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Web2Rights is a JISC project, funded from 1st November 2007 - 31st March 2009, whose purpose was initially to develop practical, pragmatic and relevant Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and other legal issues toolkits to support the projects funded within the JISC Users and Innovation Programme (U&I) in their engagement with next generation technologies.  The Web2Rights team, comprised of lawyers, consultants, learning technologists and pedagogic experts focussed upon the need to address cultural and practical obstacles in engaging with Web2.0, IPR and other legal issues. Working in close collaboration with JISC Legal and focussing upon the specific issues raised by the U&I community of users, they have created a number of resources to address a variety of legal issues which might arise.

This Guide comprises three sections. The first - a summary of the key issues - is presented in the form of a set of 'Frequently Asked Questions'. Its purpose is to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and some of the key issues to think about when exploring how to use OER most effectively. The second section is a more comprehensive analysis of these issues, presented in the form of a traditional research paper. For those who have a deeper interest in OER, this section will assist with making the case for OER more substantively. The third section is a set of appendices, containing more detailed information about specific areas of relevance to OER. These are aimed at people who are looking for substantive information regarding a specific area of interest.

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.

"Focusing on the ethical issues that arise in social media research, we looked at issues around understanding digital identities, the ethics of platforms and public and private data. This is the first in a series of posts detailing the discussions we held as part of the breakout session. "

"Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation. For more information, download the Introduction to Our Space [pdf], FAQ [pdf], and Road Map [pdf]. All curricular units and lessons are free and available for download below. The full casebook [pdf - 133MB] can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of the page." Critiqued by @downes for not addressing the issue properly "This is "a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments." The content divides into five major subject areas: participation, identity, privacy, credibility, and authorship and ownership. I'm not sure these are the top five things I would list when thinking of ethical dimensions of new media environments. While it's useful that there is a section on flamers, lurkers and mentors I think there should be something about hate, racism and bulling. And while a section on credibility is a good idea, it should be based on the principles of reason and inference, not outrageously bad definitions like this: "Networking-the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information." And this: "Collective intelligence-evidence that participants in knowledge communities pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal." Wow, those are just wrong. Maybe I need to review this and criticize it more closely."

Cornwall College LSIS funded Research based project exploring the Issues for the uses of Facebookwith 16-19 year old Learners. Bex Ferriday.All the documents written as a result of the LSIS Facebook project are freely available from a range of internet locations. Documents are as follows:* Briefing paper (with case studies)* Suggested acceptable use policy* Plenary dissemination slides:paper and case studies available on Slideshare:

For the first time ever, you can download the first issue of "Hackett and Bankwell," The Linux Comic. In this premier issue, users learn about the history of GNU and Linux, how to install Ubuntu, and how to get started with the graphical user interface (GUI). "Hackett and Bankwell" #1 helps new Linux users establish a solid base of knowledge that will help them tackle more sophisticated tasks and concepts, such as the command line interface.

Special issue on Technology and Social Media in education

Special Issue of IRRODL on Connectivism

The opportunities which can be provided by the Social Web are now widely acknowledged, ... We now need to address a range of concerns including those which have been raised at various workshops organised by UKOLN and delivered through MLA Regional Agencies and Renaissance Hubs. Such concerns include a lack of understanding (of what the Social Web is about); concerns over legal issues, technical challenges (such as interoperability, reliability issues), business challenges (such as sustainability) and related resourcing issues.

The latest issue of DEANZ journal includes a framework for COP building by our own Bronwyn Cowie and Elaine Khoo

"A report issued by the United States Government Accountability Office on June 6th confirms a trend of the educational publishing industry: textbook costs to students at higher education institutions are rising 6% per year on average, and have risen 82% over the last decade. The study, ordered by Congress, looks at the efforts of publishers and colleges to increase the availability of textbook price information and "unbundled" buying options as required under provisions in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA"

Contents 1 Context 2 Improving data and research to create an evidence base 3 21st century school buildings and learning hubs 4 Training and professional development 5 Improving access to New Zealand content online 6 Development of 21st century skills 7 Equity issues 8 Improving device access 9 Ultra-Fast Broadband and the School Network Upgrade Programme 10 Network for Learning 11 Institutional arrangements for ICT and 21st century learning 12 Changes to legislation, regulation, and government agency operations 13 Minority views

The great EduBlogs copyright ridiculousness fiasco. "And today, our hosting company, ServerBeach, to whom we pay $6,954.37 every month to host Edublogs, turned off our webservers, without notice, less than 12 hours after issuing us with a DMCA email. Because one of our teachers, in 2007, had shared a copy of Beck's Hopelessness Scale with his class, a 20 question list, totalling some 279 words, published in 1974, that Pearson would like you to pay $120 for."

Interesting new? journal on TEL - this issue seems to focus on widgets and PLEs / Web 2.0

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.

"The ins and outs of online video There is a lot of discussion at present about video content at present including from the Minister, regulator, broadcasters, new competitors, ISPs, and commentators (not to mention TUANZ itself: ed). This post tries to make sense of all that. It looks at the state of broadcasting in New Zealand and reviews the prospects for greater competition. Part 1 sets out how things look at present, and explains some of the basic issues. Part 2 looks at where the market might be headed, and whether the government needs to get more directly involved."

"Late Friday, the federal district court in Nevada issued a declaratory judgment that makes is harder for copyright holders to file lawsuits over excerpts of material and burden online forums and their users with nuisance lawsuits." The judgment - part of the nuisance lawsuit avalanche started by copyright troll Righthaven - found that Democratic Underground did not infringe the copyright in a Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper article when a user of the online political forum posted a five-sentence excerpt, with a link back to the newspaper's website.