By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. New Message Manual to Improve and Create Consistent Communications in Education
Alesha Bishop, Getting Smart, 2019/01/29
According to this article, the Hewlett Foundation recently released Communicating a Shared Vision for Students and Education. I'm always wary of a 'shared vision' because in my experience there is no such thing. I'm also wary because this guide doesn't seem to be available online. The research for the document was gathered in documents by Hattaway Communication, including this one from 2017, and this one and this one from 2018. The documents are interesting because they give us a look behind the scenes of how a foundation's media messages are crafted. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. VR cameras on the space station for your virtual spacewalk
Emory Craig, Digital Bodies, 2019/01/29
OK, I admit, I'm linking to this because I love the idea of a virtual spacewalk and I want to try it as soon as I can! That said, reading through the article naturally brings to mind additional thoughts. Like: what if I want to move? How would they handle that? In space, you could move in a full 360x360 degree sphere of directions, presumable with some simple jet-pack controls (one of the reasons I like No Man's Sky so much is that it really allows you to move freely and fluidly through the environment). But capturing the video for this kind of movement would create a crazy amount of data! I imagine we would scale up to is, and full-motion VR would be quantified by some sort of 3d movement resolution scale. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Getting Found, Staying Found
Public Knowledge Project, 2019/01/29
This is a document published by the Public Knowledge Project (who make Open Journal Systems) to help open access journals publicize themselves. Of course, a lot of the advice is relevant for other open access projects in general. A note on navigation: it isn't obvious when you go to the document - there's no 'next page' or anything like that. I spend several minutes looking for the link to download the document before I realized that the menu on the left hand side is your only navigation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Podcasting Can Work in Any Subject
John Spencer, 2019/01/29
What makes this post work is that it not only extols the virtues of podcasting and explains how it can help develop skills across a number of disciplines, it also spends a lot of time suggesting really good and grade-appropriate podcasting project ideas for students from grades 3 to 12. Actually, a lot of these would be good podcasting ideas for adults as well. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Florida School Tests AI as Virtual Tutor for Online Course
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2019/01/29
This article is a rewrite of a press release issued a few days ago from Cognii about a trial of an AI system at Florida International University that "can automatically grade students' open-response (short essay) answers and extract rich pedagogical insights and analytics to improve faculty members' productivity." There's no reference or indication of progress from Cognii's 2016 trial at Colorado State University. Of course, the real value of such a system is to help students themselves write better essays (though I'm not sure whether using an AI to assess your essay before submission would count as cheating). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Study on Driverless-Car Ethics Offers a Troubling Look Into Our Values
Caroline Lester, The New Yorker, 2019/01/28
I continue to believe we should not look to actual human behaviour for ethical guidance with respect to automation and artificial intelligence. This study underlines my concerns. Drivers faced with critical decisions would make snap value judgements about who they hit (preferring, say, to hit fat people, or homeless people). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Can’t the World’s Greatest Minds Solve the Mystery of Consciousness?
Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, 2019/01/28
This is generally a good article providing an overview of the contribution of David Chalmers to the consciousness debate. I like the way Chalmers frames the question as "the hard problem". Consciousness is not the sort of thing we can understand by understanding the physical mechanisms that produce it, it seems. But I disagree with the artticle's suggestion that the debate has only recently emerged. The problem of consciousness periodically produces some of the best work in philosophy, such as Thomas Nagel's What is it Like to be a Bat? For those interested in my own position on consciousness, you can always read my paper on the subject here. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Supporting a Connected Galaxy of Knowledge
Gaby Appleton, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2019/01/28
This post outlines four principles which ought to characterize the knowledge infrastructure in the future (quoted):

1. the information system supporting research must be source-neutral.
2. components from different providers in the information system supporting research should work together.
3. transparency... researchers want to know how that recommendation was arrived at, and why it is relevant to them.
4. we must put researchers in control. People should be able to set their own preferences and parameters.

Right now, we don't have this anywhere. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Patreon and Twitter are right about freedom of speech
Ben Werdmuller, 2019/01/28
I think this is a truism that people would do well to keep in mind: "The mechanisms and legal machinations of freedom of speech aside, any community that allows intolerance to flourish will in itself become intolerant. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Trends in e-Learning and Virtual Education
Stephen Downes, Jan 28, 2019, 7 Internacional e-Learning Seminar, Online, via Zoom
I outline a number of major recent technological trends in e-learning and virtual education, including the use of artificial intelligence and learning analytics, blockchain technology for resources and recognition, and virtual and augmented reality for immersive experiences. I draw examples from corporate, university, and elementary education development projects and implementations. These in turn inform the discussion of wider trends in pedagogy and curriculum, including new critical literacies, community network development and management, and personal learning management and support. [Link] [Slides] [Audio]. More...