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Editorial
Santosh Panda, Journal of Learning for Development, 2026/07/14

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I don't usually link to a journal editorial as it's usually a summary of the issue's contents, and this one is no different. But there's a tension here I want to address. No doubt context is important in any design, development, and evaluation of open and distance learning (ODL). But analyses of "x perceptions of y" is a poor substitute for context. Personal perceptions are often misreported, are usually uninformed, should not be aggregated, cannot be shown to have casual impact, and essentially amount to opinion disguised as research. If it were up to me this staple of academic writing in education would be disallowed.

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What will be left for us to work on?
Arvind Narayanan, AI As Normal Technology, 2026/07/14

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This is an excellent transcript (or you can listen to the keynote audio) on the impact of AI on human work and capability. In short, the argument is that super-intelligence isn't sufficient to achieve significant impacts on its own. In short, the bottlenecks aren't in cognition, but in decision, testing, evaluation, process and other things that have to be conpleted outside the AI lab. Take the time to give this one the close attention it deserves.

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Local journalism’s AI problem is that we never solved its consumer problem
Eric Ulken, Medium, 2026/07/14

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The surprising bit in this analysis of local news media and AI disruption is the reason people give for paying for it: "74% cite consumer-good attributes such as access to 'the facts I need,' while only 44% mention public-good qualities like 'the public’s right to know' as reasons for giving." I would imagine the role of self-interest various a lot across cultures. I think also the analysis overlooks the role of personal experience on the part of the reporter, even as it underlines its own credibility by pointing to 25 years of experience in local news. This item and the previous via News Alchemists.

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2026 European Enterprise Publisher Newsletter Report
Center for Sustainable Media, 2026/07/14

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What interested me about this item wasn't the stats on European newsletters, but rather what the author considered 'underuse', keeping in mind the target is news media. Naturally I was compelled to compare with my own practice, developed over 25 years. The focus wasn't content - it was about being more upfront, more open with 'samples', and developing habits and relationships over time. The major gap, in my view, was the lack of any mention of RSS.

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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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