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Weekly Notes for 2010-02-28

Jared Stein — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Twitter posts for the week

@qadmon People I've talked to at #ITC10 loved your insights into the open course you taught. Thanks again for the interview! in reply to qadmon #
Hacked away at 5 postcards tonight for my #motleyread friends. #
@diamond_mind Sorry man, wish you'd stayed over another night for #ITC10. in reply to diamond_mind #
@fncll Where are you at? Some alien world with bizarre but pleasantly catalystic recipes? in reply to fncll #
With the possibility of snow in Fort Worth overnight, I'm risking my safety to skate these Texas streets One Last Time. #
@fncll My uncle Rock-N-Ron lives in Anchorage. in reply to fncll #
@fncll But (I meant to type) I've never had a chance to visit. Cool city? #
@fncll I probably mentioned it in a past conversation; you know, I have very little to reference re. Alaska! in reply to fncll #
@BryanAlexander Ugetsu is so brilliant–and creepy! in reply to BryanAlexander #
Because I know I won't blog about it: places I ate in Ft Worth: Risky's BBQ, Cowtown Diner, Flying Saucer, Corner Bakery, and Jakes. #
Too dark and too cold to skate safely tonight! Looking forward to some early a.m. breakfast before @nancywhite's #ITC10 keynote. #
I love the narrative approach in presentations–it's almost always captivating. Go @nancywhite! #ITC10 #
@BryanAlexander Ooh, thanks for the recommendation. I will look into it. in reply to BryanAlexander #
@jonmott Amen. in reply to jonmott #
Hi mom! #ITC10 #
To manage "through technology or through process"? (Applies to netiquette, cheating, and more.) #ITC10 #
I dig that PowerPoint Auto Tweet. #
As an undergrad a forward-thinking English lit prof complemented class discussions with threaded discussions back in 1998. #ITC10 #
"Don't invest in something so big that if it fails, it's catastrophic." @nancywhite #ITC10 (LMS, anyone?) #
I think this intermittent showing of the Twitter backchannel stirs audience attention, refocuses. #ITC10 #
Though the emphasis has been on Twitter, great that @nancywhite stll asks for spontaneous oral feedback from the audience. #ITC10 #
.@richardleslie It's an app for Windows PPT called SAP http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/ #
Love the reminder to go kinesthetic–even if you're not a so-called kinesthetic learner. Thanks, @nancywhite #ITC10 #
Some great /and/s rather than /or/s, e.g. "perform /and/ 'on the side'" @nancywhite #ITC10 #
I want to advance the use of tools to foster deep, reflective thinking rather than quick, reactionary thinking. #ITC10 #
@fncll You'll be happy to know that @nancywhite is modeling the practice _well_. #ITC10 All these great models emerging stokes me. in reply to fncll #
"I would never /not/ show up for a walk with my friend, but when she was out of town I wouldn't walk." @nancywhite on power of social #ITC10 #
@fncll I gotta say I think the Boyd example is still important by comparison. The more models–good /and/ foul–the better! #ITC10 in reply to fncll #
Also dig @nancywhite's consistent use of yoga imagery. What a great theme for a great talk! Thanks #ITC10 #
@fncll OK, OK, I was /just/ thinking the same thing! But you know as I do, reactionary thinking can be embarrassing. It does feed the fire.. in reply to fncll #
Too much in-fighting, backstabbing, nitpicking–general negativity amongst certain people… grumble>grumble #
@busynessgirl Check out, at least, slow-blogging. And couldn't that also be the impetus for ideas of performance-based progression in K12? in reply to busynessgirl #
@cogdog Here in Ft Worth it's already around 20*F–yesterday I couldn't wear a jacket. Here's hoping my flight escapes the storm. in reply to cogdog #
Any #ITC10 folks heading out to the airport today between 4 and 5pm? #
@sleslie I'm testing Instructure out this semester with one of my online courses. in reply to sleslie #
@sleslie Yeah, I've made one post so far on an interesting feature. in reply to sleslie #
@mweisman Add another $5 for a photo op and flickr upload. #
Had one #ITC10 attendee tell me @diamond_mind and I were too hard on Bb and the LMS; another that we weren't hard enough! #
5 higher ed Q's from @jonmott: Who do we serve? What do we provide? How do we self-assess? Best way to provide? Best way to organize? #
@fncll Quote of the day, my friend, qotd. in reply to fncll #
RT @fncll Err on side of caution. There's no danger of too LITTLE LMS use and a lot of danger in how it retards Instructional Design #itc10 #
"You can only Daniel Larusso the students for so long." @opencontent #byu2sigma #
@kylemathews Grab me a couple stickers! in reply to kylemathews #
Persisting question: is Bloom's 2 sigma problem/challenge still critical, or is it futile? #byu2sigma #
Persisting q2: has tech morphed and culture changed so radically that we have to discard/rethink our perspectives on learning? #byu2sigma #
@kenwoodward Because you know I'm going to ask you to brainstorm html template changes with me. in reply to kenwoodward #
@opencontent If we had no designated parties, would that help? Or hurt? in reply to opencontent #
@jonmott Surprised at the limits of some of the choices. No libertarian or socialist options for politics? in reply to jonmott #
I scored 63/100 on the Pew Research Center How Millennial Are You? Quiz http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz #
Debriefing after simulations accentuates learning through reflection as objectives are solidified. #iptseminar #
@jonmott Me? I just made up the answers and looked confident… in reply to jonmott #
@sleslie Thanks for posting this; it makes me feel like my day is not so confused after all… in reply to sleslie #
RT @sleslie this is really funny, sort of like the Abbott & Costello of Ontology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2ujpzdeolA #
2nd semester in a row where I've been asked to take over a class for another instructor mid-semester. #
@fncll Sounds like my kinda day! If you're unlucky, you'll be back to strike mode by 10pm. in reply to fncll #
@mikhailg That's actually what got me into the Pixies in college (that and a fanatic girlfriend). in reply to mikhailg #
I thought I misheard NPR referring to Charles Dodgson as "Arthur". Guess not: http://bit.ly/dc5hvd #
@davecormier Hey, I /wish/ my French was anywhere near as good as yours. in reply to davecormier #
RT @ttix Don't forget: #TTIX 2010 call for proposals is now open at http://ttix.org TTIX 2010 runs June 9-11 in Salt Lake City. #
With no other classes to take this Spring, looks like I've got to bite the bullet and get into remedial stats. #
@diamond_mind I still don't think I'd make The Dude's team. in reply to diamond_mind #
Watching $JST like a hawk… (didn't realize $ was for stocks!) #
Working in an old PHP/MySQL system that I'd built (probably 10 yrs ago). It's not good, but it still works. #
IRS sent me a letter saying I made an error on my return by refusing a govmt handout. Deposited it in my account anyway. #
Fridays always end up a gruesome battle against the Dark Reinforcement Troops of Email. #
Jumping in as teacher for someone else's course mid-stream is chaotic, but forces me to consider weird ways to assess. #
Hard to admit it, but @kenwoodward and I spent an hour going in circles over a basic misunderstanding of SRC. #

