OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

Announcement on Congress 2026
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2025/05/22

---

'Congress' is a large annual gathering in Canada of thousands of reserachers and dozens of separate conferences in the social sciences and humanities. One of my earliest papers, "Could Hume Play Billiards?" was accepted at Congress in Calgary in 1994, but I didn't make it because my car broke down in Edmonton. I've been once since (2012, Waterloo) and I'll be in Toronto this June to present three times (once at CNIE, twice at OTESSA). But this may be the last in-person Congress, because it just doesn't make financial sense any more. What's really interesting to me, though, is that academics will now learn that simply replicating the in-class experience, the way an academic conference does, is not such a great online experience. What works better? Well, that has been the subject of this newsletter, and my work, for the last 30 years. Maybe come see me while you can. :)

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Eoin Murray Notebooks
Eoin Murray, 2025/05/22

---

This site describes Boltzmann machines and demonstrates a tiny Boltzmann machine you can run in your browser. "Boltzmann Machines are used for unsupervised learning, which means they can learn from data without being told what to look for. They can be used for generating new data that is similar to the data they were trained on, also known as generative AI." As the site says, it mimics how energy works in physics, and more specifically, 'anneals' the connection weights by varying sensitivity, thus settling into an overall lowest-energy state, rather than into local minima. See more simulations from the same author and also some primers on key concepts.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

What the hell is MCP?
Saurabh Shah, The Learning Curve, 2025/05/22

---

This article may provide you with a little bit more information about the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard used by applications to expose services to AI systems. It includes an example of an MCP directive (though in a syntax that is unfamiliar to me (though it may just be comments)). The main reason I'm running this post today is to restate a point I heard on TWIT this week, that MCP is likely a transitional technology, and that future AI will probably not need a standardized way to access application services.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

AI Literacy Framework for Primary & Secondary Education
AILit Framework, 2025/05/22

---

Yes, it's another AI literacy framework (43 page PDF). This one is a joint EC and OECD initiative. Here's the definition: "AI literacy represents the technical knowledge, durable skills, and future-ready attitudes required to thrive in a world influenced by AI. It enables learners to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and ethical implications." There are three major themes: how AI and machine learning work; human skills for AI collaboration; and AI's effects on individuals, society and the environment. And there are four major domains: engaging with AI, creating with AI, managing AI, and designing AI.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed