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OLWeekly ~ by Stephen Downes[Home] [Top] [Archives] [About] [Options]
by Stephen Downes
Oct 27, 2017
Sorting Algorithms Visualized
morolin, Imgur, 2017/10/27
This is a really nice use of graphics to demonstrate concepts. You can see different sorting algorithms (bubble, cocktail shaker, insertion, shell, comb, etc.) applied to the sorting of coloured squares (each colour has its own numerical value, so it's easy). This allows you to get a visual sense of what the algorithms do and also to compare the methods. At the end of the post the different algorithms are raced against each other. It's Imgur, so the comments are mostly rude, but there was one nice link to a set of videos showing the same algorithms with both colours and sound. These all have different properties - some are faster, some use less memory, some are optimal for certain sorts of data.
The perceptions of the meaning and value of analytics in New Zealand higher education institutions
Hamidreza Mahroeian, Ben Daniel, Russell Butson, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2017/10/27
This article isn't about analytics, but rather, is what people think about analytics. Actually, it's about what a few people in New Zealand think about analytics. Normally I wouldn't care (even if their thoughts are published in an academic journal, and therefore, Better Than Us) but there's a nice observation to be found in the discussion. Some people "perceived analytics regarding its fundamental elements (e.g. data, statistics, numbers, KPIs, graphs, etc.)." Other people "viewed analytics in functional grounds... as the collection of a process... and tools... used to answer the difficult questions, techniques for extracting data and useful discerning information to describe and predict performance outcomes." It's unusual to see functionalism in academic papers about education; usually they're structural, describing processes and evaluations (but not what they're used for). As an aside, the journal editors should have corrected the Venn diagram, which should have used only two circles to depict the three concepts (structural, functional, structural and functional).
Google’s Sentiment Analyzer Thinks Being Gay Is Bad
Andrew Thompson, Motherboard, 2017/10/27
As the subtitle says, "this is the latest example of how bias creeps into artificial intelligence." A sentiment analyzer looks at text-based content (like tweets or blog posts or emails) as determines whether the sender is happy or sad, anngry, bitter, sorrowful, or whatever. It does this based on the association between whatever is in the email and words associated with those sentiments. And that's where the bias creeps in. It is taking various sentences that should be neutral (like "I'm a Christian", "I'm a Sikh" or "I'm a Jew") and assigning positive or negative sentiments to them. "A chief obstacle to programming a non-biased language AI is that the data itself is rarely purified of human prejudice."
Digital driver’s licence
Jeremy Blackman, Parenting for a Digital Future, London School of Economics, 2017/10/27
I took the Digital Drivers License (DDL) trial quiz and am disappointed to report that I failed, scoring only 6 correct out of 10. Since I don't think that my knowledge of the internet is badly flawed, I conclude that the test is. And that's the problem with (a) tests and (b) the concept of a Digital Drivers License. That, plus the fact that it still took me to a "buy now" page immediately after the end of the quiz. And that's why I think this article in an LSE blog is naive. It touts the benefits of the the digital driver’s licence created by the Alannah & Madeline Foundation in Australia, and notes that some 22% of Australian schools have registered for it (which means revenues of almost $1.8M - not bad for a bit of web content) but doesn't look closely at the content, which I think is biased and in some cases quite misleading.
Where is the Humanity in the Computer Science Curriculum?
Maha Bali, DML Central, 2017/10/26
The only criticism I have of this post is the idea that you can put 'humanity' into the computer science curriculum and that students will learn it and all will be good thereafter. That's the solution implicit in this tweet: "If I have to learn to code, why don't the geeks have to learn social theory?" And it's the solution implicit in this suggestion: "I think there should be an element of infusing discussions of ethics, humanity and social consequences into computer science curricula." And this: "There has been far too little focus on enabling young people to appreciate the social consequences of code and algorithms…" So while I certainly agree that coding without an eye to the social consequences is a problem, I think that our appreciation of the way to address problems like this has to be deeper than "teach them social theory."
