We are competing with universities worldwide – and we may well lose
Chris Husbands
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/oct/25/we-are-competing-with-universities-worldwide-and-we-are-going-to-lose
The reputations of Asian universities, and Chinese universities in particular, are on the rise. China’s World Class 2.0 project, announced in August 2015, aims to strengthen the research performance of China’s nine top-ranked universities, with the goal of having six of those institutions ranked within the world’s top 15 universities by 2030.
After two decades in which China has been largely an exporter of students to Australia, Canada, the US and the UK, it is now increasingly attracting international students to study at its universities. And what is true of China is true of other countries too. Global flows of students are an increasing feature of the world’s higher education systems.
You can see the recruitment of international students as an exercise in soft power, in global engagement , in global citizenship, a great exercise in language learning , the practical application of a challenge thrown down by the great American social anthropologist Clifford Geertz.
Certainly, my friends who lead universities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand are delighted when they read politicians’ rhetoric about making it harder for international students to come to the UK.(my note, this is a Guardian article, but applies perfectly with Bush Junior politics and with the rhetoric of Trump)
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more on globalization in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=globalization
In the wake of NMC release regarding digital literacy, https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/10/25/nmc-on-digital-literacy/ (not coincidence, the author is active with NMC)
ALA is offering a webinar:
Rethinking Digital Literacy to Serve Library Staff and Users eCourse
Paul Signorelli Item Number: 1541-9124
http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11469&zbrandid=4634&zidType=CH&zid=38811756&zsubscriberId=1026665847&zbdom=http://ala-publishing.informz.net
Asynchronous eCourse beginning November 14, 2016 and continuing for 5 weeks (includes an extension of 1 week for Thanksgiving)
Estimated Hours of Learning: 24
Certificate of Completion available upon request
Learning outcomes
After participating in this course, you will be able to:
- incorporate ever-evolving definitions of digital literacy into learning opportunities
- draw upon a variety of digital resources to create digital-learning opportunities
- seek additional resources that you can use in your continuing efforts to keep up with new developments in digital literacy in libraries and other learning organizations
What is digital literacy? Do you know how you can foster digital literacy through formal and informal learning opportunities for your library staff and users?
Supporting digital literacy still remains an important part of library staff members’ work, but sometimes we struggle to agree on a simple, meaningful definition of the term. In this four-week eCourse, training/learning specialist Paul Signorelli will begin by exploring a variety of definitions, focusing on work by a few leading proponents of the need to foster digital literacy among people of all ages and backgrounds. He will explore a variety of digital-literacy resources – including case studies of how we creatively approach digital-literacy learning opportunities for library staff and users, and will explore a variety of digital tools that will help to encourage further understanding of this topic.
Now, who is ready to build their digital-literacy skills and help their users become digital literate as well?
eCourse Outline
Part 1: Digital Literacy: Initial Definitions and Explorations
- An overview of various definitions of digital literacy
- Several components of digital literacy
- Exploring Doug Belshaw’s extensive work on defining and fostering digital literacy
Part 2: Digital Literacy: Crap Detection and Other Skills and Tools
- Exploring Howard Rheingold’s approach to crap detection and other digital literacy/net literacy skills
- Participation, collaboration, creativity, and experimentation as digital-literacy skills
- Building our digital-literacy toolkit
Part 3: Digital Literacy in Learning
- The varying digital literacy needs of our youngest students, of teens, and of adults
- Exploring various online resources supporting our digital-literacy training-teaching-learning efforts
- The myth of the digital native
Part 4: Fostering Digital Literacy: Creating Within a Digital Environment
- Creating a framework to promote digital literacy
- Designing workshops and other learning opportunities
- Keeping up in an evolving digital literacy landscape
How this eCourse Works
The eCourse begins on Monday, November 14, 2016. Your participation will require approximately six hours a week, at times that fit your schedule. All activities take place on the website, and you will be expected to:
- Read, listen to or view online content
- Post to online discussion boards
- Complete weekly assignments or activities
Instructor Paul Signorelli will monitor discussion boards regularly during the four-week period, lead group discussions, and will also answer individual questions. All interaction will take place on the eCourse site, which will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s recommended that students log into the site on the first day of class or within a few days for an overview of the content and to begin the first lesson.
User Requirements
Participants will need regular access to a computer with an internet connection for online message boards participation, viewing online video, listening to streaming audio (mp3 files), and downloading and viewing PDFs and PowerPoint files. ALA Editions eCourses are fully compatible with Windows and MacOs.
About the Instructor
Paul Signorelli, co-author of Workplace Learning & Leadership with Lori Reed, is a San Francisco-based writer, trainer, presenter, and consultant exploring, fostering, and documenting innovations in learning. Having earned an MLIS through the University of North Texas (with an emphasis on online learning), he remains active in the American Library Association, the New Media Consortium (educational technology), and the Association for Talent Development (formerly the American Society for Training & Development).
My note: Finally ALA is addressing a huge gap. Namely, letting conservative librarians dress information literacy with the appearance of “digital literacy.”
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more on digital literacy in this IMS blog:
Hackers are able to seize control of consumer drones and make them fall from the sky
there aren’t clear rules about what manufacturers need to do to secure drones to prevent them from being tampered with by malicious hackers.
Police have owned signal jamming tools to interfere with consumer drones for years. After all, it was a regular consumer drone that a member of ISIS turned into a kamikaze to bomb Kurdish fighters.
My note: from jamming devices, to raptors (birds) to hacking the apps – #BumpyRoad for drones
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more on drones in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=drones
Zcash (ZEC), the new digital currency lauded for its privacy features, is launching today amidst some massive hype. But until enough tokens become available on exchanges, Zcash enthusiasts are poised to acquire their ZEC first-hand by mining for it, either by setting up a home rig or by signing up for a cloud mining contract.
https://plus.google.com/+PatrickUlrich/posts/JEKNvhvwUHZ
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more on bitcoin and digital currency in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=bitcoin
Yik Yak Users Not So Anonymous After All
By Dian Schaffhauser 10/20/16
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/10/20/yik-yak-users-not-so-anonymous-after-all.aspx
yakkers had add personal handles and profiles starting last August. users of mobile app Yik Yak face the ignominy of being truly discoverable. At least that’s what a research team at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering suggests in a new paper.
“You Can Yak but You Can’t Hide: Localizing Anonymous Social Network Users,” being presented at the upcoming ACM Internet Measurements Conference next month, describes how the research team was able to determine the geographical origin of a comment or “yak” and possibly even the person who made the post, thereby making the program susceptible to “localization attacks,” putting the user at risk of being identified.
if a student posted a disparaging remark about a fellow student or a faculty member, “it wouldn’t be difficult” for the victim of the insult to figure out where the offensive commentary was posted from and then pinpoint the probable yakker from there.
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more on privacy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=privacy
