Wednesday, December 21, 2005

IP DRM Digital Content Security Act. [Slashdot] -- his is a big headache in the making for the many and for the benefit of a very few video promoters/publishers who collectively are providing less and less value added to newly generation videos as the need for the old technology and distribution mechanisms vanish in the sunset.-- BL 11:00:02 PM    comment

Culture Students to Bear Big Burden Under the Final Budget Bill. Under the final budget bill, college students would pay higher interest rates on loans. By ROBERT PEAR and MICHAEL JANOFSKY. [NYT > Education] -- governments are walking away from their educational responsibility to equal opportunity and helping the rich get richer instead of letting the cream rise to the social benefit of the whole society. A College Education can be a ticket out of the underclass for generations to come but it takes more that short term political vision to see the benefits of education over short term supporting of the banking interests. -- BL 10:47:33 PM    comment

open content UNESCO Virtual Conference on Open Educational Resources (OERs). The complete background notes and session summaries for all three sessions of the UNESCO Virtual Conference on OERs are now available at the UNESCO forum web site. Taken together the notes and the summaries give an overview of major provider sites and of issues involved in the use of OERs. ________JH ______ " Open initiatives in higher education have crystallized around three major areas of activity: the creation of open source software and development tools, the creation and provision of open course content, and the development of standards and licensing tools. The outputs of all three may be grouped together under the term Open Educational Resources (OER). This term has been adopted by UNESCO to refer to the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes." "Open course content, whether full course materials or course elements, constitutes an important resource to higher education institutions, teaching staff and learners. However, if there is little or no awareness of availability, open course content cannot be exploited, and even with awareness of availability, there are challenges and barriers to its effective use. With support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the UNESCO IIEP initiative aims to increase awareness, and support capacity building and informed decision making on the part of current and potential users and providers of openly available course content. There will be two international discussion forums – one in 2005 and one in 2006 – with ongoing interaction during the period between the two forums in a Community of Interest. The forum will take place over a six-week period in four sessions: one week to introduce the topic, two weeks each to consider provision and providers and use and users, and a final week to determine which issues the participants would like to explore further in the continuing Community of Interest." [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 10:35:38 PM    comment

eContent - standards with limited public life Evaluating the Development of Online Course Materials - George P. Schell, eLearn Magazine. If online courses are to become a permanent feature of higher education—not merely a fad of the dot-com era—college faculty must believe that developing online materials has academic value. In addition, such online education requires certain resources to [Online Learning Update] 10:21:23 PM    comment

audio Students can get lectures by podcast - Charla Bear, Inside Bay Area. Starting this school year, some California college students have been able to carry around course lectures and materials stored in their portable MP3 players. It is a move that is raising concerns about possible empty lecture halls and an impersonal educa [Online Learning Update] 10:15:45 PM    comment

open source Innovation Happens Elsewhere. [Slashdot] 10:13:41 PM    comment

blogs in education The University of British Columbia is podcasting (site|RSS feed), with episodes featuring public lectures from UBC’s Talk of the Town series. (Link via Penmachine.com.) Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, has launched a blog (here’s the RSS feed). (Link via Constantin Basturea.) [Syndication for Higher Ed] 1:19:52 PM    comment