The Epistemology and Auto-Epistemology of Temporal Self-Location and Forgetfulness
Wolfgang Spohn, Ergo, 2017/10/26
This is a really nice post about something called the 'sleeping beauty problem' in philosophy. It poses two intuitively strong but different calculations of probability, and in so doing identifies some key issues:
indexicals - linguistic expressions whose reference can shift from context to context auto-epistemology - the study of how future and past belief states affect present belief states memory and forgetting - whether we once knew something says anything about what we believe nowYes, these are pretty abstract. The sleeping beauty problem makes them concrete, so we can genuinely see the issues in a concrete way. "It plays an important role everywhere in everyday life. We continuously fight not only to improve our epistemic situation, but also to avoid worsenings. We fight forgetting on a small scale everyday and on a large scale with expensive historical institutions; we fight against drugs, because they ruin ourselves and our epistemic perspective; and so forth." These are core issues in education.
How to Improve Brain Function and Reverse Poverty's Impact on Student Learning
Eric Jensen, EdSurge, 2017/10/26
If EdSurge continues to publish articles like this it will lose whatever credibility it has. The article feels like paid placement, though there's no indication that it is so. It is most certainly marketing trash. How do students "reverse poverty's impact?" In a nutshell: "pay attention and work harder". The author's secret? "Instead of telling students what to do—like 'pay attention' or 'work harder'—teach students how to do it." There's a lot of jargon but no actual evidence. We aren't actually told what the program is - for that you would have to go to the author's website and pay $79 for some PowerPoint slides. Or maybe buy the product being marketed in the article (it's the only link - easy to find). I sincerely doubt it is endorsed by the academic institutions it lists, and I know (because I checked) that its not even close to the top intervention in the What Works Clearinghouse. Garbage. Just garbage.
Rethinking MOOCs
The Chronicle, The Editorial Board, 2017/10/25
This appears in Duke University's independent student newspaper and supports what I wrote in my article today: "The most valuable products that elite institutions like Duke sell for over $70,000 a year are not high-quality courses but rather the prestige of the Duke brand as well as access to networks of other talented students, professors and elite employers." Exactly. But here is where we disagree: "It is impossible to democratize access to these goods because their value depends on scarcity." No. Their price depends on scarcity. Their value is defined by the benefit they bring students. If the rest of the academic world - and not just the elites - focused on access to networks of other talented students, professors and quality employers, instead of churning out academic content like so much manufactured pablum, then the value would be increased, the scarcity would be reduced, costs would be lower, and the relative advantage the so-called elites have over the rest of us would be diminished and eventually be rendered quaint. Image: New York Times.
Neuroeducation Will Lead to Big Breakthroughs in Learning
Raya Bidshahri, Singularity Hub, 2017/10/25
I'm often frustrated by introductory articles that don't really add to anyone's understanding, but they can be done well, and this is a case in point. It's tempting to go over the top when talking about "an emerging interdisciplinary field that brings together neuroscientists and educators" (and yes, the headline goes way over the top). But Raya Bidshahri is relatively restrained in her summary of the field. Introductory articles also frequently offer no means to learn more, but this article has a nice set of links that provide access to articles in the related areas, including neuroplasticity, positive brain states, and active learning. Are these the best articles that could be found? Well, no, not even close - the link selection was obviously done in a hurry. But the method is sound - give people the means to follow up with deeper reading through links. So the article is still a good starting point, even if it's not perfect.
Why Adaptive Courseware Will Scale in Higher Ed
Karen Vignare, EDUCAUSE Review, 2017/10/25
This article doesn't provide the explanation promised in the headline at all. I'm reading it mostly as a vehicle to embed a link to the CWiC Framework. The Courseware in Context (CWiC) Framework is a product taxonomy and set of implementation guides to facilitate the assessment of courseware. Given the basic premise of the site ("Research shows that decision-makers are starved for time to discover and rigorously evaluate courseware") I would infer that over time these evaluations will be provided by CWiC itself, with revenues generated both from "decision-makers" (presumably not professors or instructors?) and from the courseware providers (for assessment and listing in the report). If you give them your name and email (for future marketing no doubt) you can download the tool as a PDF or Excel spreadsheet. I downloaded it and found it was a very elementary assessement tool with only six questions related to whether or not the courseware is 'adaptive courseware'.
