Archive of ‘information literacy’ category
https://higheredinquirer.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-growth-of-robot-colleges.html
some frightening full-time faculty numbers at some large online universities.
Robot colleges have de-skilled instruction by paying teams of workers, some qualified and some not, to write content, while computer programs perform instructional and management tasks. Learning management systems with automated instruction programs
The assumption is that managing work this way significantly reduces costs, and it does, at least in the short and medium terms. However, instructional costs are frequently replaced by marketing and advertising expenses to pitch the schools to prospective students and their families.
The business model in higher education for reducing labor power and faculty costs is not reserved to for-profit colleges. Community colleges also rely on a small number of full-time faculty and armies of low-wage contingent labor.
In some cases, colleges and universities, including many brand name schools, utilize outside companies, online program managers (OPMs), to run their online programs, with OPMs like 2U taking up as much as 60 percent of the revenues.
Microsoft blocks Bing from showing image results for Tiananmen ‘tank man’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessapappas/
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more on social media in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=social+media
Hundreds of gibberish papers still lurk in the scientific literature
The issue began in 2005, when three PhD students created paper-generating software called SCIgen for “maximum amusement”, and to show that some conferences would accept meaningless papers.
Springer also sponsored a PhD project to help spot SCIgen papers, which resulted in free software called SciDetect.
The publishers who posted the most SCIgen content were Trans Tech Publications, a Swiss publisher, which published 57 SCIgen papers, Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP), based in India, which had 54; and Atlantis Press, a French publisher that was acquired by Springer Nature this March, with 39.
SCIgen papers are extremely rare: Labbé and Cabanac estimate from their screen that they make up a mere 75 papers per million in the computer-science literature. They are a far smaller problem than are, for instance, suspected paper mills.
the existence of these papers is an indication of the harmful effects of a ‘publish or perish’ culture, and an example of how nonsensical work can still make it into conference proceedings or journals.
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more on gerrymandering in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=gerrymandering
Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China
Apple built the world’s most valuable business on top of China. Now it has to answer to the Chinese government.
https://www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.amp.html
Two decades ago, as Apple’s operations chief, Mr. Cook spearheaded the company’s entrance into China, a move that helped make Apple the most valuable company in the world and made him the heir apparent to Steve Jobs. Apple now assembles nearly all of its products and earns a fifth of its revenue in the China region. But just as Mr. Cook figured out how to make China work for Apple, China is making Apple work for the Chinese government.
Mr. Cook often talks about Apple’s commitment to civil liberties and privacy. But to stay on the right side of Chinese regulators, his company has put the data of its Chinese customers at risk
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more on Apple in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=apple+
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/18/amazon-ring-largest-civilian-surveillance-network-us
since Amazon bought Ring in 2018, it has brokered more than 1,800 partnerships with local law enforcement agencies. These partnerships are growing at an alarming rate.
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more on surveillance in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=surveillance
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-05-10-why-tech-companies-view-the-job-search-as-big-business
“jobtech”—to be approximately $40 billion in size, and growing rapidly.
These emerging companies bridge the gap between people and jobs by matching, training, and often literally placing candidates into positions. That’s different from edtech, which focuses on the learning but not the workforce connection; and from HR tech, which prioritizes recruiting but not training or skills development. It’s more than the professional networks and digital job boards that put all the pressure and responsibility on the worker. And it has the potential to address the pain points of both students and workers who are underemployed, or newly unemployed due to the pandemic, by translating skills and experiences into positive labor market outcomes.
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more on employment in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=employment
NY AG report finds 18 million FCC net neutrality comments were fake
https://www-engadget-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.engadget.com/amp/new-york-state-report-fcc-net-neutrality-repeal-170517463.html
Before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal net neutrality at the end of 2017, the agency collected public opinion on the policy. In all, it said it received nearly 22 million comments. Over the years, there’s been a fair amount of discussion surrounding where many of those came from, with a study from that same year suggesting that only six percent of the comments were unique.
a report found the “largest” broadband companies funded a secret astroturfing campaign to push the FCC toward repealing net neutrality. At the time, AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) were in favor of repealing the policy. The industry hired several third-party firms to build public support for their decision. Ostensibly, those companies were supposed to convince people to support the broadband industry with incentives like gift cards and prizes. Instead, they simply submitted 8.5 million fake comments. The attorney general has fined three of the companies involved in sending in those comments $4.4 million.
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more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
https://youtu.be/t5UPnuSTRjA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology
<https://youtu.be/t5UPnuSTRjA?t=2384> in 2000, it was genomics, in 2010, it was nanotechnology and in 2020 is AI
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more on fake news in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=%23fakenews