tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4788264584044907972024-02-19T08:47:50.140-08:00SPIDER ProjectSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-88724802620139475312011-10-25T03:11:00.000-07:002011-10-25T03:12:33.654-07:00Some raw data: what are people tweeting about iTunes U?As part of my iTunes U research, I set up a TwapperKeeper to capture all tweets using the word itunesu. Would you like to have a look and see what people are saying? Go to:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://twapperkeeper.com/keyword/itunesu">http://twapperkeeper.com/keyword/itunesu</a></span> </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">You may need to adjust how many responses are displayed per page. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;">I have done some analysis of these tweets, but am still mired in the process. For my ALT-C presentation on iTunes U as the Corporate Channel of Free Learning Resources, I was able to divide out all languages used to tweet about iTunes U in a several-week period late summer-early autumn 2011. I also detected the main themes and some unexpected themes of said tweets. You can look at my <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/tbirdcymru/itunes-u-corporate-channel-of-free-educational-resources">ALT-C presentation on Slideshare</a>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;">Terese Bird</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;">Learning Technologist and SCORE Fellow</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;">University of Leicester/Open University</span>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-1042271552932056372011-08-26T02:19:00.000-07:002011-08-26T02:19:10.203-07:00Apple's Relationship with Education and the Genesis of iTunes UApple likes to characterise itself as a friend of education. Back in the 1990's when I was living in Chicago, the primary school my kids attended had Macs liberally installed in its classrooms. I don't remember seeing any Windows computers. That was not unusual for US schools. I always assumed there had been some good discounts and perhaps other incentives offered by Apple.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn89fMXx_WO7qD5jK1xTO_iszQoCvOkoph4J5LD2OUKiSOTsUVyzm8knpyVusQD1bITbBNzQS0yYiHH4umz7uIr7-JGx6FqrPg7BclpwRdcqgUFvrTWrgaltdPeeg1lgDh_1Vv_TJf-k/s1600/MacLabMOBen+and+Laura+Kreeger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn89fMXx_WO7qD5jK1xTO_iszQoCvOkoph4J5LD2OUKiSOTsUVyzm8knpyVusQD1bITbBNzQS0yYiHH4umz7uIr7-JGx6FqrPg7BclpwRdcqgUFvrTWrgaltdPeeg1lgDh_1Vv_TJf-k/s320/MacLabMOBen+and+Laura+Kreeger.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mac lab in Springfield, Missouri - photo courtesy of Ben and Laura Kreeger on Flickr</td></tr>
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I've seen this <a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/03/21/steve-jobs-bill-gates-clash-on-merit-of-liberal-arts-education-nyt/">Steve Jobs quote</a> indicating that it's not just education, but humanities education that Apple likes to see itself associated with: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.” Post-PC devices refers of course to iPhones, iPods, and iPads - all of those devices which are beginning to take the place of personal computers as the chosen methods of accessing the internet. (Along with Android phones and Blackberries, of course!)<br />
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Which brings me to <a href="http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/">iTunes U</a>. Today I read this article <a href="https://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/could-steve-jobss-stepping-down-as-apple%E2%80%99s-ceo-affect-higher-education/32981">Could Steve Jobs' Stepping Down as Apple CEO Affect Higher Education?</a> and it confirmed what I thought but had never seen in print: that iTunes U grew out of experiments such as the 2004 <a href="http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2004/07/64282">Duke University iPod-for-every-freshman programme</a>. Which was instigated by Apple, not by Duke. Duke is not named in this article, but I'm sure that's one of the universities being referred to.<br />
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Of course iTunes U sprang up from Apple's wish to sell post-PC devices. It was not a purely-philanthropic offering of open educational resources. In a sense it was more interesting than that -- it was a purely natural move on the part of a corporation to expand its sales base, while doing something positive for education as well. If education can live with that, it can benefit from that.<br />
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Finally, I discovered <a href="http://edseminars.apple.com/seminars/index.php">this link to Apple's Education Seminars</a> -- some are online webinars which happen regularly. You might find some of these interesting.<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and SCORE Fellow<br />
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SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-42816212447377757812011-08-25T02:56:00.000-07:002011-08-25T03:02:21.996-07:00Why 'Apple control' is probably good for iTunes U and the realm of open educational resourcesToday it has been announced that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of Apple. He has been battling health issues for some time now and I wish him well. The announcement has given rise to numerous profiles of his career and of Apple in general. <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/08/25/a-front-row-seat-to-steve-jobs-career-by-robert-scoble/">One excellent view of Jobs' career is by Robert Scoble</a>. <br />
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In my discussions with various universities about their implementation of iTunes U, the topic of Apple's control arises. One person described it as a 'benevolent dictatorship,' hastening to add that Apple wants to make sure that everyone has a good experience accessing the material in iTunes U, and wants to help each institution look their best. Apple does not pass judgement on individual pieces going into iTunes U; rather, it wants to see that the university has in place a good 'iTunes U team' which includes academics (so it can't be Marketing running away with the show) and who will keep the channel going. It seems to me that the end result is that universities end up doing their best to show a good profile of themselves on iTunes U. This should mean good learning material is being released. Add to that the power of Apple's presence itself, and the fact that it markets chosen materials on iTunes U, and you have a win-win situation for open educational resources (OER).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs92NtDIociVBZh0TKDRgmh4TRSJqui3HpXuW0BoX1M328Yj1e4sEBKrsiEVsvyF85ANe2xfDEsmwD72iB0KBLjMtWFr6eH-OEYRr7QJbJFpRAy2nO7sVBqohkBxyvfztZH9kC1R_P9D4/s1600/SJobs-The-Seg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs92NtDIociVBZh0TKDRgmh4TRSJqui3HpXuW0BoX1M328Yj1e4sEBKrsiEVsvyF85ANe2xfDEsmwD72iB0KBLjMtWFr6eH-OEYRr7QJbJFpRAy2nO7sVBqohkBxyvfztZH9kC1R_P9D4/s320/SJobs-The-Seg.jpg" width="240px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve Jobs in front of an early Mac computer lab in Stanford. Photo courtesy of The Seb on Flickr</td></tr>
</tbody></table>YouTube as an educational material channel is certainly easier to add material into, and it can be argued that it is more accessible in that all you need is a browser. (To access iTunes U material, one must download the free iTunes U software from the Apple site -- this software works on Windows and Macs, but not on Linux). However, this simplicity means it is simple for everyone to post on YouTube, including jokers who just post whatever. Overall, and especially in comparison to iTunes U, YouTube is not characteristically seen as a source of excellent learning material, although there is certainly much excellent learning material in there. <br />
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Also, because it is so easy for jokers to post whatever in YouTube, certain governments (such as China's) prefer to block access to YouTube. But iTunes U is seen as a respectable source of learning material, and thus it is not blocked in any country as far as I know. And I have been checking.<br />
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While on the topic of comparing iTunes U with YouTube, I have recently been looking at download figures of UK universities who are offering material on both iTunes U and YouTube. I was very surprised to see that the iTunes U download figures are many times greater than the YouTube figures. I hope to be able to be more specific in upcoming reports.<br />
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Therefore, Apple being a bit of a control freak is probably a force for good in the realm of open educational materials. It's not the only model, and it's probably not the best model. But it is working.<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a> FellowSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-26425976894427697082011-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:002011-08-10T07:40:56.422-07:00What is OER? That is the question...I saw a tweet from Tony Hirst (@psychemedia) this morning: it was a definition of OER or open educational resources: <br />
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<div class="tweet-row" sizcache="12813" sizset="0"></div><div class="tweet-row" sizcache="12813" sizset="0"><span class="tweet-user-name" sizcache="12813" sizset="0"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="7129072" href="http://twitter.com/#!/psychemedia" title="Tony Hirst"><strong><span style="color: #333333;">psychemedia</span></strong></a> <span class="tweet-full-name"><span style="color: #999999; font-size: x-small;">Tony Hirst</span></span> </span></div><div class="tweet-corner" sizcache="12813" sizset="0"><div class="tweet-meta"><div class="extra-icons">OERs: resources that educators can reuse in teaching, or that learners can independently discover and learn from? <a class=" twitter-hashtag" href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23ukoer" rel="nofollow" title="#ukoer"><span class="hash">#</span><span class="hash-text">ukoer</span></a><br />
</div></div></div><div class="tweet-row"><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">This is a pretty good definition of OER, and as anyone familiar with the territory can tell you, that is no small feat. But what is even more important, is to define what we *really* mean by OER. What is the really valuable aspect of OER? This became the consequent topic of discussion on Twitter, and I thought I'd try and capture a few discussion points in this post.<br />
</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">Ostephens (@ostephens) stirred the pot by tweeting: how important is 'open' to the learner? Copyrighted material just as easy to learn from as public domain.<br />
</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">I wholeheartedly agree with this, especially since my OER channel of interest, <a href="http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/">iTunes U</a>, serves out mostly copyrighted material. But it is free, and freely available, and so it can be considered OER (though some would disagree). Whether or not iTunes U is agreed to be 'OER', few would disagree that iTunes U is comprised of learning material of real value. Tony Hirst then tweeted the phrase 'freely available edu resources' (how about the acronym FAER -- hmm, not sure). <br />
