Amérique

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. College Grads Sell Stakes in Themselves to Wall Street
Claire Boston, Bloomberg, 2019/04/09
This might seem like a really good idea - until you work through the consequences. The idea is that aspiring college students sell stakes in their future earnings on something like a student stock market. “I envision a whole new equity market for higher education in the next five years where today there’s only debt,” says Chuck Trafton, who runs a hedge fund. Ah, but I can see the problems already. Not all students will be able to sell options - and the ones declined will be the usual set of minorities and less affluent students. As well, when companies sell stock, they assume a fiduciary responsibility to prioritize earnings - will the same apply to graduates? Will the options be traded? Will there be scams and insider trading. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Think tanks fill an important niche within Canada’s public policy landscape
Mark Cardwell, University Affairs, 2019/04/11
I disagree with the sentiment expressed in the headline for two reasons. First, many of Canada's think tanks are what Guillaume Lamy calls "combat think tanks", meaning they "defend or advocate on behalf of ideologies and policies outside the political system." And they do this using illegitimate or very questionable research. And second, they “are highly adept at getting their messages heard in today’s crowded ideas marketplace.” Depending on private fundraising from special interest groups, they essentially shout down more legitimate perspectives, placing columns in newspapers, filling all the slots for media interviews, and thereby defining conversations they have no business being in. It's worth noting that news media are their willing accomplices as they turn to the think tanks for an easy headline rather than doing the work of interviewing serious academics, researchers and scientists. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Attack on Canada’s Schools
Grant Frost, frostededucation, 2020/01/28
Canada has had for many years one of the best school systems in the world. This is not just opinion; it's a statement that is proven in test after test. However, as Grant Frost notes, "from coast to coast, regardless of province or political affiliation, our public education system is in turmoil, driven by a strikingly similar  'Our schools are failing' rhetoric." Why? He argues, and I agree, that "our public education system, from coast to coast, is embroiled in a fight for its very life." I also think that collective bargaining itself is also under attack, as Doug Peterson suggests. And the motivation is money - the money that could be made by privatizing schools, the money that could be made by plundering teachers' pension plans. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In Defense of Knowledge and Higher Education
American Association of University Professors, 2020/01/20
The Americal Asssociation of University Professors has published an interesting, if possibly controversial, statement in defense of knowledge (or, as I would cat it after reading it, in defense of experts). But as Dave Cormier says in a recent podcast, universities are not the exclusive domain of knowledge any more, and for (almost) any fact, you can find someone equally educated who will disagree with that fact. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. U.S. Appellate Court Enforces CC’s Interpretation of NonCommercial
Diane Peters, Creative Commons, 2020/01/08
This seems reasonable to me. A U.S. court has decided to allow "bona fide noncommercial reusers to hire out the making of copies of NC-licensed content, even to profit-making businesses such as Office Depot and FedEx Office." Any other interpretation of the non-commercial (NC) clause would be unreasonable. "After all, entities must act through employees, contractors, and agents as a necessity." So you can pay a student to make copies of a CC resource, or you can take it to the print shop and pay them to do it. Whatever. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. American Students and Science
In the local bookstore - Chapters - in the science section, as of yesterday (when I checked) there were more titles containing the word 'God' in the science section than anything else. This is a recent thing trend that has been accelerating after their takeover by Indigo, a chain with what appears to be an agenda. I have no opposition to the discussion of religion and theology - I took a dozen or so religious studies courses in university. But the confusion of religion with science helps neither field. All this to lead to what I think is Chris Lehmann's best sentence of the year: "This is a crazy thought, I know.... but perhaps American students will do better internationally on the science tests when we start allowing our teachers to, you know, teach science." Couldn't agree more. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Medellin, Colombia

Photos from Medellin are now available, as well as photos from EduCamp Colombia and my stopover in New York. Enjoy.
I'm still running behind in my coverage and may add an extra issue over the weekend to catch up on some good stuff. But for now, I'm going to listen to science radio.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Moveable Type is going open source. Woo hoo! See also Miguel Guhlin on this. Stephen Downes, Flickr December 14, 2007 [Link] [Tags: Flickr]. More...