tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72405409419156541422024-02-07T00:46:46.306-08:00EduTechLandEnvisioning Education's FutureAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-2572102833440875762012-06-01T03:46:00.001-07:002012-06-01T03:46:31.898-07:00Open Course Ware<br />
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><a href="http://ocwconsortium.org/templates/ocwc2010/images/ocwconsortiumlogo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="ocw consortium home page" border="0" height="81" src="http://ocwconsortium.org/templates/ocwc2010/images/ocwconsortiumlogo.gif" width="200" /></a>When MIT launched it's Open Courseware project in 2001, Charles Vest, then President of MIT, described it as a "web based program that will provide free access to primary materials for virtually every course at MIT." He explained that they expected this project to provide benefit to the public by raising the quality of learning for all but also benefit MIT itself by helping attract students and allow more focus on human interaction which he called the "core of learning." He also expressed his hope that it would inspire other institutions to follow suit and share their materials as well.</div><br />
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Over 10 years on, this hope is now a reality with the <a href="http://ocwconsortium.org/" target="_blank">Open Courseware Consortium</a> now made up of <a href="http://ocwconsortium.org/en/members/members/master" target="_blank">nearly 300 members</a>. They recently held a conference in Cambridge which I was unable to attend but which I followed via twitter and the web. I collected some highlights into the following <a href="http://storify.com/benmsamuels/ocw-conference-cambridge-2012" target="_blank">Storify</a>:<br />
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<script src="http://storify.com/benmsamuels/ocw-conference-cambridge-2012.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="http://storify.com/benmsamuels/ocw-conference-cambridge-2012" target="_blank">View the story "Cambridge 2012" on Storify</a>]<h1>Cambridge 2012</h1><h2>Innovation and Impact - Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education</h2><p>Storified by Ben Samuels · Thu, Apr 19 2012 05:00:15</p><div>jointly organised by the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ocwconsortium.org/">OCW Consortium</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE </a>(Support Centre for Open Resources in Education)<div><br></div><div>This Storify has selected tweets from the conference loosely organized into sections of presenters, posters, resources and discussions. There are several pages, so if you're interested in seeing it all, be sure to keep clicking "read next page" at the bottom (and leave a comment if you like it) <br><br><h1><u><b>Key Resources</b></u></h1><div><a target="_blank" href="http://cambridge2012.org/">conference website</a><br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.ucel.ac.uk/oer12/docs/programme_cambridge_2012_final.pdf">Conference Programme</a></div><div><a target="_blank" href="http://ocwc.viidea.net/">videos of lectures</a></div></div><div><a target="_blank" href="http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2403">Cloudscape for conference</a></div></div><div><h1>Sir John Daniel Keynote</h1></div><div>Sir John Daniel delivering keynote on UNESCO/COL World OER Congress at http://cambridge2012.org #Cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/DBIworbgAbel Caine Fiji</div><div>Sir John Daniel's keynote on high level policy making and #OER. #cam12 #ocwcglobal http://pic.twitter.com/G29z4GZtOCW Consortium</div><div>Text and slides available at http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2012presentations/Pages/2012-04-17.aspx #cam12ORBIT</div><div>OH Sir John "shows personal commitment to life long learning by taking 25 years to complete a part time masters degree" #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>http://is.gd/hPLTB7 Fostering Governmental Support for Open Educational Resources Internationally (EUROPE) by sir John Daniel #oer #cam12Ignasi Labastida</div><div>RT @gedoyle: "HE should now invest in clicks rather than bricks" @SirJohn #cam12Frederik Truyen</div><div>MQB blog of Sir John's #Cambridge2012 #cam12 keynote is at http://www.medev.ac.uk/blog/megans-blog/2012/apr/17/sir-john-daniel-speaking-at-cambridge/ #oer #ukoerMegan Baxter</div><div>#cam12 #opencontent Sir John: Governments have intense interest in economic impacts of OER.TJ Bliss</div><div>Daniel: Most government representatives have little idea of what the term open licensing means. #cam12Lorna M. Campbell</div><div>Daniel: OER should be an expression of worldwide diversity and culture. #cam12Lorna M. Campbell</div><div>Daniel: flow of oer is now truly multidimensional and global #cam12Lorna M. Campbell</div><div>OH @SirJohn #cam12 the OER initiatives would be more sustainable if governments had more policies on OERgregory doyle</div><div><b><u>Resources produced with public funds should be Open</u></b></div><div>Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds. Yes!!!! Sir John #cam12Frederik Truyen</div><div>Paris Declaration on OER: "open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds" #cam12Bjoern Hassler</div><div>#unesco paris declaration "governments will" can you MAKE goverments do anything? #cam12 Sir Johngregory doyle</div><div>#unesco paris decl want to "forster emergence of strategic alliances on OER" #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>@gedoyle : Hence it is a movement- will take a lot to encourage them. Like a revolution, don't you think? #cam12Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>UNESCO Draft Declaration</div><div>Paris declaration on OER (v3 draft) http://twitpic.com/9atgp9 #cam12Jackie Carter</div><div>version 3 of draft declaration (10th April) is available from here http://bit.ly/HEq9tJ #cam12Martin Hawksey</div><div>#unesco #cam12 paris decl here http://oercongress.weebly.com/paris-declaration.htmlOpen.Michigan</div><div>I'll admit to being very unsure about this #unesco declaration. It puts OER in a special category, external to mainstream practice #cam12David Kernohan</div><div><h1>Dr. Nick Pearce</h1></div><div> slides available <a target="_blank" href="http://goo.gl/PBhBd">here</a></div><div>.@drnickpearce everybody is doing OER without knowing it. Is our priority to tell them that they are doing OER or to support them? #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>We've seen in the UK (http://bit.ly/HYF0BG) that practice with OER is a small subset of a wider culture of reuse #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>RT @ambrouk: #cam12 @drnickpearce has invented the idea of clickolage <- i like it #clickolage ... matches the ideas around remix platformsKatherine Fletcher</div><div>RT @philosopher1978: #cam12 Do you have evidence of OER successes/failures? Please add them to the OER Evidence Hub at http://ci.olnet.org/ so all can use... RTWillem vanValkenburg</div><div>OER in China</div><div>RT @abelcaine @drnickpearce http://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214700/ #cam12 report on oer in china :-)Nick Pearce</div><div>OCW Awards</div><div>Fabulous location for the reception and ACE-awards ceremony of #cam12: http://pic.twitter.com/cSeJlBC9Willem vanValkenburg</div><div>The ACE-awards went to these people this year: http://ocwconsortium.org/en/community/blog/2012/04/16/ocw-consortium-announces-2012-winners-of-course-awards-for-opencourseware-excellence/ #cam12 #ocwglobal #ocwcWillem vanValkenburg</div><div>Congratulations to Gina Ziervogel of #UCT winner of OCW award for her open course on environmental change http://opencontent.uct.ac.za/Science/Vulnerability-to-environmental-change #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>Great! UCT opencontent course wins its 2nd award at OCW #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div><h1>Other Presentations & Sessions</h1></div><div>Videos of lectures:</div><div>Presentations emerging from #ocwcglobal #cam12 http://bit.ly/IlGZOXOCW Consortium</div><div>tweets and pics from some of the sessions:</div><div>@Czernie , @cgreen , M. Forward, McAndrew, P, Murry J discuss the "Future of Open Education" #cam12 #final #sessionYvette Nicole Adams</div><div>#cam12 all presentations from week will appear here http://presentation.ocwconsortium.org/ and #oerJoe Wilson</div><div>@Pete_Howard Stephen Gomez on CPD #oer #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/HwxzS1PcTim Seal</div><div>my #cam12 #jlern #learningreg presentation (blog post/full paper coming) Capturing Conversations, Context and Curricula http://www.slideshare.net/morageyrie/capturing-conversations-context-and-curricula-the-jlern-experiment-and-the-learning-registryMorag Eyrie</div><div>And here's Patrina #cam12 #b2sOER http://yfrog.com/h2d75anjBrandon Muramatsu</div><div>IMG_2264ocwconsortium</div><div>Steve Stapleton on PARIS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/open/parisproject/paris.aspx #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/FIY4ba8ITim Seal</div><div>Presenting on OER and Quantitative Social Science today at #cam12. Slides here http://slidesha.re/I23XLSJackie Carter</div><div>Having given our talk at #cam12, we've put some further links and the conference presentation here http://orbit.