Weekly Notes for 2010-02-21

Jared Stein — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Twitter posts for the week

@fncll Lenovo is infamous for that. But I love my Lenovos. in reply to fncll #
Grabbing music clips for pres segment interludes: Man? or Astroman, The Lillingtons, Groovie Ghoulies, etc. #
@mikhailg Yeah, it's a security "feature". You can get a number of different plug-ins to "fix" this. in reply to mikhailg #
Ugh! Couldn't get Audacity to find stereo mix in Ubuntu. Rebooted into Windows (sorry for the delay, @qadmon) #
Thanks again, @qadmon, for the interview. The last puzzle piece for my #ITC10 pres, and it fits perfectly! #
@mikhailg Love Memento as a selection in this genre. in reply to mikhailg #
Just creating mind-destroying audio file. NOT for your listening pleasure. #ITC10 #
Big Thanks to @dlwalker for Late Night Learning LIVE announcer voice work #ITC10 #
@barrydahl Hey, that happened to me today, too! in reply to barrydahl #
Oh Prezi you did NOT just undo all my work then crash. #
I guess 160 pathed images is just too much for Prezi. #
Funny, my phony keynote intro script actually sounds pretty good. #
@johnhiltoniii Hey, it's DOCTOR Hilton! in reply to johnhiltoniii #
Cutting a final 2 minutes of an interview. It's painful to leave out good stuff. #
@diamond_mind Did that last msg mean you are offering crack to your taskmaster? If so, that's sorta like a bribe… I prefer cash in reply to diamond_mind #
RT @courosa Regular DVD vs. pirated DVD http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg #
One last edit of interview with @jonmott for #ITC10 As they say, when you want something done right… #
FT instructional designer position now open in my unit at UVU: http://www.uvu.jobs/applicants/Central?quickFind=54932 #
Marc and I strolled through the Fort Worth Library tonight. That's like no library I've been to. #ITC10 #
Now someone slap me with a killer joke about opencourseware before I fall asleep! #
Good skating in Fort Worth. Breakfast at Corner Bakery chain. #ITC10 #
Irfan Mithani 4 President. #
@barrydahl @diamond_mind and I are going to print our note cards and grab some lunch. Ready to rehearse whenever room is open. #
Good times @ #ITC10; warm reception for Late Night Learning LIVE. Fab skating downtown, then hanging out with @jimgroom, @busynessgirl et al #
@NancyWhite I finally can take a breath and send out some #motleyread postcards. I have a dozen that need to be written and mailed. in reply to NancyWhite #
@fncll You're there in spirit, though we cut my Descartes bit that was inspired by your #TTIX talk. in reply to fncll #
Before I forget, a big Texas thanks to @jonmott, @jimgroom, @twoodwar, and @qadmon for really making the substance of our #ITC10 pres. #
At #ITC10 @jimgroom takes the stage. It's an early a.m. sermon; hope the congregation is alert. #
Listening in on their conversation explains why there's only one other person sitting at @diamond_mind and @johnkrutsch's table… #ITC10 #
"In the beginning… we had centralized IT….on the 4th day, the LMS" –@jimgroom #ITC10 #
Oh man, STEAMROLLED by an impromptu choir of @jimgroom fans! #ITC10 #
It's true: academia is pretty arrogant if we think students come to us for their identity. #
"We don't need an institution; we just need a website" (@jimgroom re. http://www.khanacademy.org/) #ITC10 #
We need more great Wikipedia class projects, more people modeling what's possible. #ITC10 #
Glad @jimgroom's explaining the feed syndication/aggregation method–lots of people still don't fully understand the power of FEED #ITC10 #
"When you do things on the open web, a certain number of things happen that you can't predict." @jimgroom #ITC10 #
"Open by default…really makes a big difference in how faculty understand their work" @jimgroom #
Funny: @jimgroom talking about dept's running a blog–at #UVU IT was pretty scared of WPMU for this reason, replacing campus CMS. #ITC10 #
Yeah, @jimgroom and I both wonder why it seems to be that students (w/out blogs) choose the institutional blog over options on the open web. #
