Group items tagged

"Data connectivity is intrinsic to most of our daily lives. The place which exists in almost every community large or small, rural or urban, is the public library. Ben Lee argues that not only do libraries provide free access to data, but they do so in an environment which is trustworthy and neutral, geared to learning. Access to digital technology increasingly overlaps with access to opportunity and it is important to recognise the role public libraries already play (and have always played) in keeping the gate to knowledge open. "

Slides from Leslie Chan's talk on What is Open Science and What Role Does it Play in Development?

Is true that open access benefits the academic development of students and agree with it, but it would also be important to know whether college students and teachers and researchers know how to use information resources open access or if known. It is important to give more publicity to information resources in order to open the knowledge society makes use of them to create new knowledge for society.

What Role Can MOOCs Play in the Development Agenda? Five Key Questions By: Rajika Bhandari on Tuesday, July 15, 2014 With the Millennium Development Goals nearing their deadline, the development sector has been rife with speculation about what the post-2015 development agenda will look like and what role, if any, higher education should play in this future outlook. Personal note: This highlights the reality of so called 3rd world countries and the real reach of MOOCs

Worth a look.

Relating to the digital copyrights issue, here's a recent article regarding Satellite radio…in this day and age where new and old music is being played, it's become more confusing as to what rights music services (or other arts) have. They might be playing music that they may or may not have the right too (and yet bands have no idea). Unfortunately copyright laws seem to have a long way to go before they become untangled. In the battle between today's digital-music services and yesterday's oldies artists, score one for the geezers. The founders of the '60s rock band the Turtles won a summary judgment on Monday against Sirius XM Radio Inc., in a lawsuit alleging that the satellite-radio company violated California copyright law by playing the band's songs without permission.

Dr Jane McGonigal (a professional game developer) talks about the time spent playing video games (which approximates to the span of human evolution), and that this time has to increase to make any major changes to the world. I have selected this resource partially in relation to week 3's Clarke's lecture (and others), which talks about using our idle time to do something meaningful - participate in citizen science games, for example. Dr McGonigal's talk very much illustrates this point - except that it talks about solving global issues through indirect games, e.g. a World Without Oil online game simulates a world in which you have to survive oil shortage. Creator's research shows, that people maintain the skills and habits they have taken up after playing this intense game, which include making better choices for our changing environment. The only difference here from actual citizen science games is that Dr McGonigal's games are fictional (rather than providing direct data / input for actual scientific research), however, they empower people to influence global change, which is the topic of the other lectures this week, especially Morozov's thoughts about the power of internet and connectiveness to create "revolutions". Although Morozov has taken up a rather critical view, suggesting only those who want it, take the best from the Internet, Dr McGonigal's ideas might be what bridges the two - taking games, which are integral part of many people's lives, especially in the younger generation, and turning them into real "life schools" may help more people get the idea and the essential skills to "fix" their environments. In all honesty, this is a video I would watch again and again, and recommend it to anyone who would listen (and that doesn't happen often for me).

Gamification for learning - using game elements - sounds very promising. Prior to the internet, technology, there were board games or hands on projects - all with the intent to engage and interact with each other. So it is no surprise to me given the appropriate design/project that students can learn and solve real world problems. Letting students choose their persona and role also allows them to make their own future and take ownership for how they want to participate. Just like the original promise of multimedia training that was purported to replace the traditional classroom events and enable getting the "best" teacher recorded for all to have the same experience...I believe it was then thought that the learning experience needs o be "blended". Different techniques - online, face to face, etc.. This is not my field of expertise so these are just personal opinions. If the online game approach can be combined with face to face and tactile/outdoor activities, aka a blended approach - I think that might be very useful. I do also believe that design solutions should be encouraging win win situations to reinforce collaboration and the feeling that all can succeed. One question I might have is how do you measure success in learning?

Gaming promoters unfortunately for me have a commercial agenda and its always difficult to make that balance of pure learning and commercialization aspect

Just a few short years ago, the world of digital scholarly texts was in its primordial stages, and it is still the case that most online editions are simply basic HTML or scanned images from more or less arbitrarily chosen print editions.

Game Studies meets Surveillance Studies at the Edge of Digital Culture: An Introduction to a special issue on Surveillance, Games and Play

Chattanooga (no, I don't work or live there) is building the infrastructure for connected learning for all citizens. Gigabit broadband. Public library spaces where learners and entrepreneurs can play with all kinds of tools, not just tech ones. Make.Play.Read.Learn is a summer program offered by the library and the local Mozilla Hive Learning Community. I love the statement, "If you are reading this, you are already participating."

