Yesterday OEN reported on the Open University’s decision to move to Google apps. Leigh Blackall responds:
Don’t get me wrong, I reckon Google is the better call over Live or even SharePoint, but re: them all I can’t really see the point. Its a bit like providing email addresses to people who already have email addresses. No! its exactly the same. Why do we bother?
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, open content, Open Education, open source, open university, OU
Gráinne Conole has a new post discussing open educational practices. From the post:
Open Educational Practices (OEP) are the set of activities and support around the creation, use and repurposing of Open Educational Resources. It also includes the contextual settings within which these practices occur.
Also linked to by Stephen Downes.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, ocw, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education, open-teaching
Scott Leslie has a new post suggesting a sort of open access recommender. From the post:
“Wouldn’t it be great if I could write a combined LibraryLookup/Folksonomic script that annotated wikipedia pages with subject-appropriate links that instead of annotating with an OPAC/book references, used fully open resources, but instead of OER (which folksemantic already does), use a service like OAIster with it’s catalogue of 23 million Open Access articles and thesis.”
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, OATP, online learning, open access, open content, Open Education
Chris Lefkow is reporting that science fiction author Ursula Le Guin is fighting the revised Google Book Settlement. From the post:
In her petition, which is available on her website, ursulakleguin.com, Le Guin said the settlement was negotiated by the Authors Guild “without consultation with any other group of authors or American authors as a whole.”
Posted in Open Education
Tagged google, Google's Settlement, open content, policy, public domain
Leena Rao is reporting that Bill Gates praises the website Academic Earth is a recent letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. From the article:
According to the report, The Gates Foundation is investing in these online courses that are able to provide interactive applications for children, aiming to connect software partners with teachers and schools.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, higher education, online learning, open content, Open Education
Tony Hirst is announcing that the Open University will be moving to Google apps. From the post:
As and when this rolls out, it’ll be interesting to see what students do with it, and to what extent OU developers start developing around the apps. As far as the VLE goes, I’d be interested to know whether the powers that be are keen for us to look at ways of integrating Google services into our course delivery.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, online learning, Open Education, open university, OU, policy
Matthew 2.0 is pointing to an open letter from Gale, an education publisher. The letter complains of a deal with EBSCO and other publishers for exclusive distribution. From the letter:
If you currently receive Time Inc. or Forbes periodical content electronically from Gale or any provider other than EBSCO, you and your patrons will lose access to that content over the next year.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged commons, higher education, library, open content, openness
David Wiley has a new post announcing the availability of Justin Johansen’s dissertation. Johansen researched sustainability for BYU Independent Study OpenCourseWare. From the post:
This dissertation is the first piece of empirical work I am aware of that demonstrates clearly that a distance learning program can simultaneously (1) provide a significant public good by publishing opencourseware and (2) be revenue positive while doing it.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, ocw, oer, open content, Open Education, research
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal notes that the Hewlett Foundation has given $750,000 to the Community Open Learning Initiative. From the article:
Developers of the initiative will use a team of educators, experts in learning, specialists in human-computer interaction and software designers to create what they hope will be a more effective way to teach math and English to community college students.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, higher education, online learning, open source
Stephen Downes (among many others) has pointed our recent statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Internet freedom. From the speech:
As technology hurtles forward, we must think back to that legacy. We need to synchronize our technological progress with our principles.
