Skip to main content

Home/ Groups/ OKMOOC
Kevin Stranack

Know Your Rights - The Clash - 9 views

  •  
    A free, online video, with Spanish subtitles, on the theme of rights, by the incomparable punk rock band, The Clash.
monde3297

OPEN AND CLOSED - 30 views

  •  
    An alternative perspective on "openness".
  • ...9 more comments...
  •  
    Beware of "openwash". Whenever a term becomes so popular, it is important to clarify the definition and scope of the author/speaker/presenter.
  •  
    An alternative opinion on openness, I agree. Openness may evoke different feelings to people who have the "closed" experience. It may be also people's disbelief in the buzz-words and buzz-trends which come and go.
  •  
    I agree with the danger of Openness. Not everything should have open access. What happens with the pages that show people how to make guns or bombs? I think certain pages should not only be dismissed but also closed.
  •  
    This is interesting. Technology is changing so fast! Already implications about 3D printing is in the news!!
  •  
    So true ibudule. Is 'openness' to become another catch-prase and trend as 'green', 'robust debate', 'politically correct' terms for almost anything? The deeper significance of the concept can be undermined by it becoming the last trendy issue which is applied to almost anything and everything.
  •  
    So true, not everything should be open, but it is getting hard in our world, where everyone addicted to technologies. Technological dependence is becoming a huge issue. For example, leaked Snapchat images are all over the internet, and 50% of users are teen in the age of 13 to 17 years old. And nowadays, most of pics aren't images of dogs, cats or weekend dinner, they are images of naked people. If its open, then there is no privacy.
  •  
    I actually remember reading this article last year. It's quite frightening how these new methods of production have the potential to do a great deal of harm. Personally, I believe such "openness" can lead to subversion but that the benefits outweigh the risks.
  •  
    Morozov is right to bash "openwashing". But he is wrong in his Statement on "open-source". He writes "While Popper's openness is primarily about politics and a free flow of ideas, open-source is about cooperation, innovation and Efficiency" - well if we look at the core and origin of "open source", we have to look at "free Software" and its definition given by the "Inventor" of "free and open source Software", Richard Stallman. And we will see, that Stallman has a robust and transparent agenda of "free flow of ideas", very liberal, very Popper-like. So "free Software" is the wrong example for open-washing, because it came from "freedom" first. For more, see https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  •  
    The jury is still out there and only time will tell.
  •  
    The argument will be with us for a very long time. I think this is based on the side of the fence that one is sitting on. It is just like a case of what came first a chicken or an egg. The fact is Open has place to occupy in our learning space. The jury is still out there.
  •  
    Thanks for sharing this well presented write up. Big question put forth is are we really getting the outcomes expected from the open society. Open vs. quality is a big issue. At times restricting access helps a great deal.
Kevin Stranack

When science gets it wrong: Let the light shine in | The Economist - 2 views

  •  
    Practical examples that point to the value of open reviews.
Kevin Stranack

if Foucault ran a MOOC | the theoryblog - 5 views

  •  
    Some historical background on MOOCs.
  •  
    A nice journey through the history of MOOCs - I like the storytelling version using the comparison to Foucault.
Kevin Stranack

Mexican policy-making on OA: a bitter-tweet state of affairs | Sociology of science and... - 1 views

  •  
    An overview of the new OA policy in Mexico.
Leopoldo Basurto

Las políticas públicas de Acceso Abierto en México - 5 views

  •  
    In Spanish.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    Gracias Kevin Stranack, sus aportes son muy útiles. Thanks Kevin Stranack, their contributions are very useful.
  •  
    La realidad que se vive en México es muy distinta a países como EUA, Cánada,Alemania, etc., existe una gran desigualdad y no hay unión. Tal vez estas leyes no den resultados inmediatos, pero son importantes por que quienes las promovieron creyeron en ellas y las apoyaron, y en un país como México es de reconocerse que tuvieron iniciativa. Una ley no va cambiar la realidad de un país, eso depende de las personas y otros factores como la educación y los valores. ------------ The reality of life in Mexico is very different to countries like USA, Canada, Germany, etc., there is great inequality and no union. Perhaps these laws do not give immediate results, but are important because they promoted those who believed in them and supported them, and in a country like Mexico is recognized that took initiative. A law will not change the reality of a country that depends on people and other factors such as education and values.
  •  
    Me encontré con esta interesante reseña acerca de las políticas de acceso abierto en México.
Kevin Stranack

Open and Shut?: Open Access in India: Q&A with Subbiah Arunachalam - 0 views

  •  
    Another good interview by Richard Poynder, with Indian OA advocate, Subbiah Arunachalam. Focuses on the challenges faced by Indian scholars and next steps.
Kevin Stranack