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/OCW2012Bjoern Hassler</div><div>Learning about JLern with @morageyrie http://bit.ly/J5ih6w #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>Tomorrow, 17th of April, @cristobalcobo will present the #oportunidadproject http://goo.gl/K3RJI at the Cambridge 2012 Conference #cam12Cristina Stefanelli</div><div>First case of #oer graffiti from Steve Stapleton #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/WaheQOOnTim Seal</div><div>In the Bridge to Success session at #cam12 - repurposing OU #oers for use in US to improve college completion rateshttp://b2s.aacc.edu/nataliafay</div><div>Project links for "walled garden session" http://bit.ly/JbOqXc and http://bit.ly/m9EMmQ #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>I am presenting on $2Billion Dept. of Labor grant (CC BY license requirement) today #cam12 at 2:00pm http://tinyurl.com/cgelkv8 #openpolicy #oerCable Green</div><div>@openpad and Rob speaking on OLNet and #b2sOER at #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/qbp7k8GeBrandon Muramatsu</div><div>OER-enhanced curriculum - #cam12 - SCORE Ming Nie, University of Leicester http://pic.twitter.com/xjxV4dmDChris Follows</div><div>#cam12 atkinson et al talking about opennish educational practices it is phased approach not 1 step #oer perfectionVicki McGarvey</div><div>#cam12 multimedia & web 2 platforms easier for capturing tacit knowledge atkinson et alVicki McGarvey</div><div>V Rolfe OER12 Conference Search Engine Optim... http://www.slideshare.net/viv_rolfe/v-rolfe-oer12-conference-search-engine-optimisation-17april2012 via @slideshare #cam12 #oerDr Vivien Rolfe</div><div>many thanks to all participant at my presentation for this wonderful discussion. for all others: slides are here http://is.gd/ClR4K8 #cam12markusmind</div><div>The panel at #cam12 @openpad @cgreen @Czernie Judith Murray and Mary Lou http://pic.twitter.com/ftTlgGljTim Seal</div><div>#cam12 closing plenary panel - speakers address their ideas of the Future of Open Education. #ocwcglobal http://pic.twitter.com/pvoUn46xOCW Consortium</div><div>#oer13 announced #cam12 @oer13 @OpenEG http://pic.twitter.com/SngIdn5ZTim Seal</div><div><h1>Posters</h1></div><div>My poster at Cambridge2012 #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/qRYi3YYCJulian Prior</div><div>#cam12 Pictures of the poster sessions are online on http://wfvv.eu/HL3o6FWillem vanValkenburg</div><div>http://yfrog.com/moxzdwbj #cam12 best poster!David Kernohan</div><div>My vote for best poster at #cam12 @jennymgray http://pic.twitter.com/dIcdionwBrandon Muramatsu</div><div>Mobile xerte #oer #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/xkpGst4XTim Seal</div><div>IMG_2301ocwconsortium</div><div>IMG_2290ocwconsortium</div><div>IMG_2292ocwconsortium</div><div>IMG_2293ocwconsortium</div><div>IMG_2305ocwconsortium</div><div>Researcher Development Framework from "OER for Development of doctoral students and researchers"w/s. #ocwcglobal #cam12 http://pic.twitter.com/uZ5nRoqqOCW Consortium</div><div>“@bmuramatsu: My vote for best poster at #cam12 @jennymgray http://twitter.com/bmuramatsu/status/191885457678798848/photo/1” Moodle 2 for OER check it out @nrparmarJulian Prior</div><div>DeFT team are getting ready to talk about the project http://www.ucel.ac.uk/oer12/abstracts/227.html #cam12DeFT OER3 project</div><div>#cam12 why not come to the Bowlett Room and hear about some OER practice in Cambridge with @TeresaConnolly and others? http://bit.ly/IRjnkqDavid Kernohan</div><div>Thanks to all those braving the Armitage room today at 9:10, the participation and feedback. MQB slides at http://www.medev.ac.uk/static/uploads/resources/oer/PublishOER/Cambridge2012__MQB_Ncl_PublishOER_2012-04-18.ppt #cam12Megan Baxter</div><div><h1>Other Events</h1></div><div>Very happy to be at #cam12. Some of you here may be interested in Drawing on All Resources @artsbrighton in May: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/whats-on/gallery-theatre/calendar-page-text?SQ_CALENDAR_VIEW=event&SQ_CALENDAR_EVENT_ID=62881&SQ_CALENDAR_DATE=2012-05-16Debbie Flint</div><div><h1>Blog Posts</h1></div><div>Blogged: Cambridge 2012: Conference Review - Day One http://bit.ly/IxF1uf #cam12 #oernataliafay</div><div><h1>Discussion</h1></div><div>I think @Czernie is about to say the #oer movement is not the Messiah (agree), announced herself as the sober voice of oer #cam12Terese Bird</div><div>"Self-directed learners are low hanging fruit" says @ambrouk at #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>If we treat OER like a start-up we will do none of the things that @czernie is saying. So we should do all of them #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>@cgreen says, why re-create the wheel? Be smart with what we have. Open policy important in identifying what we need. #cam12 #ocwcglobalOCW Consortium</div><div>The open movement is just a sticking plaster on the dehabilitating cultural wound that is IPR. #someonehastosayit #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>people are still looking for credentials #cam12 true, for momentgregory doyle</div><div>#cam12 don't let the successes of early adopter self directed digitally literate students stand in proxy for the success of more typical pplamber thomas</div><div>#sotrue @JackieCarter:one of the dangers of OER - thinking everyone thinks like we do. Lots of others should join the table. Agree. #cam12”Sophie Touzé</div><div>@Czernie - being vocal and blunt about the divides and what the dangers are for #Open #cam12 "free vs paid for, who creates what."Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>#cam12 yes yes yes to @Czernie 's take on all of thisamber thomas</div><div>I think @Czernie is about to say the #oer movement is not the Messiah (agree), announced herself as the sober voice of oer #cam12Terese Bird</div><div>P2P 'success stories'...students getting jobs..happened without acceditation (P2P offers none). Students learnt,gained confidence. #cam12Terese Bird</div><div>Fascinating talk by Savithri about hierarchical culture in India and unwillingness to share information... v deeply entrenched #cam12Gabi Witthaus</div><div>so is the purpose of OER to build a library of "high quality" learning resources? Or is there another angle? #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>How do u create a culture of contribution? #cam12 I find people use and reuse- but do not publish and share again.Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>Gary Matkin - Encourage open examples of people producing and publishing oer in your institution, demonstrate examples. yes our aim #cam12Chris Follows</div><div>#OEru model: free and lower cost education to masses – free access to courseware, free or fee paid support and fee assessment #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>Stavros points out that new players are now in the education world eg the telecommunications sector #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>boiler plate of competencies, certification and accreditation standards in an open context in competition with traditional values? #cam12Giota Alevizou</div><div>RT @ellen_marie: "Real place for OERs is solving major world problems" #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>RT @ellen_marie: "Real place for OERs is solving major world problems" #cam12Saylor Foundation</div><div>major blocks for #OERu - assessment, accreditation and credit transfer #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>RT @dkernohan: We're at an "inflexion point" in education and openness #cam12Elpida Makriyanni</div><div>RT @dkernohan What does the "inevitability of open education" mean for institutions? #cam12Ben Harwood</div><div>#OERu cost to learner less than 25% of usual fees, cost to institution shd be less than 0.5% of usual offerings says @twitthaus #cam12Terese Bird</div><div>@JackieCarter @twitthaus Good question, we know what it is in UK...£9M annually. Higher in North America #cam12Terese Bird</div><div>RT @dkernohan: COMMODIFICATION of Education. Yes. #cam12Cable Green</div><div>Gary Matkin: education is a commodity. It's a bad word to use with educators, but it is true. #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>#cam12 - bays - walled garden between HE & Schools - needs more cross-fertilisation between the sectorsVicki McGarvey</div><div>The value of open and online edu becomes clear when one hears of the millions of people who live where there are few professors #cam12Ellen Marie Murphy</div><div>RT @gedoyle: oh happy to be talking to each other rather than being talked to all the time #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>Chris Follows: Staff and students at the University of the Arts London shunning the VLE and going off and creating their own stuff #cam12Julian Prior</div><div>For many #OER &#ocw isn't about licensing but access and quality, need to drop jargon and look at pedagogy. #cam12Emily P Rodgers</div><div>Abt 75% of students from Queensland, Cape Town, Michigan, Valencia never heard of OCW #oer #cam12 50% of Mich instructors never heard of itTerese Bird</div><div>Top down policy to support OER is not useful, rather focus on getting rid of barriers says Derby at #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>#cam12 students struggle with scholarly citation let alone oer citationMartin Hawksey</div><div>@mhawksey Is that the fault of students, OER or citation conventions? #cam12Nigel Robertson</div><div>#oer research #cam12 how do you get other disciplines to engage in it rather than it just being of interest to learning techs & OER champsVicki McGarvey</div><div>#cam12 "Present education systems are not sustainable, not scalable for universal education." #oer will be part of the solution.Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>OH using material instead of dev your own make you feel less prepared / less confident #oer #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>RT @twitthaus: Rory McGreal: There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate whenever they meet (despite copyright laws) :-D #cam12Daniel Dominguez</div><div>RT @FredTruyen: Encourage the open licensing of educational materials produced with public funds. Yes!!!! Sir John #cam12michaelschiltz</div><div>Great! UCT opencontent course wins its 2nd award at OCW #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>A lot of people are doing #OER without knowing #OER > so focus on awareness #cam12Willem vanValkenburg</div><div>RT @gedoyle: what is #OERu – more than a consortium. A network of nodes, a framework < the #cam12 twitter community http://hawksey.info/gexf-js/index.html#cam12.gexfMartin Hawksey</div><div>RT @saylordotorg: "Students don’t mind whether it’s OER or not: they just want good quality content" #cam12Stephen Wilson</div><div>“@Czernie: OER is presently like tacit knowledge, needs to be made explicit #cam12”Sophie Touzé</div><div>#cam12 our role as Open education : from visionary to predictor, from periphery to core, from optimist to leaderSophie Touzé</div><div>#cam12 - matkin - teaching learning will not go away - don't think role of instructor is less important - someone to lead awayVicki McGarvey</div><div>enabling environment vs trying to enforce academics to share- this is the ethos of @openuct #cam12 #UCT #oerYvette Nicole Adams</div><div>We aim to rather create a broader enabling environment that rewards teaching- it goes beyond openness and oer- @Czernie #cam12 #UCTYvette Nicole Adams</div><div>#cam12 thanks @cablegreen "one barrier to #OER is teachers'belief their resources are not enough good. But ok for their students :-) ? "Sophie Touzé</div><div>limited resources for now limits focus to teaching material &licensing #cam12 #uct - look towards to software interactivity in future #cam12Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>Academics need to be bit humble- there is always someone who take take your material to the next level.And that's ok- C. Green #cam12 #UCTYvette Nicole Adams</div><div>Quality issue is a big issue when sharing. People use material within the classroom- but sharing forces an increase in quality #cam12 #uctYvette Nicole Adams</div><div>UCT students got paid to create #OER out of their lecturers' materials. They said they would have done it without pay :-) #cam12Gabi Witthaus</div><div>Students saw dev OER as part of community service #cam12Ellen Marie Murphy</div><div>Liking this use of the concept of #bildung to characterise individual, self-determined, education #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>giving control over uploading of #oer to academics increase the speed of material going up #cam12 @cherylhwgregory doyle</div><div>RT @saylordotorg: "In the next 10 years, it will be a danger to institutions if they do not adapt an open education policy" #cam12qu3stor</div><div>@cgreen is even more ambitious than me about driving down the cost of texts #cam12 #ukoer #oer okay for new stuff but what about historicalMegan Baxter</div><div>how to facilitate #oer reuse as its being finished? @cgreen #cam12gregory doyle</div><div><h1>Resources</h1></div><div>#cam12 top twitter conversationalists @dkernohan @gedoyle @bmuramatsu @Tim10101 http://hawksey.info/tagsexplorer/?key=0AqGkLMU9sHmLdEoxQzFDRXNJbWZ4QVc1TWY1RUlqS2c&sheet=oaw http://pic.twitter.com/RHMAllcMMartin Hawksey</div><div>UK OpenSource assessment engine recommend: Rogo developed by Simon Wilkinson and Reg Dennick at Nottingham #cam12 #oer http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/teaching/resources/tools/rogo.aspxMegan Baxter</div><div>Our #ukoer impact report is one of the most cited papers at #cam12. Well done @askawild! http://bit.ly/rc8TwuLTG Oxford</div><div>http://opencourselibrary.org #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>RT @dkernohan: http://opencourselibrary.org #cam12gregory doyle</div><div>“@joecar: Check out this SlideShare presentation : Creative Commons and the Department of Labor... http://www.slideshare.net/cgreen/creative-commons-and-the-department-of-labor-us2-billion-grant-program” #cam12Tim Seal</div><div>#UCT - http://openuct.uct.ac.za/ http://www.cet.uct.ac.za/oer and http://opencontent.uct.ac.za/ #UCT's directory. Check it out #cam12 !Yvette Nicole Adams</div><div>He's quoting from the #ukoer LOERL literature review on OER impact on learner http://bit.ly/IlgIAg #cam12David Kernohan</div><div>#cam12 My Cloud on Markus Deimann's presentation on #bildung http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6249 #oerRobert Farrow</div><div>#cam12 http://bit.ly/o8ueEx edupunk guide looking fwd to seeing ppt slides missed this yesterdayVicki McGarvey</div><div>#cam12 for megan's session: Romeo publisher OA policies http://bit.ly/16YfW0 Alternative Formats Publisher Look-Up http://bit.ly/IXI82Wamber thomas</div><div>RT @mdeimann: references to the article by martin trow on universal access http://is.gd/NRBbV3 #cam12 amazing predicationsRobert Farrow</div><div>MT @philosopher1978: started a Cloudscape for #cam12 http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2403 pls feel free to create and share-> @gconole should be v happy :)Chahira Nouira</div><div>JISC funded Learner Use of Online Educational Resources for Learning (LUOERL) http://bit.ly/HEKTBu (report at bottom of page) #cam12Martin Hawksey</div><div>RT @joecar: Teachers in schools should have a look at interactive open resources #cam12 http://orbit.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Main_Pagemlirotterdam</div><div>RT @ProcessArtsUAL: Academic publishing: Open sesame #jiscdiglit #cam12 #ukoerThe Economist http://econ.st/GHk3NqJoe Wilson</div><div>RT @dkernohan: Nice @POERUP7 report on national OER policies here, for people look for an overview http://bit.ly/HPoJPQ #cam12Peter Reed</div><div>@Anna_De_Liddo - thanks, NAM project http://blogs.arts.ac.uk/conflictandmedia/ - bring together the photographic, film, and the journalistic - #cam12Chris Follows</div><div>http://writingcommons.org an OER for writers, an open textbook, with print on demand coming soon #cam12 pitched at HE u/g and p/ggregory doyle</div><div>Barry Philips (Sero Consulting) - POERUP: Policies for OER Uptake: Cloud at http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6238 #cam12 #oer #policyRobert Farrow</div><div>the #cam12 twitter community http://bit.ly/HMl07s Top bridges @dkernohan @wfvanvalkenburg @gconole @JackieCarter Data> http://bit.ly/HWMqFoMartin Hawksey</div><div>Full size process.arts timeline 2006 to now and lots of stats process.arts, #cam12 - I’m no John Snow! - http://www.chrisfollows.com/timeline-main-full.jpgChris Follows</div><div>#cam12 http://orioleproject.blogspot.co.uk/p/shop_16.html saw this card game last year great resource for teaching about oerJoe Wilson</div><div>#cam12 looks good for supporting academic writing http://writingcommons.org/Joe Wilson</div><div>Lovely adapted map graphic for writing commons: http://bit.ly/IQtTLf #cam12 (has he seen the latest Economist cover, I wonder?)David Kernohan</div><div>Nice - Geographies of the World's Knowledge #cam12http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/publications/convoco_geographies_en.pdfnataliafay</div><div>#cam12 nice resource for art and edtech http://process.arts.ac.uk/Joe Wilson</div><div>Sarah Atkinson talking about the Sally Potter film archive http://sallypotter.com/sp-ark/ #cam12Julian Prior</div><div>WOeRK from Plymouth CPD #oer #cam12 http://cpdoer.net/Tim Seal</div><div>RT @philosopher1978: History of Philosophy ebook was one of the most popular OERs by #humbox #oer #cam12 #philosophy http://humbox.ac.uk/2192/Beck Pitt</div><div>This is great company is remixing all the learning content here http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ #cam12 Many folks don't know this content existsJoe Wilson</div><div>http://www.castalia.co.jp/en/ #cam12 great products that helped school learning continue post tsunamiJoe Wilson</div><div>RT @twitthaus: OER Knowledge cloud https://oerknowledgecloud.com/ #cam12Laura Czerniewicz</div><div>The PARIS project at http://bit.ly/J4LvCv Uni of Nottingham #cam12Jackie Carter</div><div>#cam12 https://oerknowledgecloud.com/ research on oer which can be searched on author, title, keyword. 300+ strong content so far.ChrisPegler</div><div>RT @tjbliss: #cam12 #opencontent just added and connected the Open Education Group (http://openedgroup.org) to Evidence Hub (http://ci.olnet.org/)Robert Farrow</div><div>#cam12 Join the mapping exercise at http://ci.olnet.org/ #oerRobert Farrow</div></noscript>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-83028888328453832582012-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:002012-01-19T12:14:29.295-08:00A First Encounter with Dave Snowden<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocCYWjIsO5tc5QDD_K88DQLlZbjf3GH11oFqXu2l5XoNuoiBALRXWL5fBbD9fOUzZR-DTEeMr1IyhUKE4OZ-p_9WQ_tU-IrZDqbffDJ17OTfoNYD7iVxprlGAGgiOkFCNHOE351B_OPw/s1600/girl_drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocCYWjIsO5tc5QDD_K88DQLlZbjf3GH11oFqXu2l5XoNuoiBALRXWL5fBbD9fOUzZR-DTEeMr1IyhUKE4OZ-p_9WQ_tU-IrZDqbffDJ17OTfoNYD7iVxprlGAGgiOkFCNHOE351B_OPw/s320/girl_drawing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonquantique/2589605532/" target="_blank">flickr</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.5103813717141747"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dave Snowden is a heavyweight and I mean that in the gravitational sense of influencing the trajectories of those he encounters. After listening to the recording the of the <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/" target="_blank">#change11</a> session he conducted for this week with no more preparation than a cursory glance at the wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Snowden" target="_blank">page</a> about him I find myself reeling from the cognitive onslaught.</span></b><br />
