Student-Centered State Funding: A How-to Guide for State Policymakers
Bruce D. Baker, National Education Policy Center, 2018/01/09
What's important here is how the term 'student centered' has been appropriated by agencies advocating for private and charter schooling. This takes place through the use of the term 'student centered funding', which is the idea that the money follows the child, whether the child is educated in a public school, a private school, or by a trio of monkeys playing ukuleles. We find the argument laid out in Student-Centered State Funding: A How-to Guide for State Policymakers, published by the Foundation for Excellence in Education. More...

Advertising In Schools: This Parent Says It’s Time to Embrace It
Steve Ostler, Blackboard Blog, 2018/01/09
Nothing appears in a corporate blog by accident and so I am left wondering why Blackboard blog is running a post making the case for advertising in schools. More...

https://mfeldstein.com/top-hat-marketplace-care/
Phil Hill, e-Literate, 2018/01/09
I've had a few people send me emails about Top Hat recently so I've been keeping an eye out for independent reporting on the company. This article looks at the company's business plans (there's another post about Top Hat and open educational resources to follow). More...

How to Fix Facebook—Before It Fixes Us
Roger McNamee, Washington Monthly, 2018/01/08
In a country that just ended net neutrality there is probably zero chance of regulating social networking platforms. That said, the recommendations here are good advice to help us avoid making the same mistakes in education technology. Among the recommendations: "it’s essential to ban digital bots that impersonate humans"; "be transparent about who is behind political and issues-based communication"; "be more transparent about their algorithms"; and "consumers, not the platforms, should own their own data". And more. More...

Discovery Should Be Delivery: User-Centric Principles for Discovery as a Service
Lisa Janike Hinchliffe, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2018/01/08
I have a fierce dislike for discovery services that lead me to resources I can't access. That's why on OLDaily I am careful to ensure that if you click on the link, you are taken straight to the resource - no subscription paywalls, no registration or signin, no whitelist-me content blocker. More...

MOOCS as Accelerators of Social Mobility? A Systematic Review
Karmijn van de Oudeweetering, Orhan Agirdag1, Educational Technology & Society, 2018/01/08
This study shows that "The literature substantiated that there are fewer barriers to MOOCs than to higher education. Still, the remaining barriers seem to specifically hamper access for underprivileged populations." Which is no surprise, really, and goes to show that open access solves only part of the problem of inequity. But do look at the numbers. More...

Patterns of Inclusion: Fostering Digital Citizenship through Hybrid Education
Alex Young Pedersen, Rikke Toft Nørgaard, Christian Köppe, Educational Technology & Society, 2018/01/08
This is an erudite and intelligent paper combining three major threads. First, the idea of digital citizenship as an extension of T.H. Marshall's influential conception of social, economic and political rights and responsibilties. Second is the elucidation of hybrid education based on the concepts of 'becoming', which leads to plurality ("nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives or will live.”), and 'belonging', as seen in the concept of community ("this reconsideration of digital citizenship takes aim at the philosophical and ethical foundations for a reconfiguration of education"). More...

National Research Council lays out a four-year reform plan
Brian Owens, University Affairs, 2018/01/11
This post covers recent developments at the National Research Council (NRC), where I work. It's generally accurate and reflective of the changes happening at the Council. Yes, there is an effort to re-engage with universities, as well as to begin hiring post-doctoral fellows. The former 'portfolios' are becoming research centres. But the core of the changes made in the Harper years remains. More...

Repository for Prior Art for Digital Credentials and Open Badges - Patents or Applications
IMS Global, 2018/01/11
From IMS today: "it has become known that one or more patents or patent applications have been filed that relate to the issuance, management, and display of digital credentials including Open Badges... IMS is making this location available to accumulate prior art—documented records or examples of designs and implementations of ideas similar to those described in a patent or application." More...