Shareables

"We need to stop creating more closed narratives and finite tales, and instead concentrate on..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:39:22 +0200

“We need to stop creating more closed narratives and finite tales, and instead concentrate on fragmenting the stories we already have into a million pieces and sparking the imaginations of our audiences so they want to put them back together in the way that feels right to them.”

- Transmedia storytelling: what’s the alternative to alternate reality games? (Wired UK)

#Suleiman13 - A self-directed online education in 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:24:00 +0200

I was asked to give some tips about learning online to Suleiman, an 23-yr old Congolese refugee in Nairobi. My wife met him while she was an intern at the UNHCR. With his charm and wit, he was able to convince my wife and back in Holland she arranged funds, my previous laptop, and a friend (Esther Gaarlandt) who coordinates the funds in Kenya, for him to get an education. He is now finishing his first year in Computer Science, and he wants to continue learning and doing things during summer time, and wants to get a degree next year. My first email to him is below, which gives an overview of possibilities of online learning, particularly tech/programming related (because that was what he asked for), and what I think constitutes a good and comprehensive online learning program.

hi Suleiman!

How is life? I hear only very positive news from Kenya about your dedication and intelligence! I am Thieme, Sofie’s husband. The laptop you received from Esther belonged to me, I hope it still works, let me know if it does not.

I am a researcher at Delft University of Technology, a technical university in the Netherlands. My research is about learning and pedagogies and with particular interest in “Open Education”, the free, online education anyone with an internet connection can enjoy. I recently finished an online course myself called ‘Gamification’, about using ‘game-elements’ and psychology in everyday work (or education). Using that course, I am now developing a so-called alternate reality game myself about a food crisis, and the first try-out will be in a few weeks.

Esther told me you want to keep busy and learning during summertime and asked me to give you some advice about online education. Well, if you want, I can give you some more than advice, I can be your online study mentor, because I am - professionally - also interested in helping you. So we can both benefit from your experience!

The text below may be a bit overwhelming at first, but try to keep this mail as a reference. You can go through it at your own pace, see it as an inspiration and overview for what I see as a comprehensive self-directed, online learning experience: theoretical, social, interactive, emergent, and practical/creative.

What I can propose to you, is that we sometimes have an online meeting, and keep each other up to date every 2 weeks about progress and goals, and that I can find out relevant stuff and people for you to help you further. Within your chosen domain of study, I imagine the following possibilities (not everything all at once, but gradually over the course of a year):

One or more online courses to follow (i.e. check out this list of free online courses and resources about Computer Science or this website or this Quora question with great sites for learning to program and/or web development);

Publishing your personal experiences, questions, and other stuff on LinkedIn, Twitter and/or your blog (like Wordpress or Tumblr) to create a professional online identity;

Finding people in my own network or online (for example on P2PU, SE - Code Review, or Open Study who can help you with programming problems);

Visiting or getting involved in local Meetups and Events and meeting people from tech hubs like iHub (Nairobi) or iLab or Coders4Africa;

Helping you out with getting used to searching for solutions and answers online and asking questions forums like on StackOverflow, and to keep track of your own information gathering and creation using tools like Diigo, Google Drive and Evernote;

Branching out to related domains you may be interested in, which may require some or more programming skills, like electronics/arduino, data visualization, mobile app development (iOS, Android), design thinking, mathematics, solar energy, online marketing and social network analysis, Big & Open data, online education and digital culture, entrepreneurship, etc.

And of course; finding you cool projects (paid or unpaid/open source → i.e. on Github) to start working on so you get a sense of how it is to become a programmer.

I think it might be effective for you to find a buddy who also wants to do this, so you can work together on problems, and keep each other motivated. If you cannot find anyone, you can definitely find someone online, for example on P2PU.

Before we start, I need to know some things, most importantly your own preferences and interests: what do you want to learn? What do you find interesting? From the following list, what interests you most?

Building a robot, weather station, solar panel, or drone?

Building a website, web application, or mobile app, and learn different programming languages?

Become a data journalist, create a cool infographic (and do design and research)?

Become a teacher and learn about learning theories, pedagogies, and online education?

Something else? → check out Saylor or the mentioned ‘related domains’ (including mathematics, marketing, entrepreneurship, open data, online education, etc.)

