By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Robots won’t replace teachers because they can’t inspire us
Eric Johnson, Recode, 2016/06/27
I know a lot of people will want this to be true but it's not. I've been inspired by various people over time: John Lennon. Doug Gilmour. Neil Young. Arsinio Hall. Jose Bautista. These are my role models. These are (among others) the people who inspire me. Not one of them is a teacher. More...
01 juillet 2016
Robots won’t replace teachers because they can’t inspire us
Coursera pilots a new course format
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Coursera pilots a new course format
Coursera Blog, 2016/06/24
Coursera is launching a new format today. You will recognize it as "what we had before MOOCs". More...
Making Sense of MOOCs: New UNESCO-COL guide now available
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Making Sense of MOOCs: New UNESCO-COL guide now available
Mariana Patru, Venkataraman Balaji, Commonwealth of Learning, 2016/06/24
From the intro: "The Guide is designed to raise general awareness amongst policy makers in developing countries as to how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might address their concerns and priorities, particularly in terms of access to affordable quality higher education and preparation of secondary school leavers for academic as well as vocational education and training. More...
21st Century Credentials: Telling the Story of the Whole Student
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 21st Century Credentials: Telling the Story of the Whole Student
Cali Morrison, WCET, 2016/06/24
One of the criticisms of traditional testing and credentials is that they represent only a narrow part of a person's learning. This post summarizes a discussion by Ryan Craig, managing partner of University Ventures, who made the following points (quoted):
- We’re beyond the ‘take our word for it’ era – there is a loss of faith in the greater community about what higher education does.
- Technology has changed the game – learning is ubiquitous and is pushing higher education toward unbundling the degree. More...
Next Play for LinkedIn - an ePortfolio in every classroom
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Next Play for LinkedIn - an ePortfolio in every classroom
Kathryn Chang Barker, LinkedIn, 2016/06/24
I think you can view this article on LinkedIn without signing into LinkedIn - if not, please let me know. Kathryn Chang Barker writes, "LinkedIn can and should be in every secondary and university classroom in the world, but it needs to add one more tool – an ePortfolio." I have no doubts about the benefit of an ePortfolio - or, morewidely construed, a Personal Learning Record - but does it have to be on LinkedIn. More...
Brexit
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Brexit
Stephen Downes, Jun 24, 2016.
I understand the feelings of the people who voted in favour of the Brexit. They are Europe's Americans. The situation of the UK and Europe is in many ways the inverse of Canada and the U.S. More...
Part 2: Draining the Semantic Swamp of “Personalized Learning” : A View from Silicon Valley Larry
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Part 2: Draining the Semantic Swamp of “Personalized Learning” : A View from Silicon Valley
Larry Cuban, Larry Cuban on School Reform, Classroom Practice, 2016/06/23
Continuing from Part One, covered here earlier this week, Larry Cuban continues his exploration of “personalized learning spectrum,” as anchored in the tangled history of school reform (he says) and now subject to more recent developments. More...
Of OER and Free Riders
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Of OER and Free Riders
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, 2016/06/23
David Annand writes, "Incentives need to discourage ‘free-riders’. Otherwise, a valid competitive strategy for institutions... would be to wait and merely use without cost the OER resources produced by others." Heather Ross asks, "Is the idea of 'free-riders' really a concern in OER?" David Wiley replies with an emphatic "no" and then, more usefully, takes Annand to task for his presumed model of OER production. More...
Work Changes Culture
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Work Changes Culture
Simon Terry, 2016/06/23
Nothing is more true than this. "Work changes culture, not words.... Creating new value requires people to do more than communicate. They must work in new ways." Simon Terry is talking about the future of work, but I'm thinking of work more generically, in the sense of taking action rather than merely thinking about it or talking about it. More...
Examining ethical and privacy issues surrounding learning analytics
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Examining ethical and privacy issues surrounding learning analytics
Tony Bates, online learning and distance education resources, 2016/06/23
Tony Bates reviews Drachsler, H. et al. (2016) Is Privacy a Show-stopper for Learning Analytics? A Review of Current Issues and Their Solutions Learning Analytics Review. The problem stems when individuals who provide data "are unable to specify who has access to the data, and for what purpose, and may not be confident that the changes to the education system which result from learning analytics will be desirable." My own response has been to focus on personal analytics, but this has been a hard sell. More...
