EDUC 439/639 Social Networking - Fall 2012

"This table is based on the "COUP" framework explained by the Open Education Group (with whom I have an OER Research Fellowship at the moment): Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions. See here for an explanation of each element of this framework as it relates to research on open textbooks and other Open Educational Resources."

"This post is for teachers and students who want to learn more, get going, and start using OER this year."

"It is a conversation occurring on campuses across the country: If more and more students are buying and renting their course books online, why do they need a bookstore?"

"In essence, it is a just a distributed ledger to record transactions. What makes it special is that it is durable, time-stamped, transparent and decentralized. Those characteristics are equally useful for managing financial transactions as for a system of reputation. In fact, you can think of reputation as a type of currency for social capital, rather than financial capital."

"In her new institution, which is yet to be named, students will design their own learning path, and use flipped curriculum to meet goals. "We see research as the most advanced form of project-based learning," Ortiz said. "This platform will enable us to evolve those pathways rapidly as things evolve." "

" In Boston, for example, the average cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment is $2,821, which means that you would need to earn $120,900 a year just to afford it"

"Open Pedagogy, like the Persona Project, thins the walls of the classroom, gives students control over the their own learning environment, uses the internet to put students into real authentic contexts. Open Educational Resources, like the Transcript Media project, reduce the cost of education, but more importantly, they make Open Pedagogy possible."

"Mr Nelson said that a key priority was to improve the online user experience, warning that "the state of most learning management systems is verging on embarrassing in the face of the smartphone generation" and that "grainy footage of an hour-long lecture, filmed from the back of the lecture hall, just won't cut it"."

Great article - thanks. The thought: "no room for complacency" is powerfully pertinent.

"The plan, announced by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo earlier this month, is among a growing number of attempts to encourage college professors to turn to free, open-licensed materials. And, in this case, the effort is being billed as a way to cut the costs of a college education."

"This symbiotic relationship between human teacher and computer seems to be the next frontier for education. No, cyborgs are not going to take over our classrooms. But in the very near future, teachers and AI computers may team up to provide stronger, better educational experiences for students at every level from primary school up to university."

"These are both important models for examining unintended biases that may arise in algorithmically based decision making. "

"The Center for Educational Measurement (CEM) at Excelsior College and Cengage Learning recently partnered to begin planning and development of a product called a CourXam, which combines a self-paced digital course with a proctored, college-credit-bearing examination and is powered by Learning Objects, a subsidiary of Cengage Learning. Unlike a college course, CourXams will be available directly to consumers."

"What I'm arguing in the book is that it's not the presence of a laptop in a class that needs to be looked at and needs to be perhaps critiqued, but really the kind of digital culture that we're creating where we're not valuing conversation enough and not valuing relationships enough, and we tend to look at each other as apps in a more transactional way."

"The same is true in the digital world. Gregory Ulmer, a theorist at the University of Florida coined the term electracy to describe this broader notion of digital literacy. At universities we are all more aware now of the growing significance of digital literacy, as we are seeing a widespread transition from print to digital and an accompanying transformation of teaching and learning practices."

""My dream is that every single person on the planet can build their own LMS, if that is what they want to do. I want to build an ecosystem of tools that make life easier for teachers""

"Deliver native, remote and virtualized apps from one simple dashboard"

"A new survey of higher-ed faculty indicates OER use is on the brink of a sizable expansion."

"instructors and a large share of academic technology administrators say the efforts are mainly designed to satisfy accreditors and politicians -- not to increase degree completion rates."

"This publication, Scaling Solutions to Higher Education's Biggest Challenges, aims to identify the challenges obstructing student success and provide exemplars that, if adequately cultivated, can support the widespread adoption of real solutions."