</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">John Robertson (@KavuBob) then proposed: 'free likely to be most important to learner, but oer & CC licence about added value/ possibility (& use in open ed?)'. We eventually agreed that instructors looking for something to reuse would want 'open', while individual learners would simply be happy with 'free.' But even instructors can reuse copyrighted material in teaching as long as they are careful to stay legal.<br />
</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">At that point I was thinking 'let's take this discussion into Google+ where we have more room to type!' </div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link">Below is a snippet of our Twitter conversation. What do you think? If 'open educational resources' does not really capture it, what would you suggest?<br />
</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1an_b4O6V3XCcJoO4Uah8GBZPFl8pPN2apBG-YZfHTwmIFWQTqif_YbOcARYm-e0-DmXE-xF6qPpDBhS3xsG_mSUt7-ayZzZu20n7I4LSAw8L6pXY9JJ9GVNImqtazY_Y3MIm03cxjxk/s1600/what-is-oer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317px" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1an_b4O6V3XCcJoO4Uah8GBZPFl8pPN2apBG-YZfHTwmIFWQTqif_YbOcARYm-e0-DmXE-xF6qPpDBhS3xsG_mSUt7-ayZzZu20n7I4LSAw8L6pXY9JJ9GVNImqtazY_Y3MIm03cxjxk/s320/what-is-oer.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"><br />
Terese Bird, Learning Technologist and <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a> Fellow</div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div><div class="tweet-text pretty-link"></div></div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-28410306347963188052011-07-07T07:43:00.000-07:002011-07-07T07:43:18.502-07:00Does Knowledge Need to be Free?Today I took part in <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15845220">Alec Couros' keynote</a> being live-streamed from the <a href="http://www.ece.salford.ac.uk/">Education in a Changing Environment Conference.</a> I was not at the conference, but I followed its Twitter stream #ece11. Alec's keynote was excellent, and clearly gave the participants much to discuss. I was particularly impressed that Alec tweeted during his own keynote, in order to reference links. What a great idea -- tweet out references which participants may be able to immediately investigate.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of s i n h a on Flickr</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But one thing Alec said made me stop and consider: "knowledge should be free." There was context to his statement which I was not present to fully appreciate, but it was during his description of open education. I am familiar with the idea that content which is taught is not an easily monetised commodity. When student decide to enroll in university, it is not just knowledge-content they are after; they want the experience, a connection with instructors and other students, and accreditation. Often, especially in a year one undergraduate module, the content being lectured on is freely attainable from a variety of sources, including Wikipedia. So against this backdrop, I can almost agree when someone says, "knowledge should be free."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>But should knowledge always be free? What about knowledge which was gained at a very high cost, such as research data requiring days, months, even years in a laboratory? What about knowledge carefully compiled and written in the hope of it being published as a book? <br />
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I cannot think of an exception to the 'rule' that knowledge gained at a high cost should be freely and widely available, even if it must be paid for at some point. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal">Woodward and Bernstein</a> invested much time and effort trying to get information about Watergate. When they finally got it, they knew they were duty-bound to publicise it as widely as possible. Of course, they got paid for their journalistic work, so the knowledge was freely available but one had to buy the newspaper.<br />
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I am working within the Open Educational Resources movement with the <a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/spider">SPIDER</a> project, because I believe there is much knowledge which can be given away without detriment to the giver, even to the benefit of both giver and recipient. However, I can see exceptions, and I will have to hammer these issues out as I progress. I'd be very interested in your thoughts on this!<br />
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Terese Bird,<br />
