Making publicly-funded work open

The 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed by Obama this week includes a provision that makes permanent the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy. This policy requires NIH-funded research to put electronic copies of their peer-reviewed research into a publicly accessible and searchable online database.

(Thanks to the Alliance for Taxpayer Access for this news and work in this area.)

This is a smart policy that benefits everyone and is consistent with the idea of public access to government-funded work.

This is a policy for the education community to consider emulating. There are many great publicly-funded projects in education that exist in isolation and unknown to others. If these projects were publicly accessible and sharable, the benefits would accrue to the community at large. I don’t know any educators who would object to that.

Even more interesting, if publicly-funded curriculum were open licensed and centrally housed and managed, this could be an important step to beginning a revolution in the textbook industry. If a large portion of the money that is spent on textbooks were redirected toward professional development, customization, and alternative delivery systems, the benefits for teachers and students would be great.

Open source and OER at NECC 2009

I am excited to be presenting two sessions on open content at NECC in DC this summer:

Open-Licensed Content: The Missing Piece
Monday, 6/29/2009, 8:30am–9:30am (BYOL)

Open Educational Resources: Share, Remix, Learn
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 12:30pm–1:30pm in Open Source Lab

Other open source and OER related events at NECC this year include:

10 Common Pitfalls on the Road to Open Source
Wednesday, 7/1/2009, 1:30pm–2:30pm

21st-Century Classroom Applications for Linux and Open Source
Monday, 6/29/2009, 11:00am–12:00pm

An Introduction to Open Source Software and Open Technologies
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 3:30pm–4:30pm

Beyond Blogging: Content Management for Mortals Using WordPress
Wednesday, 7/1/2009, 10:30am–11:30am

Game Creation: Epistemic Learning of Art, Design, and Computer Science
Monday, 6/29/2009, 11:00am–12:00pm

Great Open Source Programs You Can Start Using Right Away
Monday, 6/29/2009, 2:00pm–3:00pm

The State of Open Source in Education
Monday, 6/29/2009, 8:30am–9:30am

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Elementary Materials
Monday, 6/29/2009, 8:30am–9:30am

Use Your Noodle–Learn Moodle: An Open Source Learning Management System
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 2:00pm–3:00pm

Vodcasts and Podcasts: Transform Your Teaching Legally!
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 2:00pm–3:00pm

Open Source Venues for Course Enrichment
Monday, 6/29/2009, 2:00pm–4:00pm

SqoolTools: Free Moodle Course Space and Online Training
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 1:00pm–3:00pm

Mix ‘n MashUp: Digital Storytelling with Open Educational Resources from WGBH Boston
Wednesday, 7/1/2009, 12:00pm–1:00pm

The Promise of Open Educational Resources; Discover HippoCampus.org!
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 1:00pm–3:00pm

Open Source Playground
Monday, June 29, 8 am–4 pm; Tuesday, June 30, 9 am–4 pm; and Wednesday, July 1, 8 am–2 pm

Many of these will be in the Open Source Lab at the conference.

Hope to see you in DC!

Textbooks – the next evolution?

I have long ranted about the massive amount of money that is spent in K-12 for textbooks that are ineffective. In the many of the most engaging classrooms I visit, those textbooks are on a shelf in the back of the room, seldom if ever used.

And yet, millions and millions of dollars are poured into these resources. In many states, the spending on these books is all but mandated. There is a huge bureaucracy (what I call the educational-industrial complex) made up of state textbook committees, textbook publishers, and associations like AAP, BMI, and NASTA, that together rally to keep this system thriving, and thrive it does.

Now, it seems, some states are thinking about making some changes to the system. Most notably, Indiana recently issued “An Open Letter to Indiana Educators about Textbooks, Computers and Instructional Materials” (really worth a read if you haven’t already) that said essentially that textbooks are not effective or engaging. It went on to encourage schools to pursue technology-based or other instructional materials in lieu of textbooks and to request waivers to use textbook funding for this purpose. They even specifically mention “content-loaded mini-laptops,” something I and other have been suggesting for years.

This is a very bold and laudable step. The question is will others follow?

In an article for THE Journal called “Signs of a Significant Disruption in the Traditional Textbook Model,” Geoff Flecther speculates that the system is “breaking,” and that change is afoot.

Let’s hope so. But in order to change, there will need to be new leadership, new business models, and new ways of doing things. I, for one, think that a model that involves open content could be a significant and valuable part of this. It will not be an easy process, but it is one that will benefit our entire society if it is successful.

Open Ed in Portland

I was very gratified to have about 200 people attend my session on Open Ed at NCCE in Portland, OR. Clearly, there is a lot of interest in this important area.

As often the case at ed tech conferences, I had a well-informed and participative crowd, and I learned some thing too. Here are a few to share:

Thanks for those useful tips and for your interest in Open Ed. Don’t forget to help spread the word.

I hate “royalty free” or “Free” is not open (redux)

I hate the words “royalty free.” Most sites who advertise this way are not free at all. Despite this, droves of people flock to them to get clip art, photos, and music. The hard-to-discover ways these sites make money range from simply charging large up-front fees (not a royalty, after all) to much more devious things like restricting how you can use the content (such as not being able to use it in contests or not being able to use it online) to installing spyware on your computer as a part of their little gift to you (with your implicit permission, of course). Read the terms of use before you use these sites’ content, people!

Free does not mean open.

If you really want a free lunch of resources, look for content and software that is open licensed.