xkcd: Chat Systems I need to make image embedding possible for these weekly posts Gene drives could halt malaria in West Africa — if residents agree to it These scientists are planning to release mosquitoes equipped with “gene drives,” a technology that overrides nature’s genetic rules to give every baby mosquito a certain trait that normally only half would acquire. Once such an insect gets out into the wild, it will move indiscriminately and spread its modified trait without respect for political borders.

Why School Reform Is Impossible “…before the computer could change School, School changed the computer.” just getting the original quote Tilt.js – A tiny parallax tilt effect for jQuery The high-tech war on science fraud | Science | The Guardian The comparison is apt. The exposure of fraud directly threatens the special claim science has on truth, which relies on the belief that its methods are purely rational and objective. As the congressmen warned scientists during the hearings, “each and every case of fraud serves to undermine the public’s trust in the research enterprise of our nation”. OU Create Thus Far (2016) – Adam Croom This post, a sort of end-of-the-year wrap up, is a step towards trying to pull together a better aggregated story as to what has and is happening with OU Create–though it’s really only a start. Yes, it still leans on metrics, but please don’t get distracted by those too much. They are merely a tool that serves as an anchor. Below the numbers I’ve linked to relevant blog posts, which I’m personally more interested in. I’d rather build towards stories and relationships than numbers. But numbers do make it easy to build an infographic… So one of those is at the bottom too. List: Tips for Staying Calm and Relaxed in 2017 – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency Put a […]

Dynamicland Every scrap of paper has the capabilities of a full computer, while remaining a fully-functional scrap of paper. –this is augmented reality Education Outrage: In 1995 I posted the Student’s Bill of Rights. What has changed? 3. No student should be required to memorize anything that is likely to be will be forgotten in six months. Plain Sailing – Futility Closet By the time they matured, in the 19th century, they were no longer necessary. Historian Fernand Braudel wrote, “Colbert had thought of everything except the steamship.” — wonder how much planning ends up this way Complex Knitting and Critical Instructional Design: A Problem-Solving Mindset – OFFICE OF DIGITAL LEARNING We define critical instructional design as the intentional designing of digital learning spaces that reflect a sense of awareness, hope, and possibility; that encourage learning agency;  that allow students to own the process of their discoveries; and that likewise allow the creators of those spaces to undergo their own learning and discovery processes. As such, critical instructional design work asks for our perseverance as designers and learners, because the answers are often not at the surface but require some digging.