How To Think
Shane Parrish, Farnham Street, March 17, 2014
Doug Belshaw shared this piece over the weekend and while I think it's an inspirational story I think that it's misleading in a fairly pernicious way. In a nutshell, the basis of the story lies in describing the methods used by an inner-city school with poor and minority students to create chess champions out of them; all the other champion schools, we are informed, are private or elite school. More...
Serious Elearning Manifesto
Michael Allen, March 17, 2014
For those who waited with bated breath for the release of the 'Serious E-Learning manifesto' and then (like me) missed the carefully timed launch because they were doing other things, well, here it is, fresh from last Friday. More...
Instructivism, constructivism or connectivism?
Ryan Tracey, E-Learning Provocateur, March 21, 2014
I think this is a really good post even if I disagree with it. The premise is that while popular perception sees constructivism as replacing instructivism, and connectivism as replacing constructivism, in reality each of them has its place, and they should be viewed as complementary approaches rather than in conflict. So why do I disagree? Because while as pedagogies it is easy to imagine them being alternated, as theories they contradict each other. More...
Journeys of the Mind: Yes, We Went to the Moon
Bonnie Bracey Sutton, educational technology & change, March 13, 2014
I watched what I assume was the first episode of the New Cosmos series with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and had the usual reaction for people my age to the effect that he is not Carl Sagan. More...
Does teaching presence matter in a MOOC?
Terry Anderson, Virtual Canuck, March 13, 2014
Terry Anderson reports on a studty of a Coursera MOOC showing "that teacher presence had no significant relation to course completion, most badges awarded, intent to register in subsequent MOOCs or course satisfaction." This may concern teachers, but one of the aims of the MOOCs we've designed is to support presence with student-student interaction. More...
The Red Herring of Big Data
Brian Croxall, March 13, 2014
I can summarize the centrakl argument about big data offered in this essay very easily:
But this doesn't really do it justice. It's not simply that data need interpretation, it is rather that sometimes the data suggest an interpretation, sometimes we bring our own interpretation to the party, and sometimes there just isn't an interpretaion to be had. More...
My Take on the Proposed 5th R of Openness
Darren Draper, Drape's Takes, March 13, 2014
Darren Draper offers a reasonable take on what out to be a fifth 'R' of openness: 'Retain'. Maybe this is what's needed - or maybe what's needed is actual ownership of the digital things we access and use. More...
University education, like love, cannot simply be moved online
Sky Gilbert, Globe, Mail, March 11, 2014
The funny thing about this article is that the author does not seem to know just how much of the average love life has moved online, from dating and flirting, getting to know each other, and even day-to-day conversation. Yes, there is the in-person aspect, without which love just wouldn't be the same. But the difference between love in person and education in person is this: we would feel funny paying highly specialized individuals $150K a year to satisfy aspects of our live life. More...
Wincton City
Beverly Leeds, University of Central Lancashire, March 11, 2014
Fropm a presentation at INTED 2014 today in Valencia - "It is a web-based learning resource modelled on a real UK high street community provided for academic staff and students or others to use. It aims to meet the needs of a range of subject areas in Business Education by simulating the complexities of modern organisations within local communities with many interdependent and inter-related functions and processes." The city is composed of OERs, and the information supports various student activities. More...
Goodbye One Laptop per Child
Wayan Vota, OLPC News, March 11, 2014
OLPC news plays the eulogy. "The XO-1 laptop is history. Sadly, so is Sugar. Once the flagship of OLPC's creativity in redrawing the human-computer interaction, few are coding for it and new XO variants are mostly Android/Gnome+Fedora dual boots. Finally, OLPC Boston is completely gone. No staff, no consultants, not even a physical office. Nicholas Negroponte long ago moved onto the global literacy X-Prize project." Not a noble end. More...
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