Group items tagged

"Taylor & Francis carried out a worldwide survey, with the aim of exploring journal authors' views on open access. Having previously conducted a survey on open access in 2013, we have been able to see how authors' opinions have developed, and whether the discussion and debate on open access has helped to inform and shape views. With responses to both the 2013 and 2014 survey given side-by-side, you can easily see how attitudes have changed. Alongside this, the 2014 survey explores many new areas and gives a fascinating insight into authors' current perceptions of open access."

Arabic initiatives in open knowledge

UNESCO Resource exploring the four key elements of freedom of expression: the right to hold opinions without interference, the right to seek information, the right to receive information, and the right to impart information to others. These are all important pieces of access to open knowledge. 

Report from the World Wide Web Foundation (with IDRC funding) Claims to "explore the need for a more nuanced understanding of how open data can generate outputs, outcomes and impact. We offer a series of insights and provocations, moving towards different models for thinking about open data, development and social change...We need to explore practices that present the 'best fit' for particular countries and contexts, rather than advocating interventions based on externally defined best practices." (Introduction, p. 5)

"The 2014 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. "

This is fantastic! I just shared this on twitter, and will forward the link to teacher colleagues. Teachers are always looking for ways to make learning fun and different, and they also like those resources to be free!

Awesome! This site definitely will help teachers to have different and productive classes.

With these resources, you can create or participate in collaborative efforts to develop tools and methods for online education.

Many Open Education Resources (OER) have been introduced by governments, universities, and individuals within the past few years. OERs provide teaching and learning materials that are freely available and offered online for anyone to use. Whether you're an instructor, student, or self-learner, you have access to full courses, modules, syllabi, lectures, assignments, quizzes, activities, games, simulations, and tools to create these components.

Thanks. An extensive list of resources. It may have been easier to use the list if it wasn't categorised only alphabetically but also further grouped into categories. It's still a valuable collection.

Kay, R., Lauriclla, S. (2011). Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms: A Formative Analysis. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. 37:1

a. Laptops and mobile devices are ubiquitous in todays classrooms as students are digital natives. Because of decreasing prices of technology over the past few decades, an overwhelming majority of the university students surveyed own a laptop (87%). Because of this quick onset of technological adoption, culture has lagged, in terms of re-defining the social institutions that such mobile and computer technologies affect. According to this analysis, students feel that the use of a laptop helps in aiding studies, is useful for gathering course and supplementary materials and engaging in peer collaboration. Several challenges have been noted: communication based challenges, relating to social media, email and messaging services; and entertainment based challenges, relating to media consumption. These challenges serve as potential sources of distraction for the student using the technology and others. In their findings, 16% of students reported being distracted by pornography during class, on their own or others' computer screens, which ranked higher than computer games, at 1%. The authors conclude that the benefits of laptop use in class outweigh the challenges 2:1. Possibly, if the functionality of student laptops are integrated into course curriculum further, students can benefit from further peer collaboration, increased academic benefit and decreased distractions.

Exploring Digital Identity: Beyond the Private Public Paradox. A great article that explores how new media is transforming culture and how we identify ourselves online. The article uses a metaphor called digiSelves to describe how we are also creating a new identity too.

Indeed, maintaining the distance between the private self and public persona may be more difficult as we enter the virtual global village. As we continue to use the media, the proposition that we may become invested in the public persona possibly at odds with our private self seems to be a reasonable assertion. School shootings tend to support this.

People have a digital identity to surf on the Internet and get access to different kinds of information. Yes, there are a lot of good resources online for people to know and to learn. However, during the process, people's privacy also takes the risk of being viewed by others. On the other hand, everyone also has a chance to see others' privacy. So, is it good or bad to have such a digital identity. I think it is good and people acquire much more benefits than the risk they take.