@twoodwar You /were/ here! Everyone loved your part! But yeah, looking forward to meeting in person some time. in reply to twoodwar #
You know it's a good keynote when you're inspired to escape the session–just to start working on the stuff @jimgroom's talking about #ITC10 #
"That we have a direct impact on our community … is a key part of being an institution" @jimgroom #ITC10 #
"A domain of one's own" re. personal web sites to revitalize, /reclaim/ one's own liberty. Go, @jimgroom, go! #
Right! One of the best things about a system like UMW Blogs it showcases and it /features/ teacher, student work. #ITC10 #
Part of what makes @jimgroom an engaging presenter is he doesn't rely on notes (like I do)–it just flows out like body heat! #
"Twitter is great for visualizing the network." @jimgroom #ITC10 #
@busynessgirl Yes. But hopefully it's a transmittable disease. in reply to busynessgirl #
The UMW Literary Jounals course is fascinating–one of the few instances of an English dept. linking academics to outworld work. #ITC10 #
@mikhailg How could @jimgroom be on stage AND be overseeing his vast empire of the Internet at the same time? in reply to mikhailg #
@jimgroom Great job at #ITC10–fascinating content, enlightening insights, engaging presence. #

Weekly notes through 2010-01-31

Jared Stein — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Twitter posts for the week

@diamond_mind @mikhailg Second that. in reply to diamond_mind #
I've been reading "The Hobbit" to my son for the past week; his interest grows each night. I'm hoping he'll illustrate his favorite scenes. #
Call for proposals now open for 2010's Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX) in SLC, UT June 9-11: http://ttix.org/ttix-propose.php #
I can imagine @jimgroom doing a mean impersonation of Mojo Nixon. #
@michaelcjohnson Your notes are better than those on the whiteboard (for folks like me who came in late)! #
"Netbooks will be the next Trapper Keeper." — @fncll http://chrislott.org/story/responding-to-a-few-education-predictions-braddo/ #
Anyone use a RSVP reading app on their browser or mobile device? #
@fncll You forgot to add: "plz RT" in reply to fncll #
@jonmott With empirical evidence! (Got any?) in reply to jonmott #
RT @grantpotter The Apple Tablet emerges … http://bit.ly/90BoWi — I gotta say, that's a slick looking device. #
@jonmott Really? I'd be happy even with just a survey of users… in reply to jonmott #
@tom4cam My prediction: No SD slot ever. in reply to tom4cam #
Wow. After what I thought was a lively half-hour phone interview with a Chronicle reporter, the one quote used is a self-deprecating one. #
@fncll That quote was from an off-topic discussion, even. Not a word on the meat of the matter… Guess I'll keep responses to 140 char in reply to fncll #
@fncll Makes one wonder why one invests time and energy in that crap. From hereon out I'll politely decline. in reply to fncll #
@fncll I suppose if one keeps rolling the dice, even a 20d, one'll score a critical hit eventually… in reply to fncll #
@fncll One does what one can. in reply to fncll #
Loading up another disc of Peter Gunn, cause the brain is too fried for La passion de Jeanne d'Arc. #
New Tindersticks album is out today: http://www.fallingdownamountain.com/ #
(Zombie) Dwarfs in Space: Colonization, "Phantasm" and Transhumanism http://bit.ly/9T06WZ #
More paper edits for #ITC10 pres. I hate this part, but love seeing decreasingly rough cuts… #
OH @kenwoodward "Should we guess what she wants or should we ask her?" #
I've cut 28 minutes of interview down to 12. Now to cut below ten. It's like amputating perfectly good limbs. #
@courosa Any live feed of that session? Based on @craft184's tweets, this baits my curiosity… in reply to courosa #
@courosa QUOI!!! OK, I'm switching to a Mac. in reply to courosa #
Leaving another inaudible #educon Elluminate session. I think one person's registration fee would cover the price of decent mics… #
1 set of projects scored; 1 letter written to a friend; finances in order; time for a late Saturday brunch with my son. #

