FLOSS In School - Open Source Software in the Education System

Mike Caulfield has a new post on Flattr, a micropayment service. From the post:

Here’s the neat part though — hopefully the vast middle is a bunch of people that are both consumers and producers, and those that write smaller blogs use their Flattr to support those that write the bigger blogs, or those that write the music they listen to while writing their blogs, or those making OER, etc., etc.

Tanika Cooper recaps recent textbook legislation and includes quotes from professors on textbook affordability. From the post:

White did not have to worry about new editions because he could simply adopt the new version from online. Through the publisher he used, which operates under the creative common license, White customized textbooks for his classes.

Cameron Parkins notes a post by Joi Ito on license proliferation. From Ito’s post:

Creative Commons is not just a single license “option”. We are a global conversation among lawyers, judges, academics, users and companies in over a hundred countries with extremely rigorous compatible license ports in more than 50 jurisdictions.

Richard Hall has a new post on open education as a critique. From the post:

Open education is a critique of our formal, institutionalised systems of education. Or it should be. It should help us to critique what we do as educators in a formal system and why. It reflects back to us how our work enables the people who experience our formal systems, to exist, to innovate, to succeed, to be(come).

Thanks to Stephen Downes for the link.

Last week OEN reported that ASCAP declined a challenge to debate Larry Lessig over recently made remarks by ASCAP. Mike Linksvayer has a new post responding on ASCAP’s decision not to debate:

Every bit of this is incorrect. To the extent there is a single movement the ASCAP president is attempting to criticize, it would be called the free culture movement. Presumably the ASCAP president thinks “copyleft” sounds more threatening than “free culture”.

Last week OEN reported on a post regarding the option to keep a blog private. Stephen Downes responds. D’Arcy Norman responds to Stephen’s response. From Norman’s response:

What I was trying to point out is that these forms of performance aren’t public, and are not permanently archived by third parties. They are also not primarily exercises in content production.

The British Library has collected thoughts on whether copyright is a help or hindrance.

Kelly Truong is reporting that Princeton U. will be shutting down its University Channel, which was a collection of videos about public policy. The web site is licensed CC BY-NC-ND.

Anya Kamenetz has a new post suggesting print textbooks should be eliminated.

Jennifer Howard has a new post notes that the U.S. Copyright Office has announced exemptions for professors circumventing digital rights management protection under certain circumstances. From the U.S. Copyright Office’s text:

Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances:

(i) Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students;

Stephen Downes has a related post on related ruling.

Tony Hirst has a new post explaining OpenLearn’s new site redesign. From the post:

First up, and with a beta launch today, the new OpenLearn site makes an appearance, including integration of content from the Open2.net site. As I understand it, the new OpenLearn website amounts to something akin to the “public service educator” presence of the OU

Oliver Lindberg has written an article on his interview with Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons. From the post:

The biggest challenge now is to get people to use Creative Commons licences correctly. “It’s like writing valid HTML – most people can’t do it,” says Ito.

Glyn Moody has a new post on Move Commons. From the post:

…I was therefore delighted to come across Move Commons (MC), “a simple tool for initiatives, collectives and NGOs to declare the core principles they are committed to.” It works in almost the same way as the CC licences, allowing you to specify exactly what your “core principles” are…

Joss Winn has a new post on a recent talk he gave titled “Sustainable Practice in OER.” From the post:

Under those three headings, I have highlighted a couple of other ideas worth engaging with by ‘open educators’. They are ‘mass intellectuality’ and ‘commonism’, both of which have been developed in the area of political critical theory.

Steve Carson has a new post asking for help in building the history of OpenCourseWare. Stephen Downes responds.

D’Arcy Norman has a new post on students who want to blog privately. From the post:

The open web is an incredible force multiplier. Students (and faculty) can say something, and have it spread around the world and accessed by anyone. Which is great, unless that short circuits the kinds of risk taking behaviours that make for really meaningful learning experiences.

Nicole Allen has issued a press release announcing that new textbook affordability provisions have come into effect. From the press release:

Publishers must offer unbundled versions of textbooks. “Bundling,” or the practice of packing textbooks with CDs, pass-codes and other ancillaries that often go unused, can increase costs 10-50% according to PIRG research. From now on, students will have the option to purchase only the items they need.

Education Week that U.S. Department of Education will be creating a National Learning Registry to index digital learning resources. Presumably OER will be included. From the post:

In a speech to the National Rural Education Technology Summit, Duncan gave the example of digital artifacts pertaining to the first moon landing in explaining the value of the planned registry. Currently, recordings of the conversations, digital exhibits about the rockets involved, and weather records from the mission are scattered across the websites of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Thanks to Timothy Vollmer for the link.

David Wiley has a new post announcing that a study to compare students learning from traditional textbooks compared to open textbooks. From the post:

Because expensive, traditional textbooks have to be passed from student to student over 4-7 years, students are typically prohibited from marking in the books in any way. By contrast, because the open textbooks are so inexpensive as to be considered consumables (from a budget perspective), students will be able to engage these books through active study processes like highlighting and annotating.

Last week OEN reported that Larry Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, wanted to challenge ASCAP to debate of negative comments regarding Creative Commons. An astute reader, “Sarah” as well as the blog Mind the Gap notes that ASCAP President Paul Williams has responded. From the response:

I am well aware of those “copyleft” mouthpieces who take a highly critical view of ASCAP’s efforts to protect our members’ rights. That will not change ASCAP’s commitment to doing so. ASCAP exists for one purpose — fair payment to music creators for the use of their music by businesses and others who seek to attract viewers and customers.