By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Nothing will change until you start building.
Jonathan Z. White, Free Code Camp, Medium, 2017/04/03
I was at an IMS meeting ages ago and someone said to me, "Quality ships." I've never let that statement go. It doesn't matter how great your ideas are, if you don't make something out of them, they may as well not exist. "Start by building. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thoughts on the UMUC IT Spin Off
Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, 2017/03/23
This article offers reflections on a recent University of Maryland University College (UMUC) initiative to spin off its IT department into a for-profit company. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. This Article Won’t Change Your Mind
Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 2017/03/23
Some time about 20 years ago I decided that i would stop arguing, and start explaining. It was no longer about convincing others, it was about making my own reasoning clear. Why? because after almost two decades in philosophy I concluded that nobody is convinced by argumentation. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why we never think alone
David Gurteen, Gurteen Knowledge-Log, 2017/04/06
This short post is a restatement of something from Steven Sloman that has appeared numerous times in these pages over the years: "Humans have built hugely complex societies and technologies, but most of us don't even know how a pen or a toilet works. How have we achieved so much despite understanding so little? Because whilst individuals know very little, the collective or ‘hive' mind knows a lot.". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained
Helen Pluckrose, Aero Magazine, 2017/04/06
I am more or less a post-modernist, though I arrived at my understanding of the core ideas independently of the authors cited in this article (though on reading them find myself nodding in agreement). So I appreciate this clear and articulate description of postmodernism, and the argument offered against it. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Education is Changing—It’s Time Assessment Caught Up
Esther Care, Alvin Vista, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2017/03/28
This is a lightweight article touting the benefits of adaptive testing "where, based on a student response to one test item, that student was presented with another item, appropriately targeted so that the student’s response would provide more information about his or her range of understanding.". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The three exclamation point problem
timoni west, Product Matters, Medium, 2017/03/28
The best way to create a bias against a group is to normalize a behaviour that others can't, or won't, conform to. American digerati have perfected this in the form of casual profanity in writing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Lumen and Follett: Canary in the Curricular Materials Coal Mine?
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2017/04/19

Michael Feldstein offers a slanted perspective on the discussion around Lumen Learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Are ‘machine values’ replacing our principles?
Angie Hunt, Futurity, 2017/04/19
This is an interesting way of phrasing the dilemma we seem to be in today: “We are losing empathy, compassion, truth-telling, fairness, and responsibility and replacing them with all these machine values,” Bugeja says. More...