Open Source Licenses

168: Open Source Software Licenses | RSS.com Open-source software is also free to use, but “free” can be applied to its use in two ways. First, it can be used at no cost for the user. We download open-source software, just as well do any software, but installation proceeds without entering account information. Second, users are free to use the software in that they Read More

Supporting Education in Rural Schools With Open Source Technology

157: Supporting Education in Rural Schools With Open Source Technology I’m messing around with rehashing my old writing with AI… here is an example from a chapter I wrote several years ago. In the chapter, I described several projects in which we supported education in rural areas using open source technology. Rural educators and school Read More

Open Source Technology

164: Open Source Technology | RSS.com I’m messing around with rehashing my old writing with AI… here is an example from a chapter I wrote several years ago Open-source technology is defined by its dimensions of transparency and freedom. This type of software is produced by a growing community and has begun to compete with Read More

An Instructional Video Rubric

Teachers talking over slides (or images or diagrams or animations) has become an important teaching strategy during the pandemic. It is likely to continue to be a staple of teachers not just because it will make the pivot to remote teaching easier when it becomes necessary, but because it allows for alternative method of teaching Read More

Curriculum Repository Proposal

A few years ago, I was asked to draft a proposal for a curriculum repository for a community college. The had seen some of my ideas about this type of resource such as is explained on my post “Curriculum Repositories” and also “Curriculum Repositories Defined” and wee interested in how I might craft a more Read More

Proprietary File Formats… Can We Just Stop?

Spoiler alert: This is the rant of someone who is ticked off at a sub set of the individuals in his profession right now. Faculty are in the business of helping students make sense of information and ideas and procedures. This requires they communicate, and we communicate today with files we create on word processors Read More

Defining #OER

Although OER can be used at no financial cost to users, not all materials available at no financial cost are open, and there are costs others than financial that are incurred by users of OER. Consider, for example, G Suite—the cloud-based productivity suite—that is widely used by both consumers and by educational institutions. While users Read More

“Why Would One Create OER?”

This question was posed to me by an incredulous business-minded faculty member who wondered exactly why I would spend my time and energy and creativity writing books and other intellectual property simply to give it away. “What motivation does anyone have to produce something that others can just take?” they asked. I realized that person Read More

Open

As open source software and open educational resources (OER) communities have grown and their products have begun to compete with and complement commercial products, open resources have become more widely used in both K-12 and higher education. Baker (2017) suggested open resources are defined by dimensions of transparency and freedom, and these characteristics can be Read More