Re. Communal vs Individual Voice

Jared Stein — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:22:14 +0000

Boone Gorges asked a great question about openness that has been itching at my mind ever since I drove out of Vancouver from Open Ed 2009: Is there a tension between individual vs communal voice (i.e. creation)? And while this post started out as a long-ish, impromptu comment on Boone’s blog post, I figured if I didn’t pay some attention to my blog this month, even roughly-whisked and half-cooked attention, I’d risk losing grip on it forever. (Thus the following instances of ellipses that stand in for confused thoughts I’ve yet to articulate.)

First, I recommend you read Boone’s post, as I don’t want to re-state his exploration of both Gardner’s and John’s Open Ed 09 thoughts here. I think there is definite tension between individualism and communalism, especially in context of creativity. Such tension may be culturally inherited, or it may be endemic in our brains. I.e., we need to work in groups/tribe to survive; we want to claim individual power and perpetuate our own unique genes. It’s much deeper and richer than that.

…

As I sat in on John’s Thinkubator session I recalled how recently I had reluctantly agreed to author a full white paper collaboratively through Google Docs with a colleague. For a while we both were very sensitive to the other’s contributions–”do you mind if I enhance paragraph 10?” or “I’m going to rework your section on X, is that cool?” We were very courteously practicing the golden rule.

After a while, however, the insistence of the deadline and the necessity of coherence required us to abandon courtesy in favor of efficiency, and thus we diminished both of our individualizations of the article. We ended up with a decent article, produced in probably 75% (not half) of the time it would have taken just one of us to produce it. Do I feel like I own that document? No. Do I feel I co-own it? Yes. Do I want to take credit for it? Kind of, because in doing so I’m taking credit for someone else’s work, including their flaws. Did the structure of the project support our objectives? Yes, but I certainly wouldn’t adopt a collaborative approach for all, not even most, of the documents I author. I’d rather more closely tie my identity to my individual work, and that means making my exact contributions extricable from the original.

…

On a loosely related note, I was searching for an image for a presentation the other day, had exhausted CC licensed images on Flickr or Google, couldn’t find anything on the paid license site I subscribe to, and was seriously contemplating just stealing someone else’s IP. I should preface this by saying that CC and the availability of open-licensed works has allowed me to respect other people’s © IP more appropriately (OK, I know some of you want to pick the Copyleft fight with me, but some other time). But as I was looking at this ideal image, contemplating swiping it and using it, a shudder of confusion and regret came through me, and I realized, twenty years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about appropriating the image.

No, I would not have just taken it.

I would have made my own.

Which led me to wonder, by refuting closed licensing, does openness provide a path that is “quicker, easier, more seductive”, yet diverts one away from creativity, innovation, and individual growth through distinguishing effort?

A Student’s Vision of the Future of Education

Jared Stein — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:58:18 +0000

In my Web Essentials online course I facilitate a discussion on the future of internet technologies. One student focused on how education is, and, as you’ll see here, should be affected:

The internet is a rebel and a bully, threatening to destroy the established system of education that dictates how we learn. Shocked? Well, this is a good thing any way you look at it. The internet will transform the way you and I learn. It will provide a customized and individual learning experience. Okay, maybe the “internet” alone won’t start the revolution, but it definitely facilitates it. Producers of educational media content already provide fully customizable websites that utilize learning management systems that let you choose what you learn, when you want to learn it. … this means that you get more bang for your buck. Which is more than you can say for the “established” educational institutions that just bark out education in hopes that you’ll keep returning. The future of education online is bright. The things we do with the internet can transform education. It can transform the world.

