447 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2019
    1. s Adobe Spark Video.

      I have personal hate for Adobe Spark because of how glitchy and untrustworthy it is.

    2. The act of creating a commercial gets students thinking about elements of story such as character, setting, and plot.

      Multilayered activity (benefits students multiple ways.) What other ways are there?

    3. The library is constantly expanding and keeps student interest in books and reading growing.

      Answer to my possible question: How to get students interested/involved?

  2. Mar 2019
    1. we don’t want to fund teachers and manageable class sizes, so we outsource the plagiarism problem to a for-profit company that has a side gig of promoting the importance of the problem it promises to solve.

      Yet another example of a misdirected "solution" to a manufactured problem that ends up being more costly - in terms of monetary expense AND student learning AND faculty engagement - than it would have been to invest in human interaction and learner-centered pedagogies.

    1. First, when teachers get access to new technologies, they typically use them to extend existing practices.

      This is deeply problematic given the fact that even if Ts use SAMR recommendations, the platforms themselves (at least proprietary ones like GAFAM - Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) are specifically designed for surveillance and monetizing 'engagement'. See Kwet, Michael, Digital Colonialism: US Empire and the New Imperialism in the Global South (August 15, 2018). For final version, see: Race & Class Volume 60, No. 4 (April 2019) ; DOI: 10.1177/0306396818823172. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3232297 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3232297

    1. we provide him as much help as possible in making a plan of action. Then we give him as much help as we can in carrying it out. But we also have to allow him to change his mind at almost any point, and to want to modify his plans.

      I'm thinking about the role of AI tutors/advisors here. How often do they operate in the kind of flexible way described here. I wonder if they can without actual human intervention.

  3. Feb 2019
    1. These outcomes and estimated effect sizes bring us back to a key applied question: Which method—longhand (on paper or eWriter) or laptop—should students use to take notes? At this point, we would argue that the available evidence does not provide a definitive answer to this question.
    1. Both afford us the op-portunity to learn with others, but they are very different environments with different po-tential risks and benefits.

      As mentioned earlier in this article, experiences that incorporate private and public contexts can help people advance their understanding and facility in negotiating these different spaces.

    2. The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Issue a Press Re-lease
  4. Jan 2019
    1. My engineering courses were pushed to use Matlab and Mathematica by the companies selling them, who have then successfully set themselves up for market dominance outcompeting literally free, equivalent tools despite ludicrous cost and abhorrent business models. Changing our practices and what tools we use is the first part of escaping that.

      Let's go. This gets at the heart of the point I wanted to make last week about the necessity of interrogating these practices -- or at least raising awareness around alternatives to them. Thank you!

    1. A Rubric for Evaluating E-Learning Tools in Higher Education

      The Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation offers educators a framework, with criteria and levels of achievement, to assess the suitability of an e-learning tool for their learners' needs and for their own learning outcomes and classroom context.

    1. The year of the MOOC, the death of the MOOC

      As one of those folks still working in MOOCs, it has been fascinating to watch the ups and downs, and the twists and turns, that perceptions of this vehicle have taken. I wonder how much the narrative of "life and death" of edtech tools or strategies distorts the nature of how we use them? MOOCs are still proving to be powerful triggers and invitations for faculty at Boulder to think more mindfully and intentionally about their teaching practices. Isn't that a form of life as well?

  5. Nov 2018
    1. Classroom

      This site pulls together articles working with a variety of topics, such as Blended Learning, and is a great tool for professional development at the K-12 level. It has sections based on particular states, tips and tactics, videos, etc. that all offer important and current information on best practices in bringing educational technology to the classroom.

      Content Depth: 4/5

      Content Breadth: 4/5

      Ease of Access: 4/5

    1. This study looks at educators needs and proficiency with education to determine best practices. In particular, it identifies that teachers need, and often welcome, increased training in these areas. It notes that hands-on technological training for both teachers and students is at the crux of any success that will be seen in teacher growth in this field. It then diagrams what best practices in these trainings can look like; focusing primarily on a K-12 environment.

      Content Depth: 5/5

      Content Breadth: 2/5

      Ease of Access: 4/5

  6. Oct 2018
    1. Meanwhile, IT organizations are often defined by what's necessary rather than what's possible, and the cumulative weight of an increasingly complex communications infrastructure weighs ever heavier.

      In the middle of a deeper exploration of the 2014 edtech landscape.

    2. In our main article, we argue that those of us in higher education, rather than offloading our vision to venture capital-inspired "solutions" for education, should be using open architecture, through open-source applications, to reinvest in creative people, processes, and possibilities-that is, to reclaim innovation.

      A call for and examples of opening knowledge practices.

    1. I imagine it is possible that personalized and adaptive learning could well preserve that which is sacred in the faculty-student relationship, freeing faculty to focus on what matters most. After all, what I cherish most about the colleges and universities I have attended are the human connections.

      This seems like what everyone who values the human connections in education wants — and promotes as a healthy outcome of technology-enhanced learning — but do we have any evidence that this hope is borne out? It seems that most technology interventions in education are happening in an environment where there are also strong forces working to reduce the costs — especially labor costs — and so machines are most often displacing human connections rather than freeing up time for more.

