Disqus - Latest Comments for edtech

Re: The World History Project

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 07:24:32 -0000

This is fantastic, Nick! I know you said it's US-focused, but I really hope my kids get to see this in their school History lessons.

(bit of a step up from us doing those CD-ROMs for Folens over a decade ago, eh?)

Re: Reframing the ‘Progressive’ vs. ‘Traditionalist’ Debate in Education

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:33:19 -0000

Thanks Teresa! Sounds like I need to revisit Dewey :)

Re: Stephen's Web ~ Our biggest report yet: State of the Commons 2016 ~ Stephen Downes

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 18:49:42 -0000

It's not clearly signposted from the site, but because I saw this presented at the Creative Commons Summit today, I did a bit of digging and found this: https://stateof.creativecom...

Re: How to Use Google’s Apps Without Getting Spied On

Doug Belshaw — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 11:59:19 -0000

If you use Chrome (or a Chromebook) you can encrypt your browsing history, data, etc. using a password other than the one that you use for your Google account. I outlined that, and more in this post: http://discours.es/2016/how...

Re: Ground Tour

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 10:37:07 -0000

I'm in awe. That is all.

Re: elementary blog — Switching from macOS: The Basics

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 10:26:27 -0000

I want to do the same thing, Adam - so please let me know how you get on!

Re: Using Research Tools in your design practice: Negotiating to actually use them - Global Kids, Interviews, Journey Maps, Personas, User Research, Workshops - Bocoup

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 09:51:34 -0000

Thanks! Looking forward to reading those! (everyone loves a free download :)

Re: Using Research Tools in your design practice: Negotiating to actually use them - Global Kids, Interviews, Journey Maps, Personas, User Research, Workshops - Bocoup

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:44:43 -0000

Great post, Jess! Especially like:

"This isn’t magic. You aren’t paying me to go back to my potions."

I wonder if a follow-up post specifically building out from your 'if you're the client'paragraph might be useful? I can imagine a lot of people linking to it to help explain (more objectively) to their clients why user research is necessary.

Also, a question: I've been reading the new book 'Sprint' from some people at Google Ventures and hav found it hugely useful to productise some stuff I was already doing with clients. Do you have, say, 2-3 books you could point people towards if they wanted to go deeper after reading your post? :)

Re: Navigating the Emotional Side of a Career Transition ~ Stephen Downes

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 06:57:55 -0000

Thanks! I appreciate the kind comments. :)

Although I haven't announced the details yet, I'm currently in the process of banding together with some ex-Mozillians and friends in an enterprise that puts co-operative values at the heart of what we do.

I have to say, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book Antifragile has made me think very differently about 'risk': https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Navigating the Emotional Side of a Career Transition ~ Stephen Downes

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 01:42:26 -0000

Stephen, just wanted to express solidarity and empathy for your current position. I had to deal with something like this around six years ago and recognise the 'emotional waters' of which you speak. All this will pass; keep up the great work which is extremely well respected by an international community!

Re: Here are Google, Amazon and Facebook’s Secrets to Hiring the Best People ~ Stephen Downes

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 17:21:25 -0000

In Stephen's defence, even though it is satirical, there are nevertheless some takeaways. It's funny because it's close to the bone...

When I linked to this via my newsletter, I said:

This is a humorous look at hiring in the tech world, poking fun at the way some companies (not necessarily those listed above) sometimes give a post-hoc rationalisation of hiring practices.

Nevertheless, despite the intention of the author, and given I'm very interested in mixing up the way people find their way into jobs, there's some stuff to learn here.

While I'm not in favour of the good cop / bad cop approach or the 'typing very loudly' example (that's simply disrespectful) but catching people off-guard in various ways (phoning early, switching interview rooms, ensuring some kind of tech fail) may in fact be a good way of finding out how adaptable people are under pressure.

An even better way would be to get the right people in the door in the first place using new forms of credentialing such as Open Badges. But then, I would say that, wouldn't I?

Re: The Possibilities of Badges and Blockchain

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:41:33 -0000

Thanks Ian, good to have you part of the BadgeChain group! :)

Re: The Possibilities of Badges and Blockchain

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:41:19 -0000

You've got much more experience from an implementation point of view, Barry, but I suppose what I was getting at here was something pretty straightforward.

An earlier draft of this post mentioned Amber (http://amberlink.org), a recently-released plugin from the Berkman Center that capture snapshots of web pages. It means that if a website you link to is affected by a DDoS attack or link rot, you can serve up a snapshot of a web page instead.

Enterprise-level implementations of Open Badges require a level of integrity that is beyond a lot of projects. While Amber might work in some situations for serving up evidence that might otherwise be lost, blockchain technology adds an additional layer of cryptographic trust.

Re: The Possibilities of Badges and Blockchain

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:36:57 -0000

Thanks Tim, appreciate the comment and you unpacking your thinking. I agree with everything you say, except for one thing:

"Badges need an agreed system and protocol around them in order for a badge to have value."

I think that's *one* way to assign value to badges - but isn't that just replicating what we've got now (and if so, what's the point?)

Re: Remote First Lesson Plan Development - Open Design Process, workshop - Bocoup

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:20:46 -0000

Great post, Jess! Love the use of Trello as a way for remote participants to do the spectogram activity. :)

Re: The Possibilities of Badges and Blockchain

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 05:12:25 -0000

This kind of stuff fascinates me, which is why I’m delighted that a few ex-Mozilla colleagues and interested parties have come together to form Badge Chain. You can sign up on the site for (low-traffic) email updates, and/or subscribe to our Medium publication.

http://badgechain.com
https://medium.com/badge-chain

Re: Peering Deep into Future of Educational Credentialing

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 10:05:34 -0000

Thanks Tim, that's a very interesting use case! I think it's a perfect example of using a worldwide 'ledger' and standard to validate credentials. :)

Re: Peering Deep into Future of Educational Credentialing

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 10:04:57 -0000

I'd also recommend this recent post from the MIT Media Lab about the potential of badges and the blockchain: https://medium.com/@mediala...

Re: The 140 character problem

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 09:34:12 -0000

Ah yes, I remember with fondness those days of Twitter evangelism! I definitely recognise what you and Ronson describe - to the extent that I now have a private Slack channel with people I know well who aren't likely to misunderstand or misrepresent things I say in haste.

I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Perhaps it's just the way social networks evolve. Facebook, after all, is spreading its bets with Instagram and WhatsApp. Horses for courses?

Re: Today In Digital Education (TIDE) — Episode 18: Agile addictions

Doug Belshaw — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 09:46:29 -0000

Nicely done! I'm off to play with gifyoutube.com now...

Re: Today In Digital Education (TIDE) — Episode 15: Gizoogle ya data

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 10:32:48 -0000

Thanks Aaron - useful info/links! :)

Re: My Presentation on Google from #EducationFest 2015

Doug Belshaw — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:47:11 -0000

Love that we helped pupils gett out of singing practice. ;)

Re: Peering Deep into Future of Educational Credentialing

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 06:04:53 -0000

The public ledger would make things more transparent but 'benefit' is a subjective construct, I guess.

Re: Peering Deep into Future of Educational Credentialing

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 05:16:31 -0000

Hi Serge, I guess I'm on the edges of my knowledge here, but as far as I can see, instead of a PGP key you'd use a blockchain hash to verify the assertion?

Absolutely agree that trust is more than technical reliability. :)

Re: New role and next steps in my Hive Toronto journey

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 14:21:19 -0000

Congratulations, Karen! It was an absolutely pleasure working with someone of your calibre at Mozilla and I know you'll be a huge success (and a breath of fresh air) in the world of academia. :)