Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2005

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2005

Google Glass App for Displaying ASL Videos for Deaf Children – The Preliminary Race

Glass Vision 3D is a grant-funded project focused on the goal of developing and researching the feasibility & usability of a Google Glass app that will allow young Deaf children to look at an object in the classroom and see an augmented reality projection that displays an American Sign Language (ASL) related video. Session will show the system (Glass app) that was developed and summarize feedback gathered during focus-group testing of the prototype

Information and Communications Technology in the Education Sector in India

India has successfully achieved quantity benchmarks for education by making schooling accessible to all and making rapid strides in improving attendance. Next, India must improve the quality of its educational system, which is limited by large class sizes, limited teacher expertise, poor access to resources, and teacher absenteeism. ICT provides tools to address all these challenges. Historically, ICT has been used to improve educational coverage. Educational radio programs have been produced since 1972, and corporate initiatives have introduced computers to classrooms since the 1990s. Most radically, India even launched a satellite to broadcast educational content to remote schools off the grid. Yet the digital revolution provides the greatest opportunity for ICT to contribute to improved education and equality of opportunity across India. ICT has been applied to improve education in several ways. Teachers can gain access to improved lesson plans and teaching resources that incorporate multimedia and best pedagogical practices. Similarly, these platforms are used to deliver interactive teacher training that uses data to analyze teachers’ strengths and weaknesses. Data can also be used to break down and isolate challenges for students or entire classrooms. Finally, communication tools embedded in these platforms provide teachers, students and parents with a more collaborative classroom experience. The MHRD’s DIKSHA platform, powered by EkStep, is currently the most comprehensive and widespread societal platform in use. Integrating ICT into all aspects of education, DIKSHA incorporates quality user-developed content, student assessment tools, data collection and analysis, teacher professional development, and parent-teacher-student communication into a multilingual package now being implemented in several states. Additional general-purpose platforms include Karnataka’s Meghshala, Gujarat’s Learning Delight, and the Central Board for Secondary Education’s Saransh. More specialized platforms also exist to fulfill specific needs, such as StoryWeaver, an initiative to develop mother tongue literacy material. EkStep and DIKSHA provