July 28th, 2010
From Judith McDaniel
Months ago I wrote about Intellectual Property and how that is changing in the digital age. No one can “own” a syllabus any more. There is one just like yours on one of the many Open Courseware sites. Authors don’t have to cite information that is spread all over the internet, though they may want to do so for their own protection. Recently, my department just asked (politely but firmly) for me to open my online courses to graduate students who would be teaching them in the future. No need for them to reinvent everything.
Opening
The Library of Congress manages copyright issues. They have recently been putting out new rules about academic “fair use” of videos and print media. It’s not easy reading a copyright ruling, and I’m a law school grad.
But here’s the future, compliments of the New York Times:
“The Library of Congress, which has the power to define exceptions to an important copyright law, said…that it was legal to bypass a phone’s controls on what software it will run to get “lawfully obtained” programs to work. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, had asked for that exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow the so-called jailbreaking of iPhones and other devices.
‘This is a really important victory for iPhone owners,’ said Corynne McSherry, a senior staff lawyer with the foundation. ‘People who want to tinker with their phones and move outside of the Applesphere now have the ability to legally do that.’”
It is important, and not just for iPhone owners or software designers. It is important to all of us because it is one step closer to shared knowledge and shared use.
Tags: copyright, iPhone, Library of Congress, phone apps, shared use
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July 26th, 2010
from Jan Schwartz
I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately and snooping around social networking sites, all having to do with elearning or learning technology–truthfully I spend a fair amount of time doing this. In addition to books, it’s how I learn about new stuff, new trends and how to “do it” better. It’s tough to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff sometimes, and I’m glad I’m not a newbie to elearning and learning technology.
I’ve noticed that a little bit of knowledge transferred in a confident manner has the effect of having people who know little or nothing believe all that is said, by the person with a limited amount of knowledge. In other words people come across as experts in the field, when in fact they may only be experts in their limited area of knowledge and experience. We all come from our experiences and if we have limited experience I think we need to say that. So I’ll say that I have limited experience in some areas of elearning, but I also have a lot of experience and knowledge in other areas of that subject. The behind the scenes working with the applications is definitely not a strength of mine, and you won’t find me trying to explain that stuff, but it’s ok because my partner is quite experienced in this area. On the other hand, the androgogy of online learning (and face to face too), the theories behind the design, educational philosophies, and how technology can be used in education are areas that I am comfortable speaking to.
To say that elearning is easy is misleading, because there are a lot of elements to it. To say that anyone can teach a certain course online is to say that that course will not be very good–a monkey could teach it. Think about teaching as a profession, one where individuals learn how to do something and then experiment with the process in their own creative and dynamic ways; think about outcomes and measurements; think about the technologies involved–and they are not all the same for the various forms of elearning–and think about how you get people enrolled and supported in the online environment. There are lots of moving parts in this endeavor we call online education. Far too many moving parts to say it is easy.
Photo credit: Flickr, Mai Le
Tags: education, elearning, expert, learning technology, teacher, teaching online
Posted in adult learners, education, elearning, learning technology, online learning | No Comments »