Helping high school researchers get published - News & Events - University of Alberta - 0 views

  •  
    Student publishing can include high schoolers, too.
Kevin Stranack

The beautiful magazines setting out to prove print isn't dead | Media | The Observer - 4 views

  •  
    A brief article outlining the ongoing value of print.
  •  
    I always think printing can't be replaced ,but because rising of costing and resources shrink, and inflation of population. I think in future, schools, printing text books will still exist, but only people who have power in society, no matter politics, money or wisdom, can afford .
  •  
    I believe that it has something to do with preference. There are books I like to have them in print and others in electronic forms. The fact that a number of old books that I read at school are now free encourages some of us to keep them in an electronic format and read them again without the pressures or fear of being scolded by our beloved teachers (Tom Brown's School Days- my standard 5 or Grade 7 book comes to mind). I cannot wait to read a collection of new printed books that my local bookshop has tagged as good reads for the silly season. Magazines "tastes" better in their printed format.
Kevin Stranack

Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies - 14 views

  •  
    A wiki textbook on emerging learning technologies, with a focus on learner interaction.
Kevin Stranack

The Library of the Future | Melanie Florencio | TEDxCreativeCoast - YouTube - 9 views

  •  
    A description of the future of libraries being makerspaces - centres of production as well as consumption.
  • ...3 more comments...
  •  
    Good video! The most similar thing I have experienced in Madrid was in a Public Museum: they had creative software in a file of computers available for kids: They did their own drawings, and those were shown in several screens that were hangging on walls as paintings all around the museum, next by the "real" artists artworks. It is a peatty it was just for children to participate! By the way, it is amazing the way this woman sweats in the video!
  •  
    I can absolutely get behind this movement.
  •  
    More than just making technologies available, the activities here really connect the community, and that is the spirit of "open". I love this.
  •  
    Gracias por compartirlo, esta nueva tendencia de la BIblioteca como espacios de creación y producción es muy enriquecedora.
  •  
    This video shows the possibilities for libraries: Encouraging users to create content in addition to absorbing it. Melanie Florencio provided excellent exemplars, spanning generations (the old and the young) and showing that all can participate.
Kevin Stranack

Evgeny Morozov: Hackers, Makers, and the Next Industrial Revolution : The New Yorker - 8 views

  •  
    An alternative perspective on some of the hype around makerspaces and hacking, looking into how it supports and extends the neoliberal agenda.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    For the librarians out there - a contrarian view of makerspaces.
  •  
    It is curious to see that everytime some new technology rises, there are someone saying that it will mean the end of the system (call it capitalism, for instance) and a new real democracy era will arise. Nevertheless, once and over again we see that the technology arrives to everyone's door, but always controlled by someone else. You might have your own car, which was almost imposible in the early 50's, but you depend on how expensive gas is and how many barriers you find in your way; you have internet in your pocket, but every movement you do and every site you visit are being saved in someone's server with we don't know what exact purposes. But we keep hoping and saying, once and over again, that democracy, the real one, will some day florish with a new magical device. I honestly think it is in human nature to try to control and manipulate others; even people that honestly see themselves as good collaborative human beens, when they are under a tense situation, they don't hesitate to hide the truth, manipulate or lie to find adepts to their cause. So only with a genetic mutation we will reach that golden dream!
  •  
    Kevin you mentioned this article to me several weeks ago and I did read it and really appreciated the recommendation. I think it is important for us to think about other perspectives to makerspaces to really understand how libraries should (and do) fit into this changing landscape. The library landscape is definitely changing, and some are really latching on to this idea of makerspaces, and others latching on to the more traditional services that libraries offer. I think that we really need to understand how the concept of makerspaces can fit into developing strong civic skills, critical thinking and appreciation of the arts to really make it fit into libraries, and focus less on the "production" and "innovation" appeal that makerspaces have. I do think that skills that can be honed in makerspaces have the potential to create great global citizens, but only if it is accompanied by deep critical thinking and a broader understanding of the world.
Kevin Stranack

Universities 'get poor value' from academic journal-publishing firms | Science | thegua... - 4 views

