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There is no content
nick shackleton-jones, aconventional, 2021/10/01

We can make the point here by overstating it: if something matters to us, we remember it, and if it doesn't, we don't. Sure, that's an exaggeration, but let it pass. Now consider: "neither slates nor books nor computers have reactions to anything, though, so will never experience the world. Slates, books and computers will store the same content in the same way, but two people sitting in a classroom will react differently to what they experience and store different things as a result. Either way, there is no content." The upshot? "We got confused several hundred years ago – we started assuming that people function like blank slates, or books, or computers and that you could transfer information into them in symbolic form, storing ‘content’." And this is where learning theory begins.

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Meta-ethics of learning design
Clark Quinn, Learnlets, 2021/10/01

It's a hoary old fallacy: you say to your opponent, "Why are you still stealing grapes?" The only response is to deny stealing grapes, but if you are fast enough you can slide right past that, pressing for an explanation: "is it because you can't afford them? if it because you're addicted to wine?" Expressed this way, the sleight of hand is pretty obvious, but with practice it can be executed in an almost seamless and undetectable fashion. And that's what Clark Quinn is talking about here when he raises some of the issues of ethics in learning design. "They can take a statement as if it’s fact, and then continue on with that as received wisdom. It’s a classic cognitive approach, making a statement as if it’s assumed." What would motivate people to behave more ethically when designing learning? If we stop thinking of learning as a form of persuasion and propaganda, then perhaps there's a way to start.

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Why I Went from Proctored Exams to Open-book
Debbie Fetter, Faculty Focus, 2021/10/01

I applaud the effort to move away from proctored exams. An having open book exams in one way to do it. But I have my doubts about the use of 'honor codes' with statements like "I agree that I will not consult with other people about the exam questions and answers." Whether one follows the honor code is a matter of ethics, and people learn ethics from their environment and their culture. And what has that been teaching people about ethics lately? An honor code only works in a society where there is honor.

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MUM’s the word: Google Search to get 1,000 times more powerful
What's New in Publishing, 2021/10/01

I'm including this article mostly because I want to be the first to suggest new branding for Google search: call it "Ask Mum". That's pretty much the direction the product is headed, as Google tries to move away from simple keyword searchers to actually answering questions using its Multitask Unified Model (MUM). I will admit that none of the examples (videos of interactions on a mobile phone) appealed to me; the pictures are nice, but when I'm limited to one or two results on the screen, it's not really usable. This is doubly the case if these results are provided by advertisers. What would be useful? Removing language barriers. Multiple points of view. Unbiased results.

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Cut the bull: The demise of the Baccalaureate has been greatly exaggerated
Apostolos Koutropoulos, Multilitteratus Incognitus, 2021/10/01

I've stopped posting links from Inside Higher Ed because it has started putting up paywalls in front of them. To judge by this article I'm not missing much. "Idiocies that used to be a comment left in an actual news article (one which you could ignore) now have been promoted as opinion pieces on IHE." I've always felt IHE had an advocacy function to a certain degree, and of course a paywall limits the effectiveness. Anyhow, Apostolos K dissects (and eviscerates) an article from Ray Schroeder called Demise of the Baccalaureate Degree. It being October 1, I wasted my "last article of the month" from IHE on this. It's essentially the tired old trope "of the university being too slow to adapt and teaching dated materials." See you in November (maybe) IHE.

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Is sharing recorded lectures all at once as effective as releasing them week by week?
Jim Davies, University Affairs, 2021/10/01

My question when I started reading this article was to wonder what the author meant by 'effective'. It was, of course, grades. He questions "whether there would be a difference between releasing all of the lectures at once ('the Netflix model') or releasing the videos week by week ('the Disney+ model')." In this one course at this one school, "the average grade was less than one percentage point different." Though the results have basically zero statistical validity, the author recommends the Netflix model, "since it’s less work to release them all at the beginning." Methodology like that is what makes cognitive science so unique!

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