넷플릭스 오리지널 ‘지옥 시즌1’(2021, 시즌1)은 평범한 사람이 어느 날 천사에게서 지옥에 갈 날짜를 고지받고 고지받은 당일에 지옥의 사자라고 불리는 괴생명체 세 명에게 산 채로 불태워지는 이른바 시연을 당한다는 충격적인 설정을 보여주었다. 사람들은 이 괴생명체가 등장한 이유를 알지 못하고 막연한 두려움에 빠진다. 이에 관해 새진리회라는 신흥 종교 조

2025년에는 65세 이상 인구가 20%를 넘어서는 초고령사회가 된다며 대책 마련에 부심하고 있지만 아직은 의미 있는 성과가 보이지 않는다. 고령화가 경제에 미치는 영향을 분석해온 앤드루 스콧 런던경영대학원 경제학과 교수에 따르면, 적극적으로 대책을 마련하지 않을 경우 100세 시대의 충격은 미국이나 영국보다 우리나라에서 더 클 것으로 예상된다. 그에 따르

‘코끼리 없는 동물원’의 저자 김정호 수의사가 일하는 청주동물원에는 코끼리만 없는 것이 아니다. 기린도 없고 오랑우탄도 없다. 그리고 거북이 만지기, 뱀을 목에 걸어보기와 같은 동물체험도 없다. 반면, 이곳에서는 다른 동물원에서 방치되어 ‘갈비뼈 사자’로 불리던 ‘바람이’가 건강한 모습으로 거닌다. 사육곰의 처지로 좁은 철창에 갇혀 있다 구조된 반달가슴

한국 스포츠는 지금 위기 상황이다. 무슨 근거로 그런 주장을 하느냐고 묻는 이가 있을 것이다. 잘 알려진 바와 같이 한국은 전두환정부의 주도로 1982년 프로야구가, 1983년에는 프로축구가 탄생했다. 국민이 행복해지려면 ‘볼거리’가 있어야 한다는 정부의 정책에 의한 것이었다. 당시 국민 소득 수준 상황으로는 자연 발생적으로 프로리그가 생기기 어

도널드 트럼프 후보가 제47대 미국 대통령으로 당선되었다. 동맹의 회복과 한·미 관계의 격상을 목표로 삼았던 지난 2년 반의 시간을 생각해본다면, 트럼프 전 대통령의 귀환은 여러 측면에서 우려를 사기에 충분하다. 트럼프 당선인의 경우, 과거 행적과 기질, 정책 등을 고려해볼 때 작지 않은 혼란과 불확실성을 예측 가능하게 한다. 첫째, 리더십 스타일이다.

흔히 세종시를 ‘공무원의 도시’라고들 하지만, 부처 주변엔 기자도 많다. 정부 부처 18개 중 13개가 이전하면서 덩달아 부처 출입(담당) 기자 중 적지 않은 이도 세종으로 거처를 옮겼다. 기자들이 굳이 출입처 가까이 자리를 잡은 것은 단순히 출퇴근이 용이하기 때문만은 아니다. ‘눈에서 멀어지면 마음에서도 멀어진다’고 하지 않는가. 가까이서 자주 보며 소통

신문사에서 근무해 그런지 미국 대선을 앞두고 지인들로부터 공화당 후보 도널드 트럼프 전 대통령과 민주당 후보 카멀라 해리스 부통령 중 누가 이길 것 같으냐는 질문을 많이 받았다. 듣자 하니 제법 많은 직장인이 ‘트럼프냐, 해리스냐’를 놓고 내기(베팅)도 했던 모양이다. ‘미국이 기침을 하면 세계가 감기에 걸린다’는 말처럼 미국 대통령이 한국에 끼치는 영향이

북한의 지령을 받고 간첩 활동을 벌인 혐의로 재판에 넘겨진 전 전국민주노동조합총연맹(민노총) 간부 3명이 1심에서 중형을 선고받았다. 수원지법 형사14부는 그제 민노총 전 조직쟁의국장 석모씨에게 징역 15년을 선고했고, 함께 기소된 전직 간부 2명에겐 각각 징역 7년과 5년을 선고했다. 법원이 피고인들의 간첩 혐의 대부분을 인정한 것이다. 한국의 대표적인

