10 Open Source Tools For Busy Teachers - Edudemic

If you need some powerful software right now and don't have time or money to waste, these open source tools are perfect for you.

Read more at: http://www.edudemic.com/2013/06/10-open-source-tools-for-busy-teachers/

Sugata Mitra TED 2013 winning talk

Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
 
Read More here ~ http://bit.ly/XcKalA ;

See the video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/zpcEpmNbHds ;

Aaron Swartz: The Documentary - Teaser

A new documentary about the internet pioneer and activist, Aaron Swartz. Currently on Kickstarter!

Aaron, noted for his work on RSS and Creative Commons, died for his belief that knowledge should be freely accessible.

See it on Scoop.it, via ICT for Education and Development

Open Source Software and Open Educational Resources

Open source software (OSS) and open educational resources (OER) share a common heritage and philosophy - they are both about giving everyone access and permission to use, change and re-use material.
Find out more about open source software and open educational resources (OER), so that you can use them in your teaching and learning.

Read more at: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/open-source

Open Educational Resources: Opening Access to Knowledge

IRRODL, Vol 14, No 2 (2013). Special Issue - Open Educational Resources: Opening Access to Knowledge

Special issues give our readers and our authors an opportunity to focus on a theme of particular relevance. Certainly open educational resources, open courses, open publishing of scholarly works, and most recently open courses are particularly relevant issues to all distance educators and researchers.

The issue was aptly edited by Rory McGreal, Athabasca University,  Wanjira Kinuthia, Georgia State University, and Stewart Marshall, The University of the West Indies, with technical assistance from Tim McNamara.

Issue published at: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/56

Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

NOW AVAILABLE:

Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning:
Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

Rory McGreal, Wanjira Kinuthia and Stewart Marshall, Eds. May 2013

Published jointly by the Commonwealth of Learning and Athabasca University, Canada (UNESCO/COL Chair in OER) as CC-BY-SA and freely available to all: www.col.org/psOERIRP. Available in PDF and epub formats.

This book is one in a series of OER resources published by COL. It describes the OER movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER's significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters, written by some of the leading international experts on the subject, are organised into four parts by theme:
OER in AcademiaOER in Practice:Diffusion of OERProducing, Sharing and Using OER
Instructional designers, curriculum developers, educational technologists, teachers, researchers, students, others involved in creating, studying or using OER: all will find this timely resource informative and inspiring.

Open Source software's opportunity to reform government

The results from the 2013 Future of Open Source Survey are in — thanks to everyone who contributed by completing the survey. You can read an overview of the results here, or see the detailed breakdowns in the slides at the end of this post.

Read more at: http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2013/04/open-source-softwares-opportunity-to-reform-government.html

Large-Scale 1:1 Computing Initiatives: An Open Access Database

This article details the spread and scope of large-scale 1:1 computing initiatives around the world. What follows is a review of the existing literature around 1:1 programs followed by a description of the large-scale 1:1 database. Main findings include: 1) the XO and the Classmate PC dominate large-scale 1:1 initiatives; 2) if professional development was conducted within a 1:1 initiatives, it was done at the onset of the project by venders of the hardware; 3) funding for 1:1 initiatives appears to be provided initially but not as a reoccurring expense.

Read full article at: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=1584

A summary of Open Development

Why a focus on Open Development in Knowledge Societies?

Robin Mansell presented a summary of the conclusions of the event Open Development: Exploring the future of the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean in her intervention at the IV Ministerial Conference on the Information Society for Latin America and the Caribbean. Robin Mansell is a Professor of New Media and the Internet at the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics, and she was the keynote speaker at Open Development with the presentation Imagining the internet: Open, Closed or In Between.

Read her summary here: http://www.info25.org/en/sum-opendev

Open Educational Resources in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions

"OER is a burning topic in Malaysia, and many more institutions are in the process of embracing this movement." (Zaid Ali Alsagoff)

See it on Scoop.it, via ICT for Education and Development

ODDC Project

The Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries (ODDC) project aims to to establish practical and actionable knowledge about effective strategies for employing open data as means to achieve greater quality of openness in government, support citizens’ rights, and promote more inclusive development in developing countries.

