Tony Bates has a new post on the “good, bad and ugly” in open educational resources. From the post:
The main barrier to education is not lack of cheap content but lack of access to programs leading to credentials, either because such programs are too expensive, or because there are not enough qualified teachers, or both. Making content free is not a waste of time (if it is properly designed for secondary use), but it is still a drop in the bucket.
Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged commons, education, higher education, ocw, oer, open content, Open Education, openness
Both Alan Levine and D’Arcy Norman have new posts discussing their experiences with ds106 radio. From Norman’s post:
How does the ability to instantly broadcast live audio to a group of people impact what we do? How does this instant synchronous connection effect the sense of social presence? And how does having to make the decision of streaming vs. recording effect the experience of sharing?
Posted in Open Education
Tagged ds106, education, higher education, online learning, open course, Open Education, open-teaching, openness
The TALL Blog has a new post publishing their mindmap outlining the issues surrounding OER reuse. The mindmap can be found in full on Mindmeister. From the post:
We started our investigation into reuse of OER by reviewing both the relevant research literature and a less formal, but equally important debate, in the blogosphere.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged education, ocw, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education
D’Arcy Norman points out that Unlimited magazine has recently devoted an issue to open education. Duncan Kinney writes an Open Education Primer. George Siemens and Max Fawcett debate massively open online courses (MOOC).
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, education, ocw, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education, openness
Pieter Kleymeer is announcing the availability of an Open Education Coordinator position. From the post:
Open.Michigan seeks an Open Education Coordinator to engage the campus and its peer institutions on open education and to cultivate a robust community of practitioners in this area, from content producers to instructors to librarians to researchers and beyond. This individual will build a network of like-minded educators on campus, share knowledge and resources with this group, and bring critical needs assessment back to the Open.Michigan and U-M staff in order to improve infrastructure and support for open education activities.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, education, higher education, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education, openness
Glyn Moody has a new post on how the WikiPremed MCAT sustains itself. From the post:
What’s interesting here is that once again it’s analogue goods that bring in the money, while the digital side does the marketing – a pattern that is emerging in many sectors.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged education, higher education, ocw, online learning, open content, openness
Scott Leslie has a new post on creating a Twitter account that defines one word relating to education per day. From the post:
So I decided to set up a new account, eduWOTD, through which to post a vaguely education-related word, definition, and link, each work day. I say “vaguely” because to me, it is difficult to think about education, learning or teaching without also thinking about psychology, philosophy of mind, theories of knowledge and all sorts of things that impact how we approach education.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, education, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education
Donald Melanson at Engadget is reporting that Pace, Case Western, and Reed College have all put Kindle usage on hold. The decision came as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, which had concerns about accessibility to persons with disabilities. There may be implications for open textbooks. From the post:
Assuming Amazon lives up to its promises, however, it looks like the Kindles could be put back to use as soon as this summer — and the universities in question will still be able to finish any pilot programs currently taking place this semester, just not expand their use.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, education, higher education, open textbook, open textbooks
Scott Leslie has a new post discussing the need for a type of virtual reference librarian. This role would mean helping people find OER to meet their needs. From the post:
I suppose this is often the role for instructional designers, but in my experience not every faculty developing a course gets the chance to work with instructional designers…
Posted in Open Education
Tagged education, higher education, Internet, ocw, oer, online learning, open content, Open Education
David Wiley has posted on a recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune about the Open High School of Utah. Wiley notes that the high school was defended by students in the comments section. From the post:
The fact that these readers are arguing with one another in the online comment thread about whether you can have meaningful academic or social interactions in an online setting is really just too delicious.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, education, K-12, online learning, Open Education
