Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
Kevin Thorn, YouTube, 2017/09/15
You might be interested in this presentation of what I would consider a folk theory of cognition. Presented as a video by Kevin Thorn, it describes two tracks of perception and information processing - words and images. These correspond to verbal and pictorial representations, first in working memory, then in long-term memory. More...

Brain as Prediction Machine
Julie Dirksen, Usable Learning, 2017/09/15
I ran across this concept last summer and let it slip by, but I don't want to overlook it. The idea is that the brain functions not as an intelligence or thinking instrument, but as a prediction machine. This article collects a number of resources that revolve around that idea.  This is important because the function of predicing can be very different, and the requirements much lower, than for intelligence or cognition. More...

A Design Guide for Open Online Courses
Dave Pratt, Seb Schmoller, David Jennings, Will Buckman, Matt Bush, David
Squire, Nick West, David Jennings, Calderdale College, 2017/09/15

This is a really detailed (89 page PDF) exploration of the topic. More...

Open Educational Resource 2017 Textbook List
Zachariah Claybaugh, Chelsea Stone, Sacred Heart University, 2017/09/15
This is, as the title suggests, a huge list of OER textbooks - 12 or so per page in this (42 page PDF), so maybe 500 texts, organized into subject groupings. More...

​Teachers Can Now Use IBM’s Watson to Search for Free Lesson Plans
Stephen Noonoo, EdSurge, 2017/09/14
IBM has unveiled "a smart search engine that uses Watson’s ability to parse natural language and make recommendations with the aim of accurately matching what teachers are really looking for." Interestingly, "Populating the search engine is a collection of more than 1,000 OERs—from sources such as Achieve, UnboundED and statewide orgs like EngageNY—hand-selected by math experts assisting the program." The product is called Teacher Advisor With Watson 1.0. More...

OA Dashboard feasibility study: Our findings and conclusions
Sarah Fahmy, Jisc scholarly communications, 2017/09/14
The idea of an Open Access (OA) dashboard is to automate some processes related to accessing and distributing open scholarly materials. This article reports on the outcome of an OA dashboard feasibility study (41 page PDF). The results are not encouraging, as it suggests a business case cannot be made. More...

The ‘internet of things’ is sending us back to the Middle Ages
Joshua A.T. Fairfield, The Conversation, 2017/09/14
I don't think this author is telling us anything we don't already know, but there's a nice analogy in the retelling. Basically, there are two points being made: first, our devices (collectively known as the Internet of Things (IoT)) are reporting back to advertisers and marketers through backchannels; and second, we do not own full rights to our devices, but merely license the software that is used to run them. More...

The Future of Work: Intelligent Training That Adapts to Employee Performance
Rallyware, 2017/09/14
This is basically marketing content but I'm including it today as evidence of a wider trend in learning toward workplace performance support over formal in-class training. As the headline suggests, performance support needs to be context-aware, knowing not just what the learner is doing but also what they've done (and learned) in the past. More...

3 Short Videos On Creating Custom xAPI Statements For Storyline
Melissa Milloway, eLearning Industry, 2017/09/14
This is an interesting and useful guide describing in detail how to use xAPI. It thereby serves as a good way to understand xAPI as a concept. This is the second article in a series (see the first, from last March, on getting started with xAPI and Storyline). More...