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Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

ALT redux

David Kernohan, Dec 21, 2023

This is a look at the history of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and the fine art of prediction in ed tech. Prediction has been a subject of OLDaily over the years as well, and I would humbly say I've been pretty good at it. That said, I did enjoy David Kernohan's discussion, especially the classification of prediction tropes ('flying car predictions', 'extrapolation predictions', 'swedenborgian predictions'). I also liked his attempt to identify and code ALT sessions for every year since 2002 (though the colours are so similar it's really difficult to identify which is which on the chart - the trick is to navigate your mouse over the precise point where a line crosses a year to see the little popup). The top topics year in and year out are 'course design', 'students', 'interfaces' and 'content' - which tells us more, I think, about a conservatism inherent in education (even in ed tech!) that makes good prediction a lot harder.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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