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

Basic Building Blocks for a Learning Model
Jim Shimabukuro, Educational Technology and Change Journal, 2025/09/02

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I'm not sure I would create the learning model exactly the way it is done here, but I appreciate the strategy and I think it's founded in some good thinking about how cognition occurs. Where I begin to drift apart from the authors is in steps four and five where despite pledging to avoid "the confusing backdrop of countless learning and developmental theories," they hypothesize 'layered representations' and 'adaptive exploration'. Also, I wish they had managed to avoid collapsing completely into stereotype, but no, they had to outline the story of "a data scientist who approaches dating like a machine learning problem, as he meets Elena, an environmental scientist who challenges all his algorithmic assumptions." 

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AI Is the Cognitive Layer. Schools Still Think It’s a Study Tool.
Stefan Bauschard, Education Disrupted, 2025/09/02

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This article feels to me like it was written mostly by AI, since it lacks a conciseness and precision that would accompany a human trying to make the same point with less effort. But it does make the very good point (with some pretty lame examples) that educators are focused on exactly the wrong questions about AI. "The real question isn't whether to allow students to use AI, or how to plug it into instruction. The real question is: How do we prepare students for a world where machines can think?" Schools won't stay the same. "What replaces the old system will not simply be a more digital version of the same thing. Structurally, schools may move away from rigid age-groupings, fixed schedules, and subject silos." Anyhow, read the article if you must - though it just goes on and on and on making the same point in different ways. But don't skip over the lesson. Via Miguel Guhlin.

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Building Community through Collaborative Learning
Patti Dyjur, Annette Tézli, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary, 2025/09/02

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According to the website, "the nine chapters included in this guide (84 page PDF) explore how educators can facilitate collaborative learning among students to build cohesive learning communities, how educators collaborate to engage students I community-building learning, and how educators can collaborate to develop powerful learning experiences for students and other educators." There were lessons to be drawn from the experiences, but I wasn't drawn to the case study approach, which to me seemed to lack cohesion and focus. At the end, especially, I'm wondering what Africentric, post-colonial and Indigenous-centered approaches might have in common. One wonders what would have resulted had the many authors worked together to create a single guidebook. Via Todd Conway.

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AI-driven private schools are popping up around the U.S., from North Carolina to Florida
Alexandria Sands, Axios Charlotte, 2025/09/02

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It's not really a surprise to see private AI-based schools emerge in the U.S. as the public educatiuon system becomes increasingly dysfunctional (which is not something I take any delight in observing). The true test will be the outcome, and not the observations of the critics quoted in this article, though unfortunately it will take a generation to find out. I'm hopeful AI will be better for public education and social wisdom than television turned out to be. It could hardly be worse. Via Miguel Guhlin.

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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.

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