Lots more great discussion on the open education accreditation front! Including posts from Steve Carson (Borderlines) about the interface between the various functioning pieces of higher ed, Antonio writing about why we shouldn’t view the homemade certificate as a “sacrilegious contamination between two worlds, formal and informal” education, and Tannis wondering about how a few historical models of accreditation might inform our current thinking. I hope all this interesting thinking and writing continues… We’re right at the tipping point (you might say precipice). =)

You know those “deleted scenes” offered on DVDs? Well, I’ve pulled together a collection of deleted scenes for my chapter 2005 - 2012: The OpenCourseWars in the new book Opening Up Education from MIT Press. Apparently I wrote more material for the chapter than they needed. In the words of Billy Joel’s The Entertainer: Ah, it took me years to write it They were the best years of my life It was a beautiful song But it ran too long If you’re gonna have a hit You gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05 ...

There have been some good comments on my post from yesterday, and interesting posts elsewhere around the net. I realized I needed to clarify my model a bit after reading Stephen’s comment: A slightly different model has emerged in George’s and my Connectivism course. We have the 20 for-credit students at the University of Manitoba, and the open access students. We’ve published the details of all the assignments. We had a student who signed on as an open access student but who would be submitting her assignments at her home institution, for assessment there. This distributes assessment, allowing for assessment to be basically open-sourced. ...

D’Arcy had a great post tonight about the three parts of open education. It validates something I’ve been wondering to myself about for a while. While I use slightly different language, you can me my take on the three toward the end of my Open Ed 2008 General Session presentation (start at slide 100): Ten Years of Open Content View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: history content) ...

I enjoyed Kimberly’s review of Learning Networks, but the following leaped off the screen at me: “The goal of making it possible for anyone, anywhere, at any time, at any age to engage in the learning process” How do issues of cost play into this ubiquitous goal of distance education? Isn’t the goal of distance education (and learning networks as described in the book) really ‘making it possible for anyone (who can afford to pay for the credits), anywhere, and anytime, at any age…’? The goal of anyone, anywhere, at any time, &c., is just begging to be problematized… I’m sure others already have, but it occurred to me today that this might be worth pursuing.

The free software crowd are always having to explain to people what “free” means, with sayings like “Free as in speech versus free as in beer.” That analogy encountered some trouble at iSummit 2008 last month in Sapporo! =) I’m not really writing on the free vs open topic anymore, but this photo was just too fun to pass up.

I hope you know about the amazing StoryCorps project. They’re recording the life stories and memories of ordinary people, and the stories people tell are personal, touching, and incredibly moving. We’re only two weeks away from the opening of Open Education 2008, and at this year’s conference we’ll be undertaking an oral history project of our own, recording interviews with conference goers about their participation in the open education movement. We’ll be asking questions like: ...

The OER Handbook is currently featured on the homepage of the Creative Commons site (you can also access the OER Handbook story directly via the CC blog). Kudos to everyone involved!

Being at Brigham Young University now, I have many more opportunities to think about the relationships between my personal beliefs and my professional interests. This year’s Annual University Conference theme has focused on light, and during his address this morning, McKay School of Education Dean Richard Young quoted Matthew 5:14-16: Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. ...

We’ve completed the print layout for the Open Educational Resources Handbook for Educators v 1.0! Our favorite designer, Corrine Beaumont, has done an amazing job with the print layout, all the way down to using openly licensed typefaces throughout. The printed, paperback version of the OER Handbook is available through Lulu.com in both black and white and full color formats. Of course, as an openly licensed book, the fully formatted PDFs are available for free download in both black and white and full color. ...