By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A compulsive audience and a complicit news media
Danny Funt, Columbia Journalism Review, 2016/08/12
We can blame social media for society's ills (including those caused by social media) but I wonder whether this isn't the case. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. National Student Survey 2016: overall satisfaction results
Carly Minsky, Times Higher Education, 2016/08/10
Why would an agency spend so much money on a flawed survey? Here's the gist: "about 312,000 final-year students from 155 institutions responded to the survey." All very nice. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to (seriously) read a scientific paper
Elisabeth Pain, Science, 2016/08/10
This is not a how-to article as the title suggests but rather a collection of dozens of short comments describing how various people - ranging from students to professors to editors - read scientific papers. There's a lot in common across the different accounts. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. With $3.2M Series A, Viridis Aims to Connect Community College Students and Employers
Tony Wan, EdSurge, 2016/08/10
I've been talking for a while now about how future students will receive jobs offers or contracts as recognition for their learning, as opposed to badges or certificates. The LPSS program was looking at this last year. Now it looks like the commercial opportunity has been seized. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Investigating the Potential of Blockchains
Open University, 2016/08/10
This is a very clearly written description of blockchain technology and how it can be used in education. It mostly quotes from John Domingue, director of the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions
Andreia Inamorato dos Santos;Yves Punie;Jonatan Castaño Muñoz, European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2016/08/10
This publication (78 page PDF) is the "final outcome of the OpenEdu project". The document rolls up results from a number of studies, including MOOCknowledge, OpenCred, and OpenSurvey. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Peer production in an integral and intersubjective framework
Michel Bauwens, Integral World, 2016/08/10

There's a lot that's interesting in this paper and yet I think the most interesting work is in the first section where P2P (peer-to-peer) is defined. In the second section and thereafter we get into a type of metaphysics that doesn't interest me (but is of great interest to critical theorists). Just more taxonomy. But learning, inference and discovery are not states, as a taxonomic approach would suggest; they are processes. The third section looks at "intersubjective modes", which is more interesting, but I find it conflates between markets, which require a measurement system, and networks, in which only structure is important (there's a bit of a back and forth on whether reciprocity is required, without which of course markets can't exist). So, ultimately, can P2P be a "mode of production"? Maybe, but "participants cannot live from peer production, though they derive meaning and value from it, and though it may out compete, in efficiency and productivity terms, the market-based for-profit alternatives."

It's worth noting the parallel between this and the thesis in Patrick Watson's The Struggle for Democracy, which is essentially that democracy presupposes wealth.

• The Struggle For Democracy - Genesis
• The Struggle For Democracy - Reborn In America
• The Struggle For Democracy - Chiefs and Strongmen
• The Struggle For Democracy - The Tyrrany Of The Majority
• The Struggle For Democracy - The Rule Of Law
• The Struggle For Democracy - The Last Citizens
• The Struggle For Democracy - The First Freedom
• The Struggle For Democracy - The Price Of Democracy
• The Struggle For Democracy - A Soldiers Duty
• The Struggle For Democracy - Whither Democracy
• The Struggle For Democracy - Reflections On The French
• The Struggle For Democracy - The Curtain Rises. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Hello, Hollywood! How to Add a Little Green Screen Magic to Your Videos
Tracy Schaelen, 3C Media Solutions, 2016/08/10
I enjoyed this presentation on how to make green screen videos (and how to use them in the classroom) not only because the presenter is enthusiastic and engaging but also because the video offers very detailed instructions describing how to make the videos. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Facebook Cripples Ad Blockers on Its Site, Gives Consumers New Control Over Ads
Garett Sloane, Advertising Age, 2016/08/10
I love how removing my control over ads is now called "new control over ads". At least I have an explanation of why Facebook has been loading so slowly recently. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. In the Only Surviving Recording of Her Voice, Virginia Woolf Explains Why Writing Isn’t a “Craft” (1937)
Dan Colman, Open Culture, 2016/08/10
Compare what we say about information today with what Virginia Woolf says about words in this the only surviving recording of her voice: "(words) hate being useful; they hate making money; they hate being lectured about in public. In short, they hate anything that stamps them with one meaning or confines them to one attitude, for it is in their nature to change." More...