12. And others are doing it http://eci831.wikispaces.com/ http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/?p=189 http://opencontent.org/wiki/index.php?title=Intro_Open_Ed_Syllabus http://digitalworlds.wordpress.com/
Editor's Notes
I want to set the use of open content but first a video
I think we can stop being snobbish about content not being for academic use now. There is both a good range of academic content out there, but also varied stuff that we can use in different ways. Sometimes an entertaining film makes a point better than a lengthy article and can provide the basis for discussion.
I think we could get 50% of courses from open content, so we focus on adding stuff we can’t get and adding in activity, structure, connecting narrative et
Depending on what we use, for example we could have RSS feeds that will automatically update. But also you can imagine we have activities which remain the same but the 3rd party content is then changed
We could quickly assemble courses for specific customers, or for sectors because we can keep some of our stuff, throw in some 3rd party content, and because we’ve designed the course around 3rd party content this is easier to do than reversioning one of our existing courses
There is code called embed which is what allows you to put youtube videos etc on blogs. It means you can take content and easily embed it in your own site – including the VLE. I write a blog and almost every post has either a flickr photo, video, slideshare presentation, music from blip, etc embedded. Because it’s so easy to do it now seems a neglection of duty not to make something multi-media. So whereas before we needed to get LTS support to help with every bit of multimedia now it’s as easy as cut and paste.
Although we try and bring in other voices, it’s often people we know and they write in our style. By using 3rd party content students get to hear different views and also experience a range of styles – the OU voice isn’t the only one
Digital, or open, scholarship is my thing now – I think we shouldn’t underestimate the way new technologies are changing the practice of being an academic. The way we research, teach, disseminate, network, create and share knowledge are all changing in sometimes subtle ways. I think finding, creating, using and understanding 3rd party content is a key part of this
I have come to believe that sharing is the driving force behind the digital transformation – we share all the time, whether it’s a joke, a resource, an idea, a link, some feedback, etc sharing doesn’t cost anymore and I think the key skill we can teach our students is how to be members of their academic community through the many different ways of sharing
I don’t believe this, but LarryLessig argues that the copyright war is now being fought by extremists – the everything is free bridage and the send kids to jail brigade. As academics we have the luxury of not engaging in this debate because we have rights people and we create our own content. But by using more with 3rd party content I think it would make use more engaged with the debates.
I think we have developed course models based on the notion of scarcity of resources, but not many that have abundance of resource and frictionless sharing as their basic principles.