By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Feds launch ‘digital academy’ for public service
Kathryn May, iPolitics, 2018/10/22
This article describes a new initiative at the Canada School of Public Service to launch the Canadian Digital Academy "to improve the 'digital acumen' of all levels of public servants who are working to modernize operations, and to deliver the kind of digital services that Canadians expect." Having worked with CSPS on two projects leading to greater digital capacability over the last year or so I am happy to see this development. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Connectivity and complex systems: learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective
Laura Turnbull, et.al., Applied Network Science, 2018/10/22
Theodore Hoppe recommended this article, which appears to be open access from Springer (49 page PDF). It surveys new approaches based on connectivity found in a number of disciplines, including systems biology, neuroscience, computational neuroscience, geomorphology, ecology and social sciences. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. GC Talent Cloud
Government of Canada, 2018/10/22
What I really like is that some government departments are putting things together to just trry things, and try to make them work. Start small, iterate, and work out the bugs. This fits into that category. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The State of Video in Education 2018
Kaltura, 2018/10/16

The website takes you through a spamwall but the direct link to the 31 page PDF should work (I tested it). It's a pretty brisk read pointing to the increased use of video in learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What we lose by reading 100,000 words every day
Jennifer Howard, Washington Post, 2018/10/16
The Mini-Heap entry asks, "what does it mean for the future of reading, learning, and teaching that the average person now reads 100,000 words a day on electronic devices?" But the article itself frames it as "what do we lose?" by reading these words. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How to Fix Fake News
Regina Rini, New York Times, 2018/10/16
I'm not really on board with the idea tat the New York Times has solved the problem of fake news, nor either that emulating the norms of the cocktail circuit is the way to do it - both are as capable of spreading rumours as well as fact, and neithr seems to be held accountable for it. But there is an element worth drawing out of this article, and it's this: the ability to spread fake news stems at least in part from our ability to remember who said what. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Designing for Cognitive Differences
Brandon Gregory, A List Apart, 2018/10/16
I was at the 25th anniversary celebration for the Inclusive Design Research Centre on Saturday, and it raised in my mind the question of how broadly we should think of inclusivity (because it was baically an open recenption, and I am just not comfortable at open receptions - I need structure). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why did Donald Trump Stress the Importance of Building a Wall on the Mexican Border?
Mitch Weisburgh, PILOTed, 2018/10/16
This post has nothing to do with Donald Trump; rather, it's a device used to frame a discussion of Alex Rosenberg's How History Gets Things Wrong, The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories, discussed here last week. We want the simple story of how Trump reached his decision, but the simple story is almost certainly wrong. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Structure of recent Philosophy
Maximilian Noichl, 2018/10/16
This is actually a set of three posts (one, two, three) and it illustrates several of the themes being discussed in this newsletter recently. The iagram maps the domain of philosopphy over the last 70 years, and it shows the emphasis on epistemology, possible worlds, models, and moral reasoning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Microsoft Is Killing Skype Classic on November 1, and Here’s Why People Are Upset
Chris Hoffman, How-To Geek, 2018/10/16
Skype 8 (which is what Microsoft calls the 'Surface' version of Skype) never worked properly for me. So I always used (what they call) Skype classic, until the audio and video quality declined to the point where it too was unusable. More...