By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A 2016 Look at the Future of Online Learning
Contact North, 2016/03/04

I suppose this two-page set of outlooks on the future of online learning (17 page PDF with both parts) is good so far as it goes, but I don't think it goes deep enough. This first part looks at technological and structural changes to online learning and is the stronger of the two. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The 2016 Look At The Future Of Online Learning
Stephen Downes, Mar 04, 2016.

When I was in university the predominate ethos was that we the faculty are the university. The reference in this recommendation to 'the faculty' in the third person is telling. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Tau Manifesto
Michael Hartl, 2016/03/15

OK, I'm no mathematician. But this article has me convinced. "Pi (π) is a pedagogical disaster. Try explaining to a twelve-year-old (or to a thirty-year-old) why the angle measure for an eighth of a circle—one slice of pizza—is π/8. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Student Engagement
Kelly Christopherson, The Synapse, 2016/03/15

Interestimng discussion of student engagement. "Are we preparing students for today? Are we engaging them in a discussion about what is happening in the present? Too often the mantra is “Prepare for the Future”. In some respects, today isn’t even close to what I thought it was going to be 10 years ago. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Virtual Worlds on the Go
Stephen Downes, Mar 13, 2016, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education, Online, via AvaCon

In this presentation I speculate about the future of virtual worlds in learning when they are mixed with mobile devices and performance support systems. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Claims of EdTech (supposedly backed by research)
George Veletsianos, 2016/03/10

George Veletsianos points to an email that "paints a direct and unequivocal relationship between edtech use and outcomes.: 'use of educational technology resulted in.'" But, he says, "That's not actually the case." In the actual reserach, there were some differences in outcomes, but they weren't statistically significant. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. STEP Conference 2016 Keynote 1 Janie McManus – Attainment and Improvement
Janie McManus, EDUtalk, 2016/03/10

I listened to this talk on Ed Radio from the STEP (Scottish Teachers for Enhancing Practice) conference last week on the drive in this morning. Janie McManus is an engaging speaker who spoke on meeting the two challenges in Scottish education, excellence, and (especially) equity. Meeting these requires the continuous engagement and improvement by all staff in the system, she said. And in meeting these objectives, you should ask:

• How well are you doing
• How do you know
• What can you learn from others

I've often said that learning is composed of practice and reflection. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canada joins network to improve the international exchange of student data
Becky Rynor, University Affairs, 2016/03/10
This is a good thing though it still seems so terribly ad hoc. The national work has been done: "The Groningen Declaration Network on Digital Student Data Portability (more), formed in 2012, aims to modernize and improve the international exchange of transcripts, diplomas and applications by creating digital hubs and networks between academic institutions and other organizations worldwide. Canada became a signatory to the declaration in May 2015." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Good scientist or successful academic? You can't be both
Xenia Schmalz, Times Higher Education, 2016/03/08
I can't say I have any disagreement with this chart either. As the author says, "I find it interesting to find and connect puzzle pieces that make up a bigger picture of how the world works. Engaging in practices that are currently required in order to be a successful scientist goes directly against this ideal. In other words, when I chose my career, I did not want to play a dirty game of selling myself, sucking up to the right people, and publishing results that I don’t even believe in myself." More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Stop Innovating In Schools
Will Richardson, Medium, 2016/03/08

What Will Richardson means, of course, is that instead of constantly focusing on teachers, we should invest in learners. "The vast majority of “innovation” I’ve seen in my visits to schools around the world doesn’t amount to much change at all in the area where we need it most: using those new methods, ideas, or products to shift agency for learning to the learner." More...