OLDaily

Ed-Fi opens the door to move from hundreds to hundreds of millions
Troy Wheeler, Ed-Fi Alliance, 2020/04/17

I've always thought of ed-Fi as interesting but niche. Ed-Fi has always been an open "set of rules for the collection, management, and organization of educational data." This announcement opens the software associated with the rules, including an Operational Data Store (ODS) that "allows you to pull information from multiple systems into a database" and an API that supports querying that database. There are also integrated development environments (IDE) and a dashboard. Troy Wheeler writes, "We know that the world is changing right now, and the way we deliver the tools of education will look vastly different in the months and years to come. We also know there has never been a better moment to move forward."

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The Dial-a-Drill: Automating the Teacher with Ed-Tech at Home
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2020/04/17

In this talk Audrey Watters describes Dial-a-Drill: "it would call the student at home and pose questions that the student would then answer by pushing the buttons on the telephone in response." It's a pretty funny story typical of the educational phrenology of the day. And in this new era of 'remote learning'? No different, says Watters. "Under normal conditions, ed-tech is no silver bullet. Why the hell would we expect it to be now?!" Still, we see educational technology creeping into the home, she says. "An extension of school? Maybe. An extension of ed-tech corporations' reach? Definitely."

Well - OK, sure. But many of Watters's stories remind me of stories about old-time medicine (including questionable practices that exist even to this day). But we're not rejecting modern medicine, are we? Watters nothwithstanding, past tech failure does not entail future tech failure. Sure, I would certainly agree, an extension of med-tech corporations' reach is a bad thing. Count me an enthusiastic supporter of public health care. But I am also an enthusiastic supporter of public education, which is not the same thing as rejecting educational technology, and indeed, may well require that we embrace it.

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Education is over…
William Rankin, Medium, 2020/04/17

This article is full of first-class zingers. Like, for example, "Dr John Hattie’s 'visible learning' is as academically rigorous as Dr Pepper and as credible as Dr Oz." And, for example, "failing to reach a certain percentage of students is not only a ‘cost of doing business’; it offers a tasty secondary market." His main point in this article is that "the structure of modern education get so precarious... Because it was built on a lie: the lie that information is the most important educational component." He continues, "it’s time we acknowledge that information is a commodity, and focusing on it is actually setting the bar far too low for learners." Now I wouldn't fall back on the old data-wisdom pyramid as he does, but he certainly has a point.

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Virtual Peer Assists
Nancy White, Full Circle Associates, 2020/04/17

Nancy White has been doing online facilitation for a long time and her advice is specific and helpful. This post focuses on the practice of peer assists using Zoom (I like that it's not about doing an online class or webinar). At its simplest, a peer assist is simply where you call up another network member and talk about your challenge. White suggests methods to make these more effective, for example, Troika Consulting , User Experience Fishbowl and Wise Crowds. This is 7th in a series of posts from White about moving online. Previous:  #1, #2, #3,  #4 , #5 and #6.

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Pivots, Pirouettes, and Piqués: Gracefully Managing the Anxieties of Remote Teaching and Learning
Rajiv Jhangiani, Friday Morning Coffee, 2020/04/17

So I guess it's going to be called "remote learning" by everybody. Not my first choice (I still prefer "online learning", which is what it is) but it could have been given much worse names (like "remote instruction"). Anyhow, this article is addressed to former in-class teachers and talks about how to adapt. The dance metaphors address the different tasks teachers face in the spring, summer and fall, and ultimately Rajiv Jhangiani points teachers toward KPU's guide to designing online courses. The second half of the article speaks to teacher anxiety, quoting Rolin Moe saying “you can’t teach someone to swim while they’re drowning.” On the contrary, I would say. If you don't teach them to swim they'll pull you under. I've seen a bit of that these past few weeks.

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Libraries Brace for Budget Cuts
Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed, 2020/04/17

I think we all know this, but it bears repeating. "Higher education institutions will “not be in a position to pay publishers millions of dollars for research that is behind a paywall,” says Elaine Westbrooks, university librarian at UNC Chapel Hill. “One thing I have learned from the pandemic is that researchers need to collaborate and will collaborate internationally to solve problems, alleviate human suffering, and to understand the human condition. These paywalls are unjust and unnecessary barriers.”

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