…

Here is one scenario:

UVU gets rid of the physical school except for one building used to house administration and an office for each teacher. Each teacher is provided with computers, webcams, microphones and other equipment. The teachers now have resources to teach lessons live, record them, and archive them for students to view at a later time. Teachers also have virtual office hours where they can chat with students, they all use email, and have personal LMS tracking their own progress. (customized and specific to the school; and better than Moodle or Blackboard) Students collaborate online.

For those of us in ed tech, nothing here is really new, but there is a palpable frustration re. the absence of teachers’ use of very basic networked technologies. This is the future he’s talking about; when I was an undergrad over 12 years ago I wanted many of the same things! Speaking of being frustrated with teachers, what he said next really grabbed me:

[I] don’t think that enough effort is being put into developing the tools that would empower us as students…

The implication here should have been obvious: if the teachers are not satisfying the students needs, at the very least students should be given tools they need to empower themselves.

IPT 692R Notes – Thurs, Feb 12, 2009

Jared Stein — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:25:37 +0000

Today’s session of BYU’s IPT 692R was a collaborative workshop day. The following are merely my contributions to the Google Doc, posted as per Dr. Wiley’s request:

Process

In order to notify faculty of open publishing, during the CTL design process faculty will be asked to sign the BYU OER Participation form. This form will:

Describe the BYU OER project and the mission of CTL
Acknowledge BYU ownership of IP produced by or in conjunction with CTL
Explain CC By-NC-SA license
Describe possible OER usage

Faculty who sign the BYU OER Participation form acknowledge the aforementioned and may choose to have their name (along with BYU and CTL) attributed to the OER. Faculty may opt out of attribution or not sign the form, however such refusal will not alter BYU’s ownership of CTL-produced IP or CTL’s ability to publish and share the CTL product as OER.

Technology

(The following is hypothesis only at this stage)

CTL OER products will be stored on a publicly accessible BYU OER web site (powered by Equella). The web site will:

provide search features based on title, description, and other metadata
list OER by topic or academic department
attribute OER to BYU, CTL, and faculty contributor(s)
demonstrate OER
? support direct linking to instances of OER
support downloading of OER as modular packages
? provide source code or raw data of OER where applicable
? support community interaction by allowing user
? allow registered user commenting on OER
? allow registered user keyword tagging of OER

IPT 692R Notes – Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009

Jared Stein — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:39:40 +0000

At the start of today’s class session of Dr. David Wiley’s IPT 692R at BYU, Aaron offered thanks for tithe payer contributions to BYU. In response David shoots, “Let’s figure out a way to give the tithe payer a little something back.”

SPARC provides a form that faculty can sign and send with manuscript publishing agreement we need a NSF mandate to automatically

This Week’s Challenge

Figure out how to put Center for Teaching and Learning resources into a library for open sharing.

Faculty disclosure in CTL process
License recommendation / “default” IP policy with override for third party publishing
Figure out Equella thing for publishing

Jon Mott recommends Equella for publishing platform. Equella is a CMS built by post-Bb guys, The Learning Edge International (JMS: Is it CMS or LMS? Sounds like the latter). An experimental Equella environment is available at BYU. “Activity assembler” available for sequencing LOs. Bill Lundt can talk about it.

(JMS: All these LMS innovators [GoCourse, eInstructure, Equella] had better consider what their “moat” will be to beat out Bb, D2L, Angel, Moodle, etc.)

IP Licensing

In context of CTL “walk-in” center, What license do we recommend? (JMS: Is CTL able to license materials? Does BYU have/need a process for approving CC licensing? I suppose we will find out…)

Perhaps CC By-NC (I am currently anti-SA, but that might change).

Dr. Wiley suggests SA may not be terribly meaningful. John Hilton gave a good case study, paraphrased:

If I publish By-NC then someone takes and remixes the content, s/he is not obligated to release under By-NC because of lack of the SA, so could a derivative version be licensed as By and then commercialized? Seems like the answer is yes.

(JMS: This sounds like a good thing to me as a creator. I only want to disallow commercialization of copies, but not necessarily of significantly altered works, remixed works, or derivatives.)

Justin: If NC then Creative Works Office doesn’t have to get involved(?)

(JMS: When in flow workers seem exceedingly efficient. How do we foster a work environment that inhibits interruption of workers’ flow?)

