies site and to incorporate into an online course. Meanwhile, there's this: "Your Logical Fallacy Is is a website that provides short explanations and examples of twenty-four common logical fallacies. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Equal Promises, Unequal Experiences
Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/04/15
Students from an online Master's degree course are suing because "the program doesn’t live up to its promise of being designed for an online setting and not a physical classroom." It's a textbook case of how not to deliver online instruction. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OER as a participatory activity
Sean Connor, Saylor, 2016/04/15
Saylor writes and endorses the recent Creative Commons post on OER as a participatory activity. But it adds, "Saylor Academy would absolutely benefit from infrastructure that would encourage us, our students, our partners, and members of the wider open community to really create the open content we need from the open content that we have." Of course, I've spent my entire career working toward this. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In Britain, the Wealthy Get Wealthier
John Morgan, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/04/14
More evidence for a proposition that has been noted in this newsletter before, specifically, that equality of outcomes is not achieved simply by providing access to the same curriculum. The purpose of elite institutions of higher education is to allow the wealthy to create insider networks, and these appear to freeze out the non-wealthy, even those who attend these institutions. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Six Ways to Support Personalized Learning
Gregory Dobbin, EDUCAUSE Review, 2016/04/14

This is a survey from the responses from the winners of Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS) grants last year.

1. Focus on Differing Levels of Preparation
2. Strengthen Student Engagement
3. Accommodate Different Goals and Styles
4. Rethink Institutional Structures and Support
5. Take Advantage of Appropriate Technologies
6. Build Trust

All of these seem reasonable - who would object. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Active OER: Beyond open licensing policies
Timothy Vollmer, Creative Commons, 2016/04/14
Here is the point of the post in a nutshell: "If we agree that empowerment and engagement of educators and learners is an important goal, we need to implement active policies that build on and support the potential ensured by passive ones," policies such as incentives and infrastructure (but let's be honest: mostly incentives). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Some academics remain skeptical of Academia.edu
Shawna Wagman, University Affairs, 2016/04/14
"Please, don’t put your papers on Academia.edu," Wolfgang Schwarz writes, arguing according to this article that "He argues that the platform essentially bans access for academics who, for whatever reason, don’t have an Academia.edu account. It also shuts out non-academics." I've been hit with login requirements from both here and its twin, ResearchGate. More...