Disqus - Latest Comments for tom4cam

Re: Oahu Day 1

tom4cam — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:07:59 -0000

I hope you brought enough chocolate to share with the rest of the class.

Re: Publishing Open Textbooks to Lulu and Create Space

tom4cam — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:28:55 -0000

I like it! I'll play around with CreateSpace a bit more, but that might be the way to go. Hopefully we can talk Amazon into supporting CC and playing nice with open sharing. I shouldn't have to give them bank info.

Re: Thoughts on Conducting Research in MOOCs

tom4cam — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:39:13 -0000

Michael, count yourself lucky to have a PhD committee chair with a great network and the willingness to blog on your behalf!

I am following the LAK12 course with a friend at MIT using some shared annotation tools and social media, but mostly via telephone. The technology may have improved over the years, but I find it's the "buddy system" that keeps me going more than anything else.

The "C" in "MOOC" could mean a lot of things. I hardly know what "course" means anymore in the context of a MOOC. I'm interested in flexible interactions with the right people and around a compelling topic. Lifelong learning comes in many shapes and sizes. Best of luck in your MOOC research!

Re: E-Textbook Vendor Sues Publisher for Ending Licensing Agreement

tom4cam — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:32:20 -0000

Yep, the Open Course Library and many other OER solutions come in a variety of formats that keep getting better. We don't sue people for taking notes -- or for improving/adapting/translating our materials. We thank them.

Re: Utah Open Textbook Announcement Press

tom4cam — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:39:46 -0000

This is a great step forward! Partnering with CK12.org will also empower
K-12 instructors to customize these open textbooks, while still meeting
appropriate curriculum standards. Let’s be clear: this is about
leveraging high quality content that is both digital and openly
licensed. This is a winning combination that unlocks the potential of
teaching and learning in a wide variety of formats (including print).

Re: A Big Day for Open Policy

tom4cam — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:34:13 -0000

David, I agree that some of the concerns raised at the hearings are very valid. Rep. Carlyle has generated some important discussion through his proposed legislation. They key question is if an open license should be mandated for all publicly funded educational materials across all public institutions of higher education in Washington. Based on the conversation yesterday, perhaps a more strategic approach involves getting high quality, open textbooks in place first. I think it's less about IF and more about WHEN we set the default to open.

Re: BYU scholar is a leader in advancing education technology | The Salt Lake Tribune

tom4cam — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:55:22 -0000

Congratulations, David!

Re: Going Open: Lessons Learned from the Open Course Library

tom4cam — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:19:27 -0000

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vel nulla vestibulum semper in cursus lorem.CaPRéT Demo Source : http://capret.mitoeit.org/d... License: http://creativecommons.org/... Author: MIT Office of Educational Innovation and Technology and Tatemae

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

tom4cam — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:33:24 -0000

I'm afraid I don't have a solution for this. Does anyone else have an idea?

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

tom4cam — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:27:51 -0000

Hmm, I'm not sure why this is happening. Sorry!

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

tom4cam — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:27:09 -0000

Thanks for adding those points! I don't think the Android contact importer app existed when I wrote this blog post a couple years ago!

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

tom4cam — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:25:44 -0000

Since the Android system is designed by Google, all your Gmail contact should automatically transfer over as long as you have wifi or some kind of Internet connection. I'm assuming you are using the same Google account for your Gmail and your Android phone.

Re: U.S. Official No 'Textbook Rebel'

tom4cam — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:15:18 -0000

I hardly think we can afford to be cynical about a key component of our national college affordability crisis. As Cable Green has pointed out, we have all the necessary ingredients to significantly decrease costs: (1) digital formats, (2) web-based distribution, and (3) open licenses. All three together provide a means for rapid, legal sharing of learning content.

Here in Washington State, we are working with college faculty to redesign our 81 highest enrolling courses using high quality, openly licensed, freely shareable materials. It is happening. The first 42 courses will be ready at the end of October 2012. We expect that as these materials are adopted completion rates will increase because all students will be able to afford the proper materials for their courses.

