OLDaily

Sharing MOOC resources - whatever happened to open?
Alastair Creelman, The corridor of uncertainty, 2018/12/16

"I really thought the whole idea was to share expertise and make education available to everyone," says Alastair Creelman. But it "is sad to see that the MOOC movement, built on the concept of openness, has resulted in silos of locked content that may in the future be unlocked to those willing to pay for membership." I agree. But I point out in my comment (which did not make it through moderation) this is what we should expect to happen when we allow the elite private universities to take leadership over what was originally a grassroots movement. As Audre Lorde said, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." If we want openness, we have to build it ourselves, and not rely on the largess of the rich and powerful to do it for us.

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Serverlessness
Tim Bray, Ongoing, 2018/12/16

This is the cover page for a five part series on the subject. The posts get longer and more in-depth as you go along. By 'serverless' what we mean isn't that there aren't any servers - they are still there - but rather that the task of managing them is abstracted, meaning that  (as one of the articles says) the only code you need to write is business logic. I'm not sure what that means for those of us who don't think in terms of business logic, but I get the idea.

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Ai in Learning Thought Paper
Marek Hyla, SlideShare, 2018/12/16

On slide 16 of this 30 slide deck Marek Hyla asks the key question, "How will AI be placed in learning?" His answer: "AI has the potential to make learning accessible to more people," he writes. "In places, where trainers are unavailable, a robust AI system can be used to teach learners with minimal or no engagement from a human trainer. Engaging AI offers the possibility of learning that is more personalized, flexible, inclusive, and engaging." The deck looks at a number of examples of the use of AI in learning and highlights six companies or projects that are working in the space (Mika, Netex, CTI, BiLAT, ARGUNAUT, and Thinkster Math).

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School data security incidents rise in wake of GDPR
Freddie Whittaker, SchoolsWeek, 2018/12/16

This sounds like a significant increase. "The number of incidents involving the disclosure of data reported to the ICO rose to 353 in quarter two of this year, up from 239 during the same period last year and just 26 the year before." This is the interpretation attributed to Mark Orchison, a consultant whose firm 9ine works with schools on data protection. "he is also concerned about a rise in cyber-attacks on schools. Reports of these attacks, which can include malware, phishing and ransomware, have risen by 69 per cent in the past year alone." But what is left a bit opaque in the article is the fact that reporting such breaches is a requirement under GDPL, woth significant penalities for failure to report. It used to be easy for schools to cover up breaches. Not any more. And so now we see the real scale of the problem.

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Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial
Robert W Yeh, et.al., BMJ, 2018/12/16

The outcome of this trial was that "Parachute use did not reduce death or major traumatic injury when jumping from aircraft in the first randomized evaluation of this intervention." It was a randomized control trial and statistically valid. If this were ediucation I would expect people to begin intervening with a political fervour against the 'parachute myth', and demand studies proving that there actually is a difference between parachite use and non-parachute use. It would not be considered relevant that the study was limited to cases where the aircraft were stationary and on the ground.

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Language as a self-regulating system
Victor Mair, Language Log, 2018/12/16

When you stop and think about this, it's remarkable: "Prescriptivists cannot point to a single language that became unusable or inexpressive as a result of people’s failure to uphold traditional vocabulary and grammar. Every language existing today is fantastically expressive. It would be a miracle, except that it is utterly commonplace, a fact shared not only by all languages but by all the humans who use them." Image: Timo Honkela.

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In China’s Silicon Valley, Edtech Starts at the ‘MOOC Times Building’
Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge, 2018/12/16

Jeffrey R. Young reports on a tour he took of the building. Some companies in the building "are already well established and have much larger staffs. The tour included a stop of one such company, called Nobook, which employs 55 people and makes interactive science-learning software for schools in China." I'm just fascinated about how an idea can start in a small corner of Canada and become a building in Beijing.

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