    2. Growing up as an immigrant to this world of technology-enabled possibility filled me with a sense of endless wonder that may come less easily to natives.

      The idea that a "digital immigrant" may have a more positive relationship with digital technology than a "digital native".

    1. More recently, Brad and University of Michigan's Dean of Libraries James Hilton codified what they consider to be the contrasts between open source and Community Source in their essay "The Marketecture of Community," and which Brad elaborates on in his piece "Speeding Up On Curves." They represent different models of procuring software in a two-by-two matrix, where the dimensions are "authority" and "influence":

      authority and influence in dimensions in procurement of proprietary and commercial educational technology

    1. For all the talk about data and learning, Essa offered this blunt assessment: “Pretty much all edtech sucks. And machine learning is not going to improve edtech.” So what’s missing? “It’s not about the data, but how do we apply it. The reason why this technology sucks is because we don’t do good design. We need good design people to understand how this works.”

      I'm pretty sure this doesn't make any sense. Also, it is pretty funny.

  7. Sep 2018
  8. Aug 2018
    1. In releasing the study results, Campus Technology reported that some teachers had expressed mixed feelings about the use of technology. These opinions came in the form of open-ended questions answered directly by educators. The educators were not identified. One noted that the learning process can suffer if students depend too much on their devices. “People can easily get addicted to their devices, and using technology can change the way the brain develops - not always in a good way,” the teacher wrote. Another educator wrote: “Technology is accidentally increasing students' weakness in reading and figuring things out (or critical thinking). They confuse clicking with learning.”
    2. The study also looked at how technology helped teaching effectiveness. A large majority of educators, 87 percent, said technology had positively affected their ability to teach. Eleven percent said they felt technology had no effect on the quality of their teaching. Just two percent said technology had a negative effect on teaching.
    1. developed on an evidence-based foundation that draws from the learning sciences and is implemented using effective strategies that focus on improving the quality of learning experiences and improving the outcomes for all students.
    2. enable everywhere, all-the-time learning and ensure greater equity and accessibility to learning opportunities over the course of a learner’s lifetime
    1. Digital Fluency

      Another version of the most ambiguous element of our modern edtech lexicon. Fluency, literacy, what do we want to call it and how is it defined? Not to get morbid, but people dying is likely our hope towards this concept stabilizing (surely just in time for something equally confusing to crop up).

    2. OER initiative

      I wonder how a trend towards OER initiatives will change the landscape of for-profit edtech solutions and how they already have

  9. Jul 2018
    1. an institutional rather than a user focus

      This is key: Desires to use portfolios in institutional/program assessment practices are part of what has made them cumbersome. Portfolio use in programs that emphasized their value for students and learning have always been the best examples in my opinion (eg, Portland State, LaGuardia CC, Clemson), even if they also use them in institutional/program assessment too.

    2. e-portfolios did not become the standard form of assessment as proposed

      Agreed, and yet I still believe that portfolios are a powerful part of what some call "authentic" assessment practices.

    3. for many students owning their own domain and blog remains a better route to establishing a lifelong digital identity

      DoOO is definitely a great goal, especially if it is viewed in part as a portfolio activity, so people use their domains to build up a lifelong portfolio. What seems key is having the right supports in place to help people and institutions reach such goals not only technically, but most importantly, as a set of practices integrated into their personal and institutional workflows.

    4. e-portfolios

      FWIW, I think the eportfolio community coalesced around not using a hyphen or capital P in the term. Some prefer to just talk about "portfolios", reasoning that the "electronic" part was not a necessary ingredient and probably should be updated to "digital" regardless.

    5. What has changed, what remains the same, and what general patterns can be discerned from the past twenty years in the fast-changing field of edtech?

      Join me in annotating @mweller's thoughtful exercise at thinking through the last 20 years of edtech. Given Martin's acknowledgements of the caveats of such an exercise, how can we augment this list to tell an even richer story?

    6. 2008: E-Portfolios

      My first entry into edtech was in eportfolios, back in 2004 when I was at Portland State University. PSU was probably an early adopter of eportfolios, so 2008 may be the right year to put them in as a wider focus.

  10. Jun 2018
  11. May 2018
    1. The video offers HAX as the future of online course development because it simplifies the technology requirements of users in exchange for quality content and ease of access. At a recent conference in Nashville, Ollendyke and Kaufman used Lego pieces to explain HAX as being like the gridplate of a Lego board that allow for Open Source modular content to work together to create easy, multimedia integration.

      Nice one! I wonder if this was maybe OLCInnovate 2018 in Nashville? Which I'd seen it!

  12. Apr 2018
    1. Rapid changes in digital communication provide facilities for reading and writing to be combined with various and often quite complex aspects of images, music, sound, graphics, photography and film

      This source is going to my second go-to for information. I chose this sources because of its ability to give me a larger amount of information strictly pertaining to multi modal literates - ranging from composition of works, to the makeup of classrooms. It focuses on more recent research (2010) and k-12 classrooms. It also points out ways in which students and teachers can use technology, and where teachers can attempt to promote more technology in classrooms

    1. This paper describes my investigation of technology integration in social studies instruction to build an understanding of why technology is being used to teach social studies content. Given the nature of social studies instruction and the need to engagestudents in the learning process, I selected motivational theory as a theoretical frame for this research.

