Ed Tech in the 306

Copy(wrong)

jordanepp — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:35:08 +0000

Due to the fall-out of the ACCESS copyright fiasco I, along with a team of dedicated and patient curriculum professionals, have been up to my eyeballs in ©©©©©©©©. I’m sure if you are teaching, developing curriculum, or working in printing services at a Canadian University (other than UofT and UofO) then you’re in similar company. Although copyright has been part of my role since starting here at the Centre for Continuing & Distance Education at the U of S, the recent decision to move away from ACCESS has put the clearance machine in full swing. But I digress. It has become increasingly clear that © in Canada is broken. We can hope for the time being that Bill C-32 will solve a few of the issues educators have by introducing some fair use dealings, but ultimately there is a larger issue in that copyright has turned away from allowing fair access to ideas and has become a way for big business to profit on the backs of creators. And the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, agrees with me. Here’s a great article full of fantastic quotes from a speech she gave last year entitles “Who Will Feed the Artists”?

For more information on Bill C-32 you can check out Michael Giest’s article from last year that outlines the Bill.

jordanepp — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:50:56 +0000

The Meter has been stopped

jordanepp — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:38:55 +0000

Well. If you’ve been following the decisions around the Metered Billing plan that Bell and the CRTC were cooking up then you probably know that yesterday was a good day for Net Neutrality and a bad day for big business. If you haven’t been following then let me quickly get you up to speed. Bell and network companies like them (Rogers, etc) have been loosing money because cable TV sucks. Let’s admit it. You tell ME what to watch and when? Ahhh…but…. Yeah, Netflix and other online providers offer what you want when you want watching with no advertisements. Hmmm. So instead of competing and developing new services for the digital age, Bell decided to “Cap” everyone’s internet use and increase the “overage” fee by 100-400 %. They also wanted the CRTC to make all independent service providers do the same. Steve Anderson of OpenMedia.ca began the Stop the Meter campaign and petition (which you can still sign by following the previous link). Long story Long, by taking the lead opposition, Steve and the OpenMedia folks have made the Canadian voice for Net Neutrality heard. Yesterday the CRTC reconsidered this model in favor of a wholesale model.

“Under the CRTC’s new capacity-based approach, large telephone and cable companies will sell wholesale bandwidth to independent ISPs on a monthly basis. Independent ISPs will have to determine in advance the amount they need to serve their retail customers and then manage network capacity until they are able to purchase more. Alternatively, large companies can continue to charge independent ISPs a flat monthly fee for wholesale access, regardless of how much bandwidth their customers use. Both billing options give independent ISPs the ability to design service plans and charge their own customers as they see fit.”

I for one would like to say thanks to all who signed the petition and a huge thanks to The good folks at OpenMedia who led the charge for a more open world.

Check out the CRTC News Release Here and Steve Anderson’s response to the decision here.

Seriously changing the idea of a Book

jordanepp — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:55:33 +0000

I’ve been really interested in the redefinition of “Book” lately. My interest began over a year ago at the NMC Summer conference where I learned about a few different ebook producing sites and publishing platforms like Sophie 2.0, Vectors, and Scalar, which are all very cool projects worth exploring on your own. You’ll be glad you did. But today I found this TED talk video via educational technology blog that I got super excited about. Check it out.

Create websites from your phone with Zapd

jordanepp — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:29:54 +0000

Super awesome way to create quick easy websites from your iPhone. Zapd is a free App that allows you to create a blog like website using text photos and links to add content. Best of all the App is free! My favorite price point. Think of all the ways you could ask students to be creative and collect data for labs, workshops, journals, field trips, etc. using Zapd. Very cool App.

Zapd in 60 Seconds from rocketvox on Vimeo.

