I don’t listen to music online, as the extent of my downloading is EdTech Talk and IT Conversations. However, our boys are starting to share their MP3’s and I was getting concerned that they didn’t understand the nasty forces out there that would do anything to maintain their oligopoly. Therefore, I introduced them to the Creative Commons search feature for media that is free to share. I also showed them Magnatune which features royalty free music. There are a number of single tracks that you can listen to and download for free in order to try before you buy.
What really impressed me about Magnatune is that artists receive 50% of the purchase price of an album (you decide on the price, starting at $5.00) as well as the fact that the artists keep all rights to the music. If this business model catches on, then the major labels have something very serious to worry about, and I have one less thing to worry about.
Technology
information & communication technology
UNESCO Open Educational Resources Conference
Like Stephen Downes, I have had difficulty getting into this UNESCO conference on Open Educational Resources (open content for higher education) – lterally and figuratively.
Because of this rather large number, participants have been split into two groups:
* one group can send and receive messages (members selected to balance geographic participation);
* the other group will receive daily digests of the messages to read.
I am in the second group, so I get to receive the e-mails, which after the first week are about a dozen and some of these include an additional dozen attachments. All of the comments take a lot of time to sift through and I thought that I’d be able to summarize them and put them on this blog. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time or the discipline to do this, but Joe Hart has, so you can read his summary instead. Here’s one of his summary comments after week one:
It is important in our forum to recognize that online universal higher education is not a utopia, that it is not a threat to established education, that it is a great opportunity for producers and users alike, and that these messages should be conveyed to governments, universities, and other organizations.
Free Blogs for Schools
Well, James Farmer is true to his word and has created Learner Blogs for students to start their own free blogs. The subject of what was a good blogging platform for K-12 students was raised during our EdTech Talk brainstorm last night, and James jumped right in and offered to create a safe blogging environment for students. Learner Blogs is on Word Press MU and offers a more restricted environment, and better features, than the publicly available Blogger. Having a password-protected site that is not open to the entire Web is a necessary feature when introducing young students to blogging.
If you want to learn more about how to use blogs in schools, Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed News is a good place to start.
Multi-user Blog Review
James Farmer has a review of multi-user blogs, including Drupal, WordPress Multi-user, elgg, Movable Type, Manila and pLog. So what kind of real-world applications are there for multi-user blogs?
As I’ve mentioned before, we’re using elgg with a healthcare community of practice and one of the tools is a professional journal (blog). These journals are used to keep other community members up to date on training issues and are used to track committee minutes and agendas. Nothing fancy but it’s a practical application within a corporate intranet.
We like elgg so much at Mancomm that we’re going to move away from eGroupware and switch to elgg for document sharing and internal communications.
I can see multi-user blogs as useful applications for distributed communities (e.g. educators within a school system) who want to share their knowledge and need more functions than a free service like Blogger offers. With multi-user blogs you only need one administrator and the community uses a common platform which fosters peer-to-peer support.
The Web for learning – from stock to flow
Will Richardson talks about the changing needs of learners in a networked world:
For instance, now that we have access to people and knowledge, learning is “network creation” and that we can learn through “collaborative meaning making.” And the idea the we no longer need to learn everything in “advance of need” resonates strongly with Brown and Hagel’s idea of push vs. pull learning, that we can pull information from a source when we need it, not have it pushed upon us in case we need it.
I have always felt that the Web was an environment more suited to just-in-time learning (e.g. performance support) than for the more pervasive course model. Learning on the web is moving from stock to flow. It also seems that in true McLuhanesque fashion the medium of the Web is having measurable effects on those who use the technology, specifically – obsolescing, enhancing, retrieving and reversing. For instance:
- Courses are being obsolesced on the connected Web.
- Access to knowledge is enhanced.
- Storytelling is being retrieved, especially through podcasting.
- Learning on the Web may also reverse into mere grazing, instead of in-depth learning.
Now that the Web is becoming ubiquitous, we are moving away from a horseless carriage type of metaphor and using the medium for what it can really do. I see a rapid decline in online course development as better models of collaboration and just-in-time knowledge are developed. We also will need more metaphors, models & technologies to facilitate 24/7/365 learning in a connected world.
The BlackWeb Opportunity
Ben Watson has posted an industry analyst’s report on the Blackboard-WebCT merger in his comment on the Learning Circuits blog. The analyst’s perspective may be correct, but I see another opportunity. According to this report, there are about 562 current WebCT clients who do not use the enterprise version. These institutions have opted for the cheaper flavour of WebCT and may be willing to try out an open source platform instead of upgrading to "BlackWeb" enterprise.
