Headless ds106ers, Stand Proudly! Some Disjointed Thoughts and Puny Data
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, December 18, 2013

"No xMOOC will every have a talking doll as a key participant." So says Alan Levine in his wrap-up of the 'headless DS106' experiment that too place this fall. It's hard to find fault with that statement (though given an unholy mix of a focus on star professors and Japanese experiments in animated pop stars, I think he could be proven wrong in time). Levine concludes, "what I have learned from the Headless experience that there ought to be more creative ways to create these open experience containers than a ____ week course. They can be headless." He complains that they end - but you know, everything ends, some things sooner than others. Ending is good too, as it allows for new beginnings. It's OK for a course to end (it's not OK for a course to end and locke you out of all your content and break all your connections with your friends). (Photo: Kim’n'Cris Knight)

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UNESCO launches Open Access Repository under Creative Commons
Cable Green, Creative Commons, December 18, 2013

Nice. "UNESCO has announced a new Open Access Repository making more than 300 digital reports, books and articles available to the world under the Creative Commons IGO licenses."

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Facebook Launches Auto-Play Video Ads
Todd Wassermann, Mashable, December 18, 2013

You have to figure this is a bad idea: Facebook is launching its auto-play video advertisements. They will play without sound (small consolation) and Facebook assures mobile users that video content will download only via wifi connections (but will play whenever they want). The campaign exhibits the underlying contradiction of media on the web: advertising (and education?) depend on providers pushing content at you whether you want to see it or not, while the internet is based on the idea of you pulling only that content you want to see, ignoring the rest. The success of one comes at the expense of the other.

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OERu 13.10 report
Wayne Mackintosh, OERu, December 18, 2013

For those of you following the progress of OERu, this comprehensive report from Wayne Mackintosh will bring you completely up to date. It is a summary of the seccond meeting of anchor partners held last October. Three priorities addressed were:

1. Assessment, credit transfer and course articulation;
2. Developing an OERu programme of study with emphasis on collaborative development and shared delivery of courses; and
3. Developing a strategic and operational implementation plan.

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