Rheinard’s UB Blog

This post is just a result of a short conversation that I had with a fellow worker. We were looking at our E-Learning requirements for 2008, it seems that the general feel pretty much anywhere is - “we do not have the content”. This is a very real consideration, but by no means the end of getting a course on-line.

In the last 10 years we’ve never had such an ocean of opportunity before us as we do now. Collaboration technology, communication technology, social networks and of course mobile devices. We’re slowly starting to reprogram our engrained way of thinking. If there is anything that we can learn from these trends, it is this - We are no longer in control. Don’t fight it, Embrace it!

What does this have to do with content? What if we were to rethink the way we assess our students, in such a way that their assessments wont just be a bit of paper that gets marked, handed back and thrown away? What if we can harness the work that they’re expected to be assessed on, grade it and contribute it back to the class. Giving them a much greater sense of ownership of the content they generated. Content that will now benefit them, but also benefit other students in the years to come. RE-USABLE content.

This is an early thought that requires much more planning and formation, but utilizing the true potential of constructivist tools, such as a wiki, we can build content that is not only unique, but easy to manage and always current!

I know right now copyright of the work is a thought that comes to mind (if it doesnt, it should!). How would we manage all this student generated content, would they give us the rights to do so, how would they do it? Enter Creative Commons, finding a CC license that suits the needs of the students are easy. They can restrict the way in which we use the content, but still with the freedom that future students will benefit. (Forget about selling their content!)

Lets find a way to work with our students and fill up all those empty BlackBoard sections!

Lee Lefever’s done it again by making a very short video illustrating how twitter works - Twitter in Plain English. If you haven’t used Twitter yet, or have heard lots about it and are unsure of how or why to use it, hopefully this video will help.

If you are a Twitter user (new or old), maybe some of these tools might make your Twitter experience a bit more manageable and enjoyable:

Twitterlicious - FREE software for the PC to quickly see your friend’s tweets and post

Twitterrific - a great little twitter app for the MAC (regrettably, not free)
(UPDATE: Ged Maheux, from IconFactory [creators of Twitterrific], informed in the comment that it is free. Registration is to remove the ad bars. Thanks Ged)

TwitBin - if you love FireFox, you’ll love this plugin. It brings twitter right into your favorite browser.

TweetMeme - find tweets about the most popular tweets on the twitted network. (now if only someone would integrate this into an application - if you know of any, let me know!)

(UPDATE)
Twhirl - Another exciting addition to the world of easy twittering. It is a cross-platform Twitter client that runs on the Adobe Air framework (which really excites me! I’d love to see more Air apps!). You need to have Adobe Air installed for Twhirl to work (link available at the Twhirl website).

Enjoy Twitter!

Time for a talk on creative commons! Click here to find out what Creative Commons is!

One of the things that many lecturers/teachers/facilitators are often concerned about is how precious their content is to them. You might sometimes hear the following - “I’ve spent so much time doing these notes!”, “I did all these notes a few years ago, shared it, but no one was willing to share with me. Now I just keep it to myself”. So often we sympathize with them because we have gone through the same thing. We design our content, which is so precious to us, that we don’t want to share it in fear of what other teachers might think; that they will just pick it up and use it without gratitude; that they would take the content, mix it up and then share it as theirs. (Just a side thought, where did you create that content? Home? Work? Does that determine who owns the content?)

What if we didn’t live in a world where our content was so precious? What if we could create content that other’s can use, mix, reuse the way we want them to use? We do live in that world. An initiative called Creative Commons is an organization that has done all the hard legal work to create licenses (checked by many lawyers around the globe, including here in Australia) we can apply to our created works (class notes, music, audio, videos, etc.)

You go to the Creative Commons website and choose a license that allows people to use your work the way you want them to. Whether it is to use it as is (as long as the credit you), for commercial, for editing and adapting (with limitations).

We’re talking about a world where content is open. A world that many teachers fear, because they believe they wont get credit where credit is due, but how much more rewarding is it when you know that people are actually USING your work? (and at the same time getting your name mentioned )

Sounds hard to do as a teacher? What about being a world class Architect that asks thousands to design amazing buildings? Would they give their time away to draw houses and buildings that just anyone can use? No? Think again!

In 2006 world class Architect Cameron Sinclair spoke at a TED (technology entertainment design) conference. Talking about an idea that seems crazy. People giving building plans away for free… for humanitarian work though, but not even making a single cent from their hard work. In 2006 the world’s first Creative Commons House was built.

He then started an idea of “open source” housing and the following website came to life: Open Architecture Network

This website lists millions of designs from thousands of architects who embraced this visionary idea. Each project is licensed using the chosen Creative Commons license of the architect. This license is listed on the project page which links you to the Creative Commons website with more information about the license (and you can even view the legal code).

An incredible thought. Millions of lives changed daily by the contributions of thousands.

I was thinking about this in light of the 2008 Horizon report which suggests that in the next 2 - 3 years there will be a common adoption amongst educational institutions to use big data mashups - that means, using bits of content here and there (possibly your content) and reconstructing it for a different purpose than the original intent. Steve Pallett actually posted an article that refreshed my mind over on the ELBlog.

And yesterday I heard a horrible story, which was my first prompt for writing this post. A local school, which will remain unnamed, had to make use of a temporary teacher that replaced one of their current teachers. This teacher had a language barrier, the environment in which was taught was not the ideal environment for the technology used, and the kids did not receive the best education they deserve. Upon finishing class one day, one of the students asked the teacher if she could have his PowerPoint notes, so that she and her friends could form a study group. The teacher’s reply was shocking… “It took me a long time to make these notes, I cant give it to you”.

Yes copyright is a big concern. It is something we all have a right to as soon as we’ve created something, but why do we have this creativity and knowledge if we are not sharing it. I’m not saying give your content away for free, but at least consider the rights you give those who end up with your work.