OER Chatter

First Monday Article

2008-12-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to this Wikiversity course, please have a look at the article I co-authored with Norm Friesen (Canada Research Chair, eLearning) of Thompson Rivers University. Wikiversity; or education meets the free culture movement: An ethnographic investigation was published in the October 2008 issue of First Monday.

Week 10 - More Course Feedback

2008-05-07T14:10:00.001-07:00

Goodbye Wikiversity course participants. This is probably my last post for this course. I managed to add comments to a few more blogs this week. I'll be visiting others that are updated in the final week because I don't want to miss any of your remarks, photos, video, etc. Congratulations to the facilitators and participants for making this experience possible. I have appreciated and learned from

Week 9 - Evaluation and Feedback

2008-05-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today, I visited more course participants' blogs and posted comments. I haven't visited everyone's blog yet, but will try to complete that task in week 10.I continue to learn each week from this Wikiversity course experience. I am building on my own knowledge about OER and open source software, but I have also acquired some useful skills. The facilitators have provided us with really valuable

Week 8 - Sharing Video

2008-04-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

The following video is a presentation given by Catherine Casserly:"Open Educational Resources: Unlocking Knowledge to the Global Community."Assistive Technology at a GlanceThis is a 30 second video that I recorded on a digital camera. It is short because the camera would only record for 30 seconds at a time. It was filmed in my classroom this afternoon. It's not very good quality and my camera

Week 7 - Sharing Audio

2008-04-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

First, I reviewed two types of audio software: Audacity and TextAloudMP3. However, I ended up registering for a free account on Odeo.comI simply used the audio recording tool on Odeo to record my description of my house. I thought that was much easier than installing more software on my computer. I already have TextAloudMP3 on my computer, but it generates a synthesized computer voice.I took

Week 6 - Taking and Sharing Pictures

2008-04-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

Photography is something that I do on an informal basis, without ever having done any reading or courses on technique. So, I decided to make the most of this opportunity to actually learn something about photographic technique.I started by reading all of the Digital Photography Composition tipsI think these are valuable concepts to keep in mind. I use a digital camera quite regularly in my

Week 5 - Wikipedia and Wikimedia

2008-03-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Three articles are assigned for this week:*How and Why Wikipedia Works: An Interview with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko.*The Hidden Order of Wikipedia *Wikimedia ProjectsFirst, I read the interview and was impressed by the years of dedication to Wikipedia development shown by the three interviewees. I was also struck by the complexity of the Wikipedia organization. It is amazing

Week 4 - Copyright and Alternatives

2008-03-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

This week we are reviewing three online resources: * The Idea of Copyright - History of copyright law from Wikipedia. * Free Culture - Watch the presentation by Lawrence Lessig. * Licensing and Creative Commons - Towards a Global Learning Commons: ccLearn By Ahrash Bissell and Jamie Boyle.First, I decided to listen to Lawrence Lessig's presentation on free culture.

Week 3 - Assignment

2008-03-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

---In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?"(1784), Immanuel Kant described it simply as freedom to use one's own intelligence.--- (Source: Wikipedia Age of Enlightenment)This quote from the Wikipedia article, Age of Enlightenment, is a worthy starting point for commentary on the Week 3 readings. The common theme shared by The Enlightenment with the open source and OER movements is the concept

Week 2 - Wikiversity Page Creation

2008-03-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

Assistive TechnologyI logged onto Wikiversity on Monday, March 10/08 to search for an entry on the topic of assistive technology, as I wanted to create content about that topic. There was no page on this topic, so I searched for adaptive technology. No topic page could be found for adaptive technology or special education technology. I did find a page on Web Design/Accessibility, which I noted as

Week 1 - Review of OER Web Sites

2008-03-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

Open University's Open Content Initiative (OpenLearn)First, I wanted to learn about Open University in order to better understand their Open Content Initiative.By visiting the OU site, I learned that OU offers supported open learning, or distance learning, for credit. It is open to students outside the UK and provides access to post-secondary study for individuals who may not qualify for study in

Comments on Ilkka Tuomi’s article, Open Educational Resources: What They Are and Why Do They Matter?

2008-03-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

It’s interesting that I have just started blogging for this Wikiversity course and another one that I am taking at the same time through Thompson Rivers University. It’s a new experience and quite a useful way to interact with instructors and classmates. I think it is exciting to be part of a global classroom for this course. Here are my comments on Ilkka Tuomi’s article:For me, the intriguing

Hello Wikiversity Bloggers

2008-03-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

My name is Janet Hopkins and I live, work and go to school in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. I've been a secondary school teacher since 1981 with instructional experience in general and special education courses. My school district (Kamloops/Thompson School District 73) has deployed desktop Linux in its elementary and secondary schools. I've written a number of freelance articles about open

Wikiversity

2008-02-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

This is my blog for the course Composing Free and Open Online Educational Resources. The course starts on March 3rd, 2008 and is offered through Wikiversity at http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Composing_free_and_open_online_educational_resources