2018 OLDaily Reader Survey
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2018/01/31
I got 64 responses to my survey, which is a response rate of 0.3 percent, which doesn't seem very high to me, but I've read refereed academic publications based on less robust statistics. This article summarizes the overall results and discusses some of the suggestions for improvements. More...
An Interactive Guide To The Fourier Transform
Kalid Azad, Better Explained, 2018/01/30
I love this analogy describing the Fourier Transform (quoted):
If you like the analogy, go read the explanation. More...
The Central Challenge of Collaboration
Nancy Dixon, conversation matters, 2018/01/30
The more people make collaboration the core of sopcial, political and educational society, the more difficult it becomes to more forward. It's not simply because of our inclination to view those we disagree with as the enemy, as Nancy Dixon says. The difficulty with collaboration is that you have to work together to achieve some common objective. But that's usually precisely where you disagree with the other person. More...
Education’s dirty little secret
David McQueen, TallBlackOneSugar, 2018/01/30
Writing about "how some schools maintain these outstanding high level attainment grades," David McQueen writes "they weed out the ones who might make the figures not look too good." This, he said, is widespread. More...
PoodLL A\V Recording Plugin For Moodle Gets Deep Into HTML5 With Latest Update
Moodle News, 2018/01/30
Yes, it's pretty incredible that you can record live audio and video directly into your Moodle website. It is also, thanks to HTML5, relatively straightforward. From the developer side of things, it is a lot like uploading a file. It's just that you're uploading the file as it is being created, using the capture="camera" command in the input element. More...
People with tetraplegia master brain implant in minutes
Kevin Stacey-Brown, Futurity, 2018/01/29
Stories like this illustrate why I can be so positive about technology. A tetraplegic - unable to niove at all - is able to control a computer with thoughts alone. By focusing on "training the computer, not the user" designers are making the easy to learn and to use. More...
Return to Roots
Helen Blunden, Activate Learning Solutions, 2018/01/29
"To me, THIS is why I use social media and networks," writes Helen Blunden. More...
Overwhelmed by size, underwhelmed by quality: A review of EdTech’s largest show, BETT 2018
Junaid Mubeen, Medium, 2018/01/29
This review of BETT by an educator left me with the impression of a reviewer completely convinced by the value of pedagogy and utterly unable to fathom the idea of people creating learning for themselves. Consider this: "They (the exhibitors) fell utterly silent when pushed on pedagogy. More...
Facebook Only Cares About Facebook
Ethan Zuckerman, The Atlantic, 2018/01/29
This is a good article with a poor title. The overall gist is that it is Facebook, and not the user, that controls the algorithm. So whether or not changes to the algorithm eliminate fake news (spoiler: they won't) there isn't really anything the user can do about it. Enter a "provocation" created by Zuckerman and colleagues: gobo.social, a customizable news aggregator. More...
ePortfolio Assessment Instrument
University of Queensland, 2018/01/29
This is a look into the inner workings of an e-Portfolio assessment system. The 'instruments' themselves are "are rubrics that also contain settings for who will mark the assessment task and when the results will be released to students." The page (this isn't an article or anything like that) provides access to the ePortfolio system help documents as well. More...
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