State Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has posted a defense of why he supported a series of bills relating to electronic textbooks in Texas. From the post:
…The commissioner of education may purchase state-developed, open-source textbooks, if available, through a competitive bidding process. These state-developed books must be irrevocably owned by the state for use in the appropriate subject and grade level. The state has the authority to modify, delete or add content to the textbooks.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged commons, K-12, open content, open textbook, open textbooks, openness
Dan Brown, a former student of the University of Nebraska, has posted a video of why he dropped out of college. Much of the video addresses issues of information, openness and higher education. Thanks to Patrick Trucheon for the link.
Jane Park at Creative Commons notes that the textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge has started an internship program. From eSchool News, who originally posted the story:
The internships, introduced this year by open textbook provider Flat World Knowledge, let sophomore and junior business students earn college credit and a little spending cash if their sales pitch convinces a professor to use web-based texts that can be reorganized and modified by chapter, sentence, or word.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, oer, open content, Open Education, open textbook, open textbooks
Kent Anderson has a new post on Jaron Lanier’s book, You Are Not a Gadget. Lanier argues that open culture undercuts the ability of content creators to make a sustainable income, among other things. From the post:
Lanier’s most damning points revolve around what he calls “open culture” — the movement spurred by advocates of open access, open standards, open data, open, open, open. While it all sounds good, what it’s actually created is an amoral world in which consequences aren’t considered, the victims are blamed, technical solutions are thought to be better than common sense, creativity has been stifled, commerce is abandoned, and gee-whiz wonderment conceals deeply cynical plays by scheming companies.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged cc, CC licenses, commons, copy right, copyright, creative commons, ocw, oer, open content, openness
David Wiley is announcing that some of his writings are now available through Brigham Young University’s institutional repository. Many of these writings relate to open education. From the post:
So far I have 12 pieces in the collection, which are guaranteed to stay at these URLs for “a very long time” since the library is curating the repository. I’m happy as a clam that these pieces have permanent homes and that these pieces are freely available for the general public.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, library, open content, openness, research
BBC News is reporting that many consumers misunderstand basic copyright law. From the post:
In a poll of 2,026 people, some 73% said that they did not know what they could copy or record.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged copy right, copyright, creative commons, fair use, open content, openness, public domain
Tania Rowlett has a new post on linking openness with educational practices. From the post:
I, as Copyright Administrator for the University, need to produce more guidance, and run more sessions, on the Creative Commons/open access movement, web 2.0 technologies, and sourcing open and re-usable materials. There are a wealth of materials which can be freely re-used, but people simply don’t know about them, which is why I have made a start by pulling together a list of OER copyright guidance and resources which not only explain copyright in the relation to open licensing, but also provide the actual open resources.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged cc, CC licenses, copy right, copyright, higher education, open content, Open Education, openness
Megan.Eskey has posted a proposal on IdeaScale, a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Eskey proposes an iGoogle-type of page for the Department of Education. From Eskey’s comments:
OpenEducation v2.0 would not supercede other tools/applications, rather just gather them together into one portal that is based on standards (The Open Stack – an introduction: http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/12/the_open_stack.html)that allow for interoperabilty with all opensocial partners: i.e., google, yahoo, ning, linkedin, myspace, etc. etc. (Who supports OpenSocial?: http://wiki.opensocial.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#Container_Information)
Stephen Downes has posted on a project by CETIS to track open educational resources. The page can be found at JISC CETIS.
The Peer 2 Peer University announced its second round of free and open online courses on February 17h, opening sign-ups for 14 courses dealing in subject areas ranging from Physics to Transformational Art. Some of the courses were offered in the first phase of the pilot which launched last September, but seven are brand new, including “Urban Disaster Risk Management,” “Mashing Up the Open Web,” and “Solve Anything! Building Ideas through Design.” P2PU is also excited to announce its first Portuguese language courses organized by Brasil’s Casa de Cultura Digital, one of which is an introduction to the thinking of Paulo Freire (educational theorist who is author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed). The P2PU community has grown and is excited to have these new courses and their organizers on board.
You can follow more news at the P2PUniversity blog.