Learning Technologist, University of Leicester, and <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a> Fellow, Open UniversitySPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-18226763007631750642011-06-23T09:57:00.000-07:002011-06-23T09:57:39.244-07:00SPIDER: The Halfway Point<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have officially reached the halfway point of the SPIDER project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been fantastic getting the chance to meet with the iTunes U teams of the Open University, Oxford, and Nottingham, as well as to research issues related to open educational resource production, promotion, and impact along with supportive colleagues from each of the above institutions as well as my home University of Leicester. I especially appreciate the support of </span><a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">SCORE</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> colleagues and staff; it is a privilege to work alongside them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aLC3fPU9Rncv0f668pOr1oYnI3HlO9YToeDUgTW2OnnDtI-_q9lt8gPaKd61xSeMPxurqIVnJkb1ezWPM-glnd9gkkgTQqc17eEZ85Gtchyu-w6TffzY4JqosoQpA54bDTMg_yY_Vss/s1600/CameraEye-spider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aLC3fPU9Rncv0f668pOr1oYnI3HlO9YToeDUgTW2OnnDtI-_q9lt8gPaKd61xSeMPxurqIVnJkb1ezWPM-glnd9gkkgTQqc17eEZ85Gtchyu-w6TffzY4JqosoQpA54bDTMg_yY_Vss/s320/CameraEye-spider.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of CameraEye on Flickr</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If I were to consolidate what I have learned from each of the universities for whom I am studying their iTunes U implementation, I might say something like the following:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://open.edu/itunes/?req=http%3A//open.edu/itunes/&simigvis=MzYuMTU2Ljc5MDU1MTU1MzM2NDguMTMwNTY0NTY1NjAxNw__*&refer=http%3A//www.google.co.uk/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dopen+university+itunes+u%26meta%3D%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">Open University</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">: Over 34 million downloads, many files BBC quality, but as their Vice Chancellor Martin Bean said (this is my paraphrase), “It is not the slick presentation, but the great learning material which gets the most attention and encourages people to register.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://itunes.ox.ac.uk/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">University of Oxford</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">: Over 10 million downloads, mostly audio-only captured lectures and seminars. Much evidence of re-use by high school and secondary school teachers, as well as informal use by individuals.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/itunesu/index.aspx"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">University of Nottingham</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">: Real commitment to open educational resource production and sharing, of which iTunes U is only a part. Their </span><a href="http://xpert.nottingham.ac.uk/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">Xpert</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> OER search tool is outstanding and their </span><a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/xpert_project.htm"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Calibri;">Xerte</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> tool is equally amazing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In general, I and many others have seen that iTunes U is a great place to begin the discussion about open educational resources, because it has a “cool factor” (for want of a better term) which encourages academics and institutions to see the sharing of such resources as advantageous to themselves. This is necessary for any such project to be sustainable.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the second half of my project, there are case studies to be finished, comparisons and analyses to be made, and software to be tested. I plan to produce a basic quality-assurance workflow appropriate to iTunes U, as well as a “philosophical how-to” plan for institutions considering starting an iTunes U site in particular, and in the sharing of open educational resources in general.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks for sharing the journey.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Terese Bird, Learning Technologist and SCORE Fellow</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
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</div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-36823956817627657502011-05-18T06:37:00.000-07:002011-05-18T06:38:58.932-07:00SPIDER at OER11 - Open Educational Resources 2011Last week I joined the <a href="http://www.ucel.ac.uk/oer11/">OER11</a> conference in Manchester - Open Educational Resources 2011. This year, the conference was hosted by <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a>, through whom I am doing the <a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/spider">SPIDER</a> project. Not only did I present my SPIDER findings to date in the form of <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/tbirdcymru/i-tunesu-successfuloer11">"Is iTunes U a successful model of Open Educational Resource distribution?"</a> but due to scheduling gymnastics I was able to present it twice. It was fascinating to meet colleagues from Sweden's <a href="http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s/24982">Lund University</a>, Holland's <a href="http://opencourseware.weblog.tudelft.nl/2010/02/01/tu-delft-on-itunes-university">Delft University</a>, and <a href="http://web.mit.edu/itunesu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology,</a> all of which have iTunes U presences. I had previously heard a presentation about iTunes U at Delft, where it was stated that when a short video clip about a researcher's work was published on iTunes U or other OER channels, that researcher saw a noticeable rise in the number of PhD applicants and an improvement in applicants' quality. I also made a connection with another UK colleague, who described a more devolved use of iTunes U in which content creators at the university are able to upload content themselves to iTunes U-accessible server, rather than going through a 'gatekeeper.' It was a great chance to consolidate what I've learned so far and discuss OER implementations of all shapes and sizes with interesting and international OER folks.I hope I can attend OER12 in Cambridge next year.<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist, SCORE Fellow, and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo<br />