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.5103813717141747"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While effective synthesis of the ideas he presented will require some mental digesting on my part, there were several gems that I thought would be worthwhile sharing right away so here are a some excerpts from my notes that are loosely quoted from his session:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Failure is better than success in learning, it’s easier to remember</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s too much focus on specialization and a loss of generalists needed for synthesizing diverse knowledge bases in a complex world with high levels of uncertainty.</span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with the education system is that we’re training recipe book users when we need chefs. </span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When asked what to do about this practically when the current education system inherently requires pre-defined outcomes thereby eliminating originality, he said:</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">“deception is the heart of innovation in any system.”</span></span></blockquote>
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<div>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The human brain is a pattern processing intelligence... it has evolved from messy coherence not structured order.</span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Starvation, pressure, and .perspective shift produce innovation which then produces creativity</span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If it’s a complex problem, then bring in multiply diverse teams with ritual dissent to produce multiply parallel safe-to-fail experiments. Managers fail if half of the experiments aren’t failing.</span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“cynical stories around the water coolers produce the most learning in organizations”</span></span></blockquote>
<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His final words for the session were “don’t give up on formal education but for gods sake interact with the real world and read outside your subject.”</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-89252332289579300162012-01-13T08:48:00.000-08:002012-01-13T12:16:58.896-08:00Open Content<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5mT3k_PdigAlz9rtmKq8nm0-q4SCXjIyOPqkEAvbrY0n91wcJFWoIHFw9MuzuyAZmhKiZvjyD7S4WIc2s1xjUVrO067Xlw2Cv76KBhmFwUeFy1jvspE0aAAfGUpDrxuQOz5vzJZI-nI/s1600/copyright+cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="507" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg5mT3k_PdigAlz9rtmKq8nm0-q4SCXjIyOPqkEAvbrY0n91wcJFWoIHFw9MuzuyAZmhKiZvjyD7S4WIc2s1xjUVrO067Xlw2Cv76KBhmFwUeFy1jvspE0aAAfGUpDrxuQOz5vzJZI-nI/s640/copyright+cartoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #292929; font-family: Verdana, Arial, 'Trebuchet MS', Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">(c) Express Syndication LTD, British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent, carl Gile, Daily Express, 1981.</span>
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In my last post, I said that the power of the Creative Commons licensing was it's simplicity of use for the creator and re-user of a work. While this is true in some instances, challenges still abound. One issue is that educational resources rarely exist in a vacuum. I recently attended a workshop on Open Educational Resources for Higher Education and one of the presentations was about a University that had received grant money to license some of their courses as OER using creative commons. What they found was that it took a tremendous amount of work to check each and every aspect of the course to make sure it could actually be licensed this way. In many cased there were questions about photos or graphics used in presentations. Questions arose about the ownership of work done by academic staff. They needed buy-in at every level of the institution to succeed.<br />
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One issue arises from the fact that teaching already uses all kinds of content is already considered free or open in some form or fashion. There are a lot of cases that could be considered grey or fuzzy about what a license actually allows, especially when it comes to non-commercial, educational use, not to mention fair use in the US. Don't think that you can clear this up by asking a lawyer either, the IP lawyer in attendance at the workshop was practically reduced to speaking in riddle. <br />
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David Wiley calls material that is in allowed to re-used to some degree <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_content" target="_blank">Open Content</a> and that is one of the <a href="http://openeducation.us/open-content" target="_blank">topics </a>covered in the Introduction to Openness in Education <a href="http://openeducation.us/welcome" target="_blank">course</a> that has just started.<br />
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In practice, what it comes down to is that if someone wants to stop you from using their copyrighted material, they will take (or more likely start by threatening to take) legal action against you. In my opinion, this puts the burden on us all to exercise our rights if for no other reason than to map these legal boundaries. There are clearly some cases that are morally wrong- to profit from someone else's work to their detriment is a clear example. For non-commercial use, it's hard to see the harm and for educational use it easy to see some good. The question becomes about risk and, unfortunately, Universities are likely to be very risk averse.<br />
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One other consideration in an educational setting is modelling behaviour for the students. However, I think this applies both to a respect for the law as well as need to civically engage, exercise rights and challenge unjust and unfair law.<br />
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So, a real world example is the cartoon above which is copyrighted but has been cleared for educational use by the <a href="http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/" target="_blank">British Cartoon Archive</a>. The fuzzy area is when you try to determine exactly how educational use is defined. Think about these examples of use and try to figure out where to draw the educational use line:<br />
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<ul>
<li>a teacher shows the cartoon to a class during a lecture</li>
<li>that lecture is put on the VLE for the students to download</li>
<li>the lecture is recorded and the video is put onto Itunes U. or Youtube Ed</li>
<li>the cartoon is posted on the schools public website</li>
<li>The instructor's presentation is put onto slideshare</li>
<li>a student uses the cartoon the in their own blog (which is about their studies and even part of an assessed project)</li>
</ul>
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The biggest issue would seem to come down to possible commercial use of the photo. I'm the student in the last example, and I'm relatively certain that this is an appropriate use (especially given the nature of the comic!) but it is certainly possible that Express Syndication LTD could disagree.</div>
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There are plenty of really interesting dimensions of these issue to explore such as the history and purpose of copyright in the first place, the way the issue is impacting the music, film, and publishing industries, the tension between artists rights and corporations who often hold the copyrights of the artists work, and other examples of strange enforcement and challenge of it. For now, I want to just give one more example that follows very nicely along the theme of the cartoon.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.bookcloseouts.com/covers/large/isbn978083/9780836218312-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://images.bookcloseouts.com/covers/large/isbn978083/9780836218312-l.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No image uploaded here, just using a <a href="http://images.bookcloseouts.com/covers/large/isbn978083/9780836218312-l.jpg" target="_blank">url</a></td></tr>
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Just in case you live under a rock, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side" target="_blank">Far Side</a> is a comic strip created by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Larson">Gary Larson</a> and which, according to wikipedia, "was carried by more than 1,900 daily newspapers, translated into 17 languages, and collected into calendars and 22 compilation books.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side#cite_note-0">[1]</a>"<br />