도널드 트럼프 전 미국 대통령의 재집권이 현실화하면서 한국 안보와 경제에 초비상이 걸렸다. 트럼프 2기에 미 우선주의가 더 세지고 독해질 게 틀림없기 때문이다. 트럼프는 집권 1기 때 동맹 경시와 돌발 행동으로 한반도 정세를 일촉즉발의 위기로 몰아넣었다. 중국과 무역전쟁에 돌입하며 주변국에도 경제적 압박을 가하기 일쑤였다. “모든 것을 고쳐 미국을 다시 위

윤석열 대통령이 어제 대국민 담화 및 기자회견에서 “제 주변의 일로 국민께 걱정과 염려를 드렸다”며 “국민 여러분께 죄송하다는 말씀, 진심 어린 사과의 말씀을 드린다”고 했다. 이 과정에서 단상 앞으로 나와 서서 머리를 숙였다. 윤 대통령이 국민에게 고개를 숙여 사과한 것은 취임 후 처음이다. 윤 대통령은 또 “저와 정부의 부족한 부분을 잘 알고 있다. 고

윤석열 대통령 지지율이 일주일 만에 최저치를 경신해 17%를 기록했다는 여론조사 결과가 8일 나왔다. 한국갤럽이 지난 5∼7일 실시한 조사결과에 따르면 윤 대통령 직무수행 긍정 평가는 17%, 부정평가는 74%로 각각 집계됐다. 지난 1일 집권 이후 가장 낮은 수치인 19%를 기록한 이후 일주일 만에 다시 2%포인트가 하락한 것이다. 부정평가는 지난주 대비

세계 최초의 여자대학은 1869년에 창설된 영국의 거턴 칼리지이다. 케임브리지 대학 칼리지 중 하나인 거턴 칼리지는 여성 고등교육의 메카였다. 당시 주요 대학이 여성의 입학을 거부하자 여성 대학교육 운동의 선구자인 에밀리 데이비스가 설립했다. 고등교육이 남성만의 전유물이었던 시절 거턴 칼리지의 첫 입학생은 5명에 불과했다. 커턴 컬리지는 100년간 여성 교

Kyra Wilson, Aylin Caliskan, Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, Nov 13, 2024

The topic of AI-based recruitment and hiring has been discussed here before and research continues apace. This item (13 page PDF), despite the characterization in GeekWire, is a fairly narrow study. It looks at three text-embedding models based on Mistral-7B-v0.1, and tests for gender and racial bias on applications containing name and position only, and name and position and some content (the paper discusses removing the name but does do it). The interesting bit is that intersectional bias (ie., combining gender and race) is not merely a combination of the separate biases; while separate biases exaggerated the discrimination, "intersectional results, on the other hand, do correspond more strongly to real-world discrimination in resume screening." Via Lisa Marie Blaschke, who in turn credits Audrey Watters.

Anna Mills, Bluesky Social, Nov 13, 2024

The most interesting migration in social media these days is from twitter to Bluesky. Here are two approaches to making it easier: the first is a 'starter pack' on people in AI and education. It makes use of the Bluesky Lists feature or the Bluesky Starter Pack. In the same genre, here's a Tech Media Starter Pack. The second, via Miguel Guhlin, is based on a hashtag with members listed on a Google Docs spreadsheet. It's cleverly done. You have to apply to be listed on the spreadsheet, and to be accepted you have to use the #Edusky hashtag in your account on Bluesky. Viral. Here's the Edusky feed.

Helen J. DeWaard, Canadian Journal of Learning Technology, Nov 13, 2024

I enjoyed the lavish illustrations in this article, a rarity in academic publications. After anm introductory section, the paper offers what is essentially a dialogue around the topic of sharing and openness in education. This bit from  the abstract resonated most with me: "It is becoming ever more important to share expertise as practitioners, researchers, and theorists in the field of education by making explicit what is often tacit and unspoken, and when sharing knowledge, reflections, and actions. By actively thinking-out-loud through blogs, social media, and open scholarly publications, educators can openly share details of what, how, and why they do what they do." This is the space where OLDaily operates - a somewhat middle ground between full academia on the one hand and the popular press on the other.

