Whatever happened to …
Doug Peterson, doug - off the record, 2017/08/22
As I flip through old photos and presentation archives I am struck by the fact that the only evidence that some event or conference ever existed might be on my web page. So it may be with Educational Network of Ontario/Réseau éducatif de l’Ontario (ENOREO), recolleded by Doug Peterson in thiss post. More...

How to Engage in Pseudoscience With Real Data: A Criticism of John Hattie's Arguments in Visible Learning from the Perspective of a Statistician
Pierre-Jérôme Bergeron, McGill Journal of Education, 2017/08/21
This post is everything a proper refutation of education pseudoscience should be.It is a mistake to use Hattie's analysis as the basis for educational policy or instructional design, as this paper makes clear. Some context: in 2008 John Hattie published Visible Learning, which is essentially a meta-analysis of some 800 studies related to student achievement. The result was the Hattie Ranking of effect sizes. More...

Dunce’s App
Audrey Watters, The Baffler, 2017/08/21
I think it's important to distinguish between 'behaviourism' - the theory that mental states are essentially equivalent to behaviours or (Ryle) dispositions to behave - and 'behaviour management' - methods and tools to encourage correct behaviour. Hero K12, described by Audrey Watters in this post, focuses on the latter. More...

Let’s Retire #MTBoS
Dan Meyer, dy/dan, 2017/08/21
This story is amusing from a distance and in retrospect, but I'm sure it was less funny for those involved at the time. MTBos - which stands for "Math Twitter BlogoSphere" - was set up as a hashtag and web site in order to welcome math teachers to the online community. More...

Scholarly communications shouldn’t just be open, but non-profit too
Jefferson Pooley, LSE Impact Blog, London School of Economics, 2017/08/21µ
The considerations in this post addressed to scholarly publishing could also be applied to open educational resources. More...

The Attack on Affirmative Action Is Simple and Powerful -- and Wrong
Julie A. Peterson, Lisa M. Rudgers, Inside Higher Ed, 2017/08/15
Affirmative action swept through the Canadian university system 30 years ago without causing too much disruption. But it did impact me as when looking for my first academic job I was faced with the first wave of "we encourage women and minorities" notices on placement advertisement. More...

eLabFTW
2017/08/15
This is really interesting. "With eLabFTW you get a secure, modern and compliant system to track your experiments efficiently but also manage your lab with a powerful and flexible database. If you do experimental research, then eLabFTW is for you. Whatever your field is. It is also well suited for teachers, or biotech companies." While it supports the idea of working openly, the implementation is also of interest. More...

Open Invitation to contribute toward the Ljubljana OER Action Plan
UNESCO, 2017/08/15
Cable Green writes by email "UNESCO has released a draft "OER Action Plan" and has asked for our comments and feedback. The draft OER Action Plan is available in English and French."  The recommendations are pbroken down into five major categories: capacity-building and usage; language and cultural issues; access; changing business models; and policy. More...