Article

Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources

Though there is great temptation to depict the sustainability of OERs in terms of funding models, technical models or even content models - and no shortage of recommendations regarding how each of these should proceed - it seems evident that any number of such models can be successful. But at the same time, it also seems clear that the sustainability of OERs - in a fashion that renders then at once both affordable and usable - requires that we think of OERs as only part of a larger picture, one that includes volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, co-production and sharing, distributed management and control. MS-Word version.[Tags: Sweden] [Comment]

OLDaily

Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Jeff LeBow and Dave Cormier[Edit][Delete]: George Siemens and Stephen Downes - On Knowledge, Ed Tech Talk [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: Hits] So George Siemens and I had a chat on Ed Tech Talk Sunday about issues arising out of my Connective Knowledge paper and his comments about my scepticism about objective knowledge. Here's the MP3 Audio and the chat Transcript. As an added bonus, Dave Cormier and I chatted at length Sunday evening about the show and related issues. Now I rarely (well, never) post chat transcripts, but this particular transcript catches me at just the right time and allows me to share thoughts and feelings you can't really capture in a paper or forum such as took place earlier. So, with Dave's gracious permission (because the chat was never intended for publication), here's our discussion (click here). [Tags: Chat and Chat Rooms, Podcasting] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Christopher D. Sessums[Edit][Delete]: Design & Social Software: How to Decide What Works Best for Teaching and Learning, Christopher D. Sessums : Weblog [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 3 Hits] Interesting look at software design with respect to social software and learning, drawing on the perspective offered by Donald Norman (worth following up on). I like this line: "Design matters, but which design is preferable depends upon the occasion, the context, and above all, upon my mood." [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Tim Stahmer[Edit][Delete]: Public Schools Win! (Maybe), Assorted Stuff [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 1 Hits] As Tim Stahmer cites, "A large-scale government-financed study has concluded that when it comes to math, students in regular public schools do as well as or significantly better than comparable students in private schools." As Tim Stahmer comments, "But itāx^TMs certainly not enough to force the death of NCLB and declare victory over the charter/voucher concept." Maybe because the facts don't matter. [Tags: Online Learning, Schools, Private Schools] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Leigh Blackall[Edit][Delete]: North Korea and South Australia Agree on Censorship: Web 2 Banned, Teach and Learn Online [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 9 Hits] The only consolation - if there is any - is that North Korea and South Australia are by no means alone in their dislike for new web technologies. Still. Leigh Blackall comments, "Some might say, 'take it to the media Bill, blow the lid off it' - but from what I've seen and heard on the mainstream media toilet papers, teleblindness and radio monotony, they're buying into the fear frenzy and are not interested in representing a range of views on Internet censorship in schools." Perhaps if we set a better example, we wouldn't be so worried. Related: Judy Breck ,a href="http://goldenswamp.com/2006/01/30/teaching-information-literacy-skills-or-censoring-kids/">comments, "What scares me is there is not the least hesitation in the article to assume educators must approve what students study. That notion does not teach information literacy āx" it empowers censorship. We need to be careful here." Hear, hear. [Tags: Schools] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

James Farmer[Edit][Delete]: Supporting edublogs.org, Incorporated Subversion [Edit][Delete]Incorporated subversion [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 2 Hits] James Farmer - now the operator of a service that is a runaway success - is seeking donations. Fair enough. But he needs to tell us how much he needs, what it's for, and how much an individual donor should give. [Tags: ] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Fran Lewitter[Edit][Delete]: Welcome to PLoS Computational Biology Education, PLoS Computational Biology [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: Hits] The Public Library of Science journal Computational Biology announces a new column on education. They write, "Tutorials and reviews are only the beginning. Over time, we will explore ways to present educational information in this digital age that can take advantage of technological innovation. In addition to text-based information, we are considering multimedia presentations and other media to enhance the written word. On this front, in particular, we welcome any comments and suggestions from the community." Via Golden Swamp. [Tags: Public Library of Science] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Henry E. Schaffer[Edit][Delete]: Online Material Decreases Class Attendance?, EDUCAUSE Blogs [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 4 Hits] As usual, poor and incomplete research results in contradictory reports about the impact of technology in the classroom; one study says the use of iPods caused no change, while another (consisting apparently of a reporter asking some friends) draws the opposite conclusion. If we look at the reporter's 'data', though, what we find is a communications professor who, even with no resources posted online, could only attract 60 to 70 percent of his students (yes, apparently 30 percent of his students decided that seeing nothing was better than sitting through one of his lectures). So I have only one response when I see a statement like this: "the result, Allen said, was that only about one-third of her 154 students showed up for most lectures." It's working; online learning is doing the job. George Siemens also comments. [Tags: Online Learning, Research] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]

Mark Feldstein[Edit][Delete]: Why Mashups Make the LMOS, E-Literate [Edit][Delete] January 30, 2006

[link: 6 Hits] I have been sort of sympathetic to the concept of the learningmanagement operating system (LMOS) because, after all, the concept includes things that I favour: distributed resources, user access to the underlying system. But I began to falter when Mark Feldstein said "We don't just want to offer many different affordances. we want to orchestrate them." And following his link to Bernie Durfee has sketched out a first use case implementation sent me over the edge. I'll say it bluntly, and apologize later: this is the most ridiculous thing I've seen. Durfee is describing what the rest of understand as 'upload a file and base a discussion thread on it'. Something I did right here in about 10 seconds today. But he requires J2EE containers, portlet containers, service integration agents, native Java interfaces, a whole mess of stuff. Ridiculous. Absurd! That's it - if that is what is meant, toast the whole LMOS concept. [Tags: Online Learning, Operating Systems, Discussion Lists] [Comment] [Edit] [Delete] [Spam]