21 février 2019

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Study: It only takes a few seconds for bots to spread misinformation
Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 2018/11/23
According to a new study, it can take seconds for Twitter to spread false news across the internet. But in addition, the study also examined "the critical role played by so-called 'influencers:' celebrities and others with large Twitter followings who can contribute to the spread of bad information via retweets." The bots get the ball rolling, but the influencers finish the job. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Autonomy and Identity
Les Green, Semper Veridis, 2018/11/23
Short post on how autonomy and identity go hand in hand. I've argued for autonomy in the past as a core element of successful networks, and it's not hard to see why: "its value lies in creating lives for ourselves, in making up identities, in choosing and pursuing ‘conceptions of the good’." But what about cases where identity is determined by nature - whether my DNA says I'm Irish or English, for example. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Misleading on Fair Dealing
Michael Geist, 2018/11/23
Michael Geist is up to part five in a landmark series on how the publication industry has been misleading lawmakers about the state of educational publishing in this country. He covers:

• the legal effect of the 2012 reforms 
• the wildly exaggerated suggestion of 600 million uncompensated copies each year.
• the significant decline in book copying as part of coursepack materials
• the gradual abandonment of print coursepacks in favour of digital course management systems (CMS)
• the massive education investment in and shift to e-book licensing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOC S trategies of European Institutions
Lizzie Konings, Darco Jansen, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, 2018/11/21
This is from last year, but I only just found it, and it remains relevant today. It's the results (71 page PDF) of a questionaire of European higher education institutes (HEI) on their approaches to MOOCs. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The End of Trust
McSweeney, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2018/11/21
This all-nonfiction issue of McSweeney’s "is a collection of essays and interviews focusing on issues related to technology, privacy, and surveillance." It's is available as a free download (344 page PDF). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Unbundling and Rebundling Higher Education in an Age of Inequality
Laura Czerniewicz, EDUCAUSE Review, 2018/11/21
Doug Belshaw today reminded me to go back and look at this article from October (I subscribe to EDUCAUSE feeds and newsletters but still manage to miss articles) on the concept onbundling and rebundling education. Laura Czerniewicz based the unbundling on Michael Staton's Disaggregating the Components of a College Degreethough of course there are many ways to unbundle. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The value of where you earned your PhD
Christine Daigle, University Affairs, 2018/11/21
This article poses the question, "Why do hiring committees appear to favour graduates from big-league universities?" It's the "wow factor", writes Christine Daigle, and it should be ignored. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Journal Retracts 29 Articles, Explaining Little
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 2018/11/21
An IEEE Journal is retracting 29 articles published over the last two years over what appears to be editorial board impropriety. But it is not announcing which articles it is retracting. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Forget movie villains—it’s the “good” superheroes that are the most violent
Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 2018/11/21
Watching Infinity War I found myself rooting for Thanos against the superheroes trying to stop him. Sure, he was trying to wipe out half the universe, but this paled against the wanton violence of the superheroes. Statistics back me up. "According to a new study, the 'good guys' are actually significantly more violent than the antagonists they're trying to stop." I'm certainly left wondering about their priorities and their methods when I watch a superhero movie. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Practice-Informed Learning: The Rise of the Dual Professional
GuildHE, 2018/11/21
This report (64 page PDF) examines practice-informed learning, defined as "encompassing any situations where expertise from industry is brought into the classroom to inform teaching practice, or where more hands-on learning is taken out into professional settings." It offers a quick overview, notes benefits to students ("up-to-date understanding of their chosen field", "opportunities to begin to develop professional networks"), then offers the 19 case studies that constitute the bulk of the report. More...