By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mean What You Say: Defining and Integrating Personalized, Blended and Competency Education
Susan Patrick, Kathryn Kennedy, Allison Powell, International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), 2015/04/09
The School Improvement Network sponsored a post in EdSurge linking to this white paper, and the paper is heavy with self-referential linking (so take some of it with a grain of salt) but it is on the whole worth a read as an outline of the major elements (and supporting technologies) for personalized learning. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Digitally Connected: Global Perspectives on Youth and Digital Media
Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser, Social Science Research Network, 2015/04/09
This open (I think; it uses an SSRN redirection service) online book contains the proceedings of a conference funded by an array of charitable institutions and United Nations agencies that only an institution like Harvard can assemble. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The 60,000 Times Faster Claim Gets Dialed Back to 1982
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, 2015/04/09
Have you heard this? "We can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text?" In my own mind I would question it right away because of its overt employment of a computer metaphor to talk about cognition, which to me is prima facie questionable. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Machine Learning Algorithm Mines 16 Billion E-Mails
Press Release, MIT Technology review, 2015/04/09
I'll leave aside the question of where they got 16 billion emails and pause for a moment to ponder the implications of this: "Human e-mailing behavior is so predictable that computer scientists have created an algorithm that can calculate when an e-mail thread is about to end." More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open ends?
Brian Lamb, Abject, 2015/04/08
I answer this in the affirmative: "Would the cause of open be better served if we go further in this direction, and stop talking about 'open' as a goal and instead focus on using it as a tactic to support allies who care about authentic, engaged, accessible, sustainable, and relevant public education?" More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Gathering requirements for a student app for learning analytics
Niall Sclater, Sclater Digital, 2015/04/08
"What data and analytics should be presented directly to students?" This is the question posed by Niall Sclater in his review of a JISC workshop in London a month ago. The group was prompted with suggestions related to information provision (progress, engagement, exam times) and prompts for action (reminders, prompts, uploads). More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Inside America's Subscription-Box Obsession
Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company, 2015/04/08
One of the great things about the internet is that it's possible to find entire communities devoted to things you've never heard of. This article describes the phenomenon of subscription boxes: the idea is that for a set fee you receive a box every month or so with a selection of items around a theme. My Subscription Addiction lists hundreds, maybe thousands, of these, with reviews. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Contributions and Connections
Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/04/08
I mostly agree with Bonnie Stewart's comments in Inside Higher Ed (and note in passing that Inside Higher Ed has recently opened up its circle of authors beyond the fairly narrow political spectrum that characterized its contributions until now). More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Competency-Based Education: A Framework for Measuring Quality Courses
Jackie Krause, Laura Portolese Dias, Chris Schedler, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2015/04/08
"There are no defined standards that directly address quality of competency-based courses," write the authors. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Task Force on Academic Freedom
Ronald J. Daniels, Robert C. Lieberman, Johns Hopkins University, 2015/04/08
Johns Hopkins University last year convened a task force on academic freedom. As reported by Inside Higher Ed, "the administration is seeking feedback on the task force’s final product." It's a short document, for some reason released only as a PDF image (to prevent it from being edited? Puh-leeese). More...
