mooc mention in Education Guardian

​By the way, found the web link through Google, not easy to find through the Guardian site. I think the web issues mostly turn up through sponsors, not the print journalists.

Anyway back on topic, today the print Guardian has a page on postgraduate students sponsored by the Higher Education Academy. This is based on a seminar so the quotes are not identified with particular individuals.​

The mooc mention is not until the second to last paragraph

Then there was the threat posed by technology and Mass Open Online Courses, which could see many students choose to study in the virtual world rather than sign up for a traditional postgraduate course

Not much more than a sentence. mooc as threat. But then there is the final paragraph

But technology offered opportunities too, it was agreed; studying online can give students the confidence to enrol on a higher degree course. And there are other reasons to be cheerful. "Postgraduate education is a good thing, and in this country it's fantastic," said one roundtable member. "That's to be celebrated."

So my guess is that the mooc is not really part of the discussion for postgraduate studies. It is just the latest buzzword for something that is mostly ignored as universities continue much as they always have done. Maybe the mooc is a form of promotion. I am interested in "content marketing" as an explanation of how free content appears. It seems that this could fit with universities where  postgraduate forms of study are seen as an income and also related to research funding.

Maybe there is a discussion somewhere on how blended learning relates to postgraduate study, but I don't expect this to be reported in the Guardian anytime soon. ​

Internet puppy and the literary Argos

I need to add something so more people will find this blog. So far more robots than unique users. Maybe Guardian Witness is doing something right in inviting more pet photos.

Another bit of evidence on how the print version of the Guardian views the internet. I can't find the online link for this past Saturday but Google has found a previous source of the same quote, Christopher Priest on Charlie Stross -​

"Stross writes like an internet puppy: energetically, egotistically, sometimes amusingly, sometimes affectingly, but always irritatingly, and goes on being energetic and egotistical and amusing for far too long,"

There is even an extra bit, not repeated on Saturday - ​

​"You wait nervously for the unattractive exhaustion which will lead to a piss-soaked carpet."

So if this is what an "internet puppy" is like I wonder what sort of literary dogs there may be. ​Google finds Flavorwire with ten of the best loved dogs in literature. Number one is Argos-

One of the first dogs ever to be named in Western literature, Argos is the most faithful of them all — having waited for his master to return for twenty years, he is the only one to recognize Odysseus for his true self when he does appear. Then finally, having seen his master safely home, the old dog can die in peace, an enduring symbol of fidelity and love.

What I would like is more links, and if possible some photos or video or somesuch. It could be a literary puppy. The book is not necessarily about to drop dead.​

Adobe MAX retweets explained #AdobeMAX

Previously with Posterous there was a sort of auto Tweet going on. Now i have to think about Twitter as well as this Squarespace blog. Last night Adobe MAX started just as I thought about food here in the UK evening. So I stayed for some of it, well reported by the fstoppers as far as I can tell. The keynote was fairly quick to get to new product features. Photoshop to alter perspective on tall buildings, fit them any way you want to the urban landscape. Then 3D objects from After Effects into Premiere video. It looked possible to create a 3D model from a video still. See previous post for where I have tried to understand this. So this all looks positive for ways to mingle architecture. Video edit on the desktop quite possible. Not sure how the cloud helps witht eh render but there could be more from MAX over the next few days.

Shantanu Narayan did not take much time for the intro. He looked back at Seybold, InDesign and maybe fifteen years ago. I liked the Seybold events. You had to wait a while for the content to appear online but because there was a choice of supplier they had to get into more background on what they were trying to do. ​

I could have stayed up hungry to wait for something on PDF but from what I can gather through blogsearch there may not have been anything. I am running maybe ten years late but PDF still has potential imho.​

Return of the OLDS mooc

I am going to try to follow the structure of the OLDS mooc for a second time. So this is the first week of nine. There were a few things I failed to follow up. Also I failed to raise some aspects and make links with other situations/ sites. ​

Design science is still a major point of interest. It connects with quality and management. I found there was not much discussion about the implications of mooc technology for universities and other education sites. Why are they still investing in buildings for example? Disruption is possibly an issue quite soon.​

Quality relates to design science but it has had difficulty fitting into academic discussion. One problem is that much of the literature is not just "prescriptive" but suggests too much possibility for projects to succeed. This is being read by managers after all in most cases and so some optimism is part of the mix.​ Academic theory includes a fair share of the darjk side and disaster. Mostly it is fairly credible. Over this next few weeks I will try to include a version of quality theory that includes explanation of how organisations fail. There could be a similar take on learning organisations and non-learning organisations. Especially in the UK, the learning organisation went off the agenda about a decade ago. I think this is why the #mtw3 , Management Theory at Work 3 , is worth looking at again. But my style may be more like a blog than a paper.