Well, this is it for now. Take your time for checking this all out, your exams are more important right now :)

I suggest we do the following: when you finish your exams, you get back to me and let me know what you think of the above. We can then figure out what you want/need, how to proceed, and to define a number of short-term and long-term objectives.

That’s it! Good luck with your exams!

Thieme

Flattr - future of micro donations

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:01:27 +0200

Flattr - future of micro donations:

A recent upgrade of Flattr suddenly made the service extremely more useful and powerful than before. Flattr is a peer 2 peer microdonation service that allows content creators to receive micro-donations with each Love (or Like) they receive if they (or their content host) installed a Flattr button. As a giver, you specify an amount that can be flattered each month, and that will be equally distributed to all those “flattered” by you.

Now, however, they upgraded the service so you can easily connect popular services like 500px, Instagram and others, and people can just use the particular service’s Like/Love/Fav or other token of appreciation as an input for a microdonation.

Coursera & InnoCentive: Good match?

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:24:09 +0200

Coursera is one of the biggest (open) online education suppliers - with high quality courses in the arts, humanities, technology, and fundamental science.

InnoCentive is one of the biggest ideagoras and offers a platform for organizations to crowdsource their scientific problems.

Letting hundreds of students think about real-world solutions (and have them peer-review those) is a win-win situation: students are more motivated to work on real problems, and companies get their hands on the top-rated solutions.

Of course, InnoCentive can be any other ideagora or platform for freelance projects like Guru.com or just by including real-world problems.

Likewise, Coursera can be another online educational supplier like Udacity or a smaller one.

Habit Labs: Response to Gabe and Sebastian's #gamification discussion

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:06:50 +0200

Habit Labs: Response to Gabe and Sebastian's #gamification discussion:

Brilliant and insightful discussion about gamification.

habitlabs:

A VERY interesting debate has been going on this last week primarily between Gabe Zichermann, author of the new book by O’Reilly called “Gamification by Design”, and Sebastian Deterding, PhD researcher on user experience, persuasive and gameful design.

For those who want to read the…

#Gamification13 assignment 3

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:40:55 +0200

Just submitted (a mod of) the 3rd #gamification13 assignment (I skipped the second). Using the teacher’s D6 framework for gamification design, I have described a project I am currently involved in and where we want to apply game elements to improve (or stretch the pedagogical horizon of) education in Latin America.

Intro

As I have pressing deadlines, one of which concerns designing an ARG, I had little choice but to use my personal work context as the case for this assignment. I hope you enjoy it!

Business objectives

The context in which I am doing my project is creating better education opportunities for under-priviliged kids in Latin America. Our project aims to improve mathematics skills, and our target group consists of mathematics teachers and their students. We have defined objectives for the three main stakeholders:

Youth - increasing motivation to learn, increasing interest in mathematics, improving their math skills and meta-cognitive skills such as collaboration, information literacy, design thinking, planning, and dealing with complexity.

Teachers - raising knowledge and skills to adopt more effective teaching methodologies and content, develop an open mindset towards using ICT and innovative pedagogical approaches and increase their self-efficacy to do that.

Ourselves - develop a sustainable methodology and set of instruments for self-organization and community formation to ensure sustainability of the project (and its objectives). Our research question (higher purpose) is: how to develop an effective meta-game design for educational alternate reality gaming to support distributed design and maintenance by a network of communities of practice? These objectives are justified by the project proposal, but only indirectly. Possiblities to directly raise math skills and knowledge for the particular target group are limited. We agreed, internally, to address the more meta-cognitive skills as a foundation for self-development and autonomous learning, as well as introduce game-elements, ICT, and motivation theory to both learners and teachers in combination with community development to let new pedagogical approaches emerge from within.

Target behavior

As we stated above, our aim is to develop a ‘meta-design’ of the game (a design to support the design of the game), which does not necessarily have to contain gaming elements itself. However, we chose to develop an initial version of the game in order to set the context for further development. We have defined different storylines and roles, all of them still underdeveloped. In order to answer this question, I need to better outline the context.

