By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How ISPs can sell your Web history—and how to stop them
Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 2017/03/27
Last week the U.S. Congress made moves to allow internet service providers (ISP) to track their customers. This is a lot harder to block than Facebook or Google; you can't use 'do not track' or anonymized browsing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Weapons of Math Destruction: invisible, ubiquitous algorithms are ruining millions of lives
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, 2017/03/27
When I spoke at the London School of Economics a couple years ago, part of my talk was an extended criticism of the use of models in learning design and analysis. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Can We Afford Free Textbooks?
Robert S. Feldman, Inside Higher Ed, 2017/03/27
This is an argument that can't be ignored. It runs as follows: OER textbookss address the cost of higher education, and while cost is a significant problem, the low completion rate is an even more significant problem. Part of the reason for the low completion rate is poor learning strategy, a strategy that is entrenched with existing (and now OER) textbooks. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Meet Afghanistan's female coders who are defying gender stereotypes
The Guardian, 2017/03/06
“Investing in educating girls in subjects like coding, where we expect there to be abundant, good-paying jobs is key to the future of Afghanistan. With a full range of talent to tap into, Afghanistan’s economy can grow and become less reliant on foreign aid and retain ambitious young women." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Story of Firefox OS
Ben Francis, Medium, 2017/03/06
This is a terrific article and well worth the time it will take to read it. It tells the story of the Mozilla Operating System (Mozilla OS) for smart phones. Mozilla OS was designed to promote an 'open web' environment for mobile apps, rather than proprietary App Stores. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Failing to See, Fueling Hatred.
danah boyd, Apophenia, 2017/03/06
I am partially in agreement with danah boyd and partially in disagreement. Let me begin with the latter: the piece reads to me that we should sympathize with the plight of the rich or privileged because perception is more important than statistical reality. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Connected Learning: a personal epiphany
Gardner Campbell, Gardner Writes, 2017/03/06
I'll begin by referencing Samuel Delaney's classic Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, the connectedness metaphor that predates this particular discussion and whose themes echo through Jon Udell's post and (no doubt) many of my own. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to make your kid good at anything, according to a world expert on peak performance
Jenny Anderson, Quartz, 2017/03/06
I once wrote a paper called 'Could Hume Play Billiards?' to which the answer was "Yes, but he would have to practice." More...