      This article focuses on motivational theory as a looking glass into multimodal classroom and literates. Tina Heafner first offers definitions about motivation theory, before digesting her observations and methods commonly used to promote motivation. She then uses her observations to make her professional recommendations.

    1. What can we build that would allow people to 1.) annotate terms of service related to tools they adopt in a classroom? and 2.) see an aggregated list of all current annotations. Last, if we were to start critically analyzing EdTech Terms of Service, what questions should we even ask?

    1. Data Re-Use. Contractor agrees that any and all Institutional Data exchanged shall be used expressly and solely for the purposes enumerated in the Agreement. UH Institutional Data shall not be distributed, repurposed or shared across other applications, environments, or business units of the Contractor. The Contractor further agrees that no Institutional Data of any kind shall be revealed, transmitted, exchanged or otherwise passed to other vendors or interested parties except on a case-by-case basis as specifically agreed to in writing by a University officer with designated data, security, or signature authority.

      Like this clause. Wonder if this is the exception or the rule in Uni procurement deals these days?

  13. Mar 2018
    1. Raspberry Pi, Scratch, and HTML and CSS

      I'm going to push for this in a class I'm working with now - our default is WordPress :|

    1. The learning was further extended through becoming part of the Association for Learning Technology where I have increased my technical and theoretical perspectives in learning technology. 

      EDTECH community

    2. I had been an early adopter of learning technologies and when I returned to Warwick I was able to complete further learning including an e-learning award and a Masters in Post Compulsory Education which had provided lots of opportunities to reflect through blogging

      EDTECH connection

    3. This serendipitous meeting on Steve Wheeler's blog back then was the spark that led to the creation of connected network at a point when I had recently developed an online space using moodle for supporting the teaching of languages at Warwick's Language Centre. The opportunity therefore to connect our student cohorts meant that we could set about creating a shared, large scale virtual exchange. 

      Connection, Unpredictability, Serendiptity, EDTECH developer MOODLE

  14. Feb 2018
    1. “It seems like there’s less introducing of brand-new technology in teaching and learning, as opposed to really thinking more about how do you teach well with it.”

      Or do you even need to teach with it?

    1. Teaching, Learning, and IT Issues: Points of Intersection

      Intersections between EDUCAUSE's 2018 top 10 IT and teaching and learning issues.

    2. The IT and the T&L visions are thus fairly congruent: integrating disparate applications so that they offer our communities a consolidated environment and more customizable functionality. These are invigorating and also daunting challenges.

      Drawing connections between decentralizing services in the ERP > enterprise architecture and LMS > NGDLE.

    3. with more data comes more responsibility

      on the responsibility generated by aggregating learner data

    4. EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Key Issues in Teaching and Learning surveys

      Visit the 2018 ELI Key Issues in Teaching and Learning with Hypothesis annotation enabled.

    5. EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues

      Visit the 2018 EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues with Hypothesis annotation enabled.

    1. Larry Berger, CEO of Amplify, explains why he no longer believes in the "engineering model" of personalized learning.

      Here's the problem: The map doesn't exist, the measurement is impossible, and we have, collectively, built only 5% of the library.

    1. IT organizations will be focusing on four areas this year: Institutional adaptiveness IT adaptiveness Improved student outcomes Improved decision-making

      EDU IT's top 4 issues:

      1. Institutional adaptiveness
      2. IT adaptiveness
      3. Improved student outcomes
      4. Improved decision-making
  15. Jan 2018
    1. competency-based education and new methods of assessment (from #5 to #16)

      Will CBL follow the pattern of MOOCs? Wait, what pattern did MOOCs follow? They are certainly not gone...

    2. See how the results of the latest ELI Key Issues in Teaching and Learning Survey stack up against responses from years past.

      Jump to an annotated version of ELI's 2018 Key issues in Teaching and Learning.

    1. Key Issues in Teaching and Learning

      Jump to Malcom Brown's post contextualizing ELI's 2018 Key issues in Teaching and Learning.

      2018 key issues include:

      1. Academic Transformation
      2. Accessibility and UDL
      3. Faculty Development
      4. Privacy and Security
      5. Digital and Information Literacies
      6. Integrated Planning and Advising Systems for Student
      7. Instructional Design
      8. Online and Blended Learning
      9. Evaluating Technology-based Instructional Innovations
      10. Open Education
      11. Learning Analytics
      12. Adaptive Teaching and Learning
      13. Working with Emerging Technology
      14. Learning Space Designs
      15. NGDLE and LMS Services
  16. Dec 2017
  17. Nov 2017
    1. “The technology should not be driving what you do in instruction. We should look at them as resources,” Moskal said. “What is the problem or the issue or what you are trying to achieve in your instruction, and then go look for appropriate technologies that can help you most efficiently and with the highest level of instruction achieve some of those improvements.”

      Some still haven't heard this message?

    1. Educational technologists who thrive will do so by adroitly blending local culture with the global platforms.
    2. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which have become the poster child of innovation in higher education over the last two to three years
    3. "it's not about the technology" because "the technology is neutral."

