Stephen Downes

Any time I see a formula like this (and we just saw one from Next Gen News) I think of the old aggregate - remix - repurpose - feed forward methodology that I've often described as characteristic of connectivism. Not that this characterization was anything original either. It's what anyone - or any thing - in an information ecosystem does. This curation model from Mike Taylor is a little more focused on intention than most. Curation has to have an objective, a reason for being done. He also adds a bit of a toolkit for the curation process that is a bit more fill-in-the-box focused than I'd like. It's the difference between giving a piece of content a 1-5 rating, and writing something free-form (like I do) about the content.

Wired magazine announces that "it's going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act." That's the right stance to take. Of course it's a lot easier to take that stance in an environment where the National Center for Education Statistics, which until January 20 had about 100 employees, now has only three. See also: Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Jim Salsman writes, "I spent some time making a Streamlit app to demonstrate how to use them with system prompts providing instructional support that has been weakened in that latest LearnLM model, but can be substantially restored in it and their other models, too." This link is to that deployment. It's hosted on Replit and connects to a free Google account and Google's LearnLM, so isn't production-ready, but it's a great illustration of the concept. I tried it out - it adopts some well-known instructional strategies, such as breaking down the topic into more manageable chunks and asking the learnerr to respond with their own thoughts. Here's the source code. Image: Dataconomy.

This post links to the code on GitHub for Docs, an open source replacement for Google Docs developed by the French and German governments. Here's the Docs website. It's available online but you need to belong to a French professional organization to login using the French ProConnect service (Docs uses OpenID Connect (OIDC), so if you already have an OIDC provider, obtain the necessary information to use it.).

The research basis isn't strong (45 interviews with youth in Nigeria, India and the U.S. plus comments from a 19-member advisory board) but the result is interesting and I think relevant to educators as well. There's an HTML version you can click and scroll through or a single file (84 page PDF) you can download. The ideal news experience comes from a trusted source, is personally relevant and actionable, and convenient to access. It offers a five-modes framework - sift, substantiate, study, socialise and sensemake - that won't feel out of place to readers here. There's also a Next Gen News toolkit (presentatioin view, Google doc) facilitators can use to lead a session based on the report.

"Real-life learning ecosystems – networks that include classrooms, living rooms, libraries, museums, and more – may be the most promising approach for preparing learners for tomorrow," writes Gregg Behr. What's needed is "a collaborative ecosystem that sparks engaged, motivated learners by providing the tools, resources, and relationships that every young person deserves." I would say 'cooperative' rather than collaborative, and I would focus much more on public support for such an ecosystem (because private support would invariably commercialize it). Now for the other shoe to drop: "These ecosystems are not replacements for schools," writes Behr. But inevitably, they will be, as public education systems struggle with declining resources and increasingly complex societies.