November 19, 2013
White Paper: Open Educational Resources
Various authors,
Hewlett Foundation,
November 19, 2013
The Hewlett Foundation has released a White Paper on Open Educational Resources along with a consultant's report on the OER ecosystem and a call for proposals to develop an OER Map, as discussed at a recent online UNESCO conference (OLDaily post) on the topic. While I support the overall goals of the OER movement (obviously) the ubiquitous photo of children with hands raised awaiting permission to speak suggests the generally conservative taken by the report which I do not favour so much, where materials are designed to supoport US-style courses and where "...materials will be organized in a way that enables in-classroom adoption simple enough to encourage widespread use." My idea of success would look a lot different, with materials designed to support people creating their own learning. Success for me, would depend a lot less on publishers, and a lot more on indiviodual and ad hoc conbtent creation and sharing - a community focus rather than a producer and provider focus. [Photo] Related: the Global List of OER Initiatives in the OER Community on the KC Platform has been updated with categories.
New thoughts on Personal Learning Environments
Graham Attwell,
Pontydysgu,
November 19, 2013
The most recent issue of e_learning Papers has been posted on the European Commission Open Education Europa portal and it focuses on a topic of interest to me, personal learning environments (PLEs). There's quite a lot to read in this issue, including a paper, Developing a framework for research on Personal Learning Environments, by my colleagues Rita Kop and Hélène Fournier. From the forward to the issue, as quoted in this post: "More of an approach or strategy than a specific learning platform, a PLE is created by learners in the process of designing and organising their own learning, as opposed to following pre-arranged learning paths. In this way, PLEs are distinctly learner-centred and foster autonomous learning. PLEs are by no means isolated; they are interconnected in a digital ecosystem of media, tools and services." If MOOCs are one side of the open learning coin, this is the other side.
How Jordan’s Queen plans to ‘democratize access’ to education
Christina Farr,
VentureBeat,
November 19, 2013
Despite Udacity's 'pivot' the VC world remains enthusiastic about MOOCs, to judge from this article in Venture Beat about MOOCs in Jordan. In particular, it reports, "[Jordan's] Queen Rania Al Abdullah has spoken out in favor of the movement, arguing that online education will benefit minority groups in the Arab world, especially young women... Queen Rania’s foundation announced the formation of a new Arabic online education service called Edraak."
Janux
Staff,
Janux,
November 19, 2013
Via MyEducationPath, which summarizes: "Janux, a new interactive learning community created in partnership between The University of Oklahoma and technology leader NextThought, connects learners and teachers through high-quality OU courses. Janux is the first of its kind in OpenCourseWare, combining multimedia-rich content with interactive social tools and a broader learning community to create an unparalleled learning environment." In other words, it sounds like a cMOOC. But you have to sign up before you can see anything. Update: Laura Gibbs, who has tried it out, calls it "an xMOOC in cMOOC clothing."
SAP Conference examines lagging Canadian productivity
Terry Dawes,
Cantech Letter,
November 18, 2013
Summary of a recent conference hosted by business software company SAP focusing on innovatoon and productivity in Canada. We hear the usual story: despite what Canadians may tell ourselves, we are lagging in research, innovation and productivity. Speakers targeted the education system, research spending, and Canada's aversion to risk-taking. Canada needs to look forward, to things like the internet of things, while focusing on the customer experience, said speakers. "Dynamic companies knowingly couple investment with risk-taking and see a corresponding increase in productivity. But many companies don’t think they need, for example, government or outside help, and suffer the productivity consequences." But at the same time, notes Terry Dawes, "By the end of the evening, it’s safe to say that most attendees, in engaging in a conversation rather than a pure sales event, may have forgotten that they had just been successfully marketed to."
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