      Right. Technology isn’t neutral. Nor is it good or bad. It’s diverse and it’s part of a broader context. Can get that some educators saying that it’s not about technology may have a skewed view of technology. But, on its own, this first part can also lead to an important point about our goals. It’s about something else. But, of course, there are some people who use the “bah, the technology doesn’t matter as long as we can do what we do” line to evade discussion. Might be a sign that the context isn’t right for deep discussion, maybe because educators have deeper fears.

    1. they commercialized and monetized the course (as opposed to the education) which meant that progressively less and less of the course experience was freely accessible.
    1. Group work/study groups

      I posted 4 podcasts and let students select to which they wanted to listen. They recorded a reflective comment and had to option to add a resource (i.e. link to webpage) that expanded on the topic. LOVED what they found and will make this required next time!

    2. Welcome message/introductions.

      I have used this for student intros and it works GREAT! Grids are easily shared with other instructors - Darci and Sue viewed and added their comments prior to the first day of their classes.

    1. holistic, in which the skilled crafts-person could make almost every tool needed, and had much creative control over the entire process, and prescriptive, in which the control is shifted to a hierarchy of managers, and the human is part of a larger machinery. It is the latter meaning of technology that we probably most often encounter, and in my estimation, one that needs to be balanced with the holistic meaning.

      holistic vs. prescriptive

    1. Note that Speak the Words only works in Chrome. 

      Ugh! Conceivably, it also works in Chromium. But this is the kind of thing which really changes the way a feature is used.

  18. Oct 2017
    1. “The notion that adaptive technology is the reason why one school should choose one company’s content over OER (open educational resources) or other options” has become a staple of many publisher’s marketing claims, says Trace Urdan, an education market analyst.
    2. Pearson is “investing heavily in product development and is developing its own in-house adaptive learning capability,”
  19. Sep 2017
    1. broadband and ICTs also increase the ability of individuals to choose and arrange learning that is appropriate to their particular circumstances and needs

      tech > personalized learning

    2. technology is widely perceived to support and enhance how individuals learn

      tech improves learning

    1. I think a lot of faculty are still at the point where they need a stack of papers and red pen.

      Emphasis on “still”. Direction of change?

  20. Aug 2017
    1. Is this just-in-time support or something else?

      For me, the majority of it is this. Not last second, frantic JIT, but "I want/need support at the time I will actually use what you help me understand, build, use, plan, etc."

    1. I need to change my study habits

      Forcing new mods of behaviour - thats defo what I want from my degree(s).

    2. There is also correlation, the students are learning, between perception and success.

      uhhhhh this is almost a poem or a Dandy Warhol lyric right?

    3. students could easily game the highlighting or note-taking functions. Or a student might improve his score by leaving his textbook open and doing something else.

      WTAF?

    4. data

      "some data is more equal than other data"

    5. “It knows more than my mother.”

      So many fallacies at work now. Don't know where to start. This is one of the saddest sentences here though for sure.

    6. they

      huh - I take back what I said about the author - I don't think there is any irony happening here.

    7. CourseSmart said it knew of no problems with its software

      And one must always side with the machines. Always with the machines.

    8. they know the books are watching them

      aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrggghhhhh

    9. notes on paper

      but don't trust the STs #amirite?

    10. manager needed better data

      because its made of people?

    11. reams of data

      Starting to wonder if David Streitfeld was sub-writing this whole thing. His rhetoric is quite dark and foreboding.

    12. they decline to say what, if anything, they will do with it

      bwahahahahaha

    13. help prepare new editions.

      Almost sounds like soylent green right?

    14. expressions on their faces

      but did they? really?

  21. Jul 2017
    1. It’s all haystack and no needle.

      Focus on making needles, not on making needles easier to find.

    2. the world of educational research is a control group wasteland

      difficulty of doing good research in education

    1. There’s always a danger in nostalgia, when one invents a romanticized past

      Another core point from my "all but" dissertation: these narratives of change often (always?) depend on nostalgia for a something that never really existed, but is retroactively projected backward.

    2. what if, to borrow from Ian Bogost, “progressive education technology” – the work of Seymour Papert, for example – was a historical aberration, an accident between broadcast models, not an ideal that was won then lost?

      Ian's point hearkens back to a (not very original) core point from my "all but" dissertation: that there is a pattern where new practices and technologies are first enjoyed in an early "organic" state, where a wide variety of uses happen, but then are often (always?) reshaped by dominant forces (eg, capitalism) to focus on narrower use. A classic example is the cacophonic early days of radio and the subsequent assertion of control over the radio spectrum by government, the military, and commerce.

