Open-Content

A question Shawn asked in writing about social objects last week made me wonder… What if Facebook worked like Blackboard (or pretty much any other LMS)? Imagine if every fifteen weeks Facebook: shut down all the groups you belonged to, deleted all your forum posts, removed all the photos, videos, and other files you had shared, and forgot who your friends were. How popular or successful would Facebook be then? How popular or successful is Blackboard now? The closed learning management system paradigm is bankrupt.

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 ...

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. ...

The Open Education 2008 Scholarship winners have been selected! This year’s winners are: John Britton, Chinese University of Hong Kong (student) Philise Rasugu, African Virtual University Julian Sukmana Putra, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia (student) Stian Haklev, Norway Robert Boyczuk, Seneca College, Toronto Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who applied - we had about thirty applicants for five scholarships, and the judging was tough! Also, many, many thanks to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for their continued support of the Open Ed scholarships. ...