"The edupunks are on the march. From VC-funded startups to the ivied walls of Harvard, new experiments and business models are springing up from entrepreneurs, professors, and students alike. Want a class that's structured like a role-playing game? An accredited bachelor's degree for a few thousand dollars? A free, peer-to-peer Wiki university? These all exist today, the overture to a complete educational remix."

"'Connectivism' is a label for a family of related theories and models about learning in a networked age that recognize the implications of the network itself in supporting and playing a central role in such learning. These theories and models consolidate various ideas, facts and theories that relate to networked learning then make predictions and prescriptions as well as imply patterns that are a consequence of them. "

"Responding to rapid and steep increases in the cost of scientific journals, a growing number of scholars and librarians have advocated "open access" (OA) to the scientific literature. OA publishing models are having a significant impact on the dissemination of scientific information. Despite the success of these initiatives, their impact on researchers in the developing world is uncertain. This article analyses major OA approaches adopted in the industrialized world (so-called Green OA, Gold OA, and OA mandates, as well as non-OA information philanthropy) as they relate to the consumption and production of research in the developing world. The article concludes that while the consumption of scientific literature by developing world researchers is likely to be significantly enhanced through such programs, promoting the production of research in the developing world requires additional measures. These could include the introduction of better South-focused journal indexing systems that identify high-quality journals published in the developing world, coupled with the adjustment of academic norms to reward publication in such journals. Financial models must also be developed to decrease the reliance by institutions in the developing world on information philanthropy and to level the playing field between OA journals in industrialized and developing countries."

Signum es un traductor de español a (LSE) Lengua de Signos Española, basado en Apertium, y usando el catálogo de signos de CATEDU. Características principales: - T...

Conozco al profesor que ha llevado a cabo la investigación, Dr. Vicente Arévalo, y sé de su capacidad de innovación. En este caso, la aplicación es capaz de responder a una necesidad básica: la inclusión de aquellos individuos con discapacidad en un aula, de manera que todos puedan convivir en un clima de armonía y normalidad. La inmediata traducción de voz a lenguaje Braille facilita este hecho y permite dar un paso más en la realidad perseguida de una Escuela Inclusiva.

Conozco al profesor que ha ideado el proyecto, Dr. Vicente Arévalo, así como su capacidad para innovar y trabajar. La aplicación cubre un hueco fundamental en la búsqueda de una Escuela Inclusiva, al permitir a personas con discapacidad (en este caso, auditiva), poder participar de manera natural en la dinámica de un aula, interaccionando con el resto de sus compañeros. Ello se consigue gracias a esta aplicación, que permite realizar una traducción simultánea e inmediata del lenguaje hablado al lenguaje Braille, haciendo más próxima la realidad de una completa escuela inclusiva.

Former Sharks scrumhalf Ryan Walker has been battling the "relentless" disease for two years. He was diagnosed following a bout of meningitis in 2012 while working on his family's cattle and vegetable farm in Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal. He is the fourth South African rugby player to have contracted the disease in the past five years.

"the data lead us to argue that any journal rank (not only the currently-favored Impact Factor) would have this negative impact. Therefore, we suggest that abandoning journals altogether, in favor of a library-based scholarly communication system, will ultimately be necessary. This new system will use modern information technology to vastly improve the filter, sort and discovery functions of the current journal system."

Talk about an ambitious suggestion! As we've talked about this in class, I'm not surprised to find scientific research that impact factor is bad scientific (not to mention business) practice. I'm also very interested in this idea of alternative scholarly communication systems; and if libraries are to play a central role, I have to assume that projects like institutional repositories would play an enormous part in this new system. I wonder what this suggests about altmetrics, though? Are we just putting a band-aid on a deep wound, and treating the symptom instead of the disease?

Description: "Fair dealing has played a prominent role in the hearings on Bill C-32, with education and creator groups debating the merits and impact of the proposed reforms.  Unfortunately, much of the discussion has confused rather than clarified the issue with misleading claims about potential losses, inaccurate comments on copyright and Internet materials, and dubious arguments about the compliance of the reforms under international copyright law."

Scientific journals are surely important. They provide the most effective means for disseminating and archiving scientific results, and so are a key part of an enterprise on which our health, security, and prosperity ultimately depend. Publications are used by universities, funding agencies, and others as a primary measure of research productivity and impact. They play a decisive role in hiring, promotion, and salary decisions, and in the ranking of departments, institutions, even nations. With big rewards tied to publication, it is not surprising that some people engage in unethical behavior, abuse, and downright fraud.

While we are at the discussion on copyrights, intellectual property and economics of open, I think the consideration of human factor in the pursuit of knowledge evens out the playing field. This is the link to the executive summary of The Global Innovation Index 2014, a report that takes into account the human factor in innovation.