    1. rubric for the exercise

      rubric for evaluating edtech tools with critical digital literacies

    2. And instead of putting our resources and skills into imagining what those spaces could become for teaching and learning, we began spending a lot of money on learning managements systems and other educational technologies.

      on disinvestment in tilde spaces as proto DoOO and investment into LMS and commercial edtech

    1. I’m not so sure it does, or at least that it does in the same way as Bush's vision of an “ownership society”. It seems, rather, that the rest of ed-tech – the LMS, adaptive learning software, predictive analytics, surveillance tech through and through – is built on an ideology of data extraction, outsourcing, and neoliberalism. But the Web – and here I mean the Web as an ideal, to be sure, and less the Web in reality – has a stake in public scholarship and public infrastructure.

      neoliberal edtech vs public web infrastructure

  22. May 2017
    1. . Since ePortfolio practice is inherently eclectic, it deserves an equally eclectic learning foundation. In the DLL program, we developed the COVA (choice, ownership, voice, and authenticity) learning approach to give our learners the freedom to choose (C) how they wish to organize, structure and present their experiences and evidences of learning. We give them ownership (O) over the selection of their authentic projects and the entire ePortfolio process—including selection of their portfolio tools. We use the ePortfolio experiences to give our learners the opportunity to use their own voice (V) to revise and restructure theirwork and ideas. Finally, we use authentic (A) or real world learning experiences that enable students to make a difference in their own learning environments (Harapnuik, 2016)

      Theory

    2. . 141 former graduate students completed

      Population size

    3. former educational technology students in a graduate program

      The population.

    4. digital collections of student-generated authentic content that include resources and multimedia elements contained in a person

      Definition

  23. Apr 2017
    1. Dhawal Shah, founder of class-central.com, outlines the price schemes of the major MOOC providers. Courses from these providers started out free in 2011, but have gradually put more content behind paywalls. (Some of them haven't really been MOOCs for a long time now.)

      https://twitter.com/grandeped/status/855435067400826881 Matt Crosslin points out that they were never completely free. You can't take one without a fairly new computer and fast Internet connection.

    1. The rise of educational technology is part of a larger shift in political thought, from favoring government oversight to asserting free-market principles, as well as a response to the increasing costs of higher education. The technocentric view that technology can solve these challenges combines with a vision of education as a product that can be packaged, automated, and delivered to students. Unless greater collaborative efforts take place between edtech developers and the greater academic community, as well as more informed deep understandings of how learning and teaching actually occur, any efforts to make edtech education's silver bullet are doomed to fail.
  24. Mar 2017
    1. What are the risks in assuming that we start from a place of shared values and goals?

      Having worked myself in all the roles Joshua talks about here, I'll start out by agreeing with his main point: a lot of people in forprofit edtech are great folks and are personally motivated by many of the same things as educators. Yet I hope this isn't really the issue: I think humans share a lot of values regardless of who they work for. I locate the primary friction between EDU and forprofit edtech at a structural level: education as a public good and forprofit companies motivated primarily by revenue are not naturally aligned, regardless of how well-aligned people on all sides may be. What we need most is not to put more trust and faith in people working in forprofit edtech (we should have some already), but to work for models to develop and provide edtech that are fully aligned with the public good interests of education.

    1. fostering authentic relationships

      Authentic relationships can be established and maintained most easily when goals are shared and communication is transparent as Joshua calls for above. That way the relationship can grow beyond the necessary, but not sufficient level of individuals so that organizations have authentic relationships.

    2. whose values are aligned with ours

      It is very hard for forprofit companies—especial venture backed—to fully align values with EDU because the primary goal of such companies is to return profit for investors, even when they have other shared values with EDU.

  25. Feb 2017
    1. we think of it as like a robot tutor in the sky that can semi-read your mind and figure out where your strengths and weaknesses are down to the percentile.

      Perhaps the quote that best demonstrates the hubris of educational technology ventures. See also Michael Feldstein's post.

    1. A high school student in Brian Boone’s economics class at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, CA made the millionth Hypothesis annotation as a part of a class assignment

      Great to see Hypthesis used in class!

    1. These are positive, incremental improvements in the quality and flexibility of our classrooms, but are nowhere near being transformational (Laurillard, 2007). This is not the use of technology that I’m interested in

      Me, too.

    1. One of the “hot new trends” in education technology is “learning analytics” – this idea that if you collect enough data about students that you can analyze it and in turn algorithmically direct students towards more efficient and productive behaviors, institutions towards more efficient and productive outcomes. Command. Control. Intelligence.

      Starfish is an example of this trend.

    2. Ed-Tech in a Time of Trump
  26. Jan 2017
    1. To support their employment and other objectives, people will create open learning resources. These resources are direct evidence of their own learning. Often these resources will be produced cooperatively.

      And for K12 school assessment? Is this akin to portfolios? "Open Portfolios"? On a domain of one's own?

    2. The purpose of the course isn’t to create a thread of instruction, but rather to help people interested in a topic discover and recommend resources to each other, creating a local and temporary network linking events, groups and communities, and videos and activities.

      This would be interesting framed as a way for teachers to "do" professional development together.

    3. Formal learning will be less and less focused on resources, which will be available to everyone, and much more focused on activities.

      Link to this article, my introduction to Ds106 and the focus on "resources available to everyone" and also making those resources personal.

    4. The traditional approach suggests that open online learning will consist of courses. While courses may well persist (there are occasions where a linear, focused, and deep study of a subject continues to be a good idea), they are occupying a smaller and smaller space in open online learning.

      This is an important consideration in times of smaller budgets... how much do we need to rely on high-cost LMS tools for open education? I'm glad to see openEd innovating away from the Blackboards of the edtech world.

    1. And all the while, the math teachers get essentially relegated to “managing the [Teach to One] program rather than to providing direct instruction” themselves.

      This definitely is a concern with "programs": that teachers essentially become technicians charged with implementing the program.

