Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques.Le Médiateur de Pôle emploi tend à voir son rôle s’installer dans le fonctionnement de l’institution et le rapport annuel de Jean-Louis Walter, qui vient de paraître, s’inscrit dans cette tendance.
Après avoir rappelé le progrès qu’a représenté la fin de la pratique illégale visant à suspendre les indemnités à la date du fait générateur et non à celle de la notification (voir Vers la fin de la rétroactivité de la radiation des demandeurs d’emploi? et Les étrennes des chômeurs. Pôle emploi annonce son intention de respecter le droit), et mentionné qu’un rapport spécial demande à ce que les conditions de radiation soient conforme à la lettre et à l’esprit de la loi au lieu de s’appuyer sur un simple circulaire (voir Le rapport du médiateur de Pôle emploi demande à l’institution de respecter la loi), nous pouvons nous féliciter des avancées que marque ce rapport. Notons la possibilité de cumuler ARE et pension d’invalidité, l’encadrement des possibilités de suspension de l’ARE… Suite de l'article…

Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques.Le CREDOC vient de faire paraitre une étude sur la perception du RSA, intitulée ”RSA, prestations familiales et aides aux familles”.
Réalisée à la demande de la CNAF par Sandra Hoibian, Régis Bigot et Patricia Croutte, ce travail mesure l’état de l’opinion vis à vis du RSA en 2012, met en évidence un sentiment plus favorable de la population vis à vis des bénéficiaires du RSA, lié au contexte de crise, et aborde la perception du RSA Jeunes.
Au delà de l’interrogation sur le fait que ce dispositif semble assez largement perçu alors qu’il ne concerne, comme le sait le lecteur régulier de ce blog (voir RSA Jeunes: nouvelle baisse du nombre de bénéficiaires fin décembre), qu’une infime minorité des jeunes sans ressources (voir 238 280 jeunes inscrits à Pôle emploi ne touchent aucune indemnité), il est intéressant de noter que “77 % des interviewés saluent l’ouverture de la prestation aux plus jeunes”. Suite de l'article...

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) invites expressions of interest for producing courseware in the form of an open educational resource for training teacher trainers in high quality open, distance and online learning. The target group for this call is an institution or consortium of actors/ institutions and the initial focus of the project is Africa.
Open, distance and online learning is rapidly expanding in universities and colleges in Africa and Asia, but faculty training has not caught up with the speed of development. According to the African Union Commission, the number of new teachers required in Africa by the year 2015 is estimated to be 3.6 million.
Online training using OERs will facilitate mass training of teacher trainers, which again will facilitate trained teachers in filling the huge gap in demand for educators in Africa. By using OERs, courseware can be adapted to different cultures and languages.
The OER/ courseware to receive an ICDE grant should focus on the needs of teacher trainers to deliver high quality faculty training in open and distance/ online learning. The first regional area of priority should be Africa. A regional focus on Asia will be considered when the project has delivered. The expressions of interest must be submitted to the ICDE Secretariat, icde@icde.org by Friday 31 May 2013. ICDE will invite a smaller selection of applicants to deliver a bid in the form of a project proposal. One successful bidder will be invited to enter into a contract with ICDE.  The value of the grant is USD 8,500.

By Sui Fai John Mak. Here is a post on FB on a discussion on the question: Why are xMOOCs attracting tens or hundred thousands of students?
Thanks to Ana and Steve for their comments and conversation.
Here are my reflections on why some moocs attracted hundreds, tens of thousands of learners (xMOOCs), whilst others attracted a few hundreds or a few thousands of learners (cMOOCs).
In summary, the key reasons include: 1. branding and affiliation with elite institutions and professors, 2. well established courses with rich support on resources and assessment (grading/peer assessment), 3. granting of certificates of achievement or statements of attainment (in recognition), 4. degrees of difficulties – xMOOCs are much easier compared to cMOOCs, 5. perceptions of learners – xMOOCs are based on 1,2,3 above, and 4 – learners – cMOOCs would have to curate resources and create blog posts/join forums, 6. pedagogy, 7. assessment.
1. Branding and affiliation with elite institutions and professors.
Branding, is the new name of the game, under a MOOC arena.
Sounds too good for us.
Branding within institutions have been based on the Open Educational resources (OER) movement for more than a decade.  The introduction of xMOOCs last year has shifted the attention from OER to MOOCs for many institutions.
The success of xMOOCs could also be attributed to the branding of many elite institutions – as ones who would provide MOOCs, that are believed to be able to transform education, and revolutionize Online and Higher Education.
Lead the change, with branding seems to be the way to go, with lots of higher education institutions, together with the MOOC providers.
Here in my previous post on assumptions and challenges:  Assumption 2: MOOCs attract students as the MOOC providers carry the big “brand” together with the “super-professors”.  I reckon this assumption is very true, especially when nearly everyone said that this is true.  Most learners would prefer to learn with the prestigious institutions and famous and super-rock star professors.

