Confessional technologies of the self: From Seneca to social media
Norm Friesen, First Monday, 2017/06/01
Norm Friesen argues that personal self-expression on the web is a continuation of a tradition of externalized identity that dates from centuries in the past. More...

Learning Technology Research Project Report
Tim Buff, Agylia, 2017/05/31

There are no real surprises in this report (despite what this summary says) but it offers a useful refocus on learner needs and preferences in mobile learning (27 page PDF). More...

Cognitive Access to Numbers: The Philosophical Significance of Empirical Findings About Basic Number Abilities
Marcus Giaquinto, University College London, 2017/05/31
We teach children about numbers, but how do people come to know what numbers are, given that they are abstract? There must be some process of learning that takes place. More...

Building Competencies for Careers
Maria Ferguson, Diane Stark Rentner, Nancy Kober, Matthew Frizzell, Matthew Brau, Center on Educational Policy, 2017/05/31
This report (16 page PDF) explores how deeper learning competencies apply to the workplace through an analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. The deeper learning competencies include such things as learning to learn, critical thinking, academic mindset, collaboration and communication. More...

With state budget in crisis, many Oklahoma schools hold classes four days a week
Emma Brown, Washington Post, 2017/05/30
It's hard to imagine a four-day school week. It would have been my dream in my childhood, of course (exceeded only by the three-day school week). But no doubt it's a source of concern for parents and teachers. More...

After the Hype, Do MOOC Ventures Like edX Still Matter?
Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2017/05/30
This is an interview with Anant Agarwal, chief executive of edX, so the answer is going to be 'yes'. But don't think of it as a technology project. Agarwal at one point says, "one of the big innovations, really, at edX has not been technology-focused. It has to do with policy and new credentials." More...

User Facing State
Scott O'Hara, CSS-Tricks, 2017/05/30
I've been thinking a lot lately of non-linear languages. The idea has been around for a while. You might recall the concept from the movie Arrival. Fast-forward now to this article describing what the author calls 'user facing state' " talking about how to let our users know about state (think: whether a button is disabled or not, or if a panel is active or not)." In a certain non-trivial sense a web page (or any other visual representation) is a non-linear language. More...

Create Web Pages for Free and Save Them as PDF
Tom Kuhlmann, The Rapid E-Learning Blog, 2017/05/30

What I love about the internet is that there are ways to do almost anything you want. Suppose you wanted a nice PDF document, for example, but don't have any software other than your browser. More...

Docker Compose: A better way to deploy Rocketchat, Wekan, and MongoDB
Dave Lane, OERu Technology, 2017/05/30

I'm posting this mostly for my own future reference. It's basically a set of scripts that allow you to automate a cloud-based web application. Rocket.chat is an open source messaging application similar to Slack. More...