By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Federate?
Tim Bray, Ongoing, August 1, 2013
Tim Bray offers the argument to application developers in favour of employing 'federated identity', that is, using an identity provider such as Facebook, Google, Twitter or Microsoft (and as he says, there are many more, though we never seem to see them) instead of managing logons and storing passwords locally. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Taking a test is better than studying, even if you just guess: We need to flip the flipped classroom
Mark Guzdial, August 1, 2013
The title of the post is a bit misleading, because Mark Guzdial isn't talking about 'taking a test' specifically, "the critical feature of learning is trying to understand, trying to generate an answer." According to the study, "students are better prepared to understand a theory after first exploring by themselves, and that tangible user interfaces are particularly well-suited for that purpose." Of course, Daniel Willingham, who is cited by Guzdial, looks at results like that and reads "test", which he then cites as 'the testing effect'. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Visiting Seymour
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, August 1, 2013
Seymour Papert was injured in a traffic accident in 2006 and carries the effects to this day. Audrey Watters takes the occasion of the latest Mindstorms robotics kit (sent to her as a promo by Lego) and a visit to Maine to interview Papert and reflect on his work. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is there a link between flexible access and ‘productivity’ in higher education?
Tony Bates, online learning, distance education resources, August 1, 2013
A while back I challenged Tony Bates to expand on a model of educational productivity, and in this post bates begins his reply by outlining two aspects of such a model. His response, I think, illustrates the gulf between his thinking and mine. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Dino 101 MOOC opens, offering free tuition in paleontology
Katie Collins, Wired, July 31, 2013
My old friends at the University of Alberta opened MOOC registration yesterday to the much anticipated Dino 101 massive open online course on paleontology. Who can resist. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish
Rebecca J. Rosen, The Atlantic, July 31, 2013
Data reinforcing what we all suspected was true: "Copyright correlates significantly with the disappearance of works rather than with their availability," Heald writes. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Could Have Done More'
Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, July 31, 2013
MIT has released a report summarizing and evaluating its actions in the wake of the Aaron Swartz case. Swartz, readers may recall, was at MIT when he attempted to download the entire JSTOR library, violating the company's terms of service. They threw the book at him, MIT went "hem, haw" and Swartz eventually committed suicide. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Fear and anxiety on the like/retweet web
Brian Lamb, Abject, July 31, 2013
Brian Lamb writes, "in a grim economic climate, prodding people’s anxieties and fears so you can monetize their relationships really creeps me out." He's responding in part to Alan Levine's satirical take on LinkedIn Endorsements. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. BYOD – the first steps
Alice Leung, July 31, 2013
Alice Leung points to a literature review into BYOD and links to Mal Lee take. as she and her school prepares to embark down the BYOD road. BYOD stands for 'Bring Your Own Device' and refers to the idea that the school will support whatever access device - iPad, Android, whatever - a student brings, rather than issuing centrally managed computers or tablets from a cart. Why go down this path. More...
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS)
Human Resources, Skills Development Canada, July 31, 2013
I ran across this yesterday (I guess it's relatively new?) while looking up data for an internal project. "Use this search tool to find projected industrial data used in the development of the COPS projections. Users can search for industrial data such as gross domestic product, employment, retirements, deaths and job openings by industry. Users can view this data in tables or in graphs." It's Canadian data only, but it's sure useful inside Canada. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