<a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance">Beyond Distance Research Alliance</a>, University of LeicesterSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-61277847649713094132011-03-21T11:00:00.000-07:002011-03-21T11:03:44.366-07:00Open Educational Resources: the Slick and the ScruffyMy colleague Gabi Witthaus (who works on another Beyond Distance project having to do with Open Educational Resources - <a href="http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/beyond-distance-research-alliance/projects/ostrich">OSTRICH</a>) recently showed me a chart she was trying to develop, of various repositories and channels of open educational resources (OER), placing them on a scale showing whether they are focused more on marketing of the institution or focused more on being a source of learning resources.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8uo0jUW3YRGsGlaFHKW_9eMWCd38pjWPW8YqkhtBroen6yQiSYh3i1mk6ePOTEYiZzU1ibXTTHOEXEFBDEfeu98lUCcHk5IFsh4m6Rqtkhthn5Ba_K3peDxxN88QIgAnLZo7amjoYHM/s1600/HanSolo-ChrisM70.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8uo0jUW3YRGsGlaFHKW_9eMWCd38pjWPW8YqkhtBroen6yQiSYh3i1mk6ePOTEYiZzU1ibXTTHOEXEFBDEfeu98lUCcHk5IFsh4m6Rqtkhthn5Ba_K3peDxxN88QIgAnLZo7amjoYHM/s320/HanSolo-ChrisM70.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who's scruffy-lookin? (Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrism70/">ChrisM70</a> on Flickr)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>In the case of iTunes U sites, which I am researching in the <a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/spider">SPIDER</a> project, this tension is even more pronounced. There is no doubt that having an iTunes U site is great for marketing an institution. The combination of "Apple gloss" and being listed with the best institutions such as Harvard, Oxbridge, and the Open University makes for a great profile. Some institutions' iTunes U offerings are extremely slick and serve as excellent marketing tools. And yet, iTunes U should benefit the current students as well. Maybe recorded lectures are not favoured by everyone, but many students find them very helpful, and they don't have to be BBC-quality in order to facilitate learning. Other kinds of recordings and publications can be very nicely downloaded and kept organised on the learner's computer or handheld device by iTunes U -- this should be exploited for current students in the institution.<br />
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Of course, slick iTunes U offerings can also be very good for learning. Slick is good. If OER is too scruffy it may not be usable. But I would argue that too much "slick consciousness" can hold back the release of OER which may very well serve a variety of learners. The learning purpose should not be lost to the marketing purpose.<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
<a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a> Fellow, Learning Technologist, and Assistant Keeper of the <a href="http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/beyond-distance-research-alliance/mediazoo">Media Zoo</a>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-52306313696336585312011-03-10T23:51:00.000-08:002011-03-14T09:33:05.753-07:00Positives and Negatives of iTunes UIn a recent presentation to partners working on another open educational resources (OER) project, <a href="http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/200267/pedagogic-research-and-scholarship/961/externally-funded-projects/11">TIGER,</a> I presented my first draft of a list of positives and negatives of iTunes U as a channel of free educational resources.This is a work in progress and I would like your opinion -- please comment.<br />
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<b>iTunes U Positives</b><br />
Excellent profile for institution<br />
Standard formats (mp3, mp4, pdf, epub)<br />
Downloading to Apple mobile devices is excellent<br />
Constant internet unnecessary to use files<br />
Very good search and keyword use<br />
Reaches places YouTube cannot (China, Turkey, others)<br />
Pushes OER agenda and brings university together in discussion<br />
Run by a corporation - sustainable<br />
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<b>iTunes U Negatives</b><br />
Not browser-based<br />
Issues with iTunes on public lab computers<br />
Material not easily accessed on nonApple mobile devices<br />
Not very good for conversation with learners<br />
Run by a corporation - learning second to making money on tunes<br />
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What have I missed?<br />
<br />
Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE</a> Fellow<br />
<a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance">University of Leicester Beyond Distance Research Alliance</a>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-29374759803040752402011-02-28T01:57:00.000-08:002011-02-28T02:04:29.615-08:00Use and Reuse of Open Educational Resources (OER)In a recent meeting of <a href="http://www8.open.ac.uk/score/">SCORE fellows</a> at the Open University, discussion arose about exactly what do we mean by reuse of OER. We agreed there are two issues: 1) is the OER being used, and 2) is the OER being adapted and then is the new version being used. Which of these two kinds of use consititutes 'reuse of OER' may be a question of semantics. To my mind, the real question is whether the OER is being used at all, adapted or otherwise.<br />
