Open Education News
FLOSS as Commons
David Bollier has a new post on FLOSS as commons. From the post:
Without such a language of the commons, market metrics and discourse tend to prevail. This is fine as far as it goes. But the conventional market narrative provides a misleading ontology and epistemology for describing FLOSS communities.
Thanks to Michael Bauwens for the link.
How Faculty Can Implement Open Access at Their Institution
“tinh” has a new post announcing a white paper on how faculty can implement open access at their institution. From the post:
This excellent companion piece, providing a thorough overview and careful analysis of legal issues related to public access policies, is written by Simon Frankel and Shannon Nestor, who are lawyers at Covington & Burling, a prominent Washington D.C. law firm.
Reasons for Open Courses
Dave Cormier has a new post on possible use cases for open courses. From the post:
I think there’s a middle ground somewhere where we can bring in people who aren’t exactly ‘opposed’ to the idea of openness to understanding the power of supporting networks and network creation.
Link and commentary by Stephen Downes. Gabi Witthaus expands on Cormier’s thoughts.
Interview With Lewis Hyde
Mike Linksvayer has posted an interview with author Lewis Hyde, who has written a new book Common as Air. From the interview:
I am obviously someone who cares about gift-exchange and sharing in the creation of knowledge and culture but I am also a bit of a contrarian and thus find that sometimes I want to underline the complications that necessarily arise around gift-exchange in our current situation.
Robert Darnton at the New York Times reviews the book.
Openness and The Chronicle of Higher Education
George Siemens reacts to an article on open courses that was placed behind a pay wall on The Chronicle of Higher Education website. From the post:
I haven’t read the article. I’m sure it’s good. But it’s against the grain of what I wanted to communicate about openness.
D’Arcy Norman posts similar thoughts.
Interview With Richard Baranuik
Victor Yu has posted an interview with Richard Baranuik, founder of Connexions. From the interview:
In 1999, frustrated by the fact that there was no appropriate textbook for my class, I considered writing my own. But on careful reflection, i realized that
the educational publishing system was broken and that writing a new book and publishing it through this system would not make a meaningful impact.
Thanks to Daniel Williamson for the link.
MIT OCW Listed by Time Magazine as One of the Best of the Web
Steve Carson announces that MIT OCW was listed by Time magazine as one of the best websites of 2010. From the post:
“It’s truly remarkable to see MIT OpenCourseWare listed beside these other well-known sites,” says Professor Shigeru Miyagawa, chair of OCW’s Faculty Advisory Committee. “It really speaks to the impact the site is having not only on the individuals who use it, but on the culture of the Web as a whole.
P2PU Ready for Third Round of Courses
Jane Park has a new post noting that the Peer-2-Peer University is starting its third round of courses. One of the courses is “Copyright for Educators.” From the post:
Sign-ups for all other courses are available at http://p2pu.org/course/list. The deadline to sign up is September 8, and courses will run until October 27th.
OER at the American University in Kosovo
Taulant Ramabaja has a new post on open educational resources at the American University in Kosovo. From the post:
Another big issue, or at least an issue for me, was the lack of coherent OER platforms and standards. Most of what has gotten out onto the web has s far been driven by personal initiative of some open minded intellectuals.
Who Pays for Open Access?
State of Open Education in Utah
David Wiley has a new post summarizing the state of open education in Utah. From the post:
Open education seems to be getting some traction here in Utah.
Creative Commons for Educators Slides
Yoza
Steve Vosloo has issued a press release announcing Yoza, a open content mobile library. From the press release:
Yoza’s goal is to get young people reading and writing, and in the ‘book-poor’ but ‘cellphone-rich’ context of South Africa, the phone is a viable complement and sometimes alternative to a printed book.
Thanks to Creative Commons for the link.
Response to Amy Kinsel
A few days ago OEN pointed out an article by Professor Amy Kinsel, who gave a critique of open education. David Wiley has now posted a response. From the post:
I think it’s a terrible shame that our face-to-face courses end after 15 weeks. Just when you’re finally learning everyone’s personalities and preferences, and students are starting to really master the material, it all ends. In a traditional, physically-bound classroom setting, this may be inescapable. But again, if we step back and critically reimagine teaching and learning in the context of modern technology, there is no a priori reason that courses must work in this manner.
Three Open Access Articles
A variety of open access articles:
- Leslie Carr on using Mendeley for open access
- Matthew C. Nisbet on “crowdsourcing” peer review
- Courtney Crummett et al. on publishing practices of faculty at MIT
Looking for Mathematicians and Scientists
Adopting Open Textbooks Course
OEN Reaches 2,000 Posts
This week Open Education News reached 2,000 posts. We would like to thank those contributors who help make this site what it is today. We also thank those we aggregate from regularly, like Stephen Downes and Peter Suber. OEN is extremely fortunate to have funding from Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation. Without them we would not have made it this far. Above all, we thank you, our readers, for making us a part of your lives.
Being on the Side of Open Access
Jason Hoyt has a new post addressed to researchers about open access. From the post:
We could choose to publish in only Open Access. We could choose to reward tenure for Open Data. We could choose to only reward publications or data that are proven to be reused and make either a marked economic or research impact. Instead, we choose to follow a model that promotes prestige as the primary objective…
Mozilla Course for Journalists and Technologists
Stephen Downes notes that Mozilla and other groups are looking to create a course for journalists and technologists. From the post:
Each week the course will focus on a different topic, and each week the participants will be joined by a different subject-matter expert from the field of news innovation. The weekly course readings, online participation, and a seminar are expected to require roughly 4-6 hours.