Joss Winn has tweeted about The Really Open University (ROU). From the “About” page:
The Really Open University exists everywhere, it will not be a one-off event, but an ongoing process. It will be non-hierarchical, making a start at breaking down traditional student-teacher dichotomies. We wish to engage with other communities in Leeds, and beyond. This will form part of a transformation of everyday life.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, higher education, Internet, online learning, open, open accreditation, Open Education, open-teaching, openness
Terry Anderson has a new post responding to criticisms of peer review (Anderson is editor of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning). From the post:
I appreciate the informal filtering of friends, who email or tweat ideas or postings they know I will read and the more formal aggregation postings from people like Stephen Downes or the Commonwealth of Learning. But these annotations and references are all from a look in the rear view mirror and very rarely result in improvements to the work.
Stephen Downes responds in the comments section and on his blog.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged commons, Internet, journal, library, open, Open Education, openness, research
The blog Law & Life: Silicon Valley has posted the top ten open source developments in 2009. From the post:
As the use of free and open source software (“FOSS”) has become more ubiquitous, legal issues relating to FOSS have become more common and important. This year has seen a mix of new and old issues.
Ryan T. Normandin has published an article through The Tech on the state of MIT OCW. Normandin reviews common arguments against MIT OCW and puts forth counter-arguments. From the article:
MIT should continue to support OCW because it is the first step to promoting free public education at a higher level than grade 12.
Commentary by David Wiley.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, ocw, oer, online learning, open, open content, Open Education, openness
Julia Angwin and Geoffrey A. Fowler are reporting in the Wall Street Journal that many Wikipedia volunteers are leaving in record number. Increasing layers of bureaucracy and fatigue over fighting are cited as possible reasons. From the article:
“People generally have this idea that the wisdom of crowds is a pixie dust that you sprinkle on a system and magical things happen,” says Aniket Kittur, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied Wikipedia and other large online community projects.
Additional coverage on Slashdot. Thanks to Brian Lamb for the link.
Jane Park has posted, on the blog “Opinions of Open,” a recap of a Peer-to-Peer University meeting in Berlin. From the post:
I think in the end that is the crux of P2PU, that it’s made up of and run by volunteers–people who are willing to risk their time and effort to realize a vision that may not be realizable.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged ocw, oer, online learning, open, open content, Open Education, open-teaching, p2pu
David Wiley has a new post attempting to define open. Wiley argues that openness is a continuum, not a binary concept. From the post:
A door can be wide open, completely shut, or open part way. So can a window. So can a faucet. So can your eyes. Our commonsense, every day experience teaches us that “open” is continuous. Anyone who will argue that “open” is a binary construct is forced to admit that a door cracked open one centimeter is just as open as a door standing wide open, because their conception of the term is overly simplified and has no nuance.
The Associated Press is reporting that President Obama has supported recent comments by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission supporting network neutrality. Arstechnica adds that the ISPs have reacted in a guarded manner. From the Arstechnica article:
ISPs are more likely to talk tough as the process heats up, but the initial cautious responses and the commitments to openness certainly make it look like some version of network neutrality will be adopted at the FCC over the next year. That might even be a good thing for ISPs, which tend to have more pull with the FCC than they do with Congress, and where rules can easily be massaged by future Commissioners.
Posted in Open Education
Tagged e-learning, Internet, open, open access, open content
Chris Lott has a new post on teaching science education. Lott suggests that the future lies in openness within teaching, educational resources and scholarship. From the post:
It’s astounding to me (though it shouldn’t be) to attend conferences like this and see yet again how many things—artifacts, documentation, records, instructor and student work—is inaccessible. Amazement and surprise at what colleagues—often within the same institution, sometimes within the same program or school—are doing is the norm. Sometimes this is due to being required to use (or in the habit of using) an LMS. More often the idea of defaulting to being open and making closed activity the exception—and there are legitimate exceptions!—hasn’t even been considered or is seen as “more work.”
Posted in Open Education
Tagged higher education, oer, online learning, open, Open Education, open-teaching, openness
Michael Bauwins has a new post at the P2P Foundation Blog. Bauwins has created a “mindmap,” or visual representation of various aspects of openness. From the post:
To make it all real, we need infrastructures in which these enabling elements are embedded, i.e. we need open platforms, both virtual and physical, which alllow us to produce in a open way: open collaborative technical platforms, open places where we can gather, open media and communication infrastructures we can use, open and free software, knowledge and scientific data…