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I am therefore looking forward to a joint <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/education-and-languages/loro/">LORO</a>-SCORE impact event on 23rd March 2011 at the Open University entitled, 'OER in learning and teaching: Does it make a difference?' I plan to present some of my early findings regarding the use of learning materials distributed via iTunes U. It seems that iTunes U-distributed material is much more likely to be used as-is rather than adapted and repurposed. Some would say this proves that iTunes U-distributed material is therefore not true OER. Personally, I would state that the point is whether the material is used at all, and I am hearing many great stories from users of learning materials from iTunes U. <br />
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If you would like to take part in my survery regarding this particular topic as well as gathering data on mobile device use, I would be very grateful indeed: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/surveyitunesu">http://tinyurl.com/surveyitunesu</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahscalin/">Noah Scanlin</a> on Flickr</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgWu8Q66gDH3bgti9aRqgYF2msT5SGK1m7ZWZHA6WAJtXvTg7KPK0y2ywCKq0ew4oM5nttV2YXZbePUZ9c1Gb8oe0rh7O5LNZ7FXz0m37P4HdXlilhSFTRd7lPvuVh8-9_CJaTdWcehg/s1600/NoahScanlanReuseRecycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgWu8Q66gDH3bgti9aRqgYF2msT5SGK1m7ZWZHA6WAJtXvTg7KPK0y2ywCKq0ew4oM5nttV2YXZbePUZ9c1Gb8oe0rh7O5LNZ7FXz0m37P4HdXlilhSFTRd7lPvuVh8-9_CJaTdWcehg/s320/NoahScanlanReuseRecycle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-65653262434879089272011-02-03T23:45:00.000-08:002011-02-03T23:45:06.593-08:00Having a "Mobile Strategy"I have been to two conference-type gatherings recently, in which the question arose, "Does your university have a mobile strategy?"<br />
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The first was the European Apple Leadership Summit which took place 11 January 2011 and about which I blogged in two parts for the Beyond Distance Research Alliance blog -- <a href="http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/european-apple-leadership-summit-part-1/">part 1</a> and <a href="http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/european-apple-leadership-summit-part-2/">part 2</a>. In that meeting it was stated that 40% of USA universities have an explicitly-stated mobile strategy. The second time I heard this was when I attended the <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/mLearn/?p=460">Open University Winter Mobile Learning Festival</a>, a wonderful showcase of the various ways in which the OU is beginning to address students' growing assumptions that they should be able to access their learning materials on their mobile devices.<br />
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Having a mobile strategy is a policy that is, in a way, being forced upon educators. While central service providers of institutions struggle to consider which platforms, if any, to support, especially during a time of economic downturn and possibly less resources with which to launch new systems support of any kind, students are arriving on campus with iPads, iPhones, and Android phones -- and soon Android tablets... not to mention Windows 7 phones which are making a slow start but seem to be a pleasing product.<br />
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Does your institution have a mobile strategy? If not, what sort of mobile strategy would you like to see being adopted?<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
SPIDER Project, Beyond Distance Research AllianceSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-58097915596863691772011-01-14T05:33:00.000-08:002011-01-14T05:34:12.271-08:00A Few Thoughts about E-Books and iTunes ULate in 2010, several iTunes U universities including Oxford and the Open University began to publish proper e-books on their iTunes U site. Even though pdfs have already been been able to be distributed through iTunes U, a pdf is not quite an e-book, is it? This particular question is for another blog post. <br />
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The advantage of e-books on iTunes U is that they can be made to work with the iBooks app, which can render media-rich e-books. Not only can you read the book and have nice colour pictures (unlike with many e-readers), you can have a nice colour movie clip embedded, or sounds, or a chart of data which you can re-sort and re-jig to get exactly the output you need.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rpl2Nqm8BkWTgWJy1it-Bwbt1Y4XtPTx-LhUjJ3_OTTWAzSH3ZJ87RMdO_Ejj3s8fTUI4Ci30a4VmqMxVka6ttMPweNDnJx7ES-Ci-zTreu8OHEvS01_sOSj3ZiLQssj2W2jHEShDpU/s1600/ipadebook-shiftstigma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rpl2Nqm8BkWTgWJy1it-Bwbt1Y4XtPTx-LhUjJ3_OTTWAzSH3ZJ87RMdO_Ejj3s8fTUI4Ci30a4VmqMxVka6ttMPweNDnJx7ES-Ci-zTreu8OHEvS01_sOSj3ZiLQssj2W2jHEShDpU/s320/ipadebook-shiftstigma.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">iBooks on the iPad - the little photo could have been a little movie. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shiftstigma/">shiftstigma</a> on Flickr</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The difficulty here is that this kind of e-book is not very open. My understanding is that these e-books are multimedia-rich epub documents. You can view an epub on a variety of devices and on any computer operating system, but iBooks are Apple-only. They require the iBooks app. I have used iBooks on my iPad and it's an extremely beautiful thing. I had trouble using iBooks on my iPod Touch. Presumably I can go to the new App Store and try iBooks on a Mac computer; I haven't done this yet. Have you tried this? If so, please leave a comment --- any good? How about iBooks on an iPhone?