By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why data culture matters
Alejandro Díaz, Kayvaun Rowshankish, Tamim Saleh, McKinsey Quarterly, 2018/10/09

One of the topics we cover in E-Learning 3.0 us the transition from document-based culture to data-based culture. This article explores that transition. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A new study provides some dispiriting evidence for why people fall for stupid fake images online
Laura Hazard Owen, NiemanLab, 2018/10/09
The usual advice given to people about fake news (and fake images) usually has something to with: consider the source, consider the content, does it look professional, are other people linking to it? Etc. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Common Core Produces Massive Failure in Writing
Diane Ravic, National Education Policy Centrer, 2018/10/09
We've seen calls in Canada for 'education reform' that looks a lot like the American Common Core focus on instructivism, core content, and a lot of testing. The promise was that it would improve outcomes, but Diane Ravich reports on a study that shows it produced the opposite. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Technology Was Supposed To Save Us. It Hasn’t
Dan Pontefract, 2018/10/09
I was born 12 years before Dan Pontefract. And while I would be the first to agree with him that technology isn't perfect, I think those 12 years make all the difference in understanding the impact of new technology. We had television from my early childhood, but depended more on radio, since we only had two channels (CBC and CTV). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning Is a Complex and Active Process That Occurs Throughout the Life Span
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Education Research Report, 2018/10/09
According to this post, "A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine highlights the dynamic process of learning throughout the life span." It looks pretty interesting. It's available here - you have to log in to download the PDF (grr) or you can read the 347 pages for free online. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Research Article: Success factors for serious games to enhance learning: a systematic review
Karl Kapp, Kapp Notes, 2018/10/09
This post summarizes a paywalled article (and the link provided is actually to an individual libraryu account, making it doubly walled) but you can fine the text on sci-hub (28 page PDF). Most of the article cosnsists of a large table summarizing other articles. Kapp rightly focuses on the conclusions and restates them accurately. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google to shut down Google+
Martin Brinkmann, ghacks.net, 2018/10/08
It surprises no one to hear that Google is finally announcing the end of the Google+ network. It never came close to being a Facebook rival, despite the effort Google put into it. That said, some parts of it - such as Hangouts - were significant successes in their own right. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why a Web of Connections—Not a Single Relationship—Should Surround Students
Julia Freeland Fisher, EdSurge, 2018/10/08
After the obligatory opening paragraphs offering a paean to teachers, this article cites to research that "points to relationships more broadly as core determinants of students’ chances of getting by and getting ahead. Research from an array of youth development and social capital scholars is clear: students will most benefit from a web of adults supporting their healthy development, academic success and access to opportunity." One study mentiones is the Search Institute’s work on what they call developmental relationships. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. For Some Scholars, a Full Professorship Calls for ‘a Lot of Paperwork’ That ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’
Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2018/10/08
A lot has been said about the fact that Canadian Nobel prize winner Donna Strickland was only an associate professor - not a full professor - at Waterloo. It's just a lot of paperwork for a limited benefit. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A philosopher explains how our addiction to stories keeps us from understanding history
Angela Chen, The Verge, 2018/10/08
I hear a lot of educators talk about how stories are essential to learning, but I'm not sure I agree, and it's not clear they help. Indeed, according to this article, our preference for stories might be misleading us. More...