We will create a (fake) job-application board aimed at participating teachers and learners. This is a realistic scenario that allows us to specifically design and describe the intended behavior and roles, integrate a master-apprentice relationship, and include other elements that we (being the Puppet Master of the game) can use. It also offers some control to players to decide which role (job) suits them best. The initial set of vacancies are farmer, manager of large cooperation, scientist, politician, journalist, and editor. We want the player to

Apply for a job (i.e. journalist) using our website and read the job description

Get into the game (engagement), learn (math and meta-cognitive skills), and develop a positive attitude about learning (mathematics)

Practical, regarding learning: develop relevant skills and attitudes through content creation, challenges and tasks, share their efforts with friends (and get them on board as well), cooperate with other players online, do online research. Initially in order to do their job (playing), subsequently as a game designer (meta-playing.

An initial set of metrics:

Signup to player to designer conversion - # unique visitors to the job application board per week -> # Applicants (players) -> # Players continue after level/week 1, 2, 3, 4 -> #Players who develop themselves in co-creators of the design (highest level); - Popularity and growth of the different media channels being used (blogs, social networks, websites, and forums);

Virality in terms of (#New_Players in week x+1)/((#Current_Players in week x) - (#New_Players in week x)) → to account for those players who already ‘brought in’ new people in the previous week;

Metrics with regard to learning can be measured through surveys and challenges - in the application and on-boarding process, players are doing an assessment which will result in a picture of their base knowledge and attitudes (and initial difficulty). This is repeated during the game through tasks, challenges, and short questionnaires;

This final set is also mostly relevant for the players themselves, who will get personal and online feedback in which their progress is outlined. To keep an element of surprise, not all future tasks are shared in advance, but variables will change over time and new challenges will emerge, ‘nudging’ the player into more complex and cooperative problem solving;

To give some examples of direct measures and feedback: the journalist has to investigate some difficult topics and write a short article for the weekly newspaper, which is edited by an editor. Quality of an article is described in terms of completeness, quality of writing and content, and journalists are supported with tips and suggestions for a good article and doing research. If the article is placed in the Paper version, it will result in a higher fee than publication in the online version. Suggestions for improvement are sent in as well. The farmer, initially, has land to cultivate, which means procuring stock and seeds, growing, and selling. In time, this will include other factors, such as weather, cooperation with local community, GMO, funds for sustainable farming, etc. The farmer uses a spreadsheet to make an optimization of how to cultivate its land, and improves the algorithm as time goes by and complexity increases. Using the income, other cultivation methods become available and the possibility to buy land from other farmers who are less successful.

Who are the players?

As mentioned, we target youth from under-privileged areas (and schools) between 16 and 20 who are about to enter higher education or are in their first years. Many of these kids are in a poverty trap, and have little confidence to get out of it. Generally speaking, the teachers are low-skilled, schools are not equipped with the right resources and teachers are not supported or educated enough to help these kids develop the basic skills required for successful higher education (or professional life). We have both males and females, and are not aiming for a particular type of player type. In addition, we address teachers with an interest in technology and different pedagogical approaches, but little ability or time to find out everything for themselves. We will also devise roles for teachers, but are still in deliberation about their roles (matching their particular characteristics and preferences).

Activity loops

We have mentioned a few activity loops before. For each player, it follows a similar path: Visit job application board - Apply & Assess - On-boarding process - Getting better - Meta-playing (becoming a designer or editor). Primarily, the initial purpose and topic (food crisis) as well as the medium (alternate reality gaming) should appeal to most players. Players can choose to play a particular professional role (safety, control, autonomy) and develop personal and math skills (learning), the on-boarding process is relatively easy but each role can grow into something very complex (and possibly impossible to master - ask me!), applicants are never rejected and are players are positively addressed (positive psych), are part of a higher purpose, get the chance to interact with other players from other countries, and get support and feedback on their achievements (tasks, challenges). The activity loops differ per role, and due to the word limit they cannot be explained here (see Target behavior for 2 examples).

Fun

There is a lot of fun in learning new things, imagining being a journalist (or someone else), exploring concepts and solving real-world problems with others (hard-people-serious fun). The game contains much surprise elements, most notably in the core variables of the game (weather forecast, new technologies, demand, globalization, etc.), but also in some of the rewards (i.e. being mentioned in the newsletter).

