OpenEducationeResources

I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps it’s partly that none of these ideas are particularly new to me (although some of the individual examples of how companies are using them were), and perhaps to someone who has never heard about Wikis, networking, collaboration, Web 2.0 etc, this could be a great book. However, it is very clearly a business book, written for executives, and with a language and writing style that I am not used to, and don’t particularly like

With the best OERs in the world, we still agree that we sometimes need to have human involvement, whether in classroom instruction, as an online mentor (which can be very taxing, something that Professor Wiley has experienced in this course).I think it would only be a healthy sign if a huge industry of training companies grew up around OERs, that provided value added services - like hands-on instruction, mentoring and guidance by distance, follow up and setting deadlines, printing textbooks or DVDs, etc. If they then released all their material back to the commons, whether because they were compelled (through CC share-alike) or as a goodwill gesture to the community, the whole movement would benefit. This is a strong argument against the CC NC license on educational material.

An additional thought after reading about all these companies that opened up their internal processes to collaboration both from the internal staff, and from external customers, was the idea of a more open and flexible university. Some enlightened professors are great at engaging their students in defining the contents of the class, but generally both our programs of study (which courses we have to take to graduate), and the contents of them, are determined by individual faculty.

Coase's Penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm.” “Peer production” is an important concept which is addressed in this

I think peer production has a profound influence on open education movement, especially on the issue of sustainability. “Peer production” is a model which is better than market-based model or firm-based model because it allows larger groups of individuals to look for larger groups of resources in search of materials, projects, collaborations, and combination. Peer production relies on decentralized information gathering and exchange to reduce the uncertainty of participants. Just as the reading of last week indicates that the degree of decentralization will be a factor of long-term management for OER, peer production is a model which includes the idea of decentralization. Centralization provides explicit support, but the cost is expensive. On the contrary, decentralization allows more control over the courses, and explicit support is available through a group of participants. Unlike market or firm models, cooperation and coordination among participants are easier to be achieved in peer production model.

The granularity of the modules is important for maintain a project. When a project of any size is broken into little pieces, each of pieces can be independently performed by an individual in a short amount of time.

One of the ideas that seemed to be quite present in this book was that the West has thrown billions of dollars at a problem and as of yet it has all been a waste. I have a hard time believing that all of that money has truly done nothing.

We need to evaluate where money is spent based on what the outcomes will be. If you can save 100 children with a one-time vaccine for the same cost that medication for a victim of AIDS would require for one year, is there really even a question of where the money should be spent?

Of course, it is frustrating to write your thoughts without having a feedback. It's human. I was delighted in seeing that my first post turned out to be interesting for someone and I became progressively unsure with the following ones. It seems you are throwing your thoughts in a void space or in crowded space where people are saying: "This guy is crazy!"

My question: Shouldn’t the goal of every OER project to be to facilitate learning by a maximum number of learners?

I think we need more time to digest the new knowledge or information after self-reading and more time to receive the feedback from instructor and classmates. Keep large amount of weekly reading without feedbacks is too pushing

I think the first thing to consider is that "sustainable" can have a lot of different meanings in the educational context. It can mean: a) not going into the red financially b) continually having people visit and learn from your ed materials c) continually building materials on your site for yourself d) continually having others contribute new material to your site. Wiley's definition of sustainability encompasses all three of these meanings individually and in combination:sustainability will be defined as an open educational resource project’s ongoing ability to meet its goals.

And if one argues that Uni's wouldn't make any money using the German model (even though society benefits hugely, including the German economy on the whole) - I think it's only fair to question why should Universities be in the business of making money?!?! Why have we chosen this social model, given how important education facilities are in our societies. As far as I know, this is a more recent trend - as compared to the past. If we are so concerned in OER about contributing to the common good, then one really should think about the common good in other areas, such as through traditional educaiton facilities.

Utilizzo moodle da tre anni (1 di sperimentazione limitata a poche attività, 2 di autogestione e utilizzo attivo, con esempi che Gianni ha segnalato riferendosi al mio blog o, se volete mettere le mani in pasta, direttamente su http://www.edocet.net .Il mio punto di partenza, quando penso ad attività didattiche (online, offline, se vi piace metteteci gli aggettivi altrimenti definitele solo didattiche che forse è meglio) è una domanda:"come posso coinvolgere ed attivare concretamente e continuativamente i miei alunni?".Sarà che lavoro insegnando una lingua straniera verso cui vige un pregiudizio forte (il tedesco), sarà che due ore di lezione a settimana con 30 alunni son pochine, sarà quel che sarà ma quella domanda è centrale nel progettare i miei passi insieme ai miei alunni.--Ciò detto, gli spunti di Gianni mi pongono sempre di fronte a nuove domande (e per questo lo ringrazio). Riflettendo ieri dopo aver inserito il mio commento, mi sono chiesto "con moodle fai determinate attività. Le potresti fare con altri strumenti?". Gianni già lo asseriva, o almeno ho letto questo, per cui mi sono trovato a riflettere che il blog c'è in moodle, ma anche fuori, che il wiki c'è ance in moodle, ma anche fuori, che il forum c'è in moodle, ma anche fuori, la chat idem, i quiz hotpotatoes stesso discorso... forse l'unica attività che non trovo fuori (ma perchè non ne ho conoscenza io) è il glossario, che a me risulta utile per determinate attività di co-costruzione e co-valutazione gestite dagli alunni. Allora moodle (o un lms) perchè? > - in questo specifico momento, perchè mi ci sono affezionato > - inoltre, perchè mi raccoglie tutte insieme potenziali attività che altrimenti dovrei creare altrove - e raccogliere in un sito... >- sicuramente ci sono altri motivi che mi chiarirò in seguito....

Allora moodle (o un lms) perchè?- in questo specifico momento, perchè mi ci sono affezionato- inoltre, perchè mi raccoglie tutte insieme potenziali attività che altrimenti dovrei creare altrove - e raccogliere in un sito...