I took a course taught by this professor on Coursera - The History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education. Davidson contributed the Hacking the Academy, a source I posted elsewhere. Her blog is a great exploration of creativity in Higher Ed (or the lack thereof). The blog is on the HASTAC site - Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Alliance Collaboratory. LOTS going on there... I enjoy her blog because of the lively language and the provocations - at least they are provocative for so-called traditional schools.The recent blog post reviews a film about education The Ivory Tower; "...that the movie is strong and powerful on the problem, and a bit weak on solutions." Haven't seen it. Davidson puts in a plug for HASTAC: "HASTAC has been addressing the connection between equity and innovation since its founding in 2002." I'm digressing. This is not a critique of her particular blog post, just a suggestion that the blog is interesting and HASTAC site has lots on it that is relevant to the topics we're exploring in this course.

Kat Smith and Richard Freeman argue it's time to start bringing together the diverse and innovative thinking around the complex relationships between science, knowledge and policy.

Although the main purpose of this article is to promote a book series that will explore the disconnect between evidence-based knowledge and public policy, a couple excerpts drive home the importance of open access in creating a more equitable world, a key theme in our course: "'Who gets what, when, how', in Lasswell's phrase, depends very much on who knows what, when and how." "To be knowledgeable is to be powerful."

We embed exciting STEM professionals and cutting-edge research into award-winning, standards-aligned in and out-of-school curricula. Live webcasts connect students with inspirational STEM role models. Student materials include reading selections with read-to-me functionality, inquiry-based labs, videos, and online games.

Mediante un tratamiento trans e interdisciplinar, los estudiantes aprenden ciencias experimentales, matemáticas, ciencias sociales y lenguaje en proyectos conjuntos de experimentacción e investigación, Sería deseable que en el futuro pueda abrirse en código abierto para que pueda trabajarse en todo tipo de tabletas y dispositivos digitales. De todas formas, es un proyecto muy otente para facilitar el aprendizaje más significativo, atractivo y relevante.

This paper throws light on the growth and development of open repositories registered with OpenDOAR database. The study explores various facets of open repositories and tries to present a lucid picture of their overall development. The study provides a detailed description of repositories in terms of continent, country and subject wise distribution. The study further delves deep into the Asian contributions and brings to light detailed profiles of Asia

A poster that explores "the balance between benefits and concerns in relation to openness to knowledge and data. We will showcase the current impact potential of open science and open innovation, while considering intellectual property, the right for commercial exploitation of innovative concepts and the need for privacy legislation preventing misuse of personal data."

"Having explored a "learning theory" that George Siemens (2005; 2006a) and Stephen Downes (2005; 2007) developed for a networked and digital world called connectivism. Fascinating and extensive conversations in the blogosphere and in educational journals debate whether connectivism is a new learning theory or whether it is merely a digital extension of constructivism."

I agree, is a wonderful delineation.

The article is great. I only have one observation, we always assume learning is all about connecting special nodes and sources of information but we forget that the opposite is also learning. When we disconnect our wrong nodes and sources of information in terms of beliefs and wrong information, I believe we are also learning.

"Team Open is a project to collect and share stories of the power of Creative Commons licenses." (http://teamopen.cc/all/) This site is a project by Creative Commons to advertise the power of creative commons licensing; it includes trading cards (!) for donating, and powerful stories about how CC has been used for good in the world and why it is such an important movement. This is a great piece of advertising for CC, and it really captures some of the ways that CC can be used. I think all too often, copyright is not seen as something "sexy" or interesting, but using clear language, simple but elegant graphics, and some really captivating stories, this site is a very useful tool.

"Thanks to the proliferation of mobile apps and advances in online crowdsourcing platforms, non-professionals are helping researchers identify new species, track comets, name proteins, project climate patterns and much more. Science-minded individuals have myriad opportunities to get their hands dirty and partner with professional scientists, conducting ground-breaking research together."

Do you know any citizen science project dedicated to investigate rare diseases?

It's great to see that people can contribute to scientific exploration in so many ways! It's a good way to learn basic scientific skills and develop critical thinking.