How three disruptive technologies can work together to change the world as we know it
K.R. Sanjiv, ReadWrite, 2018/06/20
I think this basic proposition is correct: "In the digital journey, AI, IoT, and VR are all significant levers to redefine processes for both businesses and consumers. But it’s the combination of the three that will be the most disruptive." The acronyms stand for artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and virtual reality (VR). The question is, how will they be combined. More...

Annulab Debuts The First Learning Record Store (LRS) Plugin For Moodle
Moodle News, 2018/06/19
It's hard to believe this is only happening now - the first reference to xAPI in OLDaily was more than five years ago - but we now have a learning record store (LRS) plugin for Moodle. More...

EdTech is Driving Me Crazy, Too
Will Richardson, Modern Learners, 2018/06/19
The actual tl;dr for this post is probably something like: "Purveyors of ed tech are jumping whole hog on the socio-emotional learning bandwagon, but what if we attacked the mental health issues our kids are experiencing through a different lens, one that starts with the premise that we’re the ones that are broken, not the kids?" It's a good point. More...

https://github.com/o1lab/xmysql
GitHub, 2018/06/18
I'd rather have a jmysql - a one line JSON api. But still, this is a pretty cool concept. "Generating REST APIs for a MySql database which does not follow conventions of frameworks such as rails, django, laravel etc is a small adventure that one like to avoid .. Hence this." More...

Propositional Content in Signals
Jeffrey A. Barrett, Brian Skyrms, UCI School of Social Sciences, 2018/06/15
I cut my teeth on Choice and Chance by Bryan Skyrms, so I was naturally interested in this article on information and meaning. It's nice and clear and will give the reader a good sense of some of the issues involved in determining the informational content of a signal (and especially the informational content of a signal when the signaler is lying or deceiving). More...

EdX Begins Testing a Paywall
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2018/06/13
The problem with certain models of education is that they require commercial sustainability. Thus with EdX. "EdX has been struggling to figure out how to support its work ever since Harvard University and MIT first opened it for learning in 2012." I don't know how EdX burned through an initial startup of $60 million (by contrasts, the cMOOC initiative burned through $4.95). More...

WITHIN creates distribution platform using WebVR
Judy DeMocker, The Mozilla Blog, 2018/06/13
It's still a novelty but we might be seeing much more virtual reality (VR) on the web soon using tech standards WebGL and WebAssembly. This is something that has been coming for some time with the development of the WebVR standards and the WebVR API. The experience will work with web browsers (I tested it with updated versions of Firefox, Chrome (which worked) and Internet Explorer (which didn't)) and also with VR headsets. More...

Models for online, open, flexible and technology enhanced higher education across the globe – a comparative analysis
Dominic Orr, Martin Weller, Rob Farrow, International Council for Open and Distance Education, 2018/06/12
This large report (65 page PDF) is a survey of what the authors are calling OOFAT - 'online, open, flexible and technology enhanced' resources. The unwieldy acronym should perhaps be seen as a warning. The authors define an 'OOFAT Model' combining content, deliver and recognition. Then by evaluating them along two dimensions - organizational flexibility and procedural openness - they created six 'OOFAT Types', which I won't list here. More...

Southern New Hampshire U Issues Blockchain Credentials to College for America Grads
Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, 2018/06/11
"SNHU partnered with Learning Machine for its digital diploma project; the software company co-developed Blockcerts with the MIT Media Lab in 2016." I'm seeing quite a bit more of this sort of thing, though I have to say I think that digital certificates are the least interesting application of these new technologies to online learning. More...

The Second Annual Podcast Revenue Study by IAB and PwC
Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2018/06/11
Podcasting started in 2003 (which was when I launched Ed Radio) or 2004 and became popular, then disappeared, and now is a global industry worth some $313 million. This rep[ort (20 page PDF) looks mostly at revenue models (especially advertising) but still offers a broad outline of podcasting trends generally. More...