OLWeekly ~ Nov 28, 2014
CREATEC
OLWeekly
by Stephen Downes
Nov 28, 2014
Twitter Is Tracking Users’ Installed Apps for Ad Targeting
Jack Marshall,
Wall Street Journal | Digits, 2014/11/28
So now Twitter is spying on you. Surprised? "Twitter is now collecting information about the apps installed on users’ devices in order to better target and tailor advertising and other content to them."
Affiliation and Ignite
Chris Kennedy,
Culture of Yes, 2014/11/28
This is a pretty key statement, I think: "Our profession will not be mandated into meeting the needs of modern learners but the power of networks and new thinking around affiliation can help diffuse the work." It is the way we work as individuals, and work with learners as individuals, that will define the new structures of learning. This isn't atomism or individualism in some sort of Ayn Rand sense; rather, it's redefining the institution from being some sort of large structure into some sort of more nimble network.
Worried about the privatisation of public education and research? - Go to the Commons
Leigh Blackall,
Weblog, 2014/11/26
The point behind this brief post is to ensure that authors get the critical elements of their work into the open commons before submitting it in such a way that would lead to it being locked down behind a paywall. "Some researchers and teachers who are concerned about their publicly funded research reports, teaching materials and data becoming locked into restrictive publishing arrangements, are using the Commons to develop and publish the elements of the project before going to the private publishers." Another way of looking at it: you can feel less concerned about publishing using a commercial publisher if the major elements of your work are inj the commons.
Love in the Time of Peer Review
The Editorial Board,
Hybrid Pedagogy, 2014/11/26
This is basically my view: "In her presentation about open peer review at the 2014 OpenEd conference, Eva Amsen challenged her audience by asking: 'Why are people so mean?' She argues that allowing the public to see the review process, and allowing readers to know their reviewers, demands that the reviewers be nicer and more human, a stark contrast from traditional academic peer review." Funny thing, when I suggested such a thing to a group recently, the response was, "people don't want to put their stuff out into the open before it has been vetted." The perception was that the public, as opposed to the peer review board, would be mean. Or, maybe, that the latter would at least be mean in private.
Business Education Faces a Challenging and Disruptive Future, finds Global Research
Press Release,
EMFP, 2014/11/25
According to this report: "Traditional business education models are being disrupted by technology, the introduction of MOOCs, market competition, university fees and increasingly demanding employer and employee needs, finds a wide-ranging new report called See the Future."
Guidelines for completing the VMPass learning passport
Grainne Conole,
e4innovation.com, 2014/11/25
I'm seeing more and more initiatives along these lines these days. "The VMPass project is developing an accreditation framework for informal and non-formal learning through resources such as Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The accreditation is achieved through completion of a learning passport." So the passport is in many ways similar to the concept of the badge (except, it's a passport). There are three sections that need to be filled out for a credential (visa?): one section by the learning provider, one by the student, and one by the assessing/certifying institution. Here's an example.
Online Quizzes Are Data Goldmines for Marketers
Jack Marshall,
Wall Street Journal Blogs, 2014/11/25
For a short period over the summer I was completely addicted to the online quizzes shared by sites like Facebook - things like "what world leader are you most like", for example - but as fall came it was almost as though they stopped trying to write interesting quizzes and became blatant attempts to collect data. Which is what they are: blatant attempts to collect data. Although for some companies - the article mentions Buzzfeed in particular - it's about collecting traffic, not collecting data.
Building Tomorrow’s Learning Experience:Personalized, Predictive and Connected
Wayne McCulloch,
eLearning, 2014/11/25
"The world is fast becoming social, automated and more specialized than in the past, and a key factor of the evolution is consumerization of learning." I'm not sure I like the word 'consumerization' of learning, because it suggests a commercialized system driven by markets and advertising. That would be a risky development indeed. Our food distribution system, which is also based on consumerization, leaves some children morbidly obese and at the same time leaves large numbers of children malnourished and even starving. So we need to do better in education (and, for that matter, fix our food distribution system). At the same time, the idea of one education for all (or one diet for all!) is unpalatable. And that's what's changing - different people are getting the education they need, and not some centrally designed standardized fare. That's a good thing. The trick is to get the good without the bad.