Documentary Filmmaker’s Guide to Fair Use

Here’s what we’re going to claim as Fair Use. If anyone has a problem with it, they can deal with us as a whole.

Movement amongst higher ed institutions in the works to apply Fair Use to media held within an OER (without altering the license of the © work).

Fair Use

Purpose (educational non-profit)
Nature of copyrighted (e.g. factual vs creative works)
Amount and significance
Impact of the use on potential market

BYU Center for Teaching and Learning Walk-In Center

Anything within scope of employment belongs to creator.
Anything created with any additional BYU resources, such as CTL staff, belongs to BYU.

CTL OER as default: we will share, but faculty may opt-out. Would such a form hurt the culture of BYU? Justin suggests a one-time form to opt-in.

CTL has 40-50 new projects a month, e.g. scanned images, PPT backgrounds, Flash animations, video, et c.

What about intentionality? Capture directions for use? Do we preserve teaching info as metadata? CTL Tracker tracks information. What about forum/discussion area for teacher-contributed suggestions for use? Could be. I’m seeing this like a Podcast on a blog platform.

(JMS: The CTL Tracker sounds like a great way to start and track a new project. Sounds like my original course design mapping app, but better. I wonder what software they use? Something home-grown? We need one of these, similar to our dP but more expansive, updating everthing such as Google Spreadsheet. How could dP be mod’ed to facilitate this?)

Independent Study might be able to contribute 10hrs a week to uploading OER to platform.

We could/should also go back in time to get permission on existing materials because there are so many great materials. Also, we could get MBA students working on case studies, Engineering students working on problem-based learning scenarios. (JMS: I’m feeling overwhelmed by the availability of resources her.)

(JMS: At UVU could we get a temporary blanket approval for OER from the President’s office, e.g. to say, From May 2009 – April 2010 we authorize all UVU-owned, DE-developed learning materials to be licensed under a CC license for use as OER. Renewable with signatory.)

(JMS: Seems like the first hurdle that we are skipping is getting BYU approval for CC licensing of CTL materials. Will this be done from CTL up?)

Seth: wants to go back to Equella and the importance of metadata. I agree, but the technical aspects of this seem far more easily manageable than the licensing process, which frightens me.

Tracker creates a new folder for each project. When project is completed it creates an archive folder. Completed product is moved physically and project folder is deleted. Is there a readme? No, you find data through the Tracker. Tracker stores faculty information. (JMS: How would we do this with dP? Is it built-in?) JMS: Could tracker take stored info and spit out a readme? Why not?

Could we provide both final file and source file(s)? 4 Rs. These would be uploaded/handed off to (OER) librarian for archiving and indexing. (JMS: Does DE need to get UVU librarians involved? Who is the institutional librarian at UVU? Jean D’emall might be or might know.

(ClassTop’s plugin uses Facebook to reuse OER and create self-organizing learning communities.)

Do we need to actually ask faculty to opt-in, or does this wrongly imply that faculty own the materials (in conflict with BYU IP policy)?

In an opt-in form we articulate that the materials are BYU owned under IP policy and that faculty acknowledge this when opting-in. We would do so as a professional courtesy, for even though faculty do not own this, they think they do. We are at the early stage of nurturing a cultural shift towards openness. Baby steps.

Is that Tracker software open source? (JMS: I might be able to mod it as suggested if UVU can have a license to the software. Will follow up at CTL afterwards)

Clarified that we will draft the document for CTL to request upper administrative permission to license ALL CTL-products as OER.

Spend Thursday as a group writing proposal document.

Class has moved from Know and Understand to Analyze and Apply.

OER Rogue

Jared Stein — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:53:30 +0000

For David Wiley’s Intro to Open Ed course I had settled on the “artisan” character class, helping to round out the on-campus “guild”. Though the artisan had clear value and balance with the other classes, I was not satisfied with it for a couple of reasons. First, the name was neither fierce nor inspiring! I mean, how successful will any RPG party without someone who knows how to swing a blade? Second, I have intentions to carry out with OER this semester that varied or went beyond the quests of the artisan class.

I proposed to Dr. Wiley that we’d benefit from a rogue,

…a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. The rogue is stealthy and dextrous … capable of finding and disarming traps and picking locks. The rogue also has the ability to “sneak attack”enemies who are caught off-guard or taken by surprise…

Wikipedia: The Rogue (Dungeons and Dragons)

The nimbleness and ability to pick locks to “open” treasure fit my objectives. For example, when I was looking at the OLI I was annoyed at how the OER was locked-up by the technology, and asked myself, “How would I break this free?”

