By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How user comments got ruined—and what to do about it
Steven Waldman, Columbia Journalism Review, 2016/10/06
I took the test and discovered I would have rejected all five of the comments (they would have allowed three). Of course I've never really had the fine-line judgements to make on my own site. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. YANSS 086 – Change My View
David McRaney, You Are Not So Smart, 2016/10/12

This podcast discusses an experiment whereby the history of discussions was run through natural language analytics. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. You are almost definitely not living in reality because your brain doesn’t want you to
Buster Benson, Quartz, 2016/10/14
Good article listing sources of cognitive bias (always an interest of mine). Numerous links. "In order to avoid drowning in information overload, our brains need to skim and filter insane amounts of information...

1. Information overload sucks, so we aggressively filter.
2. Lack of meaning is confusing, so we fill in the gaps.
3. We need to act fast lest we lose our chance, so we jump to conclusions.
4. This isn’t getting easier, so we try to remember the important bits. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. So You Want to Learn Physics...
Susan J. Fowler, 2016/10/18
This is an outline of a physics curriculum from first year to graduate studies. It's useful in its own right, but it makes me wonder whether someone could use something like this to actually learn physics. Yes, they would have to be very motivated, persistent, and have a lot of time. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Equity, Resilience, and Achievements in High Performing Asian Education Systems
Wing-On Lee, Chenri Hui, Low Ee Ling, Frontiers of Education in China, 2016/10/18
Many of the leaders in recent PISA and other academic tests have been from east Asian countries. Why? This month's special issue of Frontiers of Education in China explores the quantitative results with a set of (mostly) qualitative studies. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Contextual Cognition in Social Simulation
Bruce Edmonds, Context in Computing, 2016/10/04

I have mentioned context a lot over the years and never taken the time to discuss it properly. This chapter (22 page PDF) is far from a complete discussion but offers a good first look. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Postsecondary Success Advocacy Priorities
Gates Foundation, 2016/10/03

The Gates Foundation has announced (22 page PDF) the positions it will advocate (and presumably fund) for 2016. It's focused on the U.S. college and university system and stresses the development of networks supporting personal paths for students. More...