David, This is great to read. What an amazing step to put all this forward as an OER Highschool. You say it will be free to students in Utah, will students outside of Utah still have access? Or will all this just be "open" within the state of Utah? And therefore be used to prove out the model...
There is one thing that jumps out at me from within this discussion thread. Are we mis-using the word "Education" within OER. As we seem to have agreement that Education is the whole, where learning is what you do with the resources. Education includes the assessment, accreditation, etc. that the educational institutions provide. Shouldn't we really be calling these materials Open Learning Resources (OLR). My point being (in the context of this Bissell article; http://learn.creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/bissellboyleedtecarticle.pdf); Don't we require Open Access Assessment and Open Access Accrediation before we can achieve OER? Because this then makes free the whole of Education. Wikipedia and Open Source have nothing restraining their domain toward openness. OER has a huge restraint in that Assessment and Accreditation are still closed. As we stumble toward OER don't we need to wrestle it (assessment, accreditaion) away from the institutions (like MIT, UNESCO, OU, etc) and also make it open and free? And not until we have wrestled it away, OERs success will be restrained. I wonder what Paulo Friere would have to say about the institutions still controlling the Assessment and Accreditation? I look forward to your reply(ies)... P On Mar 26, 8:40 am, "David Wiley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Simon and Leigh, > > We haven't been talking about it much, because we're still one step in > the approval process away, but for a year now we've been working on > establishing the Open High School of Utah - a publicly funded (and > therefore free as in beer to students in the state of Utah) completely > online high school that uses OERs exclusively throughout the entire > curriculum. The final approval should be given this May for a Fall > 2009 opening in which we'll admit a class of 9th graders, meaning that > we'll have 15 months or so to put together the entire 9th grade > curriculum's worth of OERs built out to stand-alone quality (i.e., not > OERs to supplement textbooks, OERs as the primary content for the high > school). Then in 2010 we'll do 9th and 10th grade, etc., until in 2012 > we're running all four years of high school. > > All the materials will be freely available, as will our charter > document, as will all the technology we will use to run the school. We > hope to be a model of how OERs can revolutionize the practice and the > funding of both learning AND education... > > D > > > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 1:44 AM, Leigh Blackall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Great post Simon, I enjoy your wit :) > > > Maybe I should clarify what I say about "learning being free, education > > still costs" > > > I mean the same as you mean - learning is what people are always free to do, > > and with todays enhanced capacity to access information and communication, > > learning might be vastly improved. > > > But what is education in all that? Well, to me education is the formality > > that we agree is the extra, inflated, and fee driven bit. Education is the > > bit of paper that says you have been learning... > > > So I think we actually agree, but it may be that I'm being a bit too cynical > > in my use of the work education. > > > Here's a longer post I wrote on it if you're still troubled by my slogan. > > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 1:52 PM, simonfj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On Mar 25, 2:05 pm, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Cormac, Leigh, Simon, Others... > > > > > Thanks for the great feedback. I certainly hope some others jump in... > > > > > Cormac, > > > > > There is a body of work where the evaluation of a persons contribution > > > > is evaluated via software; it's not so advanced that it can target a > > > > single person and evaluate what they have done... probably one day > > > > (soon), see these two > > references;http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/history_flow/http://www.s... > > > > Ooo! I can't see it. But that's only because i never have. Evaluation > > > to me, and I've had to employ graduates to do media jobs, always comes > > > down to seeing of they, or their teachers, can do it. i.e. have > > > institutions prepared the inexperienced for it?. Old industries, no > > > problem. New industries, like the interactive media ones; rarely a > > > clue. > > > > Let me give you an illustration of a change going back 30 years. Unis > > > were trying to "teach" AV production stuff. Many didn't have a > > > recording desk. Even fewer had relationships with bands or actors > > > interested in recording. Even if some students did, they wouldn't be > > > encouraged to bring those noisy long haired gits into a lovely clean > > > studio. > > > > So one dirty engineer in Sydney started offering courses in his > > > studio, which now, though some unis in 49 countries, offers accredited > > > courses.http://www.sae.edu/. But it wasn't until the unis were > > > included in the Learning mix of enough working engineers that the > > > accreditations were given. Until then, we usually just gave students a > > > piece of paper, and for the more determined, helped them find them a > > > job. Now a three month course has inflated to three years. > > > > The thing i find fascinating - when watching new interactive & global > > > media institutions, like Wikipedia, et al, get their Project Groups' > > > Learning ground(s) together and professionalize good habits, while at > > > the same time watching national Teaching institutions struggling to > > > think outside their squares - is that nothing seems to have changed. > > > > In the professionals' web space, you see the beginnings of global > > > interactive environments, which are obviously self sustaining and > > > appear to help people meet peers, get their heads around the things a > > > good web designer needs to know and maybe get some (paid) experience. > > >http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/And then you look at unis' web sites/ > > > brochureware, ho! ho! One obviously puts an emphasis on their > > > members' communications, the other on the institution's information. > > > i.e. communicating global GROUPS vs, National (.edu) NETWORKS. > > > > As Cormac says, "you don't get a PhD, but you might be a damn sight > > > > more eligible to get a job with a certain employer institution that is > > > open-minded enough to recognise this particular work done". I don't > > > think it's even a matter of them being open minded. It's more a matter > > > that in the commercial world, one gets paid for results, and if you > > > can point to something, like Liam can, who do you think will get the > > > job?.This is very new ground. > > > > I also think Leigh is quite right. "Through an international network > > > > of teachers and assessors, we might see the cost of > > > such processes and services greatly reduced!" But you have to have the > > > "international network" first, and all we do have at the moment is a > > > bunch of National .edu ones. Thankfully Web 2.0 Inc. are able to help > > > fill the obvious gaps. But you got this wrong. "Learning is still > > > free, education still costs". Nah, "accreditation still costs". You > > > know, priests used to sell indulgences. That's why the Reformation > > > (supposedly) started. > > > > Perhaps, rather than talking about accreditation, we should be talking > > > about where the new jobs are, what skills are required and who's doing > > > the employing. > > > -- > > -- > > Leigh Blackall > > +64(0)21736539 > > skype - leigh_blackall > > SL - Leroy Goalpost > >http://learnonline.wordpress.com- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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