    1. Those schools that work best socialize the next generation into thinking, feeling, and acting beings who work in communities, thrive in workplaces, and learn to live fully in a digital world.

      Thinking how? Feeling how? Acting how? What are the best relational and pedagogic practices for "intertwining" analog and digital as suggested?

    2. Each of these professionals is immensely aided by new technologies they use daily yet their work depends upon human interaction and unfolding relationships.

      This is most certainly true and I often sense a strain on those who strongly believe this to imagine how technology can really benefit. It is almost seen as a zero sum game, with relationships at odds with "tech".

    3. figuring out what’s important in living a life fully in a world that has become increasingly digital.

      This is a excellent essential question for those of us who work in education technology... how do we live and learn fully in a world that has become increasingly digital?

  27. Dec 2016
    1. I believe that education is a process of offering people tools – conceptual as well as technical – to understand their identities and possibilities and those of others within a structural framework that points to various paths of possible agency.

      Was thinking the other day about Bonnie's keynote at DigPedCairo - during the Q&A phase she had an off hand remark, something like - "perhaps the most important digital literacy is how one signals in a network". This is a continuation, I believe, of that idea. How we signal. How we read signals. What signals we send and/or receive.

  28. Nov 2016
    1. Imagine if we trained students of digital media and culture not just to criticize but to intervene in the development of emergent technologies

      great question here!

  29. Oct 2016
    1. That this can be another chance for us to direct more of the conversations around teaching and learning and scholarship, rather than simply react to these persistent outside forces

      Many of the convos that happen at/around conferences very much do have the inside/outside dichotomies, which SUCKS.

      I often wonder if that tension is exactly what makes (or SHOULD make) education such an exciting field. Especially with so many internets out there nowadays.

      It is such a multi-faceted environment that reducing it to us vs them gives us targets/outcomes/objectives/metrics.

    2. we must be in control of our own destiny, not swept along by the “solutions” being handed to us

      This is paramount in many of the convos I've been a part of / eavesdropped on. It is also so intensely complicated/complex - so many moving parts and "site" specificity.

  30. Sep 2016
    1. a contribution form allowing new content providers to catalog their materials for iLumina (although materials are reviewed before being finally admitted to the library).

      Nice. This sounds a lot like the OER Commons. Or maybe OER Commons sounds a lot like iLumina?

    1. I want to suggest that what we need instead of a discipline called “education technology” is an undisciplining
    1. For the most successful ed tech rollouts, teachers have to be on board with the plan and they need training to master the new technologies before introducing them in the classroom.
    2. Survey: Teachers dislike smartphones, interactive whiteboards in classroom

      Contrast this with the THE title:

      Research: Laptops, Chromebooks and Tablets Most Valuable Education Tools, Teachers Say

    1. The Arizona Science Standard adopted in 2004 is the current science standard.

      Remarkably expected; still, literacy is addressed.

    1. Technology affords us opportunities to connect, communicate, and co-create with our students like never before. However, it also has the downside of offering unparalleled potential for barriers to learning, as the potential for distractions is ever-present.
  31. Aug 2016
    1. I’m positing that academic technology infrastructure is all Context.  That it is important but provides no differentiation to an institution.
    1. meet students where they’re at

      Encouraged to find this report from opening with an idea that is central in the MentorsOnline project, which asks: "What would YOU want to do, if you could be with your students, right there in the browser?" Glad to have found this. (Glad for the course correction back to good material.)

    1. Any eLearning tool, no matter how openly designed, will eventually become indistinguishable from a Learning Management System once a threshold of supported use-cases has been reached.
    1. blockchain applications are most efficient in dealing with relatively small amounts of structured data. The average transaction (database entry) in the Bitcoin blockchain, e.g., is a mere 500 bytes (give or take) and is highly structured. The structure of the data allows for the development of independent applications to analyze the data on the blockchain.

      Agree! Such structured and shall-be-interoperatable data can plug with recommendation engine for guided learning path. possible?

    1. By suggesting a script for my questions, my phone attempts to program me.
    2. rather than helping us understand the task, this kind of simplification helps us ignore the task and instead understand the device.
  32. Jul 2016
    1. I think we can make it easier for students to navigate the web

      This is the primary motivation for the MentorsOnline project. By making it convenient for teachers to share links, we make it easier for students to learn on the Internet.

    1. Contact azwaldo at gmail dot com for more information.

      This install guide closes a gap. Now, users can 1) register an account (click the face, use "mentor" as pass key), 2) add links to database, 3) create a lesson, 4) DL/install the browser extension, and 5) SEE THEIR LESSON in the application.

      More info here: https://azwaldo.com/wordpress/category/project/ (blog category)

    1. I’ll be candid. I am quite often an unabashed fan of the Internet of Things.

      Candour may bring us to a new level of dialogue. Sometimes sounds like enthusiasm isn’t allowed, in this scene. Which is a lot of what’s behind the “teaching, not tools” rallying cry. We may be deeply aware of many of the thick, tricky, problematic, thorny issues having to do with tools in our lives. We sure don’t assume that any thing or person or situation is value-free. But we really want to talk about learning. We care about learning. We’re big fans of learning. Cyclical debates about tools are playing in the EdTech court, even when they’re “critical”. Or cynical. Sharing about learning experiences can restore our faith in humanity. Which might be needed after delving so much into the experimental side of social psychology.

