OLDaily

An Introduction to cmi5: Next-generation of e-Learning Interoperability
Advanced Distributed Learning, 2022/02/25

This item was posted last September but it showed up in my feed reader only today, and it's certainly worth passing along. It describes cmi5 (EduTech wiki says "cmi5 probably stands for computer managed instruction, fifth attempt"), which has been in the works for a number of years now. If I had to summarize it in a sentence, I would say that cmi5 basically takes SCORM and combines it with xAPI. In other words, it describes the conditions for launching and running a learning resource, and includes information about how to record the activities undertaken using that learning resource. For more, see the cmi5 catapult, "a freely available, open-source cmi5 content player and cmi5 conformance test suite for use by DoD stakeholders or and other e-learning technology vendors."

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Coda 3.0
Shishir Mehrotra, ProductHunt, 2022/02/25

This is the listing on ProductHunt for Coda 3.0, a document editing tool that features a large number of integrations with other applications and pre-packaged templates for them (called 'packs'). I devoted an episode of Stephen Follows Instructions to it. It's an hour and 20 minutes long, but it covers everything. If you want to see how to approach a new application and learn it from scratch on your own, watch this video and observe my process as I work through the options, make assumptions, and try things out. Would I actually use this product? Well, I like it a lot, but all of your data is stored on their service, and there's no way to export it at all. To me, that just creates too large a risk, and so I would never use it as an authoring platform.

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Flexibility, accessibility and engagement: How the Centre for Open Learning developed positive teaching practice from the pandemic
Gavin Inglis, Teaching Matters blog, 2022/02/25

This is yet another 'how we responded to Covid' article. But I want to include it here to demonstrate how much more useful it is posted as a blog post than published in a $169 textbook few will read. We also find it reflects some understanding of online learning prior to 2020. "Rather than simply recording his existing lectures, David opted for a more compressed format inspired by podcasts. He broke the material into 15-25 minute tightly scripted chunks that students could consume in whatever way suited them." Also worth noting: "the focus group found that requiring a raised hand to speak, whether real or virtual, gave the meeting more structure than an in-person, organic discussion, and made space for everybody to express their view." I've always preferred that approach for any group more than a few people

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Step Away From the Stickers
Lisa Cranston, The MEHRIT Centre, 2022/02/25

This article is a reminder that, in a way, some things never change. The 'stickers' in question are things like the gold stars handed out four students to display somewhere (the fridge, the wall, the lunch box). They're the pre-internet version of badges. The gist of this article is that teachers should avoid the use of stickers, for two major reasons: first, because they are based on "assuming that the child has full control of his or her behaviour and could demonstrate the desired behaviour if they wanted to, but sometimes choose not to do so"; and second, because "when we incentivize behaviour, we run the risk of extinguishing pre-existing intrinsic motivation." Via Doug Peterson.

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Book review: Teaching in the Post Covid-19 Era
Tony Bates, Online learning and distance education resources, 2022/02/25

Tony Bates reviews Fayed & Cummings (eds) (2021) Teaching in the Post Covid 19 Era. I'm not about to shell out $US 169 for this book, even if that works out to around $2 per chapter. As he says, "no-one is going to read this 764 page book from end to end. Readers are going to dip in and out." He also suggests that though it offers "many examples here of innovative teaching, particularly using synchronous technology," the lack of a comprehensive index, unifying themes, or sense of organization mean it's really basically a list of related articles. Also, readers "would think that online learning was invented in March, 2020. Very, very few of the articles made any reference to all the 30 years of research." Finally, as Bates says, "the real problem here is not online learning, but what are increasingly outdated and ineffective lecture methods, which become even more ineffective when transferred online without modification. That surely is one of the most important lessons from the pandemic." The other - to me - was the value of open publishing. Too bad all this work will remain hidden from view, with nobody but the most dedicated (like Bates) reading it.

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4 concepts that will shape education in 2022
Louisa Rosenheck, eSchool News, 2022/02/25

Honestly, I think it's cheating a bit to make predictions for the year in the last few days of February, but that's what this article does. And reading them, they feel more like predictions of what publications will write about, as opposed to what will actually happen in the field. For example, the idea of the metaverse isn't new and won't actually make great gains in 2022, simply because it's expensive and time-consuming and takes a lot of work to get even minimal results. The discussion of critical race theory, the second concept raised, will continue, but while equity and inclusion are important issues generally, the efforts to suppress discussion of race will again have minimal impact on actual practice, except maybe to raise awareness a little. The great resignation, concept number three, could have a significant impact where teachers are undervalued and underpaid. The same could be said about the idea of pandemic heroes. Will any of these "shape education"? No.

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