A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content

Student experiences of technology integration in school subjects: A comparison across four middle schools

This research examined student perspectives on their in-school, subject specific, technology use in four U.S. public schools. Considering students’ perspectives may provide a significant reframing of adult-created rhetoric of the utopian power of digital technologies for changing teaching and learning. A survey and focus group interviews were administered to 6th and 7th students (n=1,544) in four public middle schools, with varying demographics, that rely on local funding. These four schools revealed moderate use of many well-established digital technologies, such as word processing, presentation software, and quiz games. Students voiced outright hatred for teacher-directed PowerPoint-supported lectures, the most prominent technology activity students experienced, yet reported enjoying creation activities. The students in the rural school with a Hispanic-majority and high economically disadvantaged population reported much lower technology use. Discussion frame the digital inequities in the four schools and emphasizes the need for awareness and inclusion of students’ digital experiences to form any trajectory toward establishing digital equity and learning in schools

Obama’s election campaign and the integrated use of social\ud media

When Barack Obama won the 2008 US Presidential election he\ud did so partly as a result of harnessing the power of social media to\ud communicate with, and enlist the support of, millions of Americans who\ud had never previously been active in the processes of an election campaign.\ud As a result of Obama‘s invitation and his use of new media, some of the\ud poorest members of the world‘s wealthiest nation found themselves able\ud to make a critical contribution through a myriad of small activities starting\ud from seemingly inconsequential choices such as the selection of a mobile\ud phone ring tone. Although ‗people power‘ is not a new force in politics,\ud the Obama campaign set a fresh benchmark for inclusive ways in which to\ud communicate to and with a holistic cross section of the American people,\ud including many who would not have been previously seen as a critical\ud ‗target market‘. This paper examines Obama‘s use of integrated\ud communications and considers the potential implications for other\ud campaigns which may have an inclusion agenda

Knight News Challenge: Casting the Net Wide for Innovation

Reviews the evolution of the Knight News Challenge contest for experimental projects in digital delivery of news and information to local communities, profiles winning projects and explores the grants' impact, and considers issues of sustainability

Going with the grain: mobile devices in practice

Fifty-seven alumni of a global Masters program participated in research into their use of mobile devices. Drawing on questionnaire and interview data,the paper examines how far the devices were embedded in the personal and professional lives of these alumni, most of whom were aged 35-54. All had experience of online and distance education, and most worked in education or training. The study revealed some innovative uses of mobile devices, a selection of which is reported in this paper. The paper links the findings to wider debates about the changing relationship between learners and educational institutions, and the role of mobile devices in enabling individuals to engage in learning conversations. Data are provided on which devices were used by the alumni and for what purposes, and the paper explores the implications of these findings for educators

Future consumer mobile phone security: a case study using the data centric security model

In the interconnected world that we live in, traditional security barriers are\ud broken down. Developments such as outsourcing, increased usage of mobile\ud devices and wireless networks each cause new security problems.\ud To address the new security threats, a number of solutions have been suggested,\ud mostly aiming at securing data rather than whole systems or networks.\ud However, these visions (such as proposed by the Jericho Forum [9] and IBM\ud [4]) are mostly concerned with large (inter-) enterprise systems. Until now, it is\ud unclear what data-centric security could mean for other systems and environments.\ud One particular category of systems that has been neglected is that of\ud consumer mobile phones. Currently, data security is usually limited to a PIN\ud number on startup and the option to disable wireless connections. The lack of\ud protection does not seem justified, as these devices have steadily increased in\ud capabilities and capacity; they can connect wirelessly to the Internet and have\ud a high risk of being lost or stolen [8]. This not only puts end users at risk, but\ud also their contacts, as phones can contain privacy sensitive data of many others.\ud For example, if birth dates and addresses are kept with the contact records, in\ud many cases a thief will have enough information to impersonate a contact and\ud steal his identity.\ud Could consumer mobile phones benefit from data-centric security? How\ud useful is data-centric security in this context? These are the core questions we\ud will try to address here

M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint

Big Brother is Listening to You: Digital Eavesdropping in the Advertising Industry

In the Digital Age, information is more accessible than ever. Unfortunately, that accessibility has come at the expense of privacy. Now, more and more personal information is in the hands of corporations and governments, for uses not known to the average consumer. Although these entities have long been able to keep tabs on individuals, with the advent of virtual assistants and “always-listening” technologies, the ease by which a third party may extract information from a consumer has only increased. The stark reality is that lawmakers have left the American public behind. While other countries have enacted consumer privacy protections, the United States has no satisfactory legal framework in place to curb data collection by greedy businesses or to regulate how those companies may use and protect consumer data. This Article contemplates one use of that data: digital advertising. Inspired by stories of suspiciously well-targeted advertisements appearing on social media websites, this Article additionally questions whether companies have been honest about their collection of audio data. To address the potential harms consumers may suffer as a result of this deficient privacy protection, this Article proposes a framework wherein companies must acquire users\u27 consent and the government must ensure that businesses do not use consumer information for harmful purposes