By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Standard Options Apply
Aaron Silvers, MakingBetter, 2014/09/04
As the development of the xAPI (Experience APO) continues, questions of development and implementation are beginning to arise. As Aaron Silvers says, the upcoming formalization by IEEE will break existing implementations. He suggests adopting a modular approach to xAPI, breaking it into different functions, modelled (for example) along the lines of WiFi, as a family of standards. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The End Of Neighborhood Schools
Anya Kamenetz, NPR, 2014/09/04
So I found this interesting, especially the way the discussion looked at two major aspects of the New Orleans school reform: first, the conversion of the system to public to private charter schools (and consequent firing and de-unionization of the school system), and second, the conversion from neighborhood schools to a city-wide system that offers choice. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The First Successful Demonstration Of Brain-To-Brain Communication In Humans
George Dvorsky, io9, 2014/09/04
Awesome (and a little bit scary): "For the first time ever, neuroscientists have demonstrated the viability of direct — and completely non-invasive — brain-to-brain communication in humans. Remarkably, the experiment allowed subjects to exchange mentally-conjured words despite being 5,000 miles apart. It's the neuroscientific equivalent of instant messaging." Meanwhile, DARPA's tiny implants will hook directly into your nervous system. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Literacies for the digital age: Financial literacy
Kathy Schrock, Discovery Education: Kathy's Klatch, 2014/09/03
OK, what is a literacy, exactly? I ask because Kathy Schrock offers a whole list of literacies, ranging from financial literacy to digital literacy to civic literacy - and then proceeds to outline some. And that's where I begin to get uncomfortable, as it seems 'literacy' on this model is really just a collection of life lessons. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. School Should Be More Like Camp
Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education, 2014/09/03
This seems so intuitive, and my own experiences at camp were deeply influential on me. So I want to be more like Jackie Gerstein and say "promote the idea that school should be more like camp." And there's so much about camp I love. But.... but.... at camp, relationships are primary (says the chart) but at the camps I went to, relationships were sometimes abusive and occasionally violent. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Top independent school puts lessons free on iTunes
Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 2014/09/03

Something like a MOOC has reached the grade school level in Britain. The Stephen Perse Foundation school in Cambridge, an 'independent' (ie., private) school is placing its course materials on iTunes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning Analytics and Ethics: A Framework beyond Utilitarianism
James E. Willis, III, EDUCAUSE Review, 2014/09/03
This is an unfortunately superficial treatment of ethics as it relates to big data analysis. The title itself ("Beyond utilitarianism...") treats an entire family of theories as though they were one - but there is a world of difference between (say) act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism (it's like the author never read Mill on the subject). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Psychologists’ Food Fight Matters
Michelle N. Meyer, Christopher Chabris, Slate, 2014/09/03
"Kids are spending more time than ever in front of screens, and it may be inhibiting their ability to recognize emotions." Oh Noes! But it says so in a study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. Should we even take note of this? Probably not. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. College in a Box
Gabriel Kahn, Slate, 2014/09/11

As textbook publishers are now effectively 'teaching' college classes, students can't be blamed for wondering why they're paying tuition. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor
Gerald Aungst, Edutopia, 2014/09/11
Just another example of a case in education research where a pointless taxonomy is developed and named after someone (one wonders how far education would advance if this practice were no longer allowed). More...