Now is the time for the OS user/developer/services community, such as Moodle.com, to get the word out about open source learning platforms. For starters, here is the Edutools feature comparison of the soon to be defunct WebCT Campus (the non-enterprise version) compared with .LRN, Moodle and ATutor. And don’t forget about ELGG :-)
OpenOffice 2.0 Released
OpenOffice.org is the open source office suite that is compatible with MS Office. With the public release of version 2.0 there is now a simple way to have all of your office productivity applications on a single no-cost suite. It is very simple to master the applications and the additional benefits are worth the effort. For instance, you can load as many copies on as many machines as you wish – no licensing issues. There is also a large user community. From the press release:
In addition to the OpenDocument format, the redesigned user interface and a new database module, OpenOffice.org 2.0 also adds improved PDF support, a superior spreadsheet module, enhanced desktop integration and several other features that take advantage of its advanced XML capabilities, such as the ability to easily create, edit and use XForms.
One of my favorite features is that you can export your slide presentations as Flash files. OpenOffice also imports WordPerfect files much better than MS Word does. My family, which runs the spectrum of computer skills, uses all of the OpenOffice applications with no difficulty. With 2.0 it is even easier to take control of your desktop and switch to open source. It won’t cost you anything.
“How to Choose a Content Management Tool According to a Learning Model”
The article of this post’s title is on the eLearningEuropa site. The article maps teaching models to web learning systems. Peter Baumgartner lists three teaching models, and then goes on describe five types of content management systems for learning. He notes which CMS fit with each teaching model. I’ve replaced systems listed in the article with ones that I’m more familiar with, in this summary table :
| To transer knowledge | To acquire, compile, gather knowledge | To develop, to invent, to construct knowledge | |
| The Pure CMS | Mambo | ||
| Weblog CMS | Blogger | Movable Type | Typepad |
| Collaborative CMS | Drupal | ||
| Content, Community, Collaboration MS | ELGG | ||
| Wiki Systems | TWiki |
I would note that Moodle is probably a hybrid of a Collaborative CMS and Wiki System. Drupal also has a wiki-like capability with its shared books that can be edited by multiple authors and all revisions are accessible for viewing.This type of matrix appeals to me as a starting point for conversations about what technology is appropriate for an educational institution. First, you come to an agreement about the teaching model (these three are not the entire spectrum) and then you can create a short list of systems for further evaluation. This is a better starting point than the more typical feature-list approach.
BlackWeb
Probably the best wrap-up on Blackboard absorbing WebCT is on Stephen Downes’ post. Stephen links to a lot of the commentary and criticisms post-merger. One anonymous poster showed some frustration with the merger, "We’ve customized WebCT over the years to fit our needs. We have to grow exponentially rather quickly due to legislative mandate, and there isn’t much choice here."
This is the reason that open source fits the academic, e-learning business model. Every time that some proprietary system is bought, sold or goes down the tube, then the institution has to figure out how to deal with a system that is no longer supported or upgraded. Open source is not just about free licenses, it also allows you to own your core technologies. For academic institutions doing business on the web, the LMS/LCMS/CMS is core technology. However, most institutions do not have the means to actually "own" a proprietary system. Enter open source.
Open source enables each insitution to join a community of users & developers and share in the vision of what the software should be (the dynamics of the community should be a key factor in selecting OSS). They can help to drive pedagogical models (such as Moodle and its constructivist model). Had WebCT been an open source system, and had the core developer community decided to take an extended vacation, then some of the existing WebCT users could get together and continue to develop & support the platform. This could be with internal resources or as a buyer share group from a third-party support company. One of the long-term benefits of open source is that you are not held hostage by your technology provider.
In order to achieve this independence, institutions have to take a slight risk. They have to give up the illusion that the vendor will handle all of their problems. Comments on Stephen’s post and on SlashDot indicate that there is little vendor support anyway.
This merger is a great opportunity for educational institutions to fully understand what is the optimal relationship between their learning services and their web technology.
PS: Thanks to Dave Cormier for the title.
Blackboard + WebCT = ?
Via Stephen is the news that the two biggest course management systems for the academic market are going to merge into a single corporate entity, though the Blackboard company name will dominate. Here are my initial thoughts:
- My first question remains, "Does it do anything for the learner?" A: I don’t think so.
- Elliott will say he saw it coming all along ;-)
- This makes the comparison with open source learning systems a lot easier, because there will be fewer proprietary systems to compare with :-)
- The WebCT brand will quickly fade away (don’t want to confuse the client)
- License fees will increase for this "new & improved" product.
- Those really interested in facilitating learning, like George, will continue to do their own thing and still not be engaged in a discussion by Blackboard.
This just in: Jay posts a copy of the official letter to customers.
… and Scott’s (new) analysis;
… as well as Godfrey’s take on the merger