September 28, 2011
The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls
Various Authors,
Website, September 28, 2011.
The web has been abuzz this week with the release of a digital version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the most ancient sources of religious writing, dating from the second half of the first century BCE. Given their age, I would expect copyright has expired on them, but the proprietors of the web site beg to differ, adding the following 'terms of use': "No part of this website may be downloaded, copied, or reproduced in any form, analog or digital, without the permission of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, with the exception of single copies for research or private study." Contra this notice, I assert that the Dead Sea Scrolls are part of the common heritage of humanity, free to copy or reproduce as we wish. And why would the museum want to restrict usage like that anyways?
Everything You Need to Know About How to Digitally Self Publish
Christian Cantrell,
Living Digitally, September 28, 2011.
Something to save for later: "If you're thinking of publishing to the Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks store, or to the Barnes & Noble Nook, this article will provide you with everything you need to know to get started. It is the result of many hours of research and experimentation, and probably represents the most comprehensive guide on digital self-publishing currently available." Via his Google+ post.
Digital scholarship - introduction
Martin Weller,
The Ed Techie, September 28, 2011.
It's Martin Weller's week at the #change11 MOOC and he's prepared this nice resource supporting his talk on digital scholarship. "As I mention in the video," he writes, "the week is largely based around a book I’ve just published, called The Digital Scholar. This was published by Bloomsbury, but is available as a free open access book, under a Creative Commons license here." He focuses his discussion on digital scholarship around four themes:
- digital scholarship provides us with is a richer set of alternatives
- new forms of media allow for greater impact than traditional scholarly practices
- ‘digital scholarship’ is really a shorthand for digital, networked and open.
- there's a tension currently between the pockets of marvellous innovation and a markedly conservative, resistant attitude from many institutions
See also related posts on criticisms of digital scholarship and the definition of digital scholarship. Weller also asks, what ar the values in a MOOC?
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Video, Networks, Open Access, Academia]
Link curation at scale
Marion Manton,
TALL Blog, September 28, 2011.
In our report OER: The value of reuse in education," writes Marion Manton, "we focused our attention on the reuse of online resources whether licensed or not . There was no doubt that making no distinction between licensed OER and stuff on the web reflects the experience of the majority of HE practitioners, who use “stuff” relatively indiscriminately in low risk contexts." The report makes the very good point that "The majority of reuse takes place in contexts that are not publicly visible," and in these cases, licensing is a lot less important. It also notes that "the relative volume of licensed OER to nonlicensed... online content is small and, as a result, the majority of reuse inevitably involves content without open licences." Recommended reading.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, Experience, Online Learning]
Deepening our Learning Through Storytelling: creativity, STEM and stories
Wesley Fryer,
Moving at the Speed of Creativity, September 28, 2011.
The slides are a bit hard to follow, but there's plenty of video to support the presentation page for this talk given by Wesley Fryer at Yarmouth High School in Maine. "As learners of all ages," he writes, "we need to 'play with media' and utilize media tools to communicate. Good stories start with good writing and an invitation to share. In this session we’ll explore and discuss examples of digital media focusing specifically on science and math themes." I totally agree with that message - that's why I do thinks like play with web radio, even though there seems to be no real objective other than fun. Links to supporting materials are available through Fryer's handouts wiki. The photo above is from an Intel advertisement, and is used as a good example of storytelling in STEM.
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