Group items tagged

While DRM has largely been defeated in downloaded music, it is a growing problem in the area of ebooks, where people have had their books restricted so they can't freely loan, re-sell or donate them, read them without being tracked, or move them to a new device without re-purchasing all of them. They've even had their ebooks deleted by companies without their permission. It continues to be a major issue in the area of movies and video too. Join us in working to eliminate DRM! This is the fourth year we've run the international Day Against DRM. In previous years we've focused on music, held events at the Boston Public Library and more! On May 4th, the Defective by Design DRM Elimination Crew will of course be running an event in Boston. But for this day to send a strong message against DRM, we need people all over the world to join us and hold their own events! As well as attending or running events, you can join other activists in blogging about DRM, putting up banners on your Web sites and blogs, talking about DRM on your social networks and more.

Great post about transition to uni for an international student - how they felt and suggestions for dealing with the inevitable low points.

RT @kiwirip: (via Jacqui Kelly) How can a #university best use #socialmedia for internal #communications? http://gu.com/p/2pefk/tw #yam

Article on using Turnitin to support the development of writing skills with international and dyslexic students.

"At the end of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights collided with everyday life. Expansive copyright laws and digital rights management technologies sought to shut down new forms of copying and remixing made possible by the Internet. International laws expanding patent rights threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS by limiting their access to cheap generic medicines. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries; but recently, groups have emerged around the world to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counter-politics of "access to knowledge" or "A2K." They include software programmers who took to the streets to defeat software patents in Europe, AIDS activists who forced multinational pharmaceutical companies to permit copies of their medicines to be sold in poor countries, subsistence farmers defending their rights to food security or access to agricultural biotechnology, and college students who created a new "free culture" movement to defend the digital commons. Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property maps this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. It gathers some of the most important thinkers and advocates in the field to make the stakes and strategies at play in this new domain visible and the terms of intellectual property law intelligible in their political implications around the world. A Creative Commons edition of this work will be freely available online."

Where do students go to study? Where do they come from? UIS data on the mobility of students shed light on the shifting demand for higher education, particularly in the developing world.

The University of Waikato, Te Whare Wananga o Waikato is delighted to be hosting a major international conference, "Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy" as a retrospective celebration of his work and its legacy and influence across the globe. 

"Digital literacy is not word processing or watching movies on an iPhone, but instead using technology to create, code and collaborate. In today's world, that necessarily includes the Web. Building a generation of young 'webmakers' is key to job creation, international competitiveness and engagement in civil society. In this webinar, Mozilla will talk about their work in this area to define key Web literacy skills, create pathways for innovative learning experiences around them and build a network of instructors and facilitators with a shared mission."

"In 1939 a young musician from the Zulu cultural group in South Africa, penned down what came to be the most popular albeit controversial and internationally acclaimed song of the times. Popular because the song somehow found its way into international households via the renowned Disney's Lion King. Controversial because the popularity passage of the song was tainted with illicit and grossly unfair dealings tantamount to theft and dishonest misappropriation of traditional intellectual property, giving rise to a lawsuit that ultimately culminated in the out of court settlement of the case. The lessons to be gained by the world and emanating from this dramatics, all pointed out to the dire need for a reconsideration of measures to be urgently put in place for the safeguarding of cultural intellectual relic such as music and dance."

The Department of Education's (ED) Office of Educational Technology today released a draft issue brief - Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics - representing the results of a months-long discourse among 8 academic and 15 industrial data mining and learning analytics experts conducted by SRI International. The brief, inspired by ED's 2010 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP), articulates the challenges and opportunities of Big Data in improving student outcomes and overall productivity of K-2 education systems. It focuses on three key research areas - educational data mining, learning analytics, and visual data analytics - and offers a set of corresponding recommendations, categorized by various stakeholders. ED is now seeking public comment on the draft.

(Note - free ebook version) - At the end of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights collided with everyday life. Expansive copyright laws and digital rights management technologies sought to shut down new forms of copying and remixing made possible by the Internet. International laws expanding patent rights threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS by limiting their access to cheap generic medicines. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries; but recently, groups have emerged around the world to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counter-politics of "access to knowledge" or "A2K." They include software programmers who took to the streets to defeat software patents in Europe, AIDS activists who forced multinational pharmaceutical companies to permit copies of their medicines to be sold in poor countries, subsistence farmers defending their rights to food security or access to agricultural biotechnology, and college students who created a new "free culture" movement to defend the digital commons. Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property maps this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. It gathers some of the most important thinkers and advocates in the field to make the stakes and strategies at play in this new domain visible and the terms of intellectual property law intelligible in their political implications around the world. A Creative Commons edition of this work will be freely available online.

"The Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) is an inter-disciplinary network of leading international researchers who are exploring the role and impact of analytics on teaching, learning, training and development. SoLAR has published a concept paper on Open Learning Analytics"

Some useful points gathered in one place about selling services to staff. I think that we know all of these but handy to have in one place.

A mixed article on online learning and the effect on international student numbers (and conflates with moocs)

"A new UK-focussed report published by Childnet International aims to support teachers and lecturers who wish to explore the use of social networking services by young people. In this guest post, Josie Fraser, the report's author, explains more."

"From January 2011 Childnet along with the SWGfL and the IWF will be the UK Safer Internet Centre. One of our jobs as the UK Safer Internet Centre is to get as many people involved in Safer Internet Day as possible! We challenge you to think about the Safer Internet Day theme for 2011: Virtual Lives : It's more than a game, it's your life! It's important for all users of the internet to be aware of the consequences of their online actions - both good and bad! Taking care, being safe and responsible online and offline is an important part of child development. Childnet International is producing a Safer Internet Day resource pack to help educators participate in Safer Internet Day. Below is an outline of the target areas related to this year's theme. We hope this will help educators to get thinking and planning for Tuesday 8 February 2011. Alongside this content will be a short film and banners for VLEs from the European commission promoting Safer Internet Day."

"This guide has been produced by the International Centre for Guidance Studies, and aims to provide the information needed to make an informed decision about using social media and select from the vast range of tools that are available."

The Writing Researcher is a new open activity which aims to bring researchers from different disciplines, institutions and countries together to share their writing and provide peer-feedback ina rather informal, friendly environment. ... As it reads in the blog we have set up for the project, The Writing Researcher: Inspiration, Creativity, Fluency  aims to: 1. promote and support writing as a creative, scholarly and collaborative enterprise, 2. encourage discussion and peer feedback in a distributed, shared environment, 3. establish an international, inter-disciplinary, inter-cultural peer network.