There could have been more on the OLDS mooc about action learning. it kept turning up, but I don't remember much in the list of theories. I know there are groups on LinkedIn so will try to post across some topics.​

The Guardian recently had an article with doubts about the mooc and Futurelearn in particular. I think there could be more actual reporting of the university locations where involvement in Futurelearn has been announced. I will be in Lancaster next week so will have a look. The Learning Zone is a focus. Here in Exeter there is a technology resource as part of the Forum. Through the web any mooc resource is available anywhere so it will be interesting to see what opinions there are. I think some form of blended learning is what works best. The "mooc" is getting attention but my scope will include all the technologies and ways of describing them over the last decade or so. For "continuing education" or whatever you want to call it the mooc can be part of other conversations.​

My own network includes the Wild Show, Phonic FM on a Thursday morning. It is mostly music so I may postpone learning theory till our coffee break around noon in the Phoenix bar. If you are in Exeter please join us.​

Something like the Guardian will be ready for Cross Media

This prediction has to be a bit vague as I don't know any precise timing. The Cross Media show started last year and there is another planned for the autumn.​ Next year at IPEX there has to be some coherent presentation of how print fits with communication. I have tried out learning theory of "scaffolding" as a guide to how this could happen. Maybe the scaffolding will be fairly stable around the time of the Cross Media show. On the other hand IPEX could still be something of a panic. We just don't know.

The Guardian as an online transition is still a bit variable, as I come across it. The Guardian Witness continues but I can't find it in the print version yet. I bought an Observer  ​in case there were some photos ( tall buildings last week) but I don't thin k there are any. I find the site is so visual I can't follow a story as it might develop. The Everything Everywhere sponsored tech is the one I check out. More later on how video seems to work in Exeter. 

​The print adverts seem to have stopped. Now there is "keep on internetting" sponsored by 3. So there is energy coming from phone companies. Is it their idea to make it fairly trivial and get lots of instant hits? The Guardian editorial integration may get lost in this or maybe they just want to keep an income for the print model as long as it lasts.

The Observer ​has Peter Preston on media, much the same as months back when I last bought one. He worries that London people who comment may be out of touch with the provinces because there is less published in regional newspapers. Might he try a search engine and a wider range of sources? In Exeter I would guess that quite a lot of news and comment is outside the newspaper site.

What is interesting though are the comments that are not developed into stories with facts and investigation. It is claimed that "the web-based march of British journalism across the world can leave home bases scantily covered, as though those who live there don't matter overmuch. " Is this about the Daily Mail? The Guardian? Has he got information on where the Guardian is putting resources? My impression is that the Media and Education pages are very light recently. ( I would welcome something on Futurelear based on a visit to the universities contributing for example) but what is the priority for a global audience online? (Do they get opinion on the dangers of the mooc or a completely different take? Hard to grasp I realise but Peter Preston may have an insight from the marketing meetings) 

Then we get

Call it the 20% solution. Two weeks ago, Sir Martin Sorrell, boss of the WPP string of agencies, said that newspaper and magazine ads attracted 20% of advertising revenue but only 7 to 10% of reading time. Something had to change. Last week the internal workings of WPP decreed that Sir Martin's £17.6m salary-plus-bonus package in 2012 was too rich to stomach all over again – so his bonus is henceforth reduced by 20%. Call that the revenge of Fleet Street.

Gosh. How exactly can Fleet Street ​arrange this sort of thing? If there is a case for less advertising in print, why not examine it as such? Today as it happens there is Guardian take on WPP but I could not find much on how the switch away from print could work out in detail.

However I did find a comment on the middle pages about the "myth of web toxicity" from Laurie Penny.​

People once believed that moveable type was evil because books distracted women from their work and allowed ordinary layfolk to read what was actually written in the Bible. Communications technology, though, can't "corrupt your soul" any more than abandoning it can save your soul – and the internet is no different.

 
​There probably will be more panic style writing in the printed version of the Guardian but there may also be some balance. The forms of citizen journalism will continue. I am not sure the Guardian approach will stay the same or get continued support. But some sort of network will be clear in the next year or so. Time will tell what time it is.​

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