By Debbie Morrison. In this ‘Need-to-Know’ blog post series I share noteworthy stories that speak of need-to-know developments within higher education and K-12 that have the potential to influence, challenge and/or transform the traditional model of education.
In this post I’ve included the key developments of this past week that will keep readers in-the-know on education news. Another new MOOC platform, NovoEd launched by Stanford this week offers challenging courses and takes a unique approach to team projects and peer grading, and the machine grading of essays—the debate continues and is an issue that prevents one school from joining edX. Also, I’ll introduce a new tool that bring interactivity to online learning. Read more...

By Brian. I noted the apparent efforts by unknown actors to alter the history of MOOCs on Wikipedia in my previous post. Partially in response, Darren asks “Am I safe in assuming $ has something to do with so many anxious to rewrite history?”
To respond to Darren’s question, I suppose it is possible that this effort is motivated by simple (or unfathomably complex) ego, but I think money is a far more likely explanation. It brings to mind a fascinating discussion from Jimbo Wales’s User talk page on Wikipedia. Like so many questions of ethics and process on this platform, the discourse descends into an intertransdimensional series of rabbit holes that I find difficult to navigate.
Attempts by various actors to influence Wikipedia articles are nothing new. To me, the most fascinating phrase here is “he appears to have stayed within Wikipedia’s guidelines”, a fact repeatedly argued in the Wales User talk page referenced above. Indeed, Arturo at BP insists “my affiliation with BP is abundantly clear to all parties I may interact with on Wikipedia.” His efforts have proven to be uniquely successful. Read more...

Par Véronique Soulé. Les directeurs de six instituts d’études politiques (IEP) de province - Lille, Toulouse, Aix-Marseille, Rennes, Strasbourg et Lyon - sont reçus aujourd’hui à Paris au ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, où ils espèrent bien se faire entendre. Ils protestent contre la réduction de 5% de leurs crédits de fonctionnement, décidée «sans concertation» et «très tardivement» en mars. Dans un communiqué commun, les directeurs de ces IEP ne contestent pas la nécessité «de participer à l’effort de redressement». Mais ils estiment qu’ils sont déjà sous-dotés, notamment par rapport à Paris. Ils reprochent à la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques de ne financer que Sciences-Po Paris et de les oublier, contrairement à sa mission initiale. Suite de l'article...

Par Elodie Vallerey. Le Premier ministre a réuni le 18 avril une vingtaine de ministres autour d'un séminaire sur l'application du plan gouvernemental pour la compétitivité.
Un "bilan d'étape" de l'application des mesures du pacte pour la compétitivité remis en novembre dernier par le Commissaire général à l'investissement Louis Gallois.
Selon le Premier ministre, "les choses avancent mais il faut encore booster tout ça" concernant la mise en oeuvre des mesures-phares du plan pour la compétitivité, rapporte l'AFP. Jean-Marc Ayrault a fait état de 1500 entreprises ayant fait des demandes pour bénéficier du crédit d'impôt pour la compétitivté et l'emploi (Cice). Suite de l'article...

By Jonathan DeHart. Blackstone Group Chairman Stephen Schwarzman is launching a U.S. $300 million scholarship that will allow foreign students to attend Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University, known for grooming many top Chinese officials from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping and, according to Forbes, for its exceedingly beautiful campus, set on a former Qing Dynasty royal garden dotted by imperial courtyards and ponds.
"China's economy is growing at three times the rate of the West, and if that growth continues, China will become the largest economy in the world within the next couple of decades," Schwarzman said prior to the launch of the fund on Sunday. Read more...