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Daily Archives: April 18, 2021

Connecting Libraries and Learning Analytics for Student Success

The Corkboard: “A recent library learning analytics project highlights the wide—if not widening—gap between advocates of the technology and those concerned that the value of student privacy isn’t being fully attended to. The project argues that privacy “hinges” on confidentiality. In this brief post, I will succinctly argue why confidentiality is not privacy, but privacy may include confidentiality. Connecting Libraries and Learning Analytics for Student Success, or CLLASS, is an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project led by Megan Oakleaf of Syracuse University supported by corporate (OCLC), organizational (IMS Global Learning Consortium, Unizin), and other higher education partners. In the executive summary, the CLLASS report argues that “in alignment with their long-standing commitment to use assessment to understand and facilitate student learning, librarians should explore opportunities to engage with emergent institutional learning analytics tools, systems, and strategies” (p. 6). Among other outcomes, CLLASS developed “a library profile for Caliper, an interoperability standard used to label learning data and provide the means for capturing, presenting, and conveying learning activities to centralized data stores in order to facilitate the analysis, visualization, and increased awareness of student learning behaviors” (p. 7). Other activities and outcomes are described in the report, but I want to use this time to turn the team’s treatment of privacy before offering up a critique…”

WETA Launches New Local Public TV Channel for Washington, D.C. Region

New WETA Channel Features the Best of PBS and Life in the DMV – “WETA President and CEO Sharon Percy Rockefeller announced today a new WETA television channel lineup that includes WETA Metro, offering even more public media programming to viewers in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The WETA television line-up now consists of WETA… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 17, 2021

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 17, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Winners of the 2021 World Press Photo Contest

The Atlantic – “The winning entries of the annual World Press Photo Contest ​have just been announced. This year, according to organizers, 74,470 images were submitted for judging, made by 4,315 photographers from 130 different countries. Winners in eight categories were announced, including Contemporary Issues, Environment, General News, Long-Term Projects, Nature, Portraits, Sports, and Spot… Continue Reading

Libraries and Pandemics: Past and Present

JSTOR: “The 1918 influenza pandemic had a profound impact on how librarians do their work, transforming libraries into centers of community care. In 1918, World War I was coming to a close, and widespread changes were afoot. It was in some ways a moment similar to today: rapid technological development brought sweeping changes to workplaces… Continue Reading

Policing and ‘Bluelining’

Gruber, Aya, Policing and ‘Bluelining’ (December 11, 2020). Houston Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2021, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3746717 “In this essay written for the Frankel Lecture symposium on police killings of Black Americans, I explore the increasingly popular claim that racialized brutality is… Continue Reading

Where Millennials Are Moving – 2021 Edition

Smart Asset: “Young professionals have long looked to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other bustling cities as places of opportunity. But in the last few years, migration patterns have shifted to show that a smaller share of Americans are moving to these cities. And after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, another study also… Continue Reading

All about your coronavirus vaccine card (and what to do if you lose it)

Washington Post – “There are various ways to document that you received a coronavirus vaccine. Some people have snapped selfies proudly displaying the Band-Aid on their upper arm. Some vaccination sites are handing out stickers. But the official form of documentation is the small white vaccination record card issued by the Centers for Disease Control… Continue Reading

What the Constitution Means to Me

The New York Times: “Note the last two words in the title of Heidi Schreck’s hit show, “What the Constitution Means to Me”: This is a highly personal take, not a historical or legal lecture. Yet Schreck succeeds in widening her autobiographical play into a paean for basic fairness: The American Constitution, admired as it… Continue Reading