Appropriate tools

Our toolset will be as low-tech as possible, because although many of the schools we are working with have Internet, many of the players will have little or slow access at home. Both digital and physical artifacts and tools will be created for conveying the narrative, player base, feedback, connections and collaboration, and challenges both online and offline. We are developing a website and online questionnaire for the application and assessment procedure, and device a number of challenges using powerful creative and math tools such as SNAP, NETLogo, and Scratch. Functional programs such as Google Docs (spreadsheets and documents) are used where possible or required, social networks, a news-paper editing tool (Wordpress), etc. Also, we are currently looking into mobile campaign tools to spread messages and retrieve feedback using mobile phone technology (SMS).

Conclusion

Using a different - personally relevant - case, not only can be more motivating, but also offers a nice opportunity to understand the merits of the framework for other contexts than one almost ‘made for it’. Alternate reality games are a form of gamification and I have looked at the usefulness of the D6 framework for such a context. In conclusion, I can say that the framework was particularly helpful in outlining the most relevant steps of design, and explaining those, but that I have added some more elements. It goes beyond the objective of this assignment to describe how we have used and adapted the framework, but let me say that there are still important things missing from the game, including the creation of a planning and organizational framework in order to support the game, a game ontology to have a consistent way of naming things, and a clearer description of how to connect the various variables, inputs, and outputs of the game. Also, I think that the “Fun” element can be easily integrated into the Activity loops, which is a more detailed account of the game, and may include various game mechanics and components.

There we go.. an artificial brain

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:35:43 +0100

The most advanced simulated brain up until now. The model consists of 2.5 million neurons (agents?) and can interpret numbers and other inputs, assess the response, and make errors like people make. It is also adaptive, and learn new tasks and learn from mistakes and rewire its own neurons. It takes a couple of hours to process something humans do in less than a second, but as computing power improves, this will grow into something like a real brain.

A short video explanation here: http://youtu.be/pg7YNUnK-Io and the full paper here.

Btw, 2 giant research projects in both the EU and the US were awarded funding over 1 billion €$ to develop an artificial brain.

The Google generation: myth or reality?

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:33:00 +0100

Very comprehensive list that critically analyzes many of the claims made about the Net Gen, Homo Zappiens, Digital Natives, Millenials, or whatever the kids born in the 90s are called. What should be noted is that only in some cases, opposite claims are made, but in most cases, it is just explained that there is no clear evidence supporting the original claim. The research is published in 2008 and the sources they have used to do their analysis even older, so more recent insights will probably add additional proof. However, the list gives a good overview of the different claims used and shows that one should be careful in interpreting what is said.

Paper: Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., Withey, R., et al. (2008). The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Aslib Proceedings, 60(4), 290–310. doi:10.1108/00012530810887953

Many of the claims made on behalf of the Google generation in the popular media fail to stack up fully against the evidence (Williams and Rowlands, 2007, pp. 11-18). Over the following pages, we try to assess these claims on the basis of the very scant available evidence.

Confidence level: low [a], medium [b] or high [c].

They are more competent with technology[b] (see confidence level above). Our verdict: generally true, we think, but older users are catching up fast. However, the majority of young people tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.

They have very high expectations of ICTs[b]. Our verdict: probably true, since we live in a global web culture dominated by a handful of unifying brands. Again, this expectation is relative; all of us are information consumers now.

They prefer interactive systems and are turning away from being passive consumers of information[b]. Our verdict: generally true, as borne out by young people’s media consumption patterns: passive media such as television and newspapers are in decline.

They have shifted decisively to digital forms of communication: texting rather than talking[a]. Our verdict: open. It is very difficult to see messaging being a fundamental trend; its current popularity is certainly influenced by its relatively low cost compared with voice.

They multitask in all areas of their lives[a]. Our verdict: open. There is no hard evidence. However, it is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills. The wider question is whether sequential processing abilities, necessary for ordinary reading, are being similarly developed.

They are used to being entertained and now expect this of their formal learning experience at university[a]. Our verdict: open. Information media must be interesting or they will fail to be used: this is a circular argument. We are a little concerned by the current interest in using games technologies to enhance students’ learning and library-based experience. When broadcast news makers introduced entertainment show production techniques 20-30 years ago, research showed that these enhanced “interest” but impeded the absorption of information.