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First off, let me say that Larson is a hero and has probably brought as many smiles and laughs into this world as is humanly possible. For over a decade you could barely find a school hallway or refrigerator that wasn't adorned by his fabulous work.</div>
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Wikipedia also says "It is difficult to find many Far Side cartoons online, since Larson, his publishers, and lawyers have successfully persuaded people not to infringe on his copyright." Which is absolute rubbish since if you do a google image search for the farside, almost all the images that come up for first several pages are his comics, and even on page 20 it's still about half and half. The persuasion bit refers to the following letter:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">I'm walking a fine line here.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">On the one hand, I confess to finding it quite flattering that some of my fans have created web sites displaying and / or distributing my work on the Internet. And, on the other, I'm struggling to find the words that convincingly but sensitively persuade these Far Side enthusiasts to "cease and desist" before they have to read these words from some lawyer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">What impact this unauthorized use has had (and is having) in tangible terms is, naturally, of great concern to my publishers and therefore to me -- but it's not the focus of this letter. My effort here is to try and speak to the intangible impact, the emotional cost to me, personally, of seeing my work collected, digitized, and offered up in cyberspace beyond my control.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">Years ago I was having lunch one day with the cartoonist Richard Guindon, and the subject came up how neither one of us ever solicited or accepted ideas from others. But, until Richard summed it up quite neatly, I never really understood my own aversions to doing this: ''It's like having someone else write in your diary, he said. And how true that statement rang with me . In effect, we drew cartoons that we hoped would be entertaining or, at the very least, not boring; but regardless, they would always come from an intensely personal, and therefore original perspective.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">To attempt to be "funny" is a very scary, risk-laden proposition. (Ask any stand-up comic who has ever "bombed" on stage.) But if there was ever an axiom to follow in this business, it would be this: be honest to yourself and -- most important -- respect your audience.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">So, in a nutshell (probably an unfortunate choice of words for me), I only ask that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my "children," of sorts, and like a parent, I'm concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And, seeing them at someone's web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, "Uh, Dad, you're not going to like this much, but guess where I am."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">I hope my explanation helps you to understand the importance this has for me, personally, and why I'm making this request.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">Please send my "kids" home. I'll be eternally grateful. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">Most respectfully, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">Gary Larson</span>
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While extremely persuasive, I do have some issuess with what he is saying. After his hard work creating these cartoons, I imagine, as it should be, that he is still earning money from that work. I do think, as did the original writers of the copyright laws, that there should be a reasonable limit on how long his exclusive ownership of that work should last, but he makes it clear that this letter is not about financial harm from copying. His concern is re-use of his cartoons on the internet and he eludes that it's about <i>how </i>they might be used.<br />
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It's easy to come up with some very disturbing scenarios for re-use such as an interpretation of a cartoon that supports some heinous viewpoint like white supremacy or even someone actually modifying a cartoon to totally reinterpret it's meaning. The part I don't get is how this is any different from all the pre-internet use of his comics. As I mentioned above, they were widely clipped and displayed from the newspapers he published them in. Anyone could have taken a marker and drawn a moustache on one of his characters or pencilled in their own caption.</div>
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He says that for him to use someone else's idea would feel to him like having them write in his personal diary but this dosen't necessarily extend to activity other than being a cartoon artist. Not every "diary" is personal and not everyone else feels the same way he does about using and sharing other's ideas. His art has passed into the collective conciousness just as previous artist's work before him have. Clearly he does not have a problem riffing off their work, as the cartoon above clearly demonstrates.</div>
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In any case, I found this an interesting intersection of the theory/idea of copyright and the reality. I have emailed Gary Larson to invite his response, as only seems fair. If we could persuade him to change his mind I can imagine a flood of ds106 remashes emerging. I look forward to hearing comments from any other visitors as well.</div>
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#ioe12<br />
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<span style="font-family: monospace;"><a href="http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p27_work_of_others#fair_dealing" target="_blank">Information</a> on UK Copyright Fair Dealing</span></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-72036262472350191302012-01-13T06:30:00.000-08:002012-01-13T06:36:36.436-08:00Open LicensingI was excited to learn that David Wiley is starting up the winter 2012 <a href="http://openeducation.us/welcome" target="_blank">Introduction to Openness in Education</a> course. I first encountered Wiley via his facilitation of week5 of the <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/" target="_blank">#change11</a> mooc. Last week he announced on his blog that he is now the Senior Fellow for Open Education at the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, also known as Digital Promise. Congratulations to him, and to educators and learners everywhere that will hopefully benefit from the work that he does in this position.<br />
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I learned a lot about the history of open learning from his week of #change11 and I highly recommend an article he wrote called <a href="http://www.opencontent.org/future/" target="_blank">The OpenCourse Wars</a> (be sure to click the link at the bottom to read the remainder of the chapter) though I have to admit that I was rather naive when I read it and had to spend considerable amount of time afterwards trying to sort out where fact ends and fiction begins.<br />
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The class that he is starting up now is a refined version of a course he has taught before and it is breaking new ground in how an online course can be delivered openly. Anyone can sign up and contribute the course and he has incorporated an assessment system that utilizes badges that look like they will make the course fun in addition to be informative. Look out for the <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ioe12">#ioe12</a> hashtag that is associated with it.<br />
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The first topic in the course is <a href="http://openeducation.us/open-licensing" target="_blank">Open Licensing</a> which is a critical issue underlying the open educational theory and practice. Wiley himself was quite involved with the conception and development of the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a> (CC) licenses drawing significant inspiration from the Open Source software movement which is the next <a href="http://openeducation.us/open-source" target="_blank">topic</a> in the course. </div>
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The Creative Commons License provide an easy and legally legitimate way for anyone to maintain ownership of their creative work while at the same time allowing for it's free use by others within a choice of parameters about whether or not it requires an attribute, can be used commercially, and/or can be adapted and reused.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_781598115"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn966nKE5RrX4ZRJ9t_juehlLG9PeHJZnsWB_XAe3EZ4jNMAxU-X6NO8WxKa3m4bLL91WNRFeKd88gMXcCalwZoHo4IpPRW-N5aL2n4bASe3_KqXdEPQ7DgeiZjbULtU-5D8ibbP-2_Pw/s400/CC+Metrics_Updated.png" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Metrics" target="_blank">CC Monitor Project</a></td></tr>
