University to monitor student social media to gauge well-being
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. University to monitor student social media to gauge well-being
Richard Vaughan, iNews, 2017/04/18
This is a couple of weeks old but I don't want to let it pass without comment. The interesting thing here isn't that the school is using analytics to help students succeed - this is becoming common - but rather that they are drawing content not only from the LMS but also from social network. More...
Putting data in the hands of students
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Putting data in the hands of students
Timothy Harfield, Blackboard Blog, 2017/04/18
This is a key point: "Largely absent from mainstream conversations about educational data and student success is a consideration of the role of the student as a learner." It's not surprising to research underline the importance of this. More...
University of California researchers make lithium ion batteries last five to ten times longer
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. University of California researchers make lithium ion batteries last five to ten times longer
Jayson MacLean, CanTech Letter, 2017/04/18
Because of concerns about the availability of lithium I am not sanguine about this technology in general for the long term. I expect carbon (and more specifically, graphene) to offer a long-term solution. More...
Of Progress, Problems, and Partnerships
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Of Progress, Problems, and Partnerships
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, 2017/04/18
So we know now why students will have to pay for Lumen learning's new 'open' educational resources. More...
Build a Custom Serverless CMS: Part 2
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Build a Custom Serverless CMS: Part 2
John Polacek, CSS-Tricks, 2017/03/08
The second part of this series is now available (I covered the first part here) and it directly relates to some of what I will be talking about tomorrow. More...
For Young People, News Is Mobile, Social, and Hard to Trust, Studies Find
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. For Young People, News Is Mobile, Social, and Hard to Trust, Studies Find
Benjamin Herold, Education Week, 2017/03/08
I recently covered the Shattered Mirror report, which suggests (among other things) that young readers still trust media. More...
OntarioLearn: 24 Public Colleges in Ontario Collaborate
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. OntarioLearn: 24 Public Colleges in Ontario Collaborate
Tracie Marsh-Fior, TeachOnline.ca, 2017/03/08
OntarioLearn "is a consortium of Ontario’s 24 public colleges who partner to share more than 1,200 online courses and several online programs to make them accessible to students across the province and beyond. More...
Interested in Teaching Online?
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Interested in Teaching Online?
Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching, Learning (COTE), 2017/03/08
Introduced today at the SUNY COTE 2017 conference I'm attending. More...
Foreign enrolment surging in China
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Foreign enrolment surging in China
ICEF Monitor, 2017/03/08
It used to be the case that students left China to study abroad. This continues, but a new trend is that students are traveling to China to study. More...
Build a talking, face-recognizing doorbell for about $100
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Build a talking, face-recognizing doorbell for about $100
Lukas Biewald, O'Reilly, 2017/03/16
Even if (like me) you don't have the time and space in your life to construct one of these, just reading the article is enough to give you inspiration. It also gives you a 20-20 glimpse into the future. More...