Rogue

The Rogue utilizes digital material production and web dev skills to obtain, reuse, and remix OER, using stealth and cunning to unlock and re-release OER materials that may be guarded or trapped by publishing technology.

To illustrate how this would fit, I took a stab at rewriting the rogue’s Quest 1 (based on the same artisan quest):

Employ espionage and reconnaissance on the following OER projects, noting the types of media predominantly used by each site. Evaluate the reuse/remix potential of the media, looking at openness of structure, code, security, source availability, semantics, license compatibility, etc. Review a sufficient sample of courses per site to gain accurate insight into their habits and routines. Write a substantive blog post that puts forth strategic directions for the re-release and reuse of the sites’ media with special attention to unlocking those OER that may be imprisoned by CMS or final format software.
…

On Twitter the idea quickly showed that other possible OER character classes might be beneficial, including the barbarian (I already know a few of these)!

IPT 692R Notes – Thurs Jan 29, 2009

Jared Stein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:41:09 +0000

I was dizzy with excitement and inspiration from today’s live class meeting of Intro to Open Ed course, and so with lots to mull over I chose to walk back the University Mall in Orem where my car was parked. The weather has begun to warm here in central Utah, and I had music (The National) and a book (Kaku’s Hyperspace) to ease the trip, but half-way there I wimped out and grabbed the next bus.

Discussion with Russ Osguthorpe of BYU’s Center for Teaching and Learning

Russ to class: Why and how should BYU CTL open the many digital learning objects and materials created over the years?

Dr. Wiley notes we will tackle this as the guild Challenge 1. (JMS: Initial thoughts: if it’s open licensed and open sourced the increasing momentum of the open ed movement might drive usage if the task or cost of structuring and organizing the mass of learning objects is too high, consider flat, unstructured with folksonomic metadata [e.g. anyone can search; registered users can tag].)

Scale of higher cost of development. Royalty pay-off of quality content through publisher, e.g. Virtual ChemLab is high-quality, in-demand, and proprietary. Pearson carries and distributes, pays royalties to BYU.

(JMS: Could we, should we balance commercialization and openness? It’s not necessarily an either-or proposition–an open resource could be commercialized by the CC-license holder. But, anecdotes aside, does that approach damage or impact revenues? See RIAA–regardless of the validity of RIAA’s inflexible, exploitative posturing for copyright holders, the fact remains that illegal sharing [undocumented migratory openness?] has critically injured recording industry revenue stream.

(But does the thrivancy of illegal sharing of RIAA IP bolster arguments against the commercial model, and even prophecy the demise of commercial viability of digitizable materials?)

Some projects merit commercialization by providing significant benefit to creator. Reach is farther. Millions of dollars, millions of users.

Other projects may have an audience-impact potential that outweights commercial benefits, e.g. the philanthropic effects of providing introductory vocational.

Need this to be part of every new project process, e.g. starts with the faculty member to opt-in opt-out.

(JMS: Excited by commercialization. Should I try to sell, partnering with UVU, before giving it up for free? It would good to have authentic, first-hand experience on both sides of the argument.)

CTL Show and Tell

Preview of BYU’s Syllabus Builder

Syllabus Builder is similar to an LMS syllabus creator, but far more robust, extensive, and reusable. Draws information re. instructor, classes from campus information system (at BYU this is “AIM”). Some of the pages and prompts:

Would you like to load in your syllabus from last semester?
Choose course (from AIM load assignment)
Choose section
Import which instructor details and then edit details
Text & materials (same as before?) ISBNs. (JMS: Link to somewhere, maybe hook in using existing API, eg. Amazon.com, Netflix, choosing from drop-down)
Grading Scale
Grading policies
Participation requirements & policies
Assignment descriptions
Learning outcomes
Plans to pull in program outcomes from wiki (JMS: With UVU wikilearn we too could create a program outcomes page for each program)
Prereqs (JMS: is this stored in UVU Banner?)
what days/weeks does it meet?
Drag and drop calendar/schedule of assignments. (JMS: This could be a Moodle add-on to update assignments etc.)
Bring in service entities contact info from campus (e.g. Writing Lab, Library) (JMS: could UVU bring this in from Banner? Or the CMS? Or the phonebook?)
Bring in standard, required policies etc. (JMS: We already do this in our template. Recall the failed Yoshi syllabus template project)

When complete, exports to a separate live server (JMS: e.g. desource.uvu.edu). Can save as HTML or link to “live” page.
(DW: Faculty need to add hyperlinks. Also, Copyright/CC/PD status of the syllabus should be a drop-down. Warn that anyone can see it.)