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The power of this licensing system is in it's relative simplicity and especially ease of use for the creator and future users. The first set of CC licenses were release almost 10 years ago in December 2002 and there are now estimated to be over 450 million works using the license. These licenses have empowered an entire movement for <a href="http://openeducation.us/oer" target="_blank">Open Educational Resources</a>, another topic that is covered later in this course.<br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-79625246469489707742012-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:002012-01-12T09:12:46.133-08:00Notes and Thoughts About the Future of Higher EducationThis week's #change11 topic is the 21st Century University and it is being facilitated by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/_valeriei">Valerie Irvine</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/jilliannec">Jillianne Code</a> from the Technology Integration and Evaluation (TIE) Research Lab at the University of Victoria. At yesterday's session they described the challenges their institution is facing and some of the strategies they are using to deal with them.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9Amscj1p5jZcvjOhHpvcI5u6_bUF694nRuaM-BpO8xAgwLccgARZEQEMLdaYR2JFxCTObVDsOHC3m3HwzfBr9VqrOzYf8526cDiw9-aj2bIuXRRbGoaRCAs864nINC5bXSGOaf16zNQ/s1600/graduation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9Amscj1p5jZcvjOhHpvcI5u6_bUF694nRuaM-BpO8xAgwLccgARZEQEMLdaYR2JFxCTObVDsOHC3m3HwzfBr9VqrOzYf8526cDiw9-aj2bIuXRRbGoaRCAs864nINC5bXSGOaf16zNQ/s320/graduation.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/">Joe Shlabotnik</a> </td></tr>
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The challenges that they talked about included diminishing funding, decreasing 18 to 22 y.o. demographic, increased competition from more degree granting institutions, and more online programs. They also talked about changes in what students want and expect from a University, specifically mentioning a demand for more choice and flexibility in how they complete their studies.<br />
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In response to these challenges, U. of Victoria is trying to attract more students by offering more choice in terms of what type of learning students can sign up for. This effort includes enhancements to the registration system and more online learning options so that the choice includes face to face, video conferencing, online, and blended options.<br />
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Enhanced technology are a big part of both of these efforts. One aspect of this has been designing learning spaces conducive to video conferencing and blended online approaches. There have also been upgrades to the registration system to make it easy for the learners to choose what types of courses they want. The goal here is to empower the student by giving them control and choice when it comes to the type of courses they enroll in.<br />
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In our next session, we're going to learn more about the new video conferencing tool they are using which is called <a href="http://bluejeans.com/" target="_blank">Bluejeans</a>. One aspect they are excited about is that it is compatible with mobile devices. The plan is to give #change11 participants a chance to try it out.<br />
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I enjoyed the session, Jillianne and Valerie are energetic presenters and have a lot of enthusiasm for their project. It was refreshing to have a very concrete project as a focal point for the week, while the broader discussion that they have started about the future of the University in general is also very interesting.<br />
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As I thought about the question they posed in their initial blog post, I starting wondering about the long term effects of distance learning technologies. There are two very different sides to this question. What is good for students and what is good for the institutions is not necessarily the same thing. At the core of the University as an institution is research and teaching but the student experience, especially for 18 to 22 year olds who generate most of the revenue (is that true?) learning is only a very small of the experience. Semi-independent living (often for the first time) is probably one of the biggest undertakings for these students. Socializing probably consumes twice as much time as studying. And consider sports, many students are funded via sports scholarships and the teams they're on are just as important to them as the classes they are taking.<br />
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On the other hand, at the end of the day (or ~4 years) the degree they leave with is based solely on their academic performance and doesn't particularly take into account their social or athletic achievements. Yet, a large part of the ostensible value in the degree is for employability and on that front, the social aspects might be just as valuable, if not greater.<br />
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What this line of thinking led me to was the idea that perhaps many of the non academic functions of a University could or should be separated out. If a big University hit a financial wall, could an investor (or step in and create a totally different business model (or perhaps a cooperative be formed.) Young people could sign up to join in a communal living situation with all the great aspects of campus life minus the learning, which they could access online by their choice of method.<br />
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So, that's my off the cuff idea- any thoughts? <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-44290078187468690982012-01-06T12:17:00.000-08:002012-01-07T06:28:30.878-08:00Attention Probes for Net SmartsThis week, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/hrheingold" target="_blank">Howard Rheingold</a> was the facilitator for <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/week15.htm" target="_blank">#change11</a> ( #change12 yet?) and has led two excellent sessions related to the ideas from his upcoming book about social media literacies. This fits right into my favorite emerging theme of #change11- learning to learn. He identified 5 key areas that are important for all learners to navigate the pervasive seas of networked continuously connected people and knowledge. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn-51n0yQoOJUE-lI6j8zxe66lQmN5NtCVikQXAkm2IUktI08bj9wtIhH22wxpfMDLaH09moefoWWMclv3RNZoVnSHx41nxaGHWYMY90T-t4avMco09g1G-XPprbk8Ur4XoFd1dVa4T9U/s1600/distraction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn-51n0yQoOJUE-lI6j8zxe66lQmN5NtCVikQXAkm2IUktI08bj9wtIhH22wxpfMDLaH09moefoWWMclv3RNZoVnSHx41nxaGHWYMY90T-t4avMco09g1G-XPprbk8Ur4XoFd1dVa4T9U/s400/distraction.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">courtesy of Nanette Saylor via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisewellwoman/5227629292/" target="_blank">flickr</a></td></tr>
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The first skill he talked about is attention. I really appreciated this idea and the examples of how to view attention as a skill that can be developed in respect to social media. It could be argued that attention is the fundamental building block of reality. Observation, which is a form of attention, is tied very closely with reality at the quantum physics level. Often, our attention shifts very quickly with us even being aware of it.<br />
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So what makes it a crucial skill in the world of social media? We have a limited supply of attention and there's a seemingly infinite amount of information and potential for connecting with people which means we have to make choices about what to pay attention to. The nature of our networked, always on technologies mean that we often have multiple activities vying for attention at any one time. Although Howard's review of the research suggests that although most people are not effective multitaskers, he wonders about those that are. Undeniably, multi-tasking is becoming more acceptable in many situations as social norms evolve to adapt to ever present mobile technologies so Howard has been working on ways to develop the skill of attention.</div>
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To this end, he has created what he calls attention probes which he describes as ways of becoming aware of where you are deploying your attention. He enlisted the help of some colleagues and students to develop and try some different ways of doing this. The most basic exercise he introduced was simply asking everyone to close their eyes and remain silent for a few minutes while observing their thoughts. This is a basic form of meditation. Howard also referred to it as a form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition" target="_blank">metacognition</a>.</div>
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Some other examples of attention probes that Howard described include ringing a bell at random intervals which signals each person to take note of whether or not they were thinking about the material being covered. Each person places a color coded sticky note on a sheet to denote whether their attention was on task, on something tangentially related, or unrelated. In another example, each time the instructor held a pen in their left hand, each person would put their thumb on their desktop.</div>
