On Listing Education Innovators and Intellectuals
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, January 10, 2014
Audrey Watters takes down (quite rightly, I feel) the lists of 'influential' people in education that have appeared recently. "Frankly," she writes, "I think all 3 of these lists – Byers’ list, Forbes’ list, Hess’s list – are connected to this machinery. More...
KaaS – a New Way of Sharing Knowledge and Experiences
Kenneth OE Sundin, WIFL, January 10, 2014
I think there is merit to this suggestion, but the details could use a lot more description. For example, when we say 'knowledge as a service', what do we mean by 'knowledge'? Does a Wikipedia article count? A Google search? Wolfram Aplha. More...
Is Massive Open Online Research the Next Frontier for Education?
Doug Ramsey, Jacobs School of Engineering, January 10, 2014
'MOOR' stands for 'Massive Open Online Research' and is the latest in the list of MOOC-inspired algorithms. In this case, a MOOR is a natural (especially for a cMOOC), as the idea of research is to develop new knowledge, and a network environment is just the environment to do that. More...
It's “Nerve-racking”! Getting our Storytellers Offline (and Back On Again)
Laura Morris, Rising Voices, January 10, 2014
This is an interesting course run in association with Global Voices. "Transom is an online resource for storytellers, mostly audio-based but delving into the world of visual digital media as well. They recent put on a six-week online workshop – based entirely on Facebook – with several Rising Voices writers participating." Not everybody was happy participating via Facebook. More...
The architecture of our open textbook site
Clint Lalonde, ClintLalonde.net, January 10, 2014
There's some good thinking behind this architecture connectiong several different systems - WordPress, LimeSurvey, Equella - to support an open textbook project. More...
MIght There Finally Be Karma for Comment Spammers and SEO Game Players?
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, January 10, 2014
Some of the images in this post are over the top, but I share Alan Levine's experiences with spammers (every day I delete comments designed only to pollute my pages with SEO) and I share his sentiments. I'm also pleased he reads the Awl (a lot of content, but just off the mainstream enough to be interetsing) which reports that the golden age of SEO may be over. More...
Education indicators in Canada: An international perspective, 2013
Press Release, Statistics Canada, January 9, 2014
This is a useful counterpoint to the picture provided by the PISA studies. It focuses on the percentage of the population with access to an education, and some of the benefits that result from that education. And by those measures the situation in Canada is very good (though with room for improvement). More...
DIY College Metrics
Leslie Madsen-Brooks, The Clutter Museum, January 9, 2014
This really is a terrific post, filled with some really solid analysis (though the football player brain images were over the top). Like this, for example: "for every 100 first-time, degree-seeking undergraduates that begin their college careers at Boise State, 93 won’t graduate from that university in four years–and 71 won’t graduate within six." Makes you think twice about paying tuition. More...
Serendipity Without Stacks
Chloe Horning, ACRLog, January 7, 2014
I too remember the phrase "serendipity of the stacks", and on those occasions I browsed through a library I would experience it (that's how I discovered Nicholas Rescher)(but generally I kept my library visits goal-oriented and brief, because the dust on all the untouched books gave me headaches). More...
12.13.13
Karl Fisch, The Fischbowl, January 7, 2014
Karl Fisch, who will be well known to readers of this newsletter, teaches at Arapahoe High School where late last year a gunman killed a student before killing himself. This post is a detailed description of the event from his own perspective, with a remarkable clarity of recollection. It's interesting how many times he refers to his training for such situations. More...
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