Dear David, Wow, this is really impressive!! and will serve as worldwide and leading example. Great work
Warm regards, Patricia -----Original Message----- From: wikieducator@googlegroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Wiley Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 8:41 AM To: wikieducator@googlegroups.com Subject: [WikiEducator] Re: International accredited OER based university 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.soe.ucsc.edu/~luca/papers/07/wikiwww2007.pdf > > > > 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 > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
