OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics. 100% human-authored

Support OLDaily. A paid subscription keeps OLDaily free and open for all. We're now at 29% of our fundraising target. A big thank you to our supporters. Click here to support OLDaily.

EIU Global Liveability Index 2026
Economist, 2026/07/09

---

It should always be understood that indicators such as this don't actually measure, they instead promote a specific agenda and then rank accordingly. Such is the case with the Economist's Most Livable Cities index, which includes access to private health care and access to private education as among its desirable features. This link is too the actual report, not the magazine's (paywalled) summary or some other overview.

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

Research infrastructure: why confidence, not technology is the real challenge
Sara Moverley, JISC, 2026/07/09

---

Good article (and not excessively wordy, which is a treat in the current environment) outlining challenges and trends in research infrastructure procurement. The core challenge isn't technology, it's confidence - how can you make major decisions in such a rapidly changing environment? The trend is toward hybrid infrastructure, allowing partners to opt for capability according to their own current needs. Good link near the end to a resource on mapping federation journeys.

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

Poverty of Attention
Ian O'Byrne, Digitally Literate, 2026/07/09

---

"Who retains the capacity for independent thought, and who controls the conditions under which others get to. The capacity to think clearly is stratifying by nation, by literacy, by wealth." So writes Ian O'Byrne. He's not wrong, but we need to understand that the answer isn't to go backwards - that takes us to a time when disparities were even worse. Still, the question of who gets to have agency, and ergo the education that makes it possible, is a fundamental social justice question.

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

Google NotebookLM's Short Video Overviews turn dense PDFs into 60-second TikToks
BlazeTrends, 2026/07/09

---

I'm sure the model is impressive, but this part of the description (not from Google) seems made up: "NotebookLM is directly targeting the visual muscle memory we all built scrolling through Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The human brain is now highly adapted to absorb 60-second vertical bursts of information. Google simply swapped out the entertainment for your actual class syllabus." Some of us may have become habituated to the form, but there's no evidence of cause and no possibility of adaptation.

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 Bluesky
• Read OLDaily as a LinkedIn Newsletter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed