iterating toward openness » Blog Archive » If Facebook Worked Like Blackboard
A short post, but very pointed--if Facebook worked like an LMS, no real community would ever develop. Questions the whole idea of closed educational systems.
<p>What if Facebook worked like Blackboard (or pretty much any other LMS)? </p>
<p>Imagine if every fifteen weeks Facebook:</p>
<ul>
<li>shut down all the groups you belonged to, </li>
<li>deleted all your forum posts,</li>
<li>removed all the photos, videos, and other files you had shared, and</li>
<li>forgot who your friends were.</li></ul>
News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
The Obama administration is pushing for creating free online courses at the high school/community college level, focusing on basic skills and job training. Some sort of examination/assessment is also possible, plus the idea of mixing free and paid courses at community colleges to reduce the cost of tuition.
Bonk said that administration's ideas about open courses are consistent with the "convergence" he sees taking place in online learning. There is a growing belief that for many kinds of courses, there are best providers whose work can be made available online, there are large numbers of students who could benefit from those courses, and those who might benefit don't necessarily have a lot of money.
The 100 Best Open Education Resources on the Web | MasterDegreeOnline
Open education resources from colleges, museums, libraries, and other organizations. Includes lectures, podcasts, videos, media, and reference materials.
Open Access Educational Technology journals – George Veletsianos
Looking for research on e-learning, instructional design, educational technology, or related topics? Check out these open access journals. Great to have a filtered list for this rather than having to dig through some of the larger directories.
Open access journal with a number of articles on active learning, blended learning, problem based learning, etc. (My sister-in-law is the copy editor.)