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By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Disentangling The Effects Of Student Attitudes and Behaviors On Academic Performance
Susan Janssen;Maureen O'Brien, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching, Learning, Jul 31, 2014

I commented the other day that a study was misleading because it didn't take into account motivation. This paper documents that effect. "Separate analyses of ability and motivation groups are conducted," write the authors. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Ethics of Big Data in Higher Education
Jeffrey Alan Johnson, International Review of Information Ethics, Jul 31, 2014

Interesting look at the effect of data mining in education (8 page PDF). The author makes the point that research based in data mining works quite differently from traditional research. I quote:

1. Data mining eschews the hypothetico-deductive process, relying instead on a strictly inductive process in which the model is developed a posteriori from the data itself. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Reclaim & Rethink
Tim Klapdor, Tim Klapdor, Jul 31, 2014

Tim Klapdor explores the concept of self, particularly with respect to identity and learning. It's a complex issue. At first blush we think we have one self, but then everyone can think of an instance when we were (if you will) "not ourselves". Klapdor explores "Jung... the anima/animus (male/female). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning technology through generations – Paper Summary
Anne Strethewey, Even Elmo's Got a Mobile, Aug 01, 2014

Overview of the development of e-learning through three 'generations' summarizing Terry Anderson and Jon Dron’s  2012 EURODL article, ‘Learning technology through three generations of technology enhanced distance education pedagogy’. My own take on the same idea is in my e-Learning Generations article, presented originally in Clare, New Brunswick. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Racy frosh event video angers Ottawa student federation
Umnattributed, CBC News, Aug 01, 2014

Every once in a while, you get a photo of a person enjoying a university social activity (such as binge drinking) with the caption "you can't do this in online learning." The implication of course is that the physical and social presence of an in-person class creates an experience that can't be duplicated off-campus. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Campus Tech 2014: Reinventing Higher Education
Tara E. Buck, Ed Tech, Jul 30, 2014

I like data as much as the next person. Probably more. But I'm fussy. And while I'm impressed by 3 billion data points in EdX, I first of all know that this is a relatively small amount of data, only a fraction of the actual reading and learning that happens online, and that it is a terribly unrepresentative sample, coming from only one platform representing only one approach. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Municipal nets, municipal electric power, and learning from history
David Weinberger, Joho the Blog, Jul 26, 2014

David Weinberger writes, "The debate over whether municipalities should be allowed to provide Internet access has been heating up. Twenty states ban it. Tom Wheeler, the chair of the FCC, has said he wants to “preempt” those laws. Congress is maneuvering to extend the ban nationwide." This is not just a U.S. issue because similar pressures exist worldwide. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Confound it! Correlation is (usually) not causation! But why not?
gwern branwen, LessWrong, Jul 27, 2014

When somebody proposes a simple mechanism to improve (say) learning outcomes, they're most always wrong. But why? It's because they have ascribed a simple cause-effect relation onto a complex phenomenon. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The real 10 algorithms that dominate our world
Marcos Otero, Medium, Jul 28, 2014

This is an interesting and alternative way of looking at how our world is structured. For people who design systems, these algorithms are second nature. Yet I would wager that they are virtually unknown to the wider public. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Talent Management Systems Market Surges Ahead
Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, Jul 28, 2014

The flip side of learning management in the corporate world is talent management. These systems are every bit as involved with learning as the systems used in colleges and universities. More...