OLDaily

Unleash the Mouse
Scott Galloway, No Mercy / No Malice, 2020/10/02

I've never understood why pundits would cheerlead for large companies, urging them to do this or that. But that's what Scott Galloway does in this post as he argues, "Disney has the gravitas, capital, and leadership to collide storytelling and education to provide, at no cost, online learning opportunities for our neediest households... Disney is in a position to lead several firms in an effort to provide Universal Disney Instruction ('UDI')." I mean... ick. There are so many reasons not to turn to Disney for educational services.

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Wayne’s world: How universities are crushing academics
N.N. Trakakis, ABC, 2020/10/02

This article advocates against the pressure universities exert on professors to generate research (and especially research funding) at the expense of teaching and the individual well-being of teaching staff. Author N.N. Trakakis draws on the 'slow' movement to recommend an alternative path, quoting fellow Australian philosopher, Raimond Gaita, who writes, "Wittgenstein suggested that philosophers should greet one another by saying, 'Take your time.' One needs time to muse, to meditate. Meditative reflectiveness does not issue quickly in publications and is often not sure of itself. It is seldom impressive on its feet."

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Drivers of Quality in Online Learning
Alan Hickey, Alexandra Urban, Coursera, 2020/10/02

In this report (37 page PDF) just released by Coursera quality is defined in terms engagement (course completions), satisfaction (good reviews), skill development (test scores) and career impact (as reported on surveys). The recommendations will not surprise anyone engaged in online learning: keep videos short (10 minutes), keep courses short (4 weeks), provide engaging activities and practice, and help learners apply their new skills.

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The Data Engineering Cookbook
Andreas Kretz, Team Data Science, GitHub, 2020/10/02

This is a sprawling epic of a guide, running the gamut from programming tools to machine learning to best practices to case studies. It's on GitHub so you could (if you wanted) clone it and make your own version, or (better) suggest changes and improvements. There's also a PDF version (but note that it will ask you to sign up to the newsletter before you can download it). What I like about this is that it's the sort of thing you could set an interested team of high school students on for a semester and see what they come up with. Wouldn't that be so much better for them than watching lectures on Zoom?

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Blacklight
The Markup, 2020/10/02

This is a simple service that takes the URL of a website as input and lets you know what services are tracking visitors. It looks for tracking cookies, ad-tech, tracking that evades cookie-blockers, keylogging, and trackers from Google and Facebook.

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Issues to Consider Before AdoptIng a Digital Platform or LearnIng Program
Faith Boninger, Alex Molnar, National Education Policy Center, 2020/10/02

This document (52 page PDF) is a set of three briefs based on the idea that "school leaders should ensure that any digital technology adopted reflects, rather than undermines or distorts, the school’s stated values and goals." The first focuses on curricular issues, and notes that "digital platforms and learning programs, with their focus on continuous assessment and testing, can undermine teachers’ ability to organize curricula responsive to student needs." It warns about the normalization of surveillance, about depersonalizing 'personalized learning', "hyper-rational, mastery-based approaches", and the potential for "cultural and other biases (that) may be embedded in digital platforms." The second looks at issues related to automated assessment, and the third looks at privacy and data security issues. The briefs are well-written, comprehensive, and a practical tool for use when assessing educational technology (and especially the products that have been rushed out during the pandemic).

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