Read more at: http://www.opendataresearch.org/emergingimpacts/

Seventh Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF7)

Deadline reminder: Call for abstracts and proposals
The deadline for submitting papers and proposals for PCF7 is 30 April 2013. All papers and proposals must address Open Learning for Development: Towards Empowerment and Transformation through one of PCF7's five themes: Girls' and Women's Education; Skills Development; Promoting Open Educational Resources (OER); Innovation and Technology; and, Institutional Development
PCF7 will take place in Abuja, Nigeria from 2 to 6 December 2013, co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). It is a dynamic event with a variety of formats to enable participation, knowledge sharing, learning and networking. Apart from paper presentations there will also be a variety of activities that address the interests and expectations of different participants.

www.col.org/PCF7
www.col.org/PCF7Submissions

Developing countries to get access to 12,000 online research books

Research and academic communities in the developing world are set to benefit from free access to online books.
Global academic publishing company John Wiley & Sons has made 12,200 online books available via the Research4Life initiatives — Access to Research in Health (HINARI), Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture and Online Access to Research in the Environment — to 80 low and middle-income countries.

Read more at: http://www.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/icts/news/developing-countries-to-get-access-to-12-000-online-research-books-1.html

EU Opens Up Access to Scientific Research

New scientific research must be published for free online, the vice-president of the European Commission said, in a move designed to increase the knowledge pool open to small business and lead to more innovative products.
All scientists receiving European Union funding will have to publish their results in an open-access format, Neelie Kroes, the commissioner responsible for Europe’s digital agenda, said Monday in Stockholm.  Ms. Kroes also  launched the global Research Data Alliance — a group committed to pooling and co-ordinating scientific data so it can be shared better.

Read more at: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/03/19/eu-opens-up-access-to-scientific-research/?mod=rss_Europe_Technology

Open Academic Resources Offers Education Opportunities in Emerging Economies

The launch of the Research Data Alliance this week could have major implications for the future of the academic community, bridging major institutions and driving collaborative innovation. Yet the benefits of world universities opening their gates are more lateral than vertical, strengthening ties within communities that are already educationally privileged.  How do developing countries stand to benefit from open knowledge projects?

Read more at: http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/23626/will-open-academic-resources-emerging-economies-level-playing-field-education

Open Access Nairobi

The Open Access movement appears to be gaining ground, with the oldest and largest university in Kenya, the University of Nairobi, having adopted an Open Access policy in December 2012. The need for change had been heavily emphasised by researchers who concluded that an Open Access policy would allow them the opportunity and platform to promote their academic work and enhance the visibility and impact of their research through a public archive of all scholarly materials. But what other benefits will the University gain through this Open Access policy, and why is this so significant?

More details at: http://www.elearning-africa.com/eLA_Newsportal/open-access-nairobi/

Open access to knowledge will boost Africa’s development

Since October 2010, when Stellenbosch University became the first African higher education institution to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the number of signatories on the continent has grown to 28 – in just two years.
The Berlin Declaration dates from 2003 and was initiated by the Max Planck Society of Germany. It is regarded as a milestone of the open access movement.
It promotes unrestricted access to scientific knowledge and cultural heritage, and more than 400 institutions worldwide have already signed it.

Read more at: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20121120105009782

ODTA.net is the new home of the Open Development Technology Alliance

We are proud to announce that the Open Development Technology Alliance (ODTA) launched its new portal ODTA.NET a knowledge platform aiming to give voice to citizens and improve accountability by offering ways to provide feedback on public services.
ODTA aims to enhance accountability and improve the delivery and quality of public services through technology-enabled citizen engagement. The ODTA is an initiative of The World Bank, anchored by theWorld Bank Institute, the Social Development Department and the ICT Sector Unit of The World Bank.

Read more: http://zunia.org/post/odtanet-is-the-new-home-of-the-open-development-technology-alliance-0

School of Open will launch during Open Education Week

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.
As promised, the School of Open is launching its first set of courses during Open Education Week, March 11-15, 2013.

More details at: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36913

The Politics of Open Source Software - A trend towards liberalization in E-Government

This paper is synthesizing world policies regarding the adoption of software in the public sector. The point of interest is represented by policies from the EU and how they evolved in time, but there will be presented a few cases of policy making from other countries because they represented milestones and best practices regarding policy making. The public sector is a huge consumer for the software and hardware industry, thus policy making regarding software adoption has to be at the best level possible to ensure that the best decision in economical terms is being taken.

Read more at: http://zunia.org/post/the-politics-of-open-source-software-a-trend-towards-liberalization-in-e-government