They prefer visual information over text[a]. Our verdict: a qualified yes, but text is still important. As technologies improve and costs fall, we expect to see video links beginning to replace text in the social networking context. However, for library interfaces, there is evidence that multimedia can quickly lose its appeal, providing short-term novelty.

They have zero tolerance for delay and their information needs must be fulfilled immediately[a]. Our verdict: no. We feel that this is a truism of our time and there is no hard evidence to suggest that young people are more impatient in this regard. All we can do is repeat the obvious: that older age groups have memories that pre-date digital media experiences, the younger generation does not.

They find their peers more credible as information sources than authority figures[b]. Our verdict: on balance, we think this is a myth. Research in the specific context of the information resources that children prefer and value in a secondary school setting shows that teachers, relatives and textbooks are consistently valued above the internet. We feel this statement has more to do with social networking sub-culture and teenagers’ naturally rebellious tendencies. Its specific application to the world of education and libraries is pretty questionable.

They need to feel constantly connected to the web[a]. Our verdict: we do not believe that this is a specific Google generation trait. Recent research by Ofcom (2007) shows that the over-65s spend four hours a week longer online than 18-24s. We suspect that factors specific to the individual, personality and background, are much more significant than generation.

They are the “cut-and-paste” generation[b]. Our verdict: we think this is true, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.

They pick up computer skills by trial-and-error[b]. Our verdict: this is a complete myth. The popular view that Google generation teenagers are twiddling away on a new device while their parents are still reading the manual is a complete reversal of reality, as Ofcom’s (2007) survey findings confirm.

They prefer quick information in the form of easily digested chunks, rather than full text[c]. Our verdict: this is a myth. CIBER deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, “flicking” behaviour in digital libraries. Power browsing and viewing appear to be the norm for all. The popularity of abstracts among older researchers rather gives the game away. Society is dumbing down.

They are expert searchers[c]. Our verdict: this is a dangerous myth. Digital literacies and information literacies do not go hand in hand. A careful look at the literature over the past 25 years finds no improvement (or deterioration) in young people’s information skills.

They think everything is on the web (and it’s all free)[a]. Our verdict: open. Anecdotally, this appears to be true for a large minority of young people, but no one seems to have framed a research question in this form and investigated it more deeply. Certainly this was a prevalent view earlier in the evolution of the internet, indeed its central ethos. To reverse the question, there is much evidence that young people are unaware of library-sponsored content, or at least reluctant to use it. This is the library’s problem, not the fault of young people.

They do not respect intellectual property[b]. Our verdict: this seems to be only partly true. Findings from Ofcom (2007) surveys reveal that both adults and children (aged 12-15) have very high levels of awareness and understanding of the basic principles of intellectual property. However, young people feel that copyright regimes are unfair and unjust and a big age gap is opening up. The implications for libraries and for the information industry of a collapse of respect for copyright are potentially very serious.

They are format agnostic[a]. Our verdict: this may be true of some users, young and old, but not all. We have not found any careful analysis of this question, which is surprising given its import for libraries and publishers alike. We suspect that this is no longer a meaningful issue: content is no longer format-dependent in cyberspace.

EdX Business model (by EdX CEO)

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:41:00 +0100

Through this Quora post, I came across an interview with the CEO of EdX, who, somewhere in the interview, explains his views on the business model.

Sramana: How does the money flow in all of this? Who is paying whom, and what are they paying for?

Anant Agarwal: We are a nonprofit, but we must be self-sustaining. At this point certificates are free, but we are exploring an option for paid certificates. Students need to pay to take exams at Pearson’s centers, and we should be able to get some of that fee to offset our costs. That is our equivalent of a B2C model.

There is also a B2B model. I gave you the example of a course getting licensed to San Jose State. That was a pilot and they are now interested in licensing a number of courses from edX. In that case we will develop a B2B model wherein universities and perhaps even companies can license courses which could be offered onsite.

Sramana: In the B2B model, if San Jose State licenses a course from MIT, does MIT get a piece of the licensing fees?