Paula MacDowell, Kristin Moskalyk, Katrina Korchinski, Dirk Morrison, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Nov 13, 2024

This paper reports on a process where thirty-five teachers enrolled in an elective three-credit multimedia design course "engaged in experiential activities focussed on developing artificial intelligence (AI) literacy, alongside a collaborative assignment to co-author an open-access textbook, Teaching and Creating With Generative Artificial Intelligence." In the process, "the Student Artificial Intelligence Literacy (SAIL) framework was developed (illustrated)." The paper concludes with the usual recommendations ('do no harm', 'develop communication skills', etc.). Each participant wrote a chapter, though a common template was used. I very much like the idea of producing a useful open resource as part of class activities. Oddly, the article doesn't provide a link to the textbook, but I found it here. It's a nice selection of 'how-to' articles that readers, I think, will find useful. One chapter (chapter 20 1/2?) is missing.

James Devitt-NYU, Futurity, Nov 13, 2024

This article challenges us to think more deeply on the distinction between knowledge and memory. The claim made here is that parts of the body - the kidney, say - can replicate the massed-spaced effect, retaining information over time, which is the same thing we see when connections are formed between neurons in the brain. But is that the same as forming a memory? I have Haglund's Deformity, a 'memory' of my many years of walking in bad shows. That seems more like "what our pancreas remembers about the pattern of our past meals to maintain healthy levels of blood glucose" and rather less like "knowing Paris is the capital of France". We can interpret these 'memories' as retained information, but it's not clear this is in any way any sort of knowledge.

Alexandra Mihai, The Educationalist, Nov 13, 2024

Interesting commentary on the state of research in educational technology today and what's missing. What's missing? Research that links theory through technology to needs and practices (so I summarize). Thus, Alexandra Mihai looks for "insights into how educational technology can enhance the learning process" and "how technology can contribute to addressing the increasing diversity of our learner population." Mihai also considers the impact of AI on the research process, suggesting "it's so important to maintain our agency in the research and writing process." I don't think education as a discipline has come to terms enough with how people actually learn, which (to me) explain the persistence of the sort of teacher- and institution-focused approaches Mihai asks for here.

Michael Franco, New Atlas, Nov 13, 2024

The depth and detail in this paper (8 page PDF) are daunting, but the gist, as summarized in this post, is straightforward: provided only with observations of a human cleaning (" using a so-called instrumented tool, which is a standard tool equipped with additional sensors") the front of an ordinary sink, a robot arm learn to clean entire sinks with varying surface topology. "The model implicitly learned the correct
tool orientation and position w.r.t. the freeform 3D surface." Michael Franco speculates, "a fleet of robots could learn the basic moves from each other through what's known as 'federated learning' and then they could apply those moves to their individual, specified tasks."

Roberto J. Rodriguez, et al., Office of Educational Technology, Nov 13, 2024

This is a longish (79 page PDF) resource from the U.S. government's Office of Educational Technology. "The Department heard educators say that AI is here to stay, AI will keep changing, and safely integrating AI in educational settings will require informed leadership at multiple levels across the education system." The toolkit is divided into three sections: migitating risks, strategy for AI integration, and guiding its use. The risks considered include privacy and data security, student civil rights, accessibility, and digital equity. The second section is weaker, focusing on the 'instructional core' (credited to Elmore, but basically Moore (1989)), with a corresponding focus on instruction. The third section begins with a discussion of AI literacy (limited to "includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to engage with AI safely") and promotion of "responsible use". 

Vinay K. Chaudhri, The Hechinger Report, Nov 13, 2024

This is an idea straight from the 50s but expect to see more of the same as companies wrestle with how to make their publications relevant in the age of AI. Vinay K. Chaudhri beghins with a reaffirmation of the importance of textbooks (as "a carefully curated body of knowledge... nearly 100 percent accurate... (and) the view of an expert educator"). Needed now, though, is "authoring textbooks so that their concepts can be read as computer code." How? Back to the 50s - a controlled vocabulary. "Textbooks, using the discipline of knowledge engineering, can support the curation, preservation and learning of all forms of human knowledge." Next up? I guess it would have to be the unification of the sciences.

Sean Goedecke, Nov 13, 2024

I remember a phrase from some technical conference a number of years ago: "quality ships." If you ever wondered what this means, this article is for you. It describes what it is to 'shop' a software product, and the sorts of concerns the person responsible has in order to ensure the project ships. After all, the default status for any project is 'not shipped'. There will always be something that could be added, something improved. The idea is to get it in front of as many ideas as possible, deal with the issues, earn the confidence of management, and deliver the result. Via Ben Werdmuller.

