Skip to main content

Home/ SMART Department/ Group items tagged why

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Ted Curran

Why Bother Being Open? « iterating toward openness - 0 views

  • I’ve always been an “argue by describing the benefits” kind of guy as opposed to an “argue on grounds of moral superiority” kind of guy (which is why I end up in the open camp more often than the free camp).
  • a free-to-access, online “digital publication of high quality university-level educational materials… organized as courses, and often includ[ing] course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content” that does not use an open license is not an OpenCourseWare.
  • MIT OCW, the website says, “Each course we publish requires an investment of $10,000 to $15,000 to compile course materials from faculty, ensure proper licensing for open sharing, and format materials for global distribution.”
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • 25% of the per-course publication costs (not technology infrastructure or external outreach costs – I’m talking about costs directly related to publishing a course) derive specifically from the desire for the final publication to employ an open license.
  • what is the return on this investment? What benefit are users deriving from open licensing that they could not derive if MIT published these materials online with a default copyright statement?
  • Would users still receive this benefit if MIT OCW were posted online with a traditional, full copyright statement?
Ted Curran

Exam Questions: Outsourcing vs. Crowdsourcing - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Ed... - 0 views

  •  
    This outlines how (and why) to let students create the final exam questions using wikis as a constructivist learning activity.
Ted Curran

Open Content for Private Foundations.pdf (Study by Harvard U) - 0 views

  •  
    Open content licensing may not be a red-hot issue in the foundation sector, but it is emerging as a salient one with consequences in many fields. It is an inherently complex issue. In an attempt to learn more about the licensing practices that are used in the world of private charitable foundations - and specifically to learn the degree to which open content licensing may or may not be appropriate in that sector and why - the Berkman Center and the Hewlett Foundation commissioned the FDR Group, a nonpartisan public opinion research firm, to conduct a qualitative research study.
Ted Curran

Procrastination - Study Skills Library - Cal Poly - 0 views

  •  
    Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another. With some it can be a minor problem; with others it is a source of considerable stress and anxiety. Procrastination is only remotely related to time management, (procrastinators often know exactly what they should be doing, even if they cannot do it), which is why very detailed schedules usually are no help.
Ted Curran

10 reasons why Microsoft Office 365 rocks | TechRepublic - 0 views

  • IE 7/8, Firefox 3, or Safari 3.1.2 and through mobile devices including Windows Mobile 6.5.x, Windows Phone 7, Apple iPhone 2.0 and above, and Nokia E and N series.
    • Ted Curran
       
      So SharePoint online doesn't work with Android (AKA "the most popular smartphone OS on earth")? Odd choice.
  • the most popular Web browsers. There is a Light version that supports older and alternative browsers.
    • Ted Curran
       
      I'm interested to know how they define "the most popular web browsers". On our system, that means "IE", while Firefox, Safari, and Chrome fall into the "alternative browsers" category. 
  • Also supported is PowerPoint broadcasting, which lets you broadcast your slide shows across the Internet even to people who don’t have PowerPoint.
    • Ted Curran
       
      does this require you to be online while you're "broadcasting"?
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • With the Lync 2010 client software
    • Ted Curran
       
      How is this considered "cloud-based" if it requires desktop software to work? "Cloud" means "web-based" or "not dependent on desktop software". Confounding.
  • using the Lync client
    • Ted Curran
       
      again-- client, not web. What happens if you don't have the client?
  • Lync Online directly over the Internet (without having to be on the corporate network via VPN or RAS)
    • Ted Curran
       
      does this mean "connect to Lync Online VIA THE CLIENT or THROUGH A BROWSER"?
  • Opera Mobile 8.65
    • Ted Curran
       
      So Android users would have to install Opera Mobile?
Ted Curran

To Share or Not to Share: Is That the Question? (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE - 0 views

  • The use of open materials by faculty is something of a continuum, with those who closely guard their intellectual property and privacy on one end, with faculty who seek out and use open content and technologies in the middle, and with those who actively contribute to open content on the other end.
  • All the faculty I spoke to could think of at least a few contexts in which they would not be willing and/or able to share or participate openly.
  • For example, few faculty are willing to embark on large, time-intensive projects, such as writing textbooks, without some guarantee that they will be compensated for their personal investment (time
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Research faculty may need to closely guard patentable research under the terms of their institutional contracts, even if their inclination drives them to share openly
  • Science faculty, for example, often publish their research with multiple authors and may be more used to a collaborative model, whereas humanities faculty write for publications that favor a single-author model.
  • Commonly, faculty will lock down some content (research or texts) under intellectual property laws but feel morally obligated to share in another aspect of their field.
  • Two factors delineate a faculty member's attitude toward openness: a nature influence and a nurture influence.
  • the strength of a person's inclination toward sharing
  • On the one end are the keepers, faculty who ask themselves: "Why would anyone outside my course want to know what I think?" At the other extreme are the sharers, faculty who believe that their contribution to the conversation, content, and/or community is invaluable.
  • The second factor that influences attitude toward openness is how strongly the person feels a moral responsibility to share freely with his or her community.
  • Many said something to the effect that they felt it was their duty as an educator to share
  • that everyone in education should share
  • Open faculty see sharing their ideas and expertise as a way to quickly validate or refute ideas, to promote important academic programs, and/or to mentor those instructors with less experience or to be mentored by those with greater experience or more creative ideas. Open faculty value the ideas and content shared by others in their networks and feel an obligation to share alike. This sense of moral responsibility to share is so strong in some faculty that it bothers them when ideas and content are closely guarded. They see this as an affront to their values.
  • In the category of faculty who are strong sharers and strongly open, we find project leaders and thought leaders.
  • What's the difference between those faculty who share with colleagues locally and those who share on the web? Technology skills.
  • Open faculty are learning some of these technology skills from formal workshops and professional training, but many spoke of learning technology skills from other open faculty (or even students) during on-the-fly informal learning sessions.
  • Many of the faculty I spoke to suggested (strongly) that participation in open digital activities (e.g., blogging, writing open-source software, being a curator of open-source materials) should count toward tenure and promotion.
  • Naturally, administrators worry about open digital faculty. What if they say something the institutional leaders don't agree with? What if their work with students on the web creates a liability? Administrators can do three simple things to minimize these issues: If a faculty member writes or shares content openly on the web, using space provided by the college, the inclusion of a simple disclosure statement can provide some separation between the individual and the institution (for example, "These views/materials are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my institution"). To guard against liability, administrators can make sure that open faculty receive training on copyright issues with materials used, privacy issues with students, and security issues with web technologies. These days, most campus activities involve the potential for liability. All administrators can do is make a good-faith effort to protect the institution by ensuring that faculty have a solid grounding in the potential risks. Today's students live much of their lives in the digital world. Faculty have the potential to model and promote good Internet behavior to future workers and leaders. Administrators can support open digital faculty by making an effort to understand what the faculty do: read some of what they write; take them to lunch and discuss their latest projects; try to understand that these faculty are public ambassadors of the institution and stealth faculty developers on campus. In gaining the trust of open digital faculty, administrators will more likely be seen as advisors than as adversaries.
1 - 6 of 6
Showing 20 items per page