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Making judgements about the quality of what you're paying attention to is what Howard calls crap detection. It's his second social media literacy and here's a great <a href="http://blog.sfgate.com/rheingold/2009/06/30/crap-detection-101/" target="_blank">blog post</a> he wrote about it. The other literacies he talked about were participation, collaboration, and network know-how.</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-61635469024923650272012-01-06T06:44:00.000-08:002012-01-10T02:31:56.350-08:00Going Off the Record at #durbbu<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Why Not Record It All?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Dustin Baxter via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/duster/390341823/" target="_blank">flickr</a></td></tr>
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Ray Land delivered the second keynote of the <a href="http://www.dur.ac.uk/cis/lt/events/conference/" target="_blank">Blackboard Users Conference </a>today giving a great presentation about the imperatives and risks of Open Education in a world being transformed by speed. Yesterday, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gconole" target="_blank">Grainne Conole</a> gave us a tour of the open educational horizon in the context of using the VLE as a way of encourgaing educators to enhance their teaching ( here are her <a href="http://portal.sliderocket.com/BIVJM/conole_durham" target="_blank">slides</a>)<br />
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Both of the presentations were so rich that I know I would benefit from being able to review them again. I just had the chance to speak with <a href="http://www.dur.ac.uk/malcolm.murray/" target="_blank">Malcolm Murray</a>, one of the conference organizers about why the keynotes are not recorded. <br />
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Although there are some issues with copyright and licensing that arise with the use of borrowed images and embedded youtube videos, Malcolm suggested a deeper reason as well. The act of recording changes behaviours. Not only does it have the potential to greatly expand the size of the audience, it can also have an inhibiting effect discouraging speaking freely and being critical. So going off the record can contribute to special type of environment, especially in today's world of near ubiquitous surveillance.<br />
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I actually heard in mentioned in a session here that a University is considering recording all lectures by default and making them available to the students. While there is an obvious benefit in for the student's access to the lectures, would it truly be outweighed by the potentially stifling effects?<br />
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So, while it's a loss that these keynotes will not be widely shared as video recordings, perhaps they were of a higher quality for taking place in this "special" type of environment. I'll take some time to reflect on them here in the future as will many of the other attendees I'm sure.<br />
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In the mean time, here's a sample from Ray Land:<br />
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<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4973952593262666441&hl=en&fs=true" style="height: 326px; width: 400px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed> <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-15430436498694059412012-01-04T04:01:00.000-08:002012-01-04T04:01:00.079-08:00Slow Learning with Clark Quinn<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGBk1iCzbZRKJHiBk8khIuvMikdUGW9Kzyogo0lIGekBwSPxqetYqFcoriwYlSbJa7NLYAUi3CRKXOuAl0seDbrYGg8r6uT9eBSNxxXS92CCVdtv2MHd7nzftCy1x-OWHw93KhBqpPK-c/s1600/sage_spray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGBk1iCzbZRKJHiBk8khIuvMikdUGW9Kzyogo0lIGekBwSPxqetYqFcoriwYlSbJa7NLYAUi3CRKXOuAl0seDbrYGg8r6uT9eBSNxxXS92CCVdtv2MHd7nzftCy1x-OWHw93KhBqpPK-c/s320/sage_spray.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by turbulentflow via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/turbulentflow/101853312/sizes/m/in/photostream/" target="_blank">Flickr</a></td></tr>
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The theme that pops out at me most often in #change11 is the importance of developing the skills of learning. To a large extent this is nothing new but with accelerating technological change transforming the education landscape it is even more critical to support the development of learning skills.<br />
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Clark Quinn in #week13 took a very high level approach to thinking about learning. He tempted us to shed all the constraints we deal with in real life educational settings for a moment and think about what our own ideal learning situation would be. <br />
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For me, a mooc is very close. I thrive in openness and even in chaotic environments. What would make it even better for me is a little bit more accountability. Perhaps having the option of being assigned a "buddy" or even to very small group of just 3 or 4 people that would agree to work together. This would involve getting to know one another a bit and giving each other some ongoing feedback. It would be conducive to integrating some collaborative, project based work into the mooc as well. There's no reason something like this couldn't be organized by the participants themselves, even now, in the middle of the course, especially since we've still got 20 weeks to go! Anyone interested?<br />
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Clark Quinn shared some of his ideas about ideal learning. Slow learning was the title of his week which brought up a lot of different reactions from the participants. For Quinn, slow learning seemed to be about taking a new approach to learning as opposed to the model of dumping lot's of material into the learner and assessing them by how much they spit it back out. He played a short piece of video (anyone know who was speaking or have a link?) that suggested a 5 minute university since that's about how much material is actually retained in the long run from this style of teaching. While this was a joke, there is some real insight behind it. One thing it made me think about was how the value from my university education came only in small part from the classes anyway, and most of what came from classes wasn't about specific subject matter it was about the process. Learning how to learn once again. <br />
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My understanding of Quinn's <a href="http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=61" target="_blank">Slow Learning</a> alternative is about <a href="http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=2289" target="_blank">Layered Learning</a> which involves learning in the context of real life experience through the strategic use of preparatory materials, aids, and processing that would be provided by a <b id="internal-source-marker_0.5438200563658029"><span style="color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=2285">Sage at the Side</a>,</span></b> a computerized personal assistant. Might sound like science fiction but the technology is here and the limit is only our imagination.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-64365866754296001512012-01-01T12:51:00.000-08:002012-01-01T12:53:28.420-08:00Educational Simulations<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUejfZsl1zT5xmBKhFFkGUZf4cMpSznJ7kDHk4SbC3DHsK421layB89AwXW-G7M2mv_c5AeLbM_wXXjkvrAocYEGyktQG0X_sYDlu58EsJ6rFVD7akWMLSfcQ9SxiZ6-oiOhAdmy9tHxk/s1600/sims_class.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUejfZsl1zT5xmBKhFFkGUZf4cMpSznJ7kDHk4SbC3DHsK421layB89AwXW-G7M2mv_c5AeLbM_wXXjkvrAocYEGyktQG0X_sYDlu58EsJ6rFVD7akWMLSfcQ9SxiZ6-oiOhAdmy9tHxk/s320/sims_class.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo curtesy of Torley via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/396287520/" target="_blank">flickr</a></td></tr>
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I just finished the two sessions about designing simulations for education and training that Clark Aldrich presented for <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/week12.htm" target="_blank">week 12</a> of the #change11 mooc. This topic is almost completely new to me and Clark's expertise and passion provided a great introduction. <br />
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One of the main points that resonated with me is when he said to "align delivery of content with the importance of content." Clark said this in the context of simulations which generally require a lot of resources to develop and therefore make sense for important content but it seems to be good advice for learning design in general.<br />
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Quite a bit of the presentation revolved around the project management aspects of designing simulations. Here also, I think that a lot can be generalized to any kind of large project. For example, he talked about how there is direct correlation between having numerous high level decision makers and increases in project cost (in time and money) which is probably true for most projects.<br />
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In thinking about the role of simulations in education, I can't help but feel that there's an inevitability to much greater usage of sims as time goes on. In part this is due to Moores Law and the exponential acceleration of computing technology. Partly it may be that I've read a bit too much science fiction.<br />