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Up until now, Apple seems to have made sure that files coming down through iTunes U can be viewed/listened to on Windows computers at no extra cost. iBooks e-books seems to be a diversion from this strategy -- so far. iBooks for Windows -- will it come to pass?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Terese Bird</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Learning Technologist, SCORE Fellow, and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-21484272677626140992010-12-17T07:35:00.000-08:002010-12-17T08:22:09.127-08:00Intercontinental Re-use and Re-purposing of OERs<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Last week I had the privilege of attending a seminar at the Open University entitled "Creating OER for use in Business Schools in Africa: what have we learned so far?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>where I learnt about and discussed an <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/news/ou-news/business-school-professor-works-with-ghanaian-business-schools">ABLE Ghana</a> event involving Five Ghanaian instructors on an OER-focused visit to the Open University. Not having even really heard of open educational resources before, they were tasked with creating two OERs in two weeks: one for them to use in their own teaching, and the second for a colleague to use. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXCXsTxKJvo0hyVWfF9APZtl3tbtqsBvuBs0vFffXiGl-pTJdhyphenhyphenqLfvfwNbJTluyhryxLVw8DxyYKwS8t0kTRpKhWETyH_cAmIW-qA5NAGK7jE_Td4_YspUSDJBIKwFfe_nOmwNb_oSI/s1600/Obama-Monde-Perso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXCXsTxKJvo0hyVWfF9APZtl3tbtqsBvuBs0vFffXiGl-pTJdhyphenhyphenqLfvfwNbJTluyhryxLVw8DxyYKwS8t0kTRpKhWETyH_cAmIW-qA5NAGK7jE_Td4_YspUSDJBIKwFfe_nOmwNb_oSI/s1600/Obama-Monde-Perso.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A re-purposed image in Ghana - (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mondeperso/">Monde Perso, Flickr</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Each instructor spoke enthusiastically about their OERs, all of which were collaborative efforts. They used the Open University <a href="http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/">OpenLearn</a> site to find suitable OERs to start with, then used <a href="http://labspace.open.ac.uk/">LabSpace</a> to put their OERs together, and to make their new resulting OERs available for others. For example, one created an Excel spreadsheet teaching double-entry bookkeeping. Prior to this, he had always taught students to do their bookkeeping manually. It seems to me that in this case, part of that OER's message was its medium.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I had opportunity to ask these instructors what they expected would be the attitude of students to their new OERs. They replied that their students might like the OERs especially because they were based on material originating in the UK, but they did need to repurpose them so that they were in context most helpful for students in Ghana.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Another point raised was that, at best, 50% of theirstudents had previous training in the use of IT, and that the university network was prone to crashes and down time. So I asked, "What percentage of your students have a hand-held device which will play mp3 files?" 80% came the reply. I asked further, "What percentage of your students have a hand-held device which will play video?" 40% was the reply to that question. I suggested that it made sense to look at methods of making sound and video files available to students in such a way that they could be downloaded to devices and taken away from the internet.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">And I wondered to myself what these percentages are for students in UK, and how quickly are we in the UK adapting our learning materials so that students can capture and consume them using their own handheld devices. This question has implications for the use of iTunes U-distributed resources.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The seminar was an excellent chance to showcase some examples of OER repurposing, not only from one institution to another but from one continent to another. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Terese Bird</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Learning Technologist, Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo, and SPIDER Principal Investigator</span></div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-28720968265792125042010-12-02T09:55:00.000-08:002010-12-02T09:55:00.277-08:00Apps v Free and Open Internet?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqBOzTIL1Ob0104wXYBdGMYZSk4_fTMIEQSHEiZKTyMpS0t7zku570CypF2NMQDR_bLPfE5yYAszC1HyRJiqONLeX9PtQLaPwL2Gm9Em8hOcqXWIMQJ39O1tvKQrfyZZ5JucpL20LU-Y/s1600/nickweinrauch-silos.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickweinrauch/">Nick Weinrauch</a>, Flickr</td></tr>
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Continuing in a just-now-decided series of looks at "iTunes U in the Blogosphere," I refer now to a blog post from last year by Jim Groom, "<a href="http://bavatuesdays.com/5-reasons-i-dont-like-itunesu/">5 reasons I don't like iTunesU</a>." It is a good blog post, with many excellent comments posted afterwards.<br />