Anant Agarwal: Under either the B2C or B2B models, we are going to see edX sharing revenue with the content creators. There are other models we can explore. One possibility is that we could offer an employment service. When students do well, we could connect them to potential employers. In that model, the employers would pay edX a fee to hire that student.

Sramana: What about high schools? There seem to be a lot of high school students who are showing the initiative to complete MIT-level engineering courses. Those are the types of students that MIT is looking for.

Anant Agarwal: That is another possible business model.

Sramana: Have you heard of a company called Pluralsight? Pluralsight has a similar model. The company is doing about $16 million in revenue. They are a bootstrapped company out of Utah, and they have a crowd source content development model. They do royalty sharing between content creators and Pluralsight when consumer or corporations pay for training. They have really proven that model well.

Anant Agarwal: That is interesting. Are they licensing the courses?

Sramana: Yes. When consumers or businesses pay to take a course, the fee is split between the content creator and Pluralsight.

Anant Agarwal: Right now students are taking courses free. We have looked at cases where companies could purchase access to courses, so this is something I will keep in mind.

"Studios, directors, and actors provide you with entertainment; schools and teachers provide you with..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:36:29 +0100

“Studios, directors, and actors provide you with entertainment; schools and teachers provide you with education… In all of these cases, you are viewed as a passive recipient. If we are trying to help children develop as creative thinkers, it is more productive to focus on “play” and “learning” (things you do) rather than “entertainment” and “education” (things that others provide for you).”

- Mitch Resnick in Learning Creative Learning course (MIT)

via Dave’s Whiteboard

Just stumbled across this video I saw years ago, about the...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:43:00 +0100

Just stumbled across this video I saw years ago, about the paradox of choice, freedom, and happiness. Makes me wonder, looking from my edu/learning perspective, the enormous choice of learning opportunities we have at our finger tips, does it increase our well-being? Or makes us lame? What does it mean for education? It emphasizes curation and sense-making, recommendation engines and filters. Within the open education paradigm, there still is (which btw is justified) still a strong focus on OER production and sharing. The next phase in open education will be focused on personalization, filtering, curation, and being able to make sense of this giant learning soup which is called the Internet.

Acquisition versus Participation: 2 Metaphors for learning

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:50:00 +0100

Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4–13.

"The modern university has forfeited its chance to provide a simple setting for encounters which are..."

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:00:09 +0100

“The modern university has forfeited its chance to provide a simple setting for encounters which are both autonomous and anarchic, focused yet unplanned and ebullient, and has chosen instead to manage the process by which so-called research and instruction are produced.”

- Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society. New York. Harper & Row New York.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens..

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:17:35 +0100

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens..:

Obama’s State of the Union: 3D printing and innovation, green energy, minimum wages, gun control, …

soupsoup:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, fellow citizens:

Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union – to improve it…

Are you a racist? A sexist? Most likely you are. Interesting...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:18:00 +0100

Are you a racist? A sexist? Most likely you are. Interesting podcast about moral responsibility and consciousness, which ends with a very interesting discussion about how we make decisions unconsciously, while it seems we make them very conscious.

For example, this study into sexism: In a search for a new police officer, the researchers used 4 distinct CVs to test how much sexism plays a role in job → 1. Female with strong academic background, 2. Female who was ‘streetwise’ (experience on the street), 3. Male with strong academic background, 4. Male who was streetwise.

Group A was given the applicant forms of Female streetwise/Male academic background; and the group B was given Male streetwise/Female academic background. In both control groups, the overwhelming majority chose for the male applicant, arguing that - depending on which quality the male was given - or you need ‘someone’ who is streetwise (group B) or you need ‘someone’ with a strong academic background (group A). However, it shows that the sex is what counts, not the qualifications.

In three studies, participants assigned male and female applicants to gender-stereotypical jobs. However, they did not view male and female applicants as having different strengths and weaknesses. Instead, they redeﬁned the criteria for success at the job as requiring the specific credentials that a candidate of the desired gender happened to have.

Racism and sexism is present in everyone, even if you don’t think so. You can test it on a Harvard research page dedicated on implicit racism. I did it with regard to my ‘preference’ towards gay/straight people. It does not measure sexual preference, which means that (taking the above example) I would probably be more likely to hire someone who is straight than someone who is gay (unless the criteria are clearly stated on beforehand).