Global News Social Media Story

jordanepp — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:36:45 +0000

Had an interview on Global News for a social media piece they did. Here’s the news story.
http://www.globalsaskatoon.com/video/social+media/video.html?v=2166156026&p=1&s=dd#video

Webinar for serious video editing powah!

jordanepp — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:00:04 +0000

Click on image for more details

Pearson OpenClass Demo

jordanepp — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:41:20 +0000

Attended a webinar on the new Pearson “OpenClass” learning platform today. Pearson has announced a totally free Social Learning Environment (SLE), which they differentiate from a Learning Management System or LMS. The name alone describes the philosophy around this new system for online learning. OpenClass looks to create an environment that expands beyond each individual course. It allows for social discourse among students and instructors from all courses available on the SLE. This means that there is an air of e-Portfolio within the system with a hint of facebook and a dash of twitter. Although the demo did not go into great detail in terms of migrating content from existing LMS’s or building content within the SLE, it did promise ease of use as a main feature. It’s clear that Pearson has relied heavily on the Google Apps or Education API’s. Almost all social functions including group assignments and communications are done with the Google engines. This is where some institutions may become weary. I know that the U of S for example, is cautious about its policies around housing student information or evaluations outside of it’s own servers. Never-the-less, Pearson has done a great job making the community of practice the key element within their SLE which is a massively encouraging step in the world of learning MANAGEMENT systems. The difference is that students take control of their interactions, connections and activities as opposed to being managed into a box. I’m looking forward to learning more and trying the product out, but also to see the reactions by Blackboard and D2L. I imagine BB will just try and buy it like everything else, but whatever the outcome I think Pearson has given us a glimpse into the future of online learning environments.

Learn more here and watch this:

Intro to Social Media Workshop

jordanepp — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:26:44 +0000

Check out the new blogs from the students in this years Intro to Social Media Workshop I’m currently instructing.

http://iet2011.wikispaces.com/Blog+Roll

A Conversation Among Chiefs

jordanepp — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:47:08 +0000

In a dynamic conversational session the participants of this years Leadership Conference had the rare opportunity to join in a Conversation among two prominent Chiefs. Both Chief Elijah Harper and Chief Guy Lonechild took the stage at TCU to engage in a discussion of their leadership experiences in the context of the local and national stage. Nelson Bird moderated the session. In listening to these two Indigenous leaders it was interesting to see how aboriginal ways of knowing had influenced how they saw leadership. Chief Lonechild spoke of the expectations on a leader to be a role model. Although a leader is often seen as a strong and influential person they are also human and that means that they too are capable of making mistakes. It is in this teaching of humility that helps keep a leader grounded in who they are. Chief Harper backed this sentiment by saying those hard times build character and give you something to stand up on. Chief Elijah Harper says people have respect for those who embrace that humility. When facing challenges as a leader it is important to remain connected with your identity. I think remembering those lessons in humility are very important to developing those honest and real relationships.

Relationships are extremely important to First Nations culture. Both Chief Harper and Chief Lonechild discussed relationships being a key to understanding and working together. Several times throughout the conversation Chief Harper talked about the need for a better understanding of the treaties that affect us all as treaty people. There is a need for a ubiquitous understanding of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal issues in order for all treaty people to have a healthy relationship, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike. Chief Lonechild continued this theme pointing out the importance of understanding and what makes up a person (father, golfer, what ever) in order to establish a good relationship. Connecting with people means learning about their journey – where they came from, where they want to go and what they value.

These leaders also took the opportunity to discuss some of the myths and stereotypes that damage the understanding and relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Both Chief Harper and Lonechild spoke optimistically about the future. With the primary education system mandating more aboriginal ways of knowing being introduced into the curriculum, the growing numbers of Aboriginal students succeeding in post secondary education, and treaty issues slowly making their way onto political agendas, both Harper and Lonechild saw a future where we could all be working together inclusion and for the better of us all.

It was a real pleasure to see these two leaders together discussing their culture and leadership styles as interconnected. I think we sometimes separate who we are from our leadership strategies. For me, it was important to see these two influential leaders making their careers and cultures combine to have effective outcomes.