Let's Unbundle
Josh Wymore, Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2014
Someone should get the writers at Inside Higher Ed outside the bubble. The 'unbundling' of the educator's function has been talked about for years, maybe decades. It's not necessarily (or even mostly) a consequence or precursor to corporatism. More...

How many software developers would it take to change a lightbulb?
Tom Morris, tommorris.org, February 18, 2014

This would be funnier if it weren't so close to being true. Major language warning; if you don't like bad langauge, don't click on this link.  My favourite bit. More...

We Don’t Sell Saddles Here
Stewart Butterfield, Medium.com, February 18, 2014

I think this software development manifesto. Take the time to read the whole thing. More...

Sorting Isn’t Always Simple
Alfred Thompson, Computer Science Teacher, February 18, 2014
Nice little lesson in sorting in computing science taken from the Olympic games, namely, that for any data set, there is any number of ways to sort. For my own part, I have always maintained that the really had thing is counting (this, btw, is why most quantitative analysis is fiction). Take Olympic medals, for example. More...

Leveling the higher ed playing field with free educational content
Lynn Russo Whylly, University Business, February 18, 2014

Short interview with Rice University's Richard G. Baraniuk, now Rice’s director of the Connexions and OpenStax initiatives. More...

Metacademy: a package manager for knowledge
Roger Grosse, Machine Learning (Theory), February 18, 2014
OK, so the good news here is that some computer science professors (Roger Grosse and Colorado Reed) have determined that course design should reflect more the structure of the discipline rather than a linear model of subjects arranged in the order a professor deems best. More...

Tiny Robots Mimic Termites' Ability to Build without a Leader
Elizabeth Gibney, Scientific American, February 17, 2014
I've written about self-organizing systems quite a bit in these pages over the years. So it's not surprising to me to see that someone has built robots that construct a building using these principles. The robots work completely autonomously, and following simple rules, build a building. More...

Lecture Capture – Sometimes it’s better to be heard…and not seen
Rob Weale, East Midlands Learning Technologists, February 17, 2014

According to Rob Weale, unless there is a pedagogical imperative to presenting video of yourself, online lectures might be better were they presented as audio and supported by slides. More...

Ammon Road
Stephen Downes, Let's Make Some Art Dammit, February 17, 2014
Speaking of 'no pedagogical imperative' (see below) I've revived my 'photo a day' habit and added a new twist. I'm using only a compact camera I always carry with me (saving my DSL for special occasions, like travel). I'm uploading to Flickr, with a short autobiographical note, so it's as much a photo journal as a photo. More...

Matching Skills and Labour Market Needs: Building Social Partnerships for better skills and better jobs
Unattributed, World Economic Forum, February 17, 2014
This document was produced for the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. "Skills mismatches occur when workers have either fewer or more skills than jobs require." Generally the focus is on those with too few skills; the report recommends adopting a "learn first" approach and cautions that "promoting jobs without paying due attention to their quality and to the skills required may only buy time and ultimately prolong the jobs crisis." In Canada, in addition to underqualification, there is also significant overqualification. More...