Mathew Lowry, Medium, Nov 13, 2024

This post deserves a look if only for its cracking good diagram illustrating the difference between the ActivityPub protocol (used by Mastodon and others) and the ATmosphere protocol (used by Bluesky). View it here. Essentially the difference is that the AT protocol disaggregates posting and applications, which (in theory) means that a viral post won't cause your 'instance' to crash (presumably because the post is being cached by the applications?). However "Bluesky's openness means there will not be separate villages, nor private groups for collaboration." 

Jared Cooney Horvath, Nov 13, 2024

Obviously you can't simply cite some PISA scores to show that 'ed tech is failing'. Minimally, it may well be that schools today are teaching less of what PISA is testing (eg. computer and information literacy). Additionally, there is a drift in what PISA tests for one year to the next (they don't test against curricula, they test against what PISA test designers believe a 15-year old should know, independently of curricula). There are additional factors, such as the pandemic, but not just that, also war and political change. And a final challenge is that most 15-year olds aren't actually taught using ed tech.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, The Scholarly Kitchen, Nov 13, 2024

We expect The Scholarly Kitchen to represent the publishers' point of view, since that is its intent, but in this case it ventures into the realm of pure propaganda. No open access charges subscription fees to readers. In 'Gold' open access, publishers charge authors 'article publication fees', while in 'Green' open access no such fees are charged. So how is there a "cost" to readers? According to this article, it's in the time and effort it takes to find the 'version of record' of an article as compared to what is found in typical 'green' venues such as preprint repositories. This argument, of course, assumes readers want to find the 'version of record', and the author is ready with a 'fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD)' argument. The author also argues that green versions are hard to find, compared to gold versions, ignoring such services as Unpaywall that index open access articles.

Paul Sawers, TechCrunch, Nov 13, 2024

According to this article, "Meta has launched a new partnership with a slew of universities in the U.S. and U.K., as it looks to ingrain VR across the education system." I guess it's a big deal (per Mixed, Upload, Social Media Today, Technopedia, ReadWrite, etc etc) but it's hard for me to stifle a yawn. It's not simply that I was here for the Second Life hype, it's that their product is a "digital twin" of the university - "environments that directly replicate their real-world campus counterparts" - the least imaginative use of any media ever. I think there's a lot of room for VR in education, but this announcement isn't it.

Digital Education Council, Nov 13, 2024

Members of the Digital Education Council (mostly from business and management schools) have signed this short declaration (5 page PDF) following their inaugural meeting this week. Most interesting is their desire to "commit to developing strategies to maintain curricula relevance, at speed with the rapidly-evolving pace of industry."

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From pre-race confusion to post-race joy, from 17th on the grid to a stunning win, here's how Max Verstappen's Brazilian Grand Prix unfolded on his radio.

Formula 1 drivers urged the operators of the Interlagos circuit to improve the new surface they laid ahead of this year's event.

In the round-up: Teams "welcome freedom" of 2026 regulations • Alpine targets Colapinto - reports • Pulling quickest in Formula E test

What was this Aston Martin mechanic thinking during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend? Can you come up with the best caption for this picture?

The controversy which surrounded Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier this year "had an impact" on their staff, according to a long-serving ex-F1 engineer.

In the round-up: F1 hopes for South Americans "getting better" • Verschoor back to MP for fifth F2 season • Verstappen races in charity event

McLaren could be set to win their first constructors' title for 25 years this season. Here is how close they've come over that time.

F1 did something it has never done before last weekend and moved a race start time earlier. But did that affect your ability to watch?

In the round-up: New simulator 'like Star Wars' - Krack • Pirelli likes 'flexibility' of new C6 • Play NZ anthem when McLaren wins - Lawson

Max Verstappen is poised to clinch the 2024 drivers' championship if he finishes ahead of Lando Norris one more time. Here's how he can seal a fourth title at the next race.

Mercedes have put the car from Lewis Hamilton's controversial 2021 championship defeat on display in the lobby at their factory.

Gabriel Bortoleto said he was determined not to sit out a year of racing in 2025 after Sauber confirmed he will make his debut for them in Formula 1 next year.

In the round-up: Monza crash 'made me stronger'- Antonelli • Perez staying at Red Bull - reports • Esterson fills empty Trident F2 seat