Corona of the Sun During a Solar Eclipse (No known copyright)� (from flickr commons: http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2534500722/)
A Note from the Fair Use on Open CourseWare team:
All of us have been frustrated by problems with third-party rights for open courseware materials. We know that if we could clarify when fair use applies, we could vastly expand the utility of what we do. And we know that in other cases, creative communities have done that. For instance, documentary filmmakers now find that insurers accept their claims of fair use, because they created a code of best practices in fair use. Similarly, media literacy teachers now can teach without fear, because they created a code of best practices in fair use. These codes of best practices were coordinated by Profs. Peter Jaszi and Pat Aufderheide, through the Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law at American University.
We need a code of best practices in fair use for open courseware. A group of representatives at some of the open courseware universities—MIT, Tufts, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Yale, Notre Dame, Berkeley, Creative Commons—have started a project to do this, in coordination with Jaszi and Aufderheide, and with financial support from the Hewlett Foundation and from each of our universities. Each of the eight participating universities’ staff has set aside some part of their workload for this job.
Are you interested in helping to shape a code of best practices in fair use for open courseware? You can participate at several levels. If you would like to become a researcher on the project, just let Lindsey Weeramuni (lweera@mit.edu), the project’s coordinator know. Do you have a story to tell? Write Jaszi and Aufderheide at socialmedia@american.edu and we’ll connect you. Do you think your organization would eventually like to become a signatory? Let Lindsey know and we’ll be in touch when the document has been crafted, for your participation.
We hope to complete this work by September 1, so that the 2009-2010 school year can be a great one for open courseware.
Other questions or comments can also be directed here at open.michigan@umich.edu
Anyone familiar in some small part with what has been happening with the University of Michigan’s Open Educational Resources initiative will already know we have had a number of great developments over the last few months. We’ve had student dScribes from the School of Information participate in a pilot program to help gather, vet, and clear content for publication and we’ve made significant progress on the development of the software tools we’ll use to manage the process of clearing course content.
But what we’re most excited about now is the emergence of what we’re calling … Open.Michigan
Open.Michigan is more than an Open educational Resources site. It represents the diverse collection of Open initiatives on campus - from open access publishing and open archives to open source software and open standards. The site provides greater visibility to the various projects and attempts to expand the dialogue between campus participants and external collaborators.
We also hope to build upon the Open Community’s strong participatory culture, inviting people to explore the Open.Michigan website, subscribing, authoring, and commenting on our blog, taking a look at our wiki, and following updates on our Twitter (open_michgan) and joining our new facebook group, Open.Michigan.
We’re excited about this transition and look forward to your feedback and participation as Open.Michigan continues to evolve and expand.
Peter Suber Photo CC-BY (PatrickD)
Peter Suber, Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College and Senior Researcher at the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), recently gave a talk at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society entitled: What Can Universities Do to Promote Open Access? To learn more about ways universities can promote open access to research literature and, perhaps, use Suber’s arguments to promote open courseware initiatives at your university, visit the Berkman Center’s interactive page. You can also access slides of the event here.
Here’s the latest presentation created by the University of Michigan OER team. Last week, I presented this slideshow in two sections of a UM undergraduate Sociology class. The goal was to explain the not only the history of open educational resources initiatives, but also to discuss the student-centric publication model we’re proposing for the University of Michigan called the dScribe model.
Much to my surprise, the students were quite excited to actually become dScribes - actually eager to help faculty prepare materials for publication on our forthcoming OER site. Many said it would be a worthwhile experience to work alongside (even if it were asynchronous) their instructor and with the OER team to assemble course materials for publication. Responding to a question about whether they would utilize resources generated by a school-wide OER initiative, many said it would allow them to “shop” for classes and also better plan out a curriculum. When asked about the benefit of creating an open educational environment for people around the world to access, many agreed that it was a really meaningful endeavor.
The largest concern, however, revolved around two familiar arguments. First, that an OER initiative like this would simply give away a UM education: “Why would I or my parents pay 40,000 a year when I could just get it for free?” Second, posting resources online for anyone to access would simply provide classmates with one more reason not to attend class: “If everything is available online, no one would show up.”
I guess it’s refreshing to know that these were the two central concerns. MIT OCW has been pretty successful at deflating these arguments, saying that MIT OCW is not an MIT education and that it is not meant to replace the classroom experience. I did my best to present versions of these arguments and after finishing, most seemed somewhat convinced that they had the upper hand by being the students who would actually receive a diploma. And, the fact that class materials would not be ready for public view until the end of the semester - or after - meant that not showing up to class (or relying on previous semester’s OER material) would not be a substitute for the in class experience. Overall, these presentations and positive reactions provide our team with an eagerness to finish up the back end work of software development, learn from our pilot initiatives, and get this student-centric model scaled-up across the University.
For now, download or view the presentation on slideshare.net: here
Photo by mandj98 (CC BY:)
Who could have ever guessed that physics would play such a large role in drawing people toward open education resources? From the recent news story showcasing MIT Professor Walter Lewin and his highly entertaining Classical Physics video lectures to the featured Astrophysics course of Yale professor Charles Bailyn we can now add the work of University of Nebraska physics professor, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky. In today’s New York Times, Science Times article “Nascar’s Screech and Slam? It’s All Aerodynamics” John Tierney highlights Pelecky’s use of NASCAR and ‘the excitement of motorsports’ to get elementary and middle school students interested in science, math and engineering. If the thought of tailgating a car at 200mph has your middle schooler (or you) eager to learn more about computational fluid dynamics or static friction, then venture over to Pelecky’s website: Building SPEED (Science Participation: Education, Engagement and Diversity). The website, which is still in development, aims to create and share educational materials that use transportation as a way to teach the principles of the National Math and Science Education Standards. If physics professors can use NASCAR to attract people to open educational resources, I can’t wait to see the strategies educators might employ for, say, Media Studies.
In his latest Common Space post, Open vs. open vs. etc, telecentre.org Director Mark Surman mulls over a question that those of us involved in OCW projects might have some interest in: “why are so many people attracted to the word ‘open’?” A 30-minute thought experiment led Mark to create a chart comparing four common ‘domains of open’: open source software, open space meetings, open societies and open systems. In future iterations of the chart, Mark will compare other domains, including open content and open education. Have specific insight you feel might help Mark and others better understand the ‘meaning of open’? Send along your thoughts.
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