Buying Our Way into Bondage: The Risks of Adaptive Learning Services
David Wiley, iterating toward openness, March 28, 2013

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I've never been big on adaptive learning systems because they resemble too much to me the old programmed learning texts that were essentially a series of branches and pages. David Wiley in this post offers another reason to be wary. While such system s, as he notes, can scale well, and while they push the cost of e-learning content to zero, "an adaptive learning service is something you subscribe to, like Netflix. And just like with Netflix, the day you stop paying for the service is the day you lose access to the service." Clearly this is a concern if ongoing access to resources is an issue. "When you subscribe to content through a digital service (like an adaptive learning service), the publisher achieves complete and perfect control over you and your use of their content." I agree with Wiley's concerns. Related: Wendy Wickham, One Tool to Rule Them All, facing this argument: "the content library in the current LMS is too valuable to fully replace the LMS."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Online Learning]

Trend Report: Open Educational Resources 2013
Ria Jacobi, Hester Jelgerhuis, Nicolai van der Woert, SURF, March 28, 2013

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This is a substantial document that "describes trends in open educational resources (OER) and open education in the Netherlands and elsewhere, from the perspective of Dutch higher education." Topics covered include not only OERs but also MOOCs, badges and learning analytics. The papers are generally short but well-written and well-informed. Between each paper is a resurce page (in gold colour) offering a lot to explore. This is a substantial reference work that should be basic reading in thefield today. 114 page PDF. Via Ignatia.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources]

MOOC Manifesto
Conecta13, March 28, 2013

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This 'MOOC manifesto' came to me via Twitter and while I am sympathetic with the intent, the manifesto is almost point for point opposed to my own view of MOOCs. "In every teaching design," it begins falsely, "the learner is the centre." And then, "MOOCs must be an element within the digital strategy of an institution," and "Institutions may consider MOOCs basically as a branding instrument," and "Institutions may need to consider the prerequisites to enter a MOOC" seem to place MOOCs well within the institutional context, which is probably (in the longer run) not where they belong. And then there's this: "Open does not mean free." And "MOOCs may be courses, or not." And "there may... be face-to-face, local learning encounters in parallel to the on-line learning experience." No part of 'open online course' is left untouched

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Branding, Traditional and Online Courses, Twitter, Experience, Online Learning]

To YouTube and Beyond
Nathan Glazer, Education Next, March 28, 2013

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Review of Salman Khan's The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined. "One is left with many questions after reading this book. Clearly, the system was built on the model of mathematics and extended to other fields with a logical and systematic hierarchy of topics, with more advanced work building on more elementary work. How does it get adapted to the humanities, to history, the arts? Should it be?"

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, YouTube, Video]

POERUP elevator pitch: 26 countries in 26 minutes
Paul Bacsich, Slideshare, March 28, 2013

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Interesting presentation surveying 26 open educational resource (OER) initiatives in 26 countries, including Europe, North America, Australasia and the Middle East Gulf region (conspicuously missing are reports from South America, India and China). The presentation is an outcome of POERUP (Policies for OER Uptake), "a group of organisations across Europe and Canada interested in understanding how better to foster the uptake of OER by governments (national and regional) and groups of educational institutions."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Open Educational Resources, European Union, China, Canada]

French scholars say ‘oui’ to open access
Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, March 28, 2013

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The Times Higher Education reports "Sixty senior figures from the humanities and social sciences in France have published a statement in national newspaper Le Monde in support of open access." It adds that the statement Who Is Afraid of Open Access? has received more than 2,000 endorsements from individuals and (mostly) organizations. French science blogger Mathieu Rouault summarized a public session on open access rlated to the statement (en français). Also (as described in an email from Marin Dacos) there's a Soundcloud recording from Pierre Mounier, deputy director of OpenEdition, explaining why open access is so important.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Web Logs, Open Access]