Verbal Violence During Jakarta Election (Pragmatics Study)
Agustina, International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences, 2017/10/25
I was browsing through the archives of the International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences (IJIRES) in an effort to assess the legitimacy of this open access publication. The quality is pretty mixed but I did come across this gem looking at the use of language in the civic election in Jakarta, Indonesia. I liked the specific examples of very colourful language, and also the message to those vying for office: "The political elites should give examples to the public how to communicate well by establishing a polite language tradition in politics and in governing." It's a message that would apply not only in Indonesia but in my own society and culture as well. The journal as a whole is poorly edited and produced, but there's enough good to encourage me to come back, and for those looking, there are also more traditional education reserach articles among those published.
The Semantic Condition
Stephen Downes, YouTube, 2017/10/24
I created a nice new version of my 'Groups vs Networks' diagram and created a video wherein I create the diagram step by step and explain what I mean at each step, and therefore, by the diagram as a whole. After the fact I realize that there is a major element missing from the diagram (both individual and new): the idea that the core value in groups is mass while the idea that the core value in networks is structure or organization. The diagram is located here.
Mutualistic Anteractions
Benjamin Blanchard, The Daily Ant, 2017/10/25
At the end of a movie there is a long (sometimes endless) list of credits acknowledging everyone who contributed to its production, even down to the people who provided catering and security. I have often wondered what it would look like if we provided attribution to other things in that way. Buildings, for example, could list each person who took part in construction. McDonalds wrappers could list everyone who works at the store and provides services to it. A student's diploma could list every teacher, administrator and custodian on the back side. Shirts could name the people who made it on the tag. Ambulances could list entire hospital staff on the side, your car could list all the people at the design and assembly plant, and your coffee could list the names of the people who picked the beans on the side.
Why is this important? Because it points to the way - even in the film industry - we do the exact opposite of that. We give one person credit for the work that resulted from the interactions of hundreds or thousands of people. As Benjamin Blanchard says, " I use the city sanitation service as a tool to clean my house" ("This is not to deny the agency of the individuals that constitute those tools"). I think we need to understand, first, the degree to which individual success depends on sopciety, and second, that this is the result of social cooperation rather than collaboration. We have different purposes and different intents. "I use the city sanitation service as a tool to clean my house. The city officials use me as a tool to facilitate the convenient removal of garbage." Photo: Alex Wild.
Who Gets To Be An Expert In Education?
John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, 2017/10/24
First, read this account of the (non-)relation between expertise, think tank support and citations in the media of "education experts". As noted by John Warner in this article, "It is cited by Audrey Watters and Sara Goldrick-Rab of Kevin Carey’s The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, 'In this political economy, the experts on education are rarely experts in education, and that is just the way an increasing number of powerful people seem to like it.'" In the two years since the book was published, the criticisms have been borne out: "the MOOC revolution that was supposed to transform into the 'University of Everywhere' has fizzled into targeted corporate training and other very specific applications." Of course, history is not yet over, and Carey's predictions may yet come true, but the deeper question lingers: what made him an "education expert" in the first place?
[Comment]
Info-Environmentalism: An Introduction
Michael Caulfield, EDUCAUSE Review, 2017/10/24
Michael Caulfield points to a number of examples where Google search results lead to false and misleading information. We can blame the sites or Google, but "the truth is that higher education is at least partially to blame for this state of affairs," he writes. "But in walking away from this demand, we cede the field to corporations, hacks, and charlatans. How can we complain about our "post-fact moment" if we are unwilling to supply the public with facts in the places where the public is looking, be that Facebook, Wikipedia, or Google?" The idea of "info-environmentalism" is to contribute to improving the information environment by overwhelming the pollution with facts and data.
New research on school climate and how it impacts on bullying and delinquent behaviour
Jill Aldridge, Katrina McChesney, Ernest Afari, EduResearch Matters, 2017/10/25
Some reserach in the relation between bullying and outcomes in Australian schools. "Overall, our research confirms the importance of the socio-emotional school climate and shows that there are relationships between the nature of this climate and students’ involvement in bullying and delinquent behaviour. Our research also highlights the importance of both support and structure in healthy school climates."
Serious flaws in how PISA measured student behaviour and how Australian media reported the results
Alan Reid, 2017/10/25
Interesting article pointing to flaws in how the PISA tests measured "disorder and chaos" in classrooms, and flaws in how these results were amplified and exaggerated by traditional media in Australia. "The mainstream press have broadened the research findings to encompass not just 15 year old students in science classrooms, but ALL students (primary and secondary) across ALL subject areas... The mainstream press have cherry picked negative results to get a headline, ignoring such findings in the same ACER report that, for example." This again is why I point out that fake news existed in traditional media long before the current social media panic.