    1. What is necessary, however, is that enough investment be put into presentation that newcomers can get past the initial obstacle of unfamiliarity.

      This is good news, as it is precisely what has been happening in the project. More info here: https://azwaldo.com/wordpress/category/project/

    1. education technology has become about control, surveillance, and data extraction
    2. technology industry, the education technology industry programming the child
    3. don’t give ed-tech pep talks, where you leave the room with a list of 300 new apps you can use in your classroom.

      The impact these talks have is difficult to assess. Some may be quick to blame people for attending such talks. But it’s hard to fight cheery, enthusiastic pronouncements when your job is devalued.

    1. A Postcolonial Look at the Future of #EdTech

      Timely. Sent it to a few people, already, as it connects with several discussions we’ve been having on neocolonialism in EdTech, including the content side of Open Education (OER). Some of it reminds me of Crissinger’s critical take on OER, based on her experience with Open Access.

    1. New technology has often been introduced in schools without the necessary long-term planning and training that should have accompanied it. SMART boards were notorious for being installed in classrooms (at great cost) and then used in the same way as the static blackboards that preceded them. One-to-one device programs have been ridiculed for the same reasons.

      Was just discussing the SMART boards roll-out with a friend and colleague.

  33. Jun 2016
    1. 1FutureReadyLearning

      Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education

    1. The web breaks us out of a product-centered publishing cycle and allows us to become part of an ongoing flow, in which knowledge is perpetually negotiated within networks.

      Evolution of knowledge/content: process over product

    1. The less we understand our tools, the more we are beholden to them

      Yes! The more we understand our tools, the more we can hack them to do what we want them to do.

    2. Both will, however, ensure that students feel more thoroughly policed.

      I'm skeptical, but it will be interesting to see how successful efforts are to use monitoring/flagging when they are intended to make students feel more connected to the content/instructor/peers. Lumen's platform apparently will email students with "canned" messages from the instructor when events are triggered. "Personal" touch?

    3. We must approach the Internet of Things as a space of learning, not as a way to monitor and regulate.
    4. these things make education increasingly about obedience, not learning.
    5. The less we understand our tools, the more we are beholden to them.
    1. adaptive learning - a broad range of software and techniques that attempt ongoing customization of lessons for each student.

      Ideally, adaptive learning is like providing a personal tutor for each student. It can also help a teacher determine which topics need more attention for individual students or the class as a whole. And it may free up class time that would otherwise be used lecturing on basics.

    1. Snapchat does not currently respond to do-not-track signals that may be sent from your device.

      Protecting yourself with do-not-track requests doesn't matter - it isn't listened to.

    2. Revoking Permissions. If you change your mind about our ongoing ability to collect information from certain sources that you have already consented to, such as your phonebook, camera, photos, or location services, you can simply revoke your consent by changing the settings on your device if your device offers those options.

      What happens to the data already shared if permission is revoked?

    3. we cannot promise that deletion will occur within a specific timeframe. And we may also retain certain information in backup for a limited period of time or as required by law.

      "Deletion" is a term used loosely in this case.

    4. f you submit content to one of our inherently public features, such as Live, Local, or any other crowd-sourced service, we may retain the content indefinitely.

      Is there a clear distinction in the flow of the app for the common user that there is a significant difference between the methods of sharing images or video?

    5. With third parties as part of a merger or acquisition.

      Another identifier that the data collected by Snapchat is an asset, not used for the benefit of the users.

    6. With our affiliates. We may share information with entities within the Snapchat family of companies.

      What is the "Snapchat family of companies?"

    7. Provide you with an amazing set of products and services that we relentlessly improve.

      The value proposition tries to hide the functioning of the organization. Note that the real reason (ads, data collection, and tracking) are buried in the list below.

    8. enhance the safety and security of our products and services

      Collecting more information about users makes the service less secure. A breach, however small, can release PII because of the variety of metrics collected. Less data = more security.

    9. For example, if another user allows us to collect information from their device phonebook—and you’re one of that user’s contacts—we may combine the information we collect from that user’s phonebook with other information we have collected about you.

      I may choose not to allow my phone number to be shared, but a friend allows Snapchat to access their phonebook. My once-private information is now shared with a company without my consent.

    10. Information We Get When You Use Our Services

      It's important to remember that all of the following falls under "data which is necessary to provide a service."

      The quantity of information gathered here is enormous. Most of it seems innocuous, but it's all very personal and, implicit in their use of data for advertising, stored on Snapchat's servers with no time for deletion noted.

      This section outlines how Snapchat will continue to stay in business - by farming the information of its users and selling it for advertising.

    11. Of course, you’ll also provide us whatever information you send through the services,

      How many people forget that Snapchat actually sees everything sent? Is this explicitly shared with students when we're teaching?

      We cannot assume they're aware of the transfer of data that takes place when that data is sent through an app or website.

    1. Waiver of Class or Consolidated Actions. ALL CLAIMS AND DISPUTES WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT MUST BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT ON A CLASS BASIS. CLAIMS OF MORE THAN ONE CUSTOMER OR USER CANNOT BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED JOINTLY OR CONSOLIDATED WITH THOSE OF ANY OTHER CUSTOMER OR USER.

