Monthly Archives: August 2009

Commentary on Downes-Wiley Debate

Posted on August 13, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Yesterday OEN reported that Stephen Downes made the audio of his debate with David Wiley available as MP3′s. Today Downes has a roundup of some commentary on the debate. From the Jared Stein’s commentary:

After some lengthy idling of engines, the real conversation starts when Downes asks, what does the university offer? Content, delivery, and credentials. Content and delivery is also possible outside the university, yes? Implication: therefore, there is no significant difference in effectiveness, no reason to choose one over the other (!?).

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged higher education, oer, open content, Open Education, openness

On Repository Sustainability

Posted on August 13, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Dorothea Solo has a new post on repository sustainability. Solo indicates all repositories seem to struggle beyond the initial funding. From the post:

When even scholars wanting to do the right thing and hand off their work to a responsible party cannot find anywhere to go, when enabling digital communication and the preservation of its results is an altruistic act in libraries instead of the bedrock of our mission, when worthy digital projects die because we in libraries do not notice and reach out to them, when we ourselves can’t see our way clear to sustaining digital materials… we have a serious systemic problem.

Thanks to Gain Baker at Open Access News.

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged higher education, journal, library, OATP, open access, open content

Downes-Wiley Dialogue

Posted on August 12, 2009 by openedblogger | 1 Comment

Stephen Downes is announcing the availability of audio from today’s discussion with David Wiley. The conversation took place as part of pre-Open Education Conference 2009 events. From one of Downes’ related posts:

So in the course of one of our debates a few months ago I remarked to David Wiley that he didn’t simply disagree with me, he didn’t simply misunderstand what I was saying, but it was actually perceptual, that he didn’t see what I was seeing. And I suggested, not expecting for a moment that anything would come of it, that we should spend an entire day discussing these issues and trsnacribing [sic] the conversation as a book. To my surprise, he agreed, and suggested meeting in Vancouver at the OpenEd conference.

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged conference, open accreditation, open content, Open Education, opened, openness

Criticism of Obama OER Plan

Posted on August 12, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Marc Perry at The Chronicle of Higher Education: Wired Campus is reporting on criticism of Obama’s announcement to develop OER (reported by OEN). The criticism of the plan ranges from privacy issues to pointing out other areas in which the money might be spent. From the article:

“It’s unethical to allow a student to have access to courses and not provide a support system that allows them to have success,” Ms. Gibson said during a panel discussion, prompted by a question from a Chronicle reporter. “There needs to be some kind of support system for learners, within the system. And it’s not inexpensive.”

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged oer, open content, Open Education, open learning, opened, openness

Placing OER Search on Library Web Sites

Posted on August 12, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Tony Hirst has a new post examining the lack of OER search on university library web sites. Hirst points to the University of Leicester as an example. From the post:

So here’s a suggestion for the #UKOER folk – see if you can persuade your library to start offering a search over OERs from their website

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Posted in Open Education

BYU Access to Knowledge Initiative Announced

Posted on August 11, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Gavin Baker at Open Access News points to David Wiley’s tweet regarding Brigham Young University’s new Access to Knowledge Initiative. The initiative covers a wide range of OER and OCW efforts, including OEN itself. From the initiative’s home page:

Our current research includes projects examining the long-term sustainability of university-based open education initiatives; a “Continuous Local Improvement Curriculum” (CLIC) model of leveraging and improving open source curriculum materials in an online high schools involving a significant amount of educational data mining; issues of textbook affordability; business models supporting the creation and distribution of open source textbooks…

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged oer, open access, open content, Open Education, open learning, open source

More on AP’s Use of ccRel

Posted on August 11, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

A week ago OEN reported on the Associated Press using a microformat built by Creative Commons as part of its new registry service. Techdirt has a new post also suggesting that the idea will not work. From the article:

If you re-read the AP’s description of the technology, it sounds a lot less scary, but a lot more hopeless.

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged creative commons, open content

Elsevier to Raise Journal Prices, Possibly Due to Open Access

Posted on August 11, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

The blog Archivalia has a new post reporting on increased prices for some Elsevier journals. According to the post, Elsevier prices on journals that compete with significant open access offerings are being lowered, possibly to increase competitiveness. From the post:

We see Elsevier’s decision to cuts prices for its nuclear physics journals by 20% as a reflection of the progress of Open Access, which prevails in this discipline. Should Open Access reach critical mass in other disciplines, similar pricing pressure is likely.

Thanks to Glyn Moody for the link.

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged higher education, journal, open access

First OCWC Webinar Available

Posted on August 11, 2009 by openedblogger | Leave a comment

Meena Hwang is announcing the availability of the first OpenCourseWare Consortium webinar at the OCWC blog. The webinar is produced by Tom Caswell and is available as a streaming Flash video. From the article:

As eduCommons is a Content Management System designed specifically for OCW projects, you may want to check out the key features at http://www.eduCommons.com if you are thinking about starting an OCW project.

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Posted in Open Education

Tagged higher education, ocw, oer, Open Education