How to Get Lectora Game Templates to Send Score Results to Your LMS
Brother Randy,
eLearning Brothers, 2014/11/23
The new learning web is distributed and connected, just like a network (because it is a network). Here's what I mean. This article talks about how to send results from games templates built using Lectora to your learning management system (LMS). This post is pretty technical and not exactly exciting reading. But that's not the point. What's important is that different providers are thinking about how their applications talk to each other. (I'm looking forward to the post-Flash days though - the most common message on my computer these days (and this page produced yet another instance) is "The Adobe Fl;ash plugin has crashed... Learn more."
Colossus: A New Service Framework from Tumblr
Dan Simon,
Tumblr Engineering, 2014/11/28
I got this link from Andriy Drozdyuk, one of the developers working on LPSS. It describes a framework called Colussus developed by Tumblr to support the implementation of microservices. "These are small, specialized applications designed to efficiently encapsulate a single feature or component." They are coded using a toolkit called akka, designed to "raise the abstraction level and provide a better platform to build scalable, resilient and responsive applications." This feels a lot like Ruby on Rails did when it was first introduced, and while it had its quirks, Rails became an important and influential framework. Here are some other HTTP frameworks built using akka.
Role of Community Management in Workplace Learning Today
Sahana Chattopadhyay,
ID,
Other Reflections, 2014/11/25
One thing that occupies my thinking is the tension between personal learning and community. Clearly community is important. But if community defines learning, the personal is subsumed. This post looks at community platforms used by organizations and the role of "community managers who can facilitate activities on the platform." This person needs to be, suggests the author, in part a trainer, a content curator, a connector, a brand ambassador, and a consultant. What is not discussed - a nd probably should be - is what happens when these roles conflict.
SCORM and Tin Can API: The difference between DVDs and Netflix
Melanie Moffett,
eLearning Industry, 2014/11/24
I'd like to think that we can go a bit beyond Nedtflix, but I appreciate the analogy behind this post comparing SCORM and xAPI. SCORM - the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, was designed as a way for published products, like courseware, to report back to a host system, like a learning management system (LMS). Originally known as Tin Can, xAPI, the 'Experience Application Programming Interface', allows multiple services to report on student activities. "The Tin Can API vocabulary is powerfully simple, capable of identifying actors, verbs and objects - the most basic building blocks to convey meaning." And as the author notes, "according to the Brandon Hall Group webinar, businesses are using Tin Can API to develop a learning architecture that supports the following key elements: experience tracking, content brokering, learner profiles and competency networks.
Working out Loud and Serendipity
Sahana Chattopadhyay,
ID,
Other Reflections, 2014/11/24
This week (or maybe last week; I don't really keep up on these things) is "work out loud week". What that means is that we should share the work that we're doing as we do it. OLDaily is my tool for this. Though to be honest, my work has shifted in a way OLDaily hasn't, exactly, as for the last year I have been leading the LPSS program, a role that has added a slew of new responsibilities: project planning, budgets and resource planning, marketing and communication strategies, and more. I'm enjoying the new challenges, but I still think I could be doing a better job. Anyhow, this post reminds me of the reasons I should share more. As John Stepper says, "Working out loud is working in an open, generous, connected way so you can build a purposeful network, become more effective, and access more opportunities." See also Rawn Shah , who points out that everyone is figuring out their job on the fly, and Austin Kleon's Show Your Work!
A Weird but True Fact about Textbook Publishers and OER
Michael Feldstein,
e-Literate, 2014/11/24
Michael Feldstein makes the point in this post that many publishers like open educational resources. "It has become clear that textbook profits are collapsing as student find more ways to avoid buying the new books," he writes. "So these companies want to get out of the textbook business.... They want to sell software and services that are related to educational content, like homework platforms or course redesign consulting services." Hence, as David Wiley says, "80% of all US general education courses will be using OER instead of publisher materials by 2018."
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