      Snapchat had already breached the photos of nearly 5 million users. Those users affected cannot take legal action at the class level, even though it may be warranted.

    2. Waiver of Jury Trial. YOU AND SNAPCHAT WAIVE ANY CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY RIGHTS TO GO TO COURT AND HAVE A TRIAL IN FRONT OF A JUDGE OR A JURY. You and Snapchat are instead electing to have claims and disputes resolved by arbitration. Arbitration procedures are typically more limited, more efficient, and less costly than rules applicable in court and are subject to very limited review by a court. In any litigation between you and Snapchat over whether to vacate or enforce an arbitration award, YOU AND SNAPCHAT WAIVE ALL RIGHTS TO A JURY TRIAL, and elect instead to have the dispute be resolved by a judge.

      This seems like a minor issue, but as more and more cases of abuse and attack via social media arise, this is a significant right to waive in the event that a criminal investigation should be necessary.

    3. Subject to any applicable additional terms and conditions, all purchases are final and non-refundable. And because our performance begins once you tap buy and we give you immediate access to your purchase, you waive any right you may have under EU or other local law to cancel your purchase once it's completed or to get a refund. BY ACCEPTING THESE TERMS, YOU AGREE THAT SNAPCHAT IS NOT REQUIRED TO PROVIDE A REFUND FOR ANY REASON.

      ...and they don't have to refund your purchase.

    4. You don't own these Virtual Products; instead you buy a limited revocable license to use them.

      You can pay for things to use, which looks like owning those things, but they're really licenses that can be revoked at any time.

    5. by using our Services, you agree that Snapchat can collect, use, and transfer your information consistent with that policy

      Data is kept somewhere in order to transfer it.

    6. In addition to the rights you grant us in connection with other Services, you also grant us a perpetual license to create derivative works from, promote, exhibit, broadcast, syndicate, publicly perform, and publicly display content submitted to Live, Local, or any other crowd-sourced Services in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed). To the extent it's necessary, you also grant Snapchat and our business partners the unrestricted, worldwide, perpetual right and license to use your name, likeness, and voice solely in Live, Local, or other crowd-sourced content that you appear in, create, upload, post, or send.

      All live streamed content is stored in perpetuity, also stored and used by business partners for their work.

    7. YOU AND SNAPCHAT AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN US WILL BE RESOLVED BY MANDATORY BINDING ARBITRATION, AND YOU AND SNAPCHAT WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION.

      Snapchat cannot be taken to court.

    8. If you are using the Services on behalf of a business or some other entity, you state that you are authorized to grant all licenses set forth in these Terms and to agree to these Terms on behalf of the business or entity.

      Creating a school or class account makes the organization - and you - liable for that data and use.

    1. It would be like saying the utensils you use to cook are irrelevant to the food you produce - when we all know the difference a pot or oven can make, regardless of content.

      While it’s easy to agree with the thrust of this piece (pretty much a Langdon Winner-style “LMS have politics”), this needs not follow. When we say that it’s not primarily about the tool, we’re not saying that tools don’t matter, that LMS affordances are irrelevant, that the exact same learning experience would occur whether or not we used tools. We’re saying that the tool is part of a broader equation, not the ultimate focal point. There’s a very general “fault line” (in seismological terms), a distinction to be made between technopedagogy and “EdTech”. As with any distinction, it shouldn’t be carried too far and there’s obviously a whole lot of overlap. But there clearly are actions which are technocentred. A common orientation in EdTech is towards the tools themselves (listicles about apps, inspira-/promotional videos, etc.) with sound pedagogy following naturally from “tried and true”, “studies have shown” “best practices”. This may sound like a caricature but “you know the type”. On the other hand, technopedagogy tends to be oriented towards high-concept “think pieces” with enough namedrops (from Freire and Vygotsky to Illich and Dewey) to require an encyclopedia. Again, a caricature. But we also “know the type”. In this “camp”, the #DigPedPosse has been quite prominent over the last little while. Despite being attracted to this sphere of agency, got several hints that “people need practical solutions to solve the simple problems in their everyday teaching”.

      Sooo… This is a minor quibble, as the rest of the piece does resonate with me (apart from the serious issue, near the end). But, given its location so early in the post, it’s important to acknowledge.

    1. I want the educational practice to come first.

      That kind of wording has come under scrutiny by some. Though the sequence does matter and we clearly want to give prominence to the pedagogical/andragogical/heutagogical side, there’s something to be said about a more holistic approach. But, basically, this is the dividing line between #EdTech and technopedagogy. It can easily be blurred, but some of us are drawing this line, over and over again.

    1. The index was put together by industry leaders from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google for Education, IDEO, IBIS Capital, Kaizen Private Equity, Learn Capital, LinkedIN, Times Higher Education and TES Global, the parent company of TES.

      Suitably “global”, underlining the inequalities inherent in the system.

    1. It is almost as if we believe we can simply parachute technology in to a classroom and expect everyone to just pick it up, understand it, use it, hack it, and prosper.
    1. Most LMS environments are not designed as places where students do work; rather, they cater to the needs of instructors. 

      Discuss.