How Money Became the Measure of Everything
Eli Cook, The Atlantic, 2017/10/23
This story documents the conversion of the social order from one based on people to one based on money (and especially the accumulation of masses of money). It's not something that just happened; it is the result of years of media pressure. "Yale economist Irving Fisher... arguing for why people needed to be treated as 'money-making machines,' ... explained how 'newspapers showed a strong aversion to the harrowing side of the tuberculosis campaign but were always ready to ‘sit up and take notice’ when the cost of tuberculosis in dollars and cents was mentioned.'" The conversion happened around 1850, concordant with the rise of capitalism. Prior to this conversion society valued "a collection of social indicators known then as 'moral statistics,' which quantified such phenomena as prostitution, incarceration, literacy, crime, education, insanity, pauperism, life expectancy, and disease."
Gaming the system
Brian Koerber, Mashable, 2017/10/23
I love YouTube but what I don't love are advertisements on YouTibe. That's because they convert the platform from being about user-generated content to commercial publication scams designed to game the system - or worse. This time I'm afraid it's worse. The starting point is this article on Mashable and describes cases where "you press play and at first your screen fills with recognizable cartoon characters and cheesy music — but things take a drastic turn when Elsa and Spider-Man arm themselves with automatic weapons." It's actually a lot worse than that. I watched a number of the videos from this channel (which also appears on YouTube for Kids) and found numerous violent and disturbing images. This is not amateur content; it is commercially produced and makes liberal use of things like superhero icons and Disney princesses. This is what happens when social media is converted into mass consumption: the abuse soon follows.
Assemblyline
Communications Security Establishment Canada, 2017/10/24
This is a lovely piece of open source software just released by Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) (and that's a sentence I never thought I would ever be writing in this newsletter). It's basically a set of connected Python applications that runs files through a series of virus and malware checks. It uses its own functions and also imports functions from services such as Kapersky and Symantic. It even opens up Java jar files and looks for problematic code. It's probably a bit much for an individual to install and run (though they could) but will be especially useful for corporations, institutions and service providers. Assemblyline is available on BitBucket and is licensed under the MIT license. Coverage on CBC.
Bill Gates still doesn't get it.
Stephen Krashen, SKrashen, 2017/10/23
The big story here is "the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will step back from its traditional education reform agenda to instead invest close to $1.7 billion over the next five years on new initiatives that include a focus on building networks of schools." But as Stephen Krashen says in this short riposte, "The main problem in American education is not poor curricula, or lack of data. The problem is poverty." He's right. "While we can always improve, " he writes, "there is nothing seriously wrong with our schools and our teachers. Our overall scores are unspectacular because our rate of child poverty is so high, the highest among economically advanced countries." We know this. But poverty is exactly the problem the richest man in the world doesn't want to address.
Redefining "failure"
Alastair Creelman, The corridor of uncertainty, 2017/10/23
I wisbh we could redefine 'success'. In the current world it has to do with mass - accumulating money, accumulating fame (or likes, or followers), accumulating possessions. This makes success scarce, and as Alastair Creelman says, "If success is so rare, then partial success or a lack of success are the norm." And it's often arbitrary. "Success often comes unexpectedly and cannot always be rationalised. Often it's simply about having the right idea at the right time and getting the right breaks." We need to rethink why we educate people this way. "Too much of our education system (and of course society in general) is based on competition and the inhuman belief in the survival of the fittest."
The medium is the message
Harold Jarche, 2017/10/23
This is about right. "The web started as a text-based medium but has flipped into a new form of broadcast television... Social networks, though, have since colonized the web for television’s values." Not only that. Contrary to connections and organization, it is the mass that is valued in Facebook and Twitter. Harold Jarche writes, "In this ‘knowledge economy’ we all need to become even better at managing our knowledge and not wallow in a post-truth media surround. Mary Hamilton gives some good advice on how to deal with the new media world, after six years at The Guardian, listing 13 lessons learnt." He lists the lessons, and they make sense to me.
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Copyright 2017 Stephen Downes Contact: stephen@downes.ca
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