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21 février 2020

Microcredentials: go further, faster

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microcredentials: go further, faster
FutureLearn, 2020/01/28
If you want to see the sales pitch for microcredentials, here it is (quoted):

They’re accessible... each microcredential takes place 100% online.
They’re fast... you can earn academic credits with a microcredential in a matter of weeks.
They’re prestigious... led by top academic institutions... or blue-chip employers.
They’re specialised... to identify skills gaps in specific industries.
They’re global... learning as part of a worldwide community.

And I have to say, all that's.... way over the top. It makes it soiund like you could have gotten your PhD in a few months from your living room if only it was taught using microcredentials. But microcredentials aren't - can't be - the equivalent of traditional credentials. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:18 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

In serving big company interests, copyright is in crisis

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In serving big company interests, copyright is in crisis
Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, 2020/01/27
I'm of two minds regarding this post. On the one hand I agree with Cory Doctorow that the world's copyright system is a mess. There's an ever tightening vice clamping down on the potential for innovation, competition, and even creativity. On the other hand, I don't care. Not because I am ambivalent, but quite the opposite. I see all that as their rules for their economy, but I have long ago moved past all that. I have always said I will make money in other ways, by offering services in person rather than content that needs protecting. I don't need or care about DRM in browsers in a world where content is shared. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:17 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It
Geoffrey Rockwell, Theoreti.ca, 2020/01/27
Most of us - including me - cheered when a court said we could scrape sites like LinkedIn. Now we're seeing the other side of that ruling, a site called Clearview AI that scrapes social media photographs to allow security services to search for and identify people on the basis of a photograph. As this article suggests, Clearview might represent "the end of privacy". But let's take pause. What could be wrong with a service that catches bad guys? Maybe people would behave better if they knew they would be caught. What wrong by recognizing people by their faces? After all, that's why they're on passports and drivers' licenses? Yes. More...

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21 février 2020

Teenagers’ career expectations narrowing to limited range of jobs, OECD PISA report finds

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Teenagers’ career expectations narrowing to limited range of jobs, OECD PISA report finds
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Education Research Report, 2020/01/27
I agree with the main concern here, specifically, that "“It is a concern that more young people than before appear to be picking their dream job from a small list of the most popular, traditional occupations, like teachers, lawyers or business managers." But I think we should be clear about cause and effect. The author writes, "Gender continues to exert a strong influence. Among students who score highly in the PISA tests, it is overwhelmingly boys who more often expect to work in science and engineering." No. This is not gender having an effect. It is parents and educators having an effect, based on their prejudices about gender. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:15 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

Control-F and Building Resilient Information Networks

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Control-F and Building Resilient Information Networks
Mike Caulfield, Hapgood, 2020/01/27
Mike Caulfield makes the vary salient point that teaching students about ctl-F (ie., the 'Find' command in a web browser) helps them be more digitally literate, because it helps them fact-check more efficiently. That's probably true, and a good point. But what I like about ctl-F is even a bit more subversive. When we start using ctl-F we break out of the mindset that treats content as linear, where we have to start at the beginning and work our way to the end. More...

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21 février 2020

It’s On! Direct Audio Recording into a SPLOTbox Site

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. It’s On! Direct Audio Recording into a SPLOTbox Site
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, 2020/01/27
I don't play around with Alan Levine's SPLOTs because they're tied to WordPress and I just don't have the bandwidth to involve myself in that platform. But that just me; WordPress is the go-to tool for thousands, maybe millions, worldwide. Anyhow, what we have here is something that is, well, really something. "I wondered if it was possible to put a thing right in the page to record audio and have it save to the media library," he writes. It was. Here's his demo. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:14 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

Soros gives $1bn to fund universities 'and stop drift towards authoritarianism'

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Soros gives $1bn to fund universities 'and stop drift towards authoritarianism'
Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 2020/01/24
So I guess the big news today is the announcement by George Soros that he will build "a new global network of universities designed to promote liberal values and his vision of an open society." Here is the full text of his speech. How fortunate we are to have billionaires who define public policy for us. What would make me happier? Billionaires paying their taxes. More *sigh* coverage: Fortune (naturally), Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, Times of India. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:13 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

Google Classroom rubrics and originality reports exit beta

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Google Classroom rubrics and originality reports exit beta
Abner Li, 9to5 Google, 2020/01/24
According to this report, "After entering beta last year, Google is launching new rubric and originality report tools for all G Suite for Education customers." The display shows up automatically at the side of the page while you're marking the paper. It makes me think - why can't I have a tool that just reads what I type, and lets me know who has said the same (or similar thing) before, automatically finds and inserts references, and alerts me of any reports or studies that contradict what I'm saying? Anyhow. If you don't like the way TurnItIn uses student work, and you don't want to depend on the machine, there's also Urkund's anti-plagiarism system. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:11 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

Hans Vaihinger

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hans Vaihinger
Timothy Stoll, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020/01/24
This is a great overview of a philosopher who was entirely new to me. The influence and importance of Hans Vaihinger is explained well in this article, as are his two major contributions: his two-volume interpretation of Kant (which describes the Critique of Pure Reason as a patchwork), and his Die Philosophie des Als Ob (PAO), which translates to The Philosophy of As-If. This is great stuff, worthy of a 21st century treatment. Drawing on Schopenhauer's idea that the intellect is “a mere tool in the service of the will”, Vaihinger argues that the purpose of the intellect "is therefore not “to be a copy [Abbild] of reality,” but rather “an instrument for finding our way about more easily in this world.” In other words, "the purpose of thought is “to calculate those events that occur without our intervention and to realize our impulses appropriately.” That accords well with the contemporary line of thought (with which I concur) that the brain is essentially a prediction engine. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 08:10 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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21 février 2020

Mojo Vision’s AR Contact Lenses for your Eyes

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Mojo Vision’s AR Contact Lenses for your Eyes
Emory Craig, Digital Bodies, 2020/01/22
This is another item to put under the heading of 'future technology'. Not because it's impossible - the proofs of concept are already available. But because it will still take a lot of work to finish and commercialize. The technology in question is the augmented reality (AR) contact lens - that is, a contact lens that projects computer-generated data right into your field of vision. "The first versions will include a tiny single-core ARM-based processor and an image sensor. Later versions will add an eye-tracking sensor and a communications chip. More...

Posté par pcassuto à 07:56 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

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