  •  
    Compares the cost of articles from society and non-profit publishers to those of the major commercial publishers.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    An extremely powerful piece of research. I find it fascinating that the researchers were able to use US Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover the licensing costs. As a librarian, it is extremely frustrating to be bound by non-disclosure agreements when it comes to our subscriptions.
  •  
    Its crazy. The numbers (of profit and control) for the publishing companies is astronomical!
  •  
    Universities have received a poor deal from the system of private, subscription-based access to knowledge production since the port WW2 commercialization of the scientific publishing industry. It is absurd that the university or research funder supplies the content (the research), pays for the authoring (the time of the researcher writing the article), and provides and pays for the time of peer reviewers and academic editors. In addition, it often pays page charges or formatting charges to publishers. It then cedes copyright and finally buys back its own research at prices that have escalated at four times the rate of inflation in the past decade and a half! Considering most of this research is conducted using public funds, it becomes a moral argument when public resources are used once again to purchase access to the outputs of this research. The commercial model of disseminating research does not obey the rules of supply and demand. A relatively small number of 'core' journals occupy monopoly positions, in that university libraries have to subscribe to access their content, whatever the cost, because these journals have been established as 'must-have' resources. While the practice of 'bundling' offers the advantage of bulk pricing, it reduces room for choice, as bundles consume large chunks of library budgets, making it difficult to subscribe to smaller, individual titles. In addition, the inflexibility of indexing systems makes it difficult for new journals to establish themselves; thus compromising the potential for smaller niche subjects and newer interdisciplinary areas. Thankfully the global inequalities engendered by the commercialization of scholarly publishing are being challenged by open access.
Kevin Stranack

Tesla's Elon Musk proves why patents are passé - 2 views

  •  
    Looks at the "Linux model" as a successful way of doing business."I think there is a general movement and a general recognition in the technology community that we need to reform the patent process. There's far too much effort and energy put into creating patents that do not end up fostering innovation," said Musk. "I think no reasonable person would say that the current patent system is ideally suited to foster innovation."
  • ...2 more comments...
  •  
    I found this article extremely interesting as it made me view patents from a different perspective. I had always viewed patents as a means to benefit the inventor, but this article opened me to the extent to which large corporations and the legal profession can monetize from patents - at the cost of the inventor. Hopefully this move by Musk, a very prominent executive, continues to be noticed by other corporations.
  •  
    yes, i've been following Tesla patent narration for a while...as i'm into researching on energy & society issues. Sometimes i'm skeptical about applying open source to other realities than ITs as other interests, values and people are at work. Anyway we'll see if TESLA produce a critical mass for a revolution in the engine market... I like the P2P foundation by Michel Bauwens discussing on relevant issues and creating alternative scenarios
  •  
    A true pioneer, Mr Musk is. I think he has an extra sense for the future. Patents seem to be an institution which increasingly focuses on short term profit instead of the common benefit on the long run.
  •  
    Patents are the biggest responsible for the technological delays. The laws should change radically.
Kevin Stranack

Time to discard the metric that decides how science is rated - 3 views

  •  
    "The trouble is that impact factor of journals where researchers publish their work is a poor surrogate to measure an individual researcher's accomplishments. "
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    El asunto es que ha sido más lento de lo esperado el cambio de las herramientas para medir el impacto de artículos académicos, no digamos de los libros. Y en México el sistema de difusión y producción editorial de la ciencia está desestructurado de tal manera que se convierte en un incentivo para tratar de publicar en revistas extranjeras, que tienen índice de impacto y esquemas de difusión, pero que utilizan el modelo tradicional de evaluación. La institución gubernamental promotora de la ciencia en este país (Conacyt) está intentando fomentar la inclusión de evistas en índices y bases de datos, pero esto genera un fortalecimiento de los grandes grupos editores, que echan mano del peer review clásico, y el círculo continúa. Parece que uno puediera aplicarle al peer review la frase que que le achacamos a la democracia: el peor sistema de gobierno diseñado por la gente, con excepción de todos los demás.
  •  
    Una mirada crítica al acceso abierto: Nature 495, 426-429 (28 March 2013) doi:10.1038/495426a http://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-science-publishing-1.12676 As that lack of enthusiasm demonstrates, the fundamental force driving the speed of the move towards full open access is what researchers - and research funders - want. Eisen says that although PLoS has become a success story - publishing 26,000 papers last year - it didn't catalyse the industry to change in the way that he had hoped. "I didn't expect publishers to give up their profits, but my frustration lies primarily with leaders of the science community for not recognizing that open access is a perfectly viable way to do publishing," he says.
  •  
    La cuestión es que no hay quien ofrezca una opción sólida que pueda remplazar al Factor de Impacto. La comunidad científica lo ha adoptado cómo "LA" manera en que se puede medir el desempeño de los investigadores en el mundo. Y ese supuesto es hegemónico en el mundo. Tan es así que Scielo, a pesar de ser un repositorio en acceso abierto que sigue la filosofía de dar a conocer la producción científica latinoamericana, se decanto por generar indicadores bibliométricos de la mano de Thomson-Reuters y entrar al Web of Science. Esto no es asunto menor, es un indicador definitivo de que el dominio del FI no decaerá. Esto repercute directamente con la política científica nacional de cada país. En México CONACYT evalúa a los miembros del SNI mediante sus publicaciones en SCOPUS -pidiendo como evidencia las citaciones en este sistema de información. En Colombia, PUBLINDEX colocá revistas en A1 por el hecho de ser JCR-WoS u SJR-SCOPUS. Esto es innegable y seguirá pasando. Es por ello que iniciativas regionales de Acceso Abierto en América Latina (ya sean repositorios, leyes, etc:) ofrecen una posibilidad diferente que debe ser explotada por los investigadores de la región para mejorar la visibilidad de su producción. Del mismo modo, es ahí donde espacios como este MOOC deben ser valorados por su capacidad para diseminar la cultura del conocimiento abierto.
Kevin Stranack

Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software - 1 views

  •  
    Christopher Kelty has written a book on the cultural importance of open source software and made it freely available under a CC license. It looks at free software from both a technical and social perspective, allowing for greater insights into its significance for today and for tomorrow.
  •  
    This is a very interesting and thought provoking ebook. Not only does it provide a helpful historical view of how free software came to be, but it posits the impact of such a phenomenon on industry and culture. I particularity liked the view that the pervasiveness of free software - thanks to the Internet - is such that free software itself is instigating much change beyond its original perceived sphere of influence, being software applications. A good read if open source software, free software and impacts on culture interests you.
Kevin Stranack

Privacy in a Big Data Post-Privacy World | Abject - 2 views

  •  
    A presentation on data and privacy policies in Canada.
Kevin Stranack

Maker Education and Experiential Education - 6 views

  •  
    Places the popular concept of the makerspace within the theoretical context of experiential education.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    Good infographics!
  •  
    I have a 11-year old daughter, so a lot of the readings and activities we do in this course usually lead me to compare between how they apply to k-12 "fundamental" education and professional development. We are lucky in that some of her teachers are experimenting with flipped classroom and project-based learning. However, as a parent on the sideline, sometimes I wonder about their activities. How do I or anyone evaluate an activity to know that it is "educational"? This article gives a great definition, "...an experience is educative if it lead to further growth, intellectually or morally..." Another quote I like a lot is "learner to take initiative, make decisions, and be accountable for the results."
  •  
    Good article on the Maker Movement, and references to the thinking of John Dewey. I hadn't realized some of the Maker Movement extends back to the 1970's. I had the chance to meet Sylvia Libow Martinez a couple of years ago (of Invent to Learn - http://www.inventtolearn.com/) and got a deeper insight into the power of the Maker Movement, Maker Fairs, and how sharing knowledge and collaboration is producing some amazing things in the realm of 3D printing, wearable technology, and changing paradigms for education.
Kevin Stranack

The University Library as Incubator for Digital Scholarship (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUS... - 4 views

  •  
    "By leveraging technology, we can open new doors to scholarly inquiry for ourselves and our students. Through new collaborations, we can create exciting shared spaces, both virtual and physical, where that inquiry can take place. The library is a natural home for these technology-rich spaces.
  •  
    This article is fantastic, and speaks to just about everything I'm passionate about as an aspiring academic librarian. I'm somewhat worried about how smaller universities-my chosen workplace-will adapt to these newer models of scholarly communication and publication, and generally with how the academic conversation is changing. These exciting developments in what the university means have the potential to widen the already extensive divide between smaller and larger schools. I know the challenges section at the end talks a little bit about convincing decision makers to fund these projects, but has anyone read anything about how these changes can be made specifically by smaller or poorly funded universities?
Kevin Stranack

Houston, We Have A Public Domain Problem - 5 views

  •  
    Case study of a copyright take down notice and discussion of copyright and public domain issues.
  •  
    This is a really excellent article! Access to the public domain and to the things that are in it (or should be, but never are) is at the root of my interest in copyright. I do wish there was more information about how we can fight back, if that's even possible. (I also appreciate the link to the Public Domain review in the article, and that the Public Domain review has a Tumblr. Something to investigate for my final project!)
  •  
    Curioso caso. También hay otros casos sobre los problemas que hay, por ejemplo, en los personajes animados de Dominio Público como Peter Pan, Bambi, etc., donde empresas como Disney reclaman que sean de Dominio Público para poder lucrar con ellos, pero se niegan a que otros personajes en específico Mickey Mouse lo sean. Una doble moral. http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2008/08/22/actualidad/1219356003_850215.html http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/22/business/fi-mickey22
1 - 20 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page