(JMS: Notes for Ken: SYLLABI are stored as generated PHP files. Default must be “latest” with archives of old based on dates. Brought into course by hardlink. Updated by the professor or course managers.
And what about a LESSON BUILDER?)

Questions

Q: Is this going to be open source?
A: Yes.
Q: If so, when can I get my hands on source code?
A: Don’t know. (But I have e-mail of Tonya Tripp who may put me on a mailing list)
Q: Is AIM homegrown?

Preview of Mid-Semester Student Survey

CTL has gathered evidence that a mid-semester student survey helps improve teaching. Two most important questions: What was most helpful to your learning? What one thing could improve teaching? Open-ended and scaled questions. E-mail goes out to students (drawing, presumably, from SIS–AIM). Sends when the red button is clicked.

(JMS: Could be scheduled with cron)

Preview of iFlipper

Downloads AIM class roll with pictures to make flashcards of students, with algorithm to calculate which are missed the most. Flashcards for everything and anything! (JMS: If Ken wants an iTouch he can earn one by corrabolating with BYU…)

Mentioned a BYU campus-wide content management.

(JMS: All amazing stuff. But most amazing because it may well be open source. Note: invite someone from CTL to present Syllabus Builder et al. at TTIX.)

Looking Ahead toChallenge 1

Propose a solution for CTL (JMS: UVU) to go open with produced digital learning materials and objects.

Challenge 1 is bumped up and begins after next week.

IPT 692R Notes – Tues Jan 27, 2009

Jared Stein — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:31:34 +0000

The bitter cold and a late bus did not prevent me from attending David Wiley’s IPT692R course today. And though the class period was set aside to choosing “classes” for the rest of the course, several discussions bubbled up that were noteworthy.

Meta-day – “Choosing”

Classes

Artisan (1), Bard (4), Merchant (3), Monk (2)

Guilds

Join by listing your name and class on the wiki. At least one of each class per guild. I’ve settled on Artisan after no one else seemed interested–very feasible (a relief for my stress level, if not the most challenging or applicable class).

Quests

6 quests; Q5 & 6 are collaborative. Loosely based on “updated” Bloom’s taxonomy: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating.

CYOA

New quests may be proposed, and should map into Bloom’s taxonomy. However, Q5 requires pairing; Q6 requires guild.

JMS: How can I match these quests to current UVU OER project? I need an excuse to devote time to the class.

Next deliverable: Quest 1 for character type (Artisan). Report/artifact/blog post. Due 11:59pm a week from Saturday (Feb 7). Jigsaw.

Discussion

What about desires for non-attribution? What if a derivative work reflects negatively on the original creator?

Refer to attribution clause. Requires “a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Adaptation”. Also, derivations “may not implicitly or explicitly assert or imply … endorsement by the author”.

JMS: I think, especially for visual design, a By-ND license is adequate for most uses. Is mere cropping a derivation?

One option: Be “hardcore and serious”: provide a “terms of use” on the site for the license to prevent bad derivations.

Value proposition needed for the institution.

JMS: I should have waited to write that last blog post on sustainability. This topic is too expansive and engrossing for me to summarize in a few hours of reading and writing.

Can a balance of commercial and open products sustain both? Balance as in one-for-one (one commercial, one open), or as in half-and-half (“open” demo and paid full-version, shareware-like). What is the track record for success of this in software?

Justin Johansen’s dissertation study (anyone know Justin’s blog URL?): can opening content increase revenue through conversion model? Students view open content, and then enroll for credit.

If an institution’s “owned” work is either copyright or open, we can ask if it will generate: revenue? pr? good will?

In case of BYU CTL there is no opportunity cost — I think this means that creator wouldn’t have benefited from it through other, non-open means.

Libraries tend to be advocates of openness because of open-access. Randy Olson of BYU library, also Gideon Burton (JMS: Note to self: check out Gideon’s Academic Evolution blog).

Several students expressed skepticism of the deep value of MIT OCW. Seth “pushed back” a bit. My own thinking: Mike Caulfield asserts that transparency is a, if not the key value of MIT OCW. To me, that transparency illustrates potential(s) for the course: What could this course become for MIT? by revealing it’s inner workings and even it’s discrepancies as an online learning resource, how could it be better? And there’s potential with respect to the outside world. Tony Hirst demonstrates some of that potential through his mash-ups using the IMS package as a road map. David Wiley suggested that overlays of MIT OCW might also prove their value, whether that’s through reframing of content as Academic Earth has done, or as linking the path to a degree using OCW as nodes.

The value of these potentials are still confusing to me, and they may simply be “happy accidents” without significant long-term value, but worth noting in conversations that might aim to critique projects like MIT OCW.

University of the People. Not accredited, but inspiring.