Group items tagged

"...a new breakthrough update means that not only is its physical footprint massively reduced, but also its cost. Depending on the amount of storage space required for files, for less than $50 anyone can now run a PirateBox wireless file-sharing system."

"The OERu anchor partners have shortlisted eight university- and college-level courses to be developed as prototypes for refining the OERu delivery system". I wonder whether the psychology course might be of interest to us?

"Mozilla is reportedly working on an open-source operating system for tablet devices and smartphones that will support its revolutionary "Do Not Track" feature on mobile."

The LMS is (not) dead?

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.

Minor infringements in OER platforms could close the whole system down.

"One explanation is that students who plagiarized did not have high confidence that the system would detect the plagiarism in their writing," he says. "A second explanation is that the students who plagiarized were, for lack of a better word, desperate." n=bugger all (via @Dakvid)

Tony Hirst on Google Search Plus and how librarians might game the system (as well as why GS+ is bad).

"What I mean by 'enterprise LMS' is the legacy model of the LMS as a smaller, academically-facing version of the ERP. This model was based on monolithic, full-featured software systems that could be hosted on-site or by a managed hosting provider. A 'learning platform', by contrast, does not contain all the features in itself and is based on cloud computing - multi-tenant, software as a service (SaaS)."

"...students may be asked a question like 'Are you a runner?' when they log into the learning-management system. If a student checks 'yes,' he or she will thereafter see ads for a certain brand of running shoes on the home page."<--quick Troy write a plugin for Moodle!

App available for iPod touch or iPhone to enable student responses - is free application but with subscription required and the teacher has to download and install some software on the podium workstation to use it

"LectureTools is a student response system that also allows students to take notes linked with the slides and videos presented in class, answer instructor generated questions and pose questions to the instructor. All notes, questions and activities are instantly synchronized with the LectureTools web application."

"What if teachers could fork educational materials just like software developers fork code? Imagine if educators far and wide could collaborate on curriculums beyond their school, district, or university. Imagine a revolutionized education system by way of the open source model. Well, the future is now."

Stephen Downes on a new initiative from the NRC to address skill shortage and the inability of traditional education to fill the gap.

thoughtful article on the idea that path dependance has led to an academic publishing system that works but is sub-optimal in the new technology environment.

A general description rather than code or examples but worth a try.

Another case study of increasing teacher engagement with online teaching through a graded 'awards' system.  Going for positive reinforcement rather than a compliance model while still suggesting that there should be a minimum standard.

This article is worth reading. An interesting thought piece (two actually) on the move away from the open web to closed systems running across the internet that control the devices we use, the delivery mechanisms and the content we consume (read Apple).

A UK FE college brings in graded standards to improve the quality of its courses.  Based in Moodle and uses some automated system.