The 470,000 students attending Washington's colleges come from varying backgrounds. Most are from working-class families, some are single parents, some are young, some are older. It is unacceptable to dismiss a decade of skyrocketing textbook costs simply because some college students waste money on iPhones, fancy clothes, and parties. I reject the cynics and applaud those who are searching for ways to make quality education affordable to all. So long, Mr. $200 textbook. We've found a better deal.

Re: College students more likely to fail online

tom4cam — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 01:34:38 -0000

Let's not forget that online learning is emerging as a new option that provides additional opportunities to those who cannot or prefer not to drive to a regular campus. Like college, online learning is not for everyone -- it comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. But keep in mind that no one is being forced to take online classes. They are often offered *in addition* to traditional, face to face classes. So from a student's perspective, how is having another option a bad thing?

Re: Reflections on Educause Institute

tom4cam — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:11:37 -0000

Brandon, I agree that Rogers' 5 factors to adoption are certainly no guarantee of adoption. There are usually political factors at play -- something Rogers doesn't address here. Sometimes subtle politicking explains why great projects never get off the ground while mediocre ones can get huge exposure.

Re: Publishers Criticize Federal Investment in Open Educational Resources

tom4cam — Sat, 28 May 2011 15:05:21 -0000

(reposting comment from Thursday -- it was omitted for some reason)

RWEJD,

I appreciate your criticisms. I take a fairly practical approach to
the open licensing of educational content, and I see no reason to
exclude publishers from this discussion. Should the government require
an open license on all these materials? Absolutely.

What publishers are experiencing is a sped-up version of the
disruption that occurred to icemen with the invention and spread of
electric refrigerators. Some in the ice delivery industry made the
transition to selling refrigerators and some did not, largely because
some were focused on keeping food cool and others were only focused on
selling ice.

If Pearson won’t take $X million to create an openly licensed, high
quality Human Anatomy textbook, maybe Soomo will. Open licensing means
the publisher will need to learn to do business differently. Open licensing is a game changer, a much-needed efficiency, and it is here to stay.

The Open Course Library is an interesting hybrid in this open
educational content experiment. I work in a system that serves nearly
500,000 community and technical college students in the state of
Washington. A carefully selected group of our best faculty are
currently drawing from the world’s OER materials to produce open
(CC-BY) digital curriculum for 81 of our highest enrolling courses. We
are doing this with the assistance of talented librarians,
accessibility experts, and instructional designers who are Quality
Matters Master Reviewers. Our attempt is not perfect, but it is a
strong one, and I expect others will build on it. The project is
described at http://opencourselibrary.org.

The Open Course Library has not closed the door on publishers, but
it does require them to work with pricing limits aimed at driving down
the cost of textbooks. Many have responded. Several Open
Course Library courses use texts from Cengage, Pearson, McGraw-Hill,
and Flat World Knowledge. Their materials are not free or open, but we have required them to be offered to the world (not just our system) for less than $30 US, and are paired with open curriculum. This is
how our system is pulling together the best OER, identifying any gaps, and working with low cost commercial materials until more high quality,
open, shareable, free textbooks are made available.

Re: Publishers Criticize Federal Investment in Open Educational Resources

tom4cam — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:29:44 -0000

RWEJD, I agree with your last statement: "Let's use our taxpayer money wisely." Now, a few questions:
1. Is it wise to rent when you can own for less?
2. Is it wise to pay $10 billion every year for K-12 textbooks if taxpayers could pay for them once plus a small annual amount to keep them up-to-date?
3. Is it wise to continue with a copyright model that reserves all the rights for publishers when there are new models that allow for upan access and sharing of materials?

Publishers can still play. They should be allowed to respond to the open textbook RFPs like anyone else. They will be paid well for their services, and when the job is done they will be required to attach an open, shareable license to their work. So, yes, publishers can still play. They just don't get to make the rules anymore.

US taxpayers pay roughly $10 billion every year for K-12 textbooks. 50% of US college students take out federal loans to pay for another $10 billion in college textbooks. So it's fair to say that taxpayer money pays for most of that $20 billion. This is not a debate about quality. It's a question of efficiency.

The Department of Defense’s Open Technology Development report contains an analogy that is relevant to this discussion:
“Imagine if only the manufacturer of a rifle were allowed to clean,
fix, modify or upgrade that rifle. The military often finds itself in
this position with taxpayer funded, contractor developed software: one
contractor with a monopoly on the knowledge of a military software
system and control of the software source code.... This is optimal only
for the monopoly contractor, but creates inefficiencies and
ineffectiveness for the
government, reduction of opportunities for the industrial base, severely
limits competition for new software upgrades, depletes resources that
can be used to better effect and wastes taxpayer-provided funds.”

No one should be surprised to see publishers taking a strong stand against all of this. But let's all remember that publishers are a means to an end. This is really about providing educational opportunity to students in the best, most efficient way possible.

Re: Your “Calling”

tom4cam — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:35:13 -0000

Thanks for introducing me to my "work calling" 6 years ago. I get up in the morning smiling, thinking about how to make a college education more affordable, shareable, and meaningful for half a million students. Thanks, Brother Wiley!

Re: Guns, penguins, and open textbooks

tom4cam — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:57:12 -0000

I agree with you Randall. Quality is important, but publishers are not the only ones who know how to get there. With the Open Course Library, our Instructional Designers are trained Quality Matters Master Reviewers. I'd match my IDs up against any other organization's design and quality review process any day... and we're building OER. :)

Re: Congrats to Cable Green!

tom4cam — Mon, 02 May 2011 23:40:52 -0000

Don't let the nice family photo fool you... he's really mean on the racquetball court.

Kudos to Cable! I've loved running the Open Course Library with him. Glad he's staying in Olympia too :)

Re: Open Education Tools: The affordances of openness

tom4cam — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:45:26 -0000

I finally had a chance to try out Xerte, and it doesn't look like something our faculty course designers would be able to use. It looks like a nice SCORM package editor, but there is too much of a learning curve for it to be useful to faculty in general. That's my quick two cents.

Re: OER, Toothbrushes, and Value

tom4cam — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:19:39 -0000

What about the indicator toothbrush analogy? How do we know when OER is old and needs to be replaced?

Re: Open Education Tools: The affordances of openness

tom4cam — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:42:14 -0000

Thanks for the tip, Lisa. I'll check out Xerte.com

Re: Why every college alumni association should care about their school’s LMS

tom4cam — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:53:35 -0000

If you have used Gmail, Facebook, or any number of other "free" web based services you should that none of these charge for server space. There ARE other ways for companies to be quite successful with these alternate revenue models -- even in education. Last time I checked, Facebook was making money... and I have yet to receive a bill from them for server space.

Re: Why Google will never buy Blackboard

tom4cam — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:40:34 -0000

That's great to hear your institution is exploring Canvas. I agree that it's important to allow learning and groups to persist beyond the course/semester/quarter. Your comment spurred another short blog post. Thanks!

New post: Throwing it all away: Why every college alumni association should care about their school’s LMS
http://tomcaswell.com/2010/...

Disqus - Latest Comments for tom4cam

Re: Oahu Day 1

Re: Publishing Open Textbooks to Lulu and Create Space

Re: Thoughts on Conducting Research in MOOCs

Re: E-Textbook Vendor Sues Publisher for Ending Licensing Agreement

Re: Utah Open Textbook Announcement Press

Re: A Big Day for Open Policy

Re: BYU scholar is a leader in advancing education technology | The Salt Lake Tribune

Re: Going Open: Lessons Learned from the Open Course Library

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

Re: The Complete Guide To Importing Contacts Into Android’s Gmail

Re: U.S. Official No 'Textbook Rebel'

Re: College students more likely to fail online

Re: Reflections on Educause Institute

Re: Publishers Criticize Federal Investment in Open Educational Resources

Re: Publishers Criticize Federal Investment in Open Educational Resources

Re: Your “Calling”

Re: Guns, penguins, and open textbooks

Re: Congrats to Cable Green!

Re: Open Education Tools: The affordances of openness

Re: OER, Toothbrushes, and Value

Re: Open Education Tools: The affordances of openness

Re: Why every college alumni association should care about their school’s LMS

Re: Why Google will *never* buy Blackboard

Re: Why Google will never buy Blackboard