free and open ebooks & resources for open educations & research

There are two questions this link between new technologies and open education raises. The first is, what are the mechanisms by which new technologies have facilitated openness? The second is, why is openness seen as a desirable and effective mode of operation in the digital networked environment?

...

I will address both of these questions, but first it is worth delineating some of the characteristics of openness in education. Anderson (2009) suggests a number of activities that characterise the open scholars, including that they

• create,
• use and contribute open educational resources,
• self-archive,
• apply their research,
• do open research,
• filter and share with others,
• support emerging open learning alternatives,
• publish in open access journals,
• comment openly on the works of others, and
• build networks.

We might argue about some of these and whether all are required to meet the definition of an open scholar, but Anderson's list matches many of the subjects in this book and represents a good overview of a digital, networked and open approach to practice. From my own experience I would propose the following set of characteristics and suggest that open scholars are likely to adopt these.

• Have a distributed online identity – using a variety of services an identity is distributed depending on the means by which the individual is encountered.
• Have a central place for their identity – although their identity is distributed, there is usually one central hub, such as a blog, wiki or aggregation service page (e.g. http://flavors.me/).
• Have cultivated an online network of peers – the open scholar usually engages in social networks through a preferred service (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed) and regularly contributes to that network.
• Have developed a personal learning environment from a range of tools – the open scholar develops a suite of preferred tools not through a deliberate policy of constructing a PLE but through personal trial and error.
• Engage with open publishing – when formal publications are produced open scholars will seek an open publishing route for their dissemination.
• Create a range of informal output – as well as producing traditional outputs, the open scholar produces and explores different forms of output such as video, podcast, slidecast and so on.
• Try new technologies – there is an acceptance that technology is not fixed and that new technologies are explored on an individual, ad hoc basis to ascertain where they fit into the individual's overall portfolio of tools.
• Mix personal and professional outputs – the social network space is characterised by the personal elements its participants reveal, which can be seen as the hooks through which connections are established. The open scholar deliberately mixes personal and professional observations in order to be an effective communicator within these networks and does not seek to keep them distinct.
• Use new technologies to support teaching and research – when assessing or adopting new technologies they will be appraised not only for their use on a personal basis but also how they can be used to support professional practice, such as using social bookmarking for a research group or creating student portfolios in Friendfeed.
• Automatically create and share outputs – the default position of an open scholar is to share outputs, be they presentations, ideas, suggestions or publications, using whatever route is appropriate.

Neuroscience is gaining more and more grounds in the educational field. Many studies now are being performed with brain as the epicentre of its analysis. Experts are trying to demystify that black box we carry in our head.In this regard, Howard Gardner has clearly stated in Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice
that students have varying intellegences according to the part of the brain at work.Well , there is a growing conviction among neuroscientists that this new theory of Multiple Intelligence will open the door to some great breakthroughs in education.

Steve Mackenzie
http://www.twitter.com/stevemac121
...

http://del.icio.us/stevemac121

...

Inspiration for this post was attendance at the one day MEDEV workshop From curiosity to confidence: sharing what it takes to ‘go open’ with learning and teaching resources. Keynote speaker Kieran McGlade (Queen’s University Belfast) kicked off proceedings with an Introduction to open educational resources (OERs) and open educational practice (OEP). Megan Quentin-Baxter (MEDEV) and Jane Williams (University of Bristol) prompted useful discussion not just on copyright issues in relation to OERs but also on the very important ethical question of consent (i.e consent of lecturers, participants and patients for the re-use and distribution of OERs).

M.I.T., the hub of education and technology where innovations seem to happen on an hourly basis… has just unveiled the future of online education. Basically, you can now earn official credits toward an M.I.T. certificate by taking their free and online courses. The school is calling the program “MITx” reminiscent of TEDx.

...

I wouldn’t be surprised if the trend-setting M.I.T. pushes brick-and-mortar schools to also grant official certifications to those that can demonstrate a mastery of the subjects being taught online. A story in this morning’s New York Times has all the details (embedded below) and is worth examining. It’s truly an exciting time for online education.

...

MITx
While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught.

...

“There are many people who would love to augment their education by having access to M.I.T. content, people who are very capable to earn a certificate from M.I.T.,” said L. Rafael Reif, the provost, in a conference call with reporters Friday.

...

M.I.T. led the way to an era of online learning 10 years ago by posting course materials from almost all its classes. Its free OpenCourseWare now includes nearly 2,100 courses and has been used by more than 100 million people.

But the new “M.I.T.x” interactive online learning platform will go further, giving students access to online laboratories, self-assessments and student-to-student discussions.

Mr. Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said M.I.T.x would start this spring — perhaps with just one course — but would expand to include many more courses, as OpenCourseWare has done.

...

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm