Ginanne Brownell at Newsweek has a new article providing an overview of OER. The projects covered include YouTube EDU, iTunes U and Academic Earth. From the article:
“There is a real appetite for content that is not just a sneezing-cat video,” says Peter Bradwell, a researcher for the British academic think tank Demos. “There is a growing desire for intellectually stimulating material that is easily accessible.”
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, ocw, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education
Mike Masnick at Techdirt is reporting that YouTube may be taking down public domain works in response to claims of ownership. From the article:
…or all the complaining that copyright holders do about how awful it is that they need to “police” their own content on YouTube, it seems like those who are getting hurt are people who are putting up public domain material and getting shut down — often with little recourse.
Link and commentary provided by Stephen Downes.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged Internet, open content, openness, policy, public domain
OnlineCourses.org has posted a list of 100 technology-related OCW courses. Most are from MIT, although a few are from USU. Thanks to Gizmodo for the link.
Posted in Open Education
James Farmer has a new post on the role of open source in higher education. Farmer laments perceived waste in expensive, proprietary software. From the post:
Let’s put our efforts, belief, time and commitment into products like Moodle, or WordPress MultiUser or any one of the open source online communication platforms out there. True, it might take an extra couple of people, true it might initially not be so earth shatteringly cheap that you feel you can forgo the opportunity of having someone else to blame and all those delightfully located yet content-free conferences. True it is certainly *harder*. But you’re doing a good thing for all concerned.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, higher education, online learning, open source, policy
A few days ago Jon Mott, of Brigham Young University, gave a presentation on open education through Elluminate. The slides are available through Slideshare. From the slide notes:
LMS = Bridge to Nowhere; Disrupted engagement stream . . . Artificial time barriers limit stifle learning.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, online learning, open content, Open Education, openness
John Willinsky, a member of Stanford’s faculty, has a video introduction on open education available on Vimeo. Willinsky research interest includes open access/open education issues. Thanks to Mary Bryson for the link.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, journal, library, open access, Open Education, openness
Today OEN has reached 1,000 posts. In May we announced reaching 500 posts.
A character in a science fiction show once characterized the human experience as consisting of moments of transition and moments of revelation. In some ways that summarizes what we do at OEN – chronicle the changes and epiphanies by individuals and organizations. Looking back at 1,000 posts, here are some of the moments that shape or inform:
This list is only a small sample of what has happened since the first post. There are many others that could easily be included on this list. The OEN staff would like to thank the Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation for their support. As always, we thank you for your support. As always, we would love to get your feedback.
Kevin Donovan at FreeCuluture.org is announcing plans to issue report cards to universities with regards to their level of openness. From the post:
The Open University Campaign recognizes that scholastic advancement occurs most readily in an environment of sharing, openness and collaboration. By providing a cross-index of leading universities, the project will add important comparative measurements to encourage increased academic openness. Our hope is that these resources will provide a platform from which openness activists can endeavor to improve the scholastic environment.
Thanks to Twitter user “terriensft” for the link.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, higher education, online learning, Open Education, openness, policy
HelenHRSC has tweeted about an upcoming webcast on legal issues surrounding OER. The webcast will take place on Thursday, November 5th. The method of webcasting is unclear. From the post:
Although the webcast is primarily focused towards OER pilot projects that are part of the open educational resources programme, supported by JISC and The Higher Education Academy, it might also be of interest to programme managers, lecturers, tutors and support staff interested in copyright and OER production and distribution.
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams and Eve Gray have published a report on OER at the University of Cape Town. The report discusses different levels of openness and introduces “Open Pedagogy.” From the report:
While acknowledging the potential value of actual content, we contend, however, that it is the opening up of educational processes, which we are terming Open Pedagogy (OP) enabled by the Web 2.0 technologies, that are set to play the more meaningful role in the collaboration between students and lecturers than content alone.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education, open pedagogy, open-teaching, openness
