OLDaily

Analysing micro-credentials in higher education: a Bernsteinian analysis
Leesa Wheelahan, Gavin Moodie, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2021/04/29

There's a lot going on in this article and the sociology of Basil Bernstein is the least interesting part of it. The argument, in a nutshell, is that unlike the European Didaktik tradition, in which education is treated as a single focused discipline, in the Anglo tradition education falls under other disciplines, such as history, philosophy, sociology and psychology, with the result that educational theory is ‘undifferentiated mush', which makes it possible for "the ‘market’ model of the individual to be the default and dominant goal of educational policy." It is into this context that microcredentials are introduced, and here's where Bernstein comes in, as the student is viewed as "the rational, instrumental, self-maximizing actor." In other words, "21st Century skills are the epitome of the colonization by human capital theory of all aspects of our lives because they are exhaustive, focusing not just on what we can do, but also who we are." Image: The Berenstain Bears Go to School.

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6 Key Technologies Moving Teaching and Learning Forward in 2021
Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology, 2021/04/29

I sort of feel obligated to capture this discussion, even though none of the six will be new to readers, and even though one of them ("quality online learning") isn't even a technology (the others, for the record, are "artificial intelligence", "open educational resources", "learning analytics", "blended and hybrid course models", and "microcredentialing". These insights are courtesy Educause's latest Horizon Report. Thank goodness. Now that you have this, if you hurry, you can catch the next train to 2010.

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OECD report on the state of school education one year into the pandemic
Tony Bates, Online learning and distance education resources, 2021/04/29

Tony Bates comments on the most recent report from OECD on the state of education as impacted by the pandemic. The most telling remark in his short synopsis is this:  "I am quoting mainly from Andreas Schleicher’s editorial, which in my view often goes beyond what the data actually says." This is not a new problem for OECD, in my opinion. This, for example, reads more like business-friendly lobbying than research: "governments cannot innovate in the classroom; but they can help by opening up systems so that there is an evidence-based innovation-friendly climate." Bates also comments, "the report fails to reflect many of the main educational challenges that teachers, students and parents faced as a result of the move to remote learning."

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Teacher in a Strange Land: Acceleration Nation
National Education Policy Center, 2021/04/29

This article contributes to what is an emerging debate about 'learning loss' from the pandemic. The solution being proposed in some quarters, writes Nancy Flanagan, is "not reviewing what he may have missed—it’s accelerating. Going faster. Catching up, then presumably surging ahead. Winning." Because "your kid doesn’t need remediation to bring him up to speed after this year of screen-based semi-school. He needs acceleration! Sure he’s, umm, fallen behind somebody, somewhere." She writes that she was "struck by the totally American nature of this language—We Must Compete! No remediation for us!" I think there's a point there, but it will take more than a paean to competent caring teachers to respond to the irresistible marketing trend being unleashed on administrators and politicians.

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Breaking Camp
Casey Newton, 2021/04/29

A debate has erupted this week at the software company Basecamp after its directors announced an end to social and political discussion in the workplace. The move is viewed by many as ironic as Basecamp was previously known for an enlightened workplace culture and its directors actually published several books on the subject. This serves to "paint a portrait of a company where workers sought to advance Basecamp’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by having sensitive discussions about the company’s own failures. After months of fraught conversations, (Jason) Fried and his co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson moved to shut those conversations down." It's an old story where you can have all the freedoms you want just so long as they don't actually change anything (kind of like academic freedom for sessionals).

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Schools Use Software That Blocks LGBTQ+ Content, But Not White Supremacists
Todd Feathers, Vice, 2021/04/29

This post belongs more in the ethics department than on a learning technology list, but it does underscore the key fact that the use of automated filtering and content management will not automatically fix online discussions. Of course we knew that, but it's important to understand why this is the case. In a nutshell, what you get out of AI is what you put in. So if you base your AI on an anti-LGBTQ+ and pro-KKK data set that's what you will get as output. And the data comes from your community. I want to underline this: the only way to have more ethical AI is to have a more ethical society. It has nothing to do with the technology. It has everything to do with you.

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21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion
Annie Prud’homme-Généreux, Faculty Focus, 2021/04/29

This is a five-part series on structuring online discussions. Parts of it feel very dated - for example, the bit where students say "the lack of emotional cues about the author of a written post makes it difficult to properly formulate a response." That sounds more like the 1990s than the 2020s. But some of the ideas are pretty good. For example, "Learners design an example that is purposefully 'broken' and defies the concept learned in class" ('defies' is definitely the wrong word here, but you get the idea).  Here's the full set:

Part 1: Five Online Discussion Ideas to Apply Learning
Part 2: Four Online Discussion Ideas to Explore Concepts Through Divergent Thinking
Part 3: Seven Online Discussion Ideas to Explore Concepts through Convergent Thinking
Part 4: Five Online Discussion Ideas to Foster Metacognition
Part 5: Online Discussion Ideas – Multimedia and Resources

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Tools to Help Students Analyze Their Own Writing
Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers, 2021/04/29

This is an emerging class of tools that could have a significant impact over the longer term. Today, they analyze students' writing and make suggestions for improvement. That's a far sight better than simply producing a grade. Richard Byrne surveys four such tools in this article and recently featured Wordtune in a post. Other tools include Analyze My Writing, which "provides a break-down of the readability of your writing on five indices", Hemingway App, which "provides students with lots of helpful information about their text," and Slick Write. If you want to pay money there are tools like Antidote that will do the job professionally. (p.s. love the oval inset in the video).

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