Reflecting on Maker Experiences with Reflection Cards
Jackie Gerstein, User Generated Education, 2018/03/16
Jackie Gerstein describes a board game and set of cards she uses as a prompt to promote reflections on experiences. The game and cards pose different questions participants respond to, for example, "What new skills have you learned?" and "What surprised you the most?" I've had these tried on me in the past and struggled to explain in a public forum that the answers were "nothing" and "nothing". More...

States Issue Privacy Ultimatums to Education Technology Vendors
Stephen Noonoo, EdSurge, 2018/03/14
The main message in this article seems to be complains that it's really hard to comply with new laws protecting student data. More...

Betting 185 Million Dollars on EdTech
Victor Rivero, EdTech Digest, 2018/03/13
I found the interviewer a bit sycophantic (not not nearly as bad as I've seen on some business channels) but the conversation as a whole with Owl Ventures’ Tory Patterson is interesting and, to a degree, eye-opening. The $185 million refers to the amount of investment capital Owl raised in its second fund offering (the first was around $100 million, in 2014). More...

Review of Ethically Aligned Design
Stephen Downes, Mar 13, 2018, HCT Reading Club, Ottawa, via Jabber

In this presentation I review Ethically Aligned Design by The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, focusing on the section on classical ethics in autonomous and intelligent systems. More...

Will these four technology trends change education in India?
Shweta Sharan, LiveMint, 2018/03/12
The four technologies under discussion are virtual reality, learning communities (including MOOCs), AI tutors and big data. The four are obviously interrelated. More...

Building a Blockchain
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2018/03/12

We've all heard about blockchains, but what are they? It can be a complicated concept. The best way to learn, of course, is to roll up your sleeves and build a blockchain engine. That's what I did. More...

Propgress to Date on gRSShopper
Stephen Downes, Mar 12, 2018, OEWeek 24-Hour Web-a-thon, Online, viz Zoom

Filling in a gap in the 24 hour OER marathon I presented viewers with a quick update of where development on the gRSShopper PLE has progressed to date. More...