FLOSS In School - Open Source Software in the Education System

Felipe Ortega has a new post pondering a business model for Creative Commons. From the post:

What does Creative Commons offer? Legal assessment? No. Added-value services to track free content? No. They just offer legal tools to share knowledge adequately. In other words: the licenses. That’s it. Is it valuable? Well, yes of course! Could they do it better? I really think so.

Jan Philipp Schmidt has a new post on running open courses. From the post:

More students sound like more work, less opportunity to engage with each individual student, and the practicalities of facilitating a diverse group of participants using online technologies seems daunting as well. It turns out that those who try it are often surprised that it’s much more rewarding and easier than they thought.

Jane Park has a new post noting that UNESCO’s recently released World Heritage application uses Creative Commons. From the post:

UNESCO World Heritage “seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”

Mike Caulfield has a thoughtful post on the origin of interlibrary loans and relates it to openness. From the post:

It’s sometimes funny to me how networked learning and open education people are treated as blue-sky techno-utopians.

Julie Meloni has a new post discussing Omeka, a publishing and archive service designed for museums. Omeka allows for Creative Commons licensing. From the post:

As I mentioned above, Omeka is for more than museums; if you are a scholar, museum professional, librarian, archivist, educator, or even an unaffiliated individual who wants to share collections and exhibits with a wide range of users, Omeka could work for you.

“Josh”, a med student at the University of Kansas, has written a post on the need for open access medicine journals. From the post:

Do you know what happens when I come up against a login screen that wants to charge me $30 for a single article? I find another article (from another journal) to use in its place. And smaller journals, this is where you are really losing–most medical institutions buy subscriptions to the major journals.

Last week OEN reported on a recent issue of EDUCAUSE Review that directly addressed open education and related concepts. One article in that issue was written by Dave Cormier and George Siemens regarding open courses. Cormier has a new post responding to a critique of the article. From the post:

I freely contribute my time to some courses, and am paid to teach others. I ‘believe’ that working in the open makes my own work better, gives me broader access to other people’s idea and, well, i find it fun.

Karen Fasimpaur has a new post listing “shareable media sets.” From the post:

Awhile back, I was thinking about the idea of shareable media sets — collections of open-licensed photos, diagrams, maps, audio, video, etc. that could be used by teachers or students…

The OER Consortium notes that the U.S. Labor Department is looking for grant reviewers with OER expertise.

Joseph Thibault has a new post announcing that they have found over 855 Moodle courses openly available.

BBC News has posted a short report stating that 70% of Open University students study part-time. The article also notes an significant increase in the number of young adults interested in distance learning. Thanks to Craig Josephsen for the link.

The OER consortium has announced 100,000+ hits on its website.

Eric Gorski has a new article on the changing textbook industry. Open textbooks and Flatworld Knowledge are discussed.

Diane Peters is announcing Public Domain Mark, a method of labeling and tagging items in the public domain. Peters is asking for “public” comment via the cc-licenses mailing list. From the announcement:

The PDM is not a legal instrument like CC0 or our licenses — it can only be used to label a work with information about its public domain copyright status, not change a work’s current status under copyright.

Jane Park has posted an interview with Christine Nytko. Nytko is a science reviewer at Curriki. From the post:

I am certain that the average teacher is NOT aware of open licensing alternatives. In fact, many teachers I know still operate on the guiding principle of CASE – Copy And Steal Everything.

Nelson B. Heller has posted a case study of the BBC Jam web site, a failed OER experiment. From the post:

In short, the BBC’s two defining realities – exemplary programming and tax support – collided head on over its decision to create a uniquely enriched free online curriculum for the nation’s primary and secondary students.

Marc Perry has posted an interview with George Veletsianos on open and social learning. From the post:

It’s no longer possible for universities to be offering distance-education courses that are isolationsist or individualistic when people’s experiences outside of the university are social and connected.

OnlineUniversities.com has posted a list of 101 open courses to improve teaching. Thanks to Eric Sheninger for the link.

Timothy Vollmer notes that the U.S. Department of Education lists OER as a priority for grant money.

Stephen Downes notes that the most recent issue of EDUCAUSE Review deals with openness.