What is Innovation in Education?
Stephen Downes, Mar 30, 2015

•Backchannel: •Go to http://www.downes.ca/chat •Select What is Innovation in Education?

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•Use Twitter hashtag #ghent2015 • •Slides: http://www.downes.ca/presentation/359

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•Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/Downes. More...

EFF Busts Podcasting Patent, Invalidating Key Claims at Patent Office
Press Release, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 2015/04/13

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) quietly goes about doing some of the most important work on the internet today. More...

Why LinkedIn Matters
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2015/04/13
"Imagine," says Michael Feldstein, "that you wanted to do a longitudinal study of how students from a particular college do in their careers. In other words, you want to study long-term outcomes." Where would you go? LinkedIn, he argues, is the best (and only) source for this information. More...

Driving Disruptive Innovation: developing agile and responsive module production
Allison Littlejohn, Little by Littlejohn, 2015/04/13
"How," asks Allison Littlejohn, "should professional practice in the Open University evolve to facilitate agile and responsive module production?" It's a good question. In agile methodology you break out of the traditional ADDIE structure (in software design, the equivalent is called 'waterfall') and take a wholistic approach, designing iteratively, releasing frequently, and making adjustments based on feedback. More...

Fee payments lift MOOC completion rates
Tim Dodd, Australian Financial Review, 2015/04/13
I am not at all surprised to hear that charging fees increases the course completion rate in online courses (I refuse to call fee-based courses MOOCs). As I have long argued, the low completion rate in MOOCs is reflective of the low level of risk, and was an attribute, not a problem. More...

Kinect to Small Basic
Greg Duncan, Microsoft | Channel 9, 2015/04/13

How much fun can you have in your programming classes (or many other classes!) with this. More...

McGraw-Hill, Microsoft Embrace Open Learning
D. Frank Smith, EdTech, 2015/04/13
According to the McGraw-Hill press release, educators will be able to build what they call "compound learning objects" using Microsoft Office and syndicate them using the McGraw-Hill platform. More...

Survival to Success: Transforming Immigrant Outcomes
Government of Canada, 2015/04/14
A panel "led by experts in the areas of newcomer integration, diversity and certification" is conducting interviews in a bid to determine how best to help new Canadians integrate into the economy. There is an online consultation available here. More...

Someone Calculated How Many Adjunct Professors Are on Public Assistance, and the Number Is Startling
Jordan Weissmann, MoneyBox, 2015/04/14

When people are living on low wages in North America, the government is essentially subsidizing their employer. More...

Corporate Culture in a Venn Diagram
Dan Pontrefact, 2015/04/14
You can read the article for yourself; I want to use this post to flag the misuse of the term "Venn Diagram". In this article, the diagram has four circles, while in a proper Venn diagram there are only three. More...