By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Advice requested on ‘Teaching in a Digital Age’
Tony Bates, Online learning and distance education resources, 2019/01/08
One of the big differences between Tony Bates's career and mine is that he publishes books and I don't. I don't have nearly enough patience to work with a book publisher (as various journal editors can attest). Too many people want me to say something different from what I intend. I just want to write down what I know and put it out there. Sometimes it's read and sometimes it's not. Either way is fine with me. Even with I make it open to the world for editing (as I did for the full E-Learning 3.0 set of papers) people mostly leave it alone. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Five Tool Scholar (Reprised)
Frederick Hess, Education Next, 2019/01/08
The five tools, according to Frederick Hess, are "disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive commentary, and speaking in the public square." They compare to baseball's five tools: "a player who can run, field, throw, hit, and hit with power." But the only important things in baseball are (a) winning ball games, and (b) putting fans in the seats. The rest is for the baseball nerds (like me). I think Hess's list is similarly weak. In scholarship, what matters is (a) advancing knowledge, and (b) making people's lives better. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Short Sims the Cover Story on the Industry's Flagship Publication
Clark Aldrich, 2019/01/08
Clark Aldrich sent me an email with this link and an outline of his new article on TD Magazine. It's a good article, and the page he provided also links to the examples in the article. I do confess though that I thought it a bit ironic to introduce an article on "short sims" with a quote from the developer of one of the longest and most complex of all the video games, Sid Meier. The quote is to the effect that "a game is a series of interesting choices." Which raises that question for me about agency: does it mean 'freedom to choose' or 'freedom to create'. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Future of MOOCs Must Be Decolonized
Taskeen Adam, EdSurge, 2019/01/07

This article argues that MOOCs need to be "decolonized", based on three arguments (paraphrased):

• ‘global education’ is shaped mainly by a handful of universities in a few countries, and assumes these other countries have nothing to contribute.
• by offering courses in only a limited set of languages to a global audience, MOOC providers force learners to adapt.
• epistemic injustice - they get to define what knowledge is and the processes by which that knowledge is deemed valid.

It's well and good to complain, but how do you decolonize MOOCs? Do you close Coursera and EdX? Of course not. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. All media is propaganda and subject to bias
Leonox, Medium, 2019/01/07
"Almost everything is propaganda," says this article. I agree. And if you're with me on this, then most of what I've had to say about truth and media over the years follows from that. For example: finding a 'trusted' media source means essentially finding a source that confirms your existing world view. For example: the terms we use to describe people (for example, 'horde' or 'migrant') are deliberate and intentional. Understanding this is why we have to seek out diverse, and first-person, perspectives. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Business of 'Ed-Tech Trends'
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2019/01/07
There are some good observations in what I think is the last (?) of Audrey Watters's ed tech trends posts. First is that "The most well-funded types of education company this year were those who offered tutoring. Tutoring, to be clear, here mostly means test prep." A lot of money went into tutoring companies. Additionally, "The growing reliance on OPMs is part of a larger trend of outsourcing and privatization." Quite true. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Media’s Post-Advertising Future Is Also Its Past
Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, 2019/01/07
This article should serve as a waring for education companies building technology that depends on surveillance to produce revenue from advertisers. Advertising-based media is in general under attack as sales decline and people rebel against social media marketing. This article looks at the impact on the news industry and makes the point that as funding models change, so will news coverage. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MoodleNet Testing
2019/01/16

MoodleNet is at the stage where they're looking for 100 people to test the first iteration. I've signed up and you can too. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Introducing the Teaching and Learning Professional Development portal
BCcampus, 2019/01/16
BCcapus is announcing the launch of the Teaching and Learning Professional Development portal (TLPD). "This web resource is the result of a collaboration between BCcampus, the TLPD Advisory Committee, and the B.C. public post-secondary teaching and learning community. The TLPD  portal (phase one) focuses on sharing and showcasing professional development learning events by B.C. public post-secondary institutions. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Practical Deep Learning for Coders (Review)
Jason Brownlee, Machine Learning Mastery, 2019/01/16
I haven't taken this course, but this review is quite positive, and I want to keep the link around for future reference. Deep learning (a type of artificial intelligence) " is often taught in a bottom-up manner, requiring that you first get familiar with linear algebra, calculus, and mathematical optimization before eventually learning the neural network techniques," writes Jason Brownlee. More...