The Virtues of Moderation
James Grimmelmann, The Yale Journal of Law & Technology, 2015/04/07
This is a careful, deep, sophisticated article that consumed a large chunk of my morning working my through its 68 pages of detailed explanation and rich referencing. In many respects, this account of internet moderation can be considered authoritative. More...
Open ends?
Brian Lamb, Abject, 2015/04/08
I answer this in the affirmative: "Would the cause of open be better served if we go further in this direction, and stop talking about 'open' as a goal and instead focus on using it as a tactic to support allies who care about authentic, engaged, accessible, sustainable, and relevant public education?" In Sausalito last week one person said that people were convinced to adopt OERs only when pointed out that they help the students learn. More...
Gathering requirements for a student app for learning analytics
Niall Sclater, Sclater Digital, 2015/04/08
"What data and analytics should be presented directly to students?" This is the question posed by Niall Sclater in his review of a JISC workshop in London a month ago. More...
Inside America's Subscription-Box Obsession
Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company, 2015/04/08
One of the great things about the internet is that it's possible to find entire communities devoted to things you've never heard of. This article describes the phenomenon of subscription boxes: the idea is that for a set fee you receive a box every month or so with a selection of items around a theme. My Subscription Addiction lists hundreds, maybe thousands, of these, with reviews. More...
The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much
Paul Campos, New York Times, 2015/04/08
I saw this post the other day and was suspicious when I read the phrase "legislative appropriations to higher education" being compared to U.S. military spending. This could mean anything. More...
Contributions and Connections
Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/04/08
I mostly agree with Bonnie Stewart's comments in Inside Higher Ed (and note in passing that Inside Higher Ed has recently opened up its circle of authors beyond the fairly narrow political spectrum that characterized its contributions until now). More...
Competency-Based Education: A Framework for Measuring Quality Courses
Jackie Krause, Laura Portolese Dias, Chris Schedler, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2015/04/08
"There are no defined standards that directly address quality of competency-based courses," write the authors. "This problem is exacerbated because competency-based programs are often self-paced, requiring students to be more self-sufficient and self-directed than in instructor-led courses." They survey several other quality rubrics and observe that these typically include an evaluation of the interactivity supported by the course. More...
Teaching in a Digital Age
Tony Bates, OpenText BC, 2015/04/08
I've cited chapters from Tony Bates's ongoing online book Teaching in a Digital Age on numerous occasions over the last few months, so I won't rehash all that here. Suffice it to say that the full text is now available as a free download on the BC Open Text website. Not that the full PDF is 502 pages. More...
Task Force on Academic Freedom
Ronald J. Daniels, Robert C. Lieberman, Johns Hopkins University, 2015/04/08
Johns Hopkins University last year convened a task force on academic freedom. As reported by Inside Higher Ed, "the administration is seeking feedback on the task force’s final product." It's a short document, for some reason released only as a PDF image (to prevent it from being edited? Puh-leeese). More...
Sir Ken Robinson: ‘Creative’ with the truth?
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2015/04/08
Ken Robinson's video on creativity is cited over and over again and was long overdue for this takedown by Donald Clark. It's the classic response: Robinson's observations and anecdotes are (a) not new, (b) not backed by data, (c) except data he has made up, and (d) are false. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
