By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Building APIs for the University and the Student
David Raths, Campus Technology, 2017/04/13
Creating an API for a university system is more of a challenge than you might think. ""The inconsistency was such that if you wanted to write a mobile app that dealt with a student, it was possible you would have to deal with 25 different APIs using five different identifiers, and multiple data formats." Yeah. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A Beginner’s Guide To Progressive Web Apps
Kevin Farrugia, Smashing Magazine, 2017/04/11
I spent a good part of the day investigating progressive web apps (PWA). These are the result of a model proposed by Google back in 2015 that merges web browser applications with mobile applications. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. When Pixels Collide
sudoscript, 2017/04/10
I'm not sure what principle this illustrates - chaos, maybe, cooperation, a bit, collaboration certainly, and competition too. Here's the set-up: last weekend Reddit created a grid where members could colour one pixel at a time, but would have to wait a few minutes before colouring the next one. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How a Browser Extension Could Shake Up Academic Publishing
Lindsay McKenzie, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2017/04/10
I've started using Unpaywall, a browser extension that finds open access versions of closed access publications. For example, is a search takes me to a closed Elsevier article, Unpaywall might find the Arxiv version. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Can There Be a Microscope of the Mind?
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2017/04/17
This is a valuable post because it brings together and explains a number of elements of what we might call a cognitivist theory of mind. From where I sit, though, it brings together a lot of nonsense, and the overall theory of mind proposed here is seriously flawed. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Rise of Educational Technology as a Sociocultural and Ideological Phenomenon
D'Arcy Norman, D'Arch Norman Dot Net, 2017/04/17
D'Arcy Norman summarizes and reviews The Rise of Educational Technology as a Sociocultural and Ideological Phenomeno by George Veletsianos and Rolin Moe in EDUCAUSE, an article worth reading in its own right. The EDUCAUSE article makes three major assertions:

• The edtech phenomenon is a response to the increasing price of higher education (aka 'market-driven')
• The edtech phenomenon reflects a shift in political thought from government to free-market oversight of education (aka 'privatized')
• The edtech phenomenon is symptomatic of a view of education as a product to be packaged, automated, and delivered (aka 'commodified'). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What you’re revealing to your ISP, why a VPN isn’t enough, and ways to avoid leaking it
Benjamin Hutchins, HackerNoon, 2017/04/05
This is a long, detailed and technical post about what information your internet service provider (ISP, called 'BIAS' in this article) can gather about your internet use and sell to the government or other customers. It's written clearly, though, and it should be easy enough for most readers to follow. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Computing Conversations: Bob Metcalfe on the First Ethernet LAN
YouTube, 2017/04/05
From the description: "Computer magazine's multimedia editor Charles Severance interviews Bob Metcalfe about the creation of the first Ethernet local area network 40 years ago at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How A Former iPod Chief Built The World’s Most Advanced First-Aid Kit
Mark Sullivan, Fast Company, 2017/04/07
“Everybody is focusing on doing things in the cloud, but the place where you really control the experience is the endpoint.” I agree, and that's why I think there will be a swing back from cloud-based to local technologies (but no time soon). More...