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People.

This is the average result. See how racist/sexist we still are.

The MOOC Hypecycle. I was just wondering about this. Anyway, I...

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:03:40 +0100

The MOOC Hypecycle. I was just wondering about this. Anyway, I think developments in open education are far from finished, but that the ‘hype’ of MOOCs may indeed diminish a bit this year or the next. I do think, however, that sustainable business models will emerge: value added services will be offered, most importantly assessment & accreditation, expert feedback/sessions, reputation and match-making, networking benefits, relevant affiliate marketing (books, university sign-up, tools), etc. There are just a lot of possible ways to maintain a free offer of high-quality content and courses, meanwhile offering all kinds of for-profit services.

Interest-based learning webs in the 70s (Illich)

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:48:53 +0100

Interesting to read this, knowing it is written long before the Internet became available:

But the idea remains the same: they should be able to meet around a problem chosen and defined by their own initiative. Creative, exploratory learning requires peers currently puzzled about the same terms or problems. Large universities make the futile attempt to match them by multiplying their courses, and they generally fail since they are bound to curriculum, course structure, and bureaucratic administration. In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting. The most radical alternative to school would be a network or service which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern with others motivated by the same concern.

Let me give, as an example of what I mean, a description of how an intellectual match might work in New York City. Each man, at any given moment and at a minimum price, could identify himself to a computer with his address and telephone number, indicating the book, article, film, or recording on which he seeks a partner for discussion. Within days he could receive by mail the list of others who recently had taken the same initiative. This list would enable him by telephone to arrange for a meeting with persons who initially would be known exclusively by the fact that they requested a dialogue about the same subject.

Illich - Deschooling Society

Anuta, Rapa Nui, natural resources and Dunbar's number

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:32:00 +0100

Anuta is a very (very!) remote island in the South Pacific. Its people have developed one of the most sustainable, collaborative, and caring cultures on the planet. Its philosophy is called Aropa and

..is a concept for giving and sharing, roughly translated as compassion, love and affection. Aropa informs the way Anutans treat one another and it is demonstrated through the giving and sharing of material goods such as food. For example, the land on Anuta is shared among the family units so that each family can cultivate enough food to feed themselves and those around them.’

In the BBC documentary South Pacific, you see fishermen going out and bringing back fish, which is shared with all. Sharing and collaboration is their culture, and is the basis for their survival. It gives the impression that because of its population density (even higher than Bangladesh), its remoteness, and scarce resources (little land), this has been the most sustainable way to live. The island’s population is about 300 people, and divided into two ‘noporanga’, or “dwelling places”, each with a traditional chief. This is exactly Dunbar’s number, the estimate number of people of people with whom one can maintain a stable relationship. An interesting model for sustainability?

A whole other story is the story about Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.

The island, which is considerably bigger, and was much (much!) richer in resources, when first colonized. Easter Island has become known, not just because of its large statues, but as a case study of human-induced environmental disaster. Islanders, with so much resources around them, had a lot of time to spend, for example on making large statues. Obviously, competition and jealousy kicked in, and each tribe tried to make a larger statue than its neighbour. This competitive nature, in the end, caused the collapse of the island, which is now barren, but once was filled with rich forests and a enormous diversity of wildlife. If this would be the real story, it would be a good example on how environmental and contextual factors influence how people/tribes behave and how competition (possibly even because of the abundance of natural resources) can drive unsustainable behavior. While sharing, caring, and collaboration in small communities is more sustainable.

If, because there is another story about Rapa Nui’s collapse. This research describes another story, but it shows another aspect of human nature which is more hopeful: ingenuity and innovation.

Cool #crowdfunded #crowdsourced robotics research project - Roboy

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:36:00 +0100

Cool #crowdfunded #crowdsourced robotics research project - Roboy:

Crowdfunded research project - interesting developments in research → more open and networked, and not just after the product is made or papers have been written, but from the start involving relevant stakeholders and contributors to participate.

Contributors can be scientific contributors or (corporate and individual) funders, who can get various rewards, mostly involving visibility of your name or brand. An interesting reward is deciding about its features and behavior.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:00:15 +0100

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.

Albert Einstein