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One thing that sims really seem to have going for them is their scalability. Although they are resource intensive to produce, once deployed, the cost of delivery becomes very small. This means that if you are designing something for a very large number of students, then cost per student could be very low, even for something very sophisticated. <br />
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Another advantage that Clark touched on several times was that it can be very fun and engaging. I would argue that a good teacher can also be fun and engaging but sims have an edge when it comes to reproducing this effect and scaling up. A sim requires talent to be made engaging but only once whereas the engaging teacher has to keep trying day after day and will inevitably have good days and bad days.<br />
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I think there is an underlying claim that sims tend to be inherently fun and I wonder how true this is. I grew up playing video games, mostly for fun but also some that were educational. We had the the game <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=oregon%20trail%20video%20game%20online&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CD8QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Oregon_Trail_(video_game)&ei=YakAT9TgDIOeOpfhiL0B&usg=AFQjCNGMeeMz30byYILG1z3PR9II442ssw&sig2=ZpLql1yMBSqFQCkEpk9uGQ" target="_blank">Oregon Trail</a> in my 6th grade classroom and by it's nature it definitely had a powerful attraction that led lot's of learning. By todays standards, that game is primitive-- would it still have that attraction to kids that are growing up with smart phones, ubiquitous PCs and a plethora of gaming consoles? Is the attractive quality of a sim a moving target in that only the newest cutting edge sim will that "cool" appeal?<br />
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And where does the use of Sims fit into curriculum design? Can it cover some material that would normally be taught face to face freeing up contact time for other kinds of learning as in the inverted classroom?<br />
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Since I seem to be reduced to asking questions at this point, I'll ask one more. There was some discussion about competence compared to conviction that I didn't really understand and I wonder if anyone can explain this a bit or point me to further explanation.<br />
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Finally, I have not been able to find a working link to the pdf reading "designing sims the Clark Aldrich Way" anywhere since the link on the <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/week12.htm" target="_blank">week 12</a> is broken. Can anyone share a working link?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-18389979020795928802011-12-30T01:57:00.000-08:002012-01-07T06:27:49.177-08:00Joining #change11<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT-WhvkYJstBSt0smYKtBfOFEwNTDO_3gybvix1n_S7Fd__UnG-I96UcYo2wZ-1gdpiiE7s9occSOrBinRF0ANg2ML5rXj5_ineSsYw1ApOP9SGpB-or545ileB0PQ_nxLo-0RJfm54xU/s1600/lotus_bloom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT-WhvkYJstBSt0smYKtBfOFEwNTDO_3gybvix1n_S7Fd__UnG-I96UcYo2wZ-1gdpiiE7s9occSOrBinRF0ANg2ML5rXj5_ineSsYw1ApOP9SGpB-or545ileB0PQ_nxLo-0RJfm54xU/s320/lotus_bloom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Ryan McBride via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomidea/2726922977/in/photostream/" target="_blank">Flickr</a></td></tr>
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<span id="internal-source-marker_0.4337468765376421" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Over
the last month or so I’ve been catching up with the materials that have
come out of the #change11 mooc so far. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind
of topics and presenters but I’ve found it very interesting and it’s
been valuable to me as I get acquainted with a field that is new to me
in many ways. Thank you to the organizers, the weekly facilitators and
all the participants for everything that’s been contributed. I’m
excited about joining in synchronously and being able to participate in
the live sessions and weekly discussions in the new year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Joining
in the course during the break is good timing in a way. In this first
post I’ll introduce myself and share some of my thoughts and impressions
about the the course so far. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My
reasons for joining change11 include a curiosity about the topics,
people and processes involved as well as a professional interest in
applying it to my role as an e-Learning Resource Developer. I also plan
to integrate the work that I do through this course into the Masters
program I am enrolled in and thereby earn some credits at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My
background has primarily involved facilitating experiential learning,
mostly adventure based. I’ve worked with all kinds of groups ranging
from children with special needs to corporate executives and change is
always a major underlying theme. The subject matter, usually arrived at
perpendicularly to the adventure experience, has mostly been about group
dynamics, personal awareness and development, and organizational
development. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recently,
I have moved from the US to the UK and started in a new direction
professionally, working in learning technology and and studying for a
Masters in Education.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So
far, the main theme that has emerged for me after thinking about all
the ideas that have been brought up in #change11 is that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">how </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">we learn is more important than </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">what</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
we learn. With all the change that is afoot around us, a focus on
becoming better learners may be the most valuable thing we can nurture
in ourselves, our students, our colleagues, institutions and societies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
various facilitators have made a very strong case that change is real.
We live in a world that is networked and always on. The electronic
technology driving much of this change is following an exponential
curve, we now carry it around in a pocket as causally as one might carry
a pencil and paper. The practice of scholarship is shifting and new
opportunities for opening up learning are beginning to bloom. We’ve seen
the importance of fostering human connection in the new mediums we’re
dealing with and seen some great examples of the skills and artistry
required to do so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
have to admit that I feel a little bit nervous about inserting myself
into a group that is already established despite knowing intellectually
that this is an open course and that it is intended, by design, to
welcome latecomers and drop-ins. One observation that I have from being a
lurker so far is that I already feel I know many of you. I think that
imbalance of “knowing” people, especially in a group, that don’t know
you might create an inhibition to participate. This can be self
perpetuating as the longer one lurks without participating, the greater
this imbalance becomes. In any case, I’m hoping that a couple people
will manifest their inner social artist and leave me a comment in
support!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15063248975446548837noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7240540941915654142.post-27276085984956290342011-12-12T05:56:00.000-08:002011-12-29T11:59:41.555-08:00Opening the doors at EduTechLand<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VrXsZuG6aelJ46ZbGVvlgdiojzmI9rjed5NuYRz1LhjArFgCT-M82ON2q1LWo517aw_38WMYmaO1ilI9U5TCj2DjDDKySb8mlPM6HUf7m2gzpecDny9_E7Edoxg3s_5ghksxakyB5PE/s1600/open_door.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VrXsZuG6aelJ46ZbGVvlgdiojzmI9rjed5NuYRz1LhjArFgCT-M82ON2q1LWo517aw_38WMYmaO1ilI9U5TCj2DjDDKySb8mlPM6HUf7m2gzpecDny9_E7Edoxg3s_5ghksxakyB5PE/s320/open_door.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>(photo courtesy anpimental via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anpimental/6040296526/sizes/m/in/photostream/" target="_blank">flickr</a></i></span>)</td></tr>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Come on in, the door is open! I've started this blog as a place for conversations about education and technology and anything related. I plan to post about my progress in the Masters in Education program that I am undertaking at Bishop Grosseteste University College where I also work as an e-Learning Resource Developer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I'm also looking forward to using this blog to interact with the network of people on the Massive Open Online Course called Change: Education, Learning, and Technology</span>! More information about the course can be found <a href="http://change.mooc.ca/" target="_blank">here</a>. I'm joining the course which is already in progress and have been catching up with the previous sessions. I will be posting some notes and reflections from that material soon and look forward to some feedback from the other participants.</div>
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In the mean time, here's a short video of one my very early inspirations, Isaac Asimov. Unfortunately, this clip starts mid sentence but there are a few nice bits in there. Enjoy!</div>
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