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Reason number one got my attention: "Don't trust anything without a URL." The blogger's point here is that URL-based hyperlinks which take the user to a browser is the one way to have a free and open internet environment. He quotes an <a href="http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/11/16/the-death-of-the-url/">article by Matt Gold</a>, saying the "app store mentality is killing the internet." <br />
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I argued similarly in my blog post with Beyond Distance "<a href="http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/the-end-of-the-world-wide-web-surf-as-we-know-it/">The End of the World Wide Web Surf As We Know It</a>?" where I wrote "app proliferation feels like a step backward into separate platform silos."<br />
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But now I am questioning myself. Is the fact that we acquire content by an application other than a browser an indication of less openness, less freedom on the web? If the application itself is free and readily available, perhaps that's enough. It should also be available on every operating system. Some criticise iTunes U solely on the basis that it does not run on Linux, and I will not say that is a trivial point.<br />
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But apps are here to stay, because mobile internet is here to stay. For many users, internet just has to be mobile; and in many cases and for many reasons with mobile internet, the app simply works better than the browser. So the goal of educators who believe in open educational resource (OER) sharing is to maintain a free and open internet environment, conducive to sharing of OERs, even if one uses an app.<br />
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What do you think? Please leave a comment!<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and SPIDER Investigator<br />
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</div>SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-85840058187534808612010-11-18T13:19:00.000-08:002010-11-18T13:25:35.634-08:00iTunes U in UK UniversitiesA short while ago, David Hawkridge (Open University Professor Emeritus and visiting professor and mentor of our Beyond Distance team) wrote an excellent blog post on the topic of iTunes U in UK Universities. It was published on the Beyond Distance blog and I link to it <a href="http://tinyurl.com/32tmaz9">here</a>. It includes reference to his own publication about Open Educational Resources which includes a section about iTunes U.<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and Assistant Keeper of the Media Zoo, Beyond Distance Research AllianceSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-42899941884852185212010-11-18T05:21:00.000-08:002010-11-18T05:48:45.028-08:00iTunes U Learning Material: Beyond Lecture Capture?What sort of learning material is made available on iTunes U? How are universities and students making use of the learning material available on iTunes U? Are universities using iTunes U material in their live current programmes?<br />
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<a href="http://www.apple.com/education/ipodtouch-iphone/">iTunes U boasts participation</a> from more than 800 universities worldwide. A quick review of their sites reveals that the majority seem to be offering recordings of live lectures, some audio-only, some both video and audio. Though still somewhat controversial, lecture capture is being done at many universities especially in North America, Australia, South Korea, and the UK. Even if one disagrees with the pedagogic argument for lecture capture, it is hard to disagree very strongly with the simple practical benefits of having a good recording of the lecture to review. <br />
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But what might iTunes U have to offer beyond captured lectures? <br />
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Pennsylvania State University's iTunes U site contains at least two collections of student-created podcasts and enhanced podcasts, presumably submitted by the students for assessment. The Open University offers podcasts of Spanish language for beginners. It is not clear to me whether the Spanish podcasts are for use in current programmes, but they certainly could be.<br />
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Are you, or do you know of anyone who is, producing iTunes U learning material other than captured lectures? Add a comment!<br />
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Terese Bird<br />
Learning Technologist and Assistant Media ZooKeeper, Beyond Distance Research Alliance<br />
University of LeicesterSPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-478826458404490797.post-30737526511600148212010-11-02T07:34:00.000-07:002010-11-02T07:34:54.725-07:00Welcome to SPIDER!Welcome to SPIDER's first web (presence)! The SPIDER project is Sharing Practice with iTunes U Digital Educational Resources. The purpose of this project is to investigate and model and disseminate information about the development and release of educational resources through iTunes U by UK universities.<br />
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By most reckoning, iTunes U is not considered a proper repository of open educational resources (OER). However, it distributes many educational resources, for free, and technologically speaking, these resources can be repurposed if one knows how. It certainly has a place in the OER discussion.<br />
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What do you think? How close is iTunes U to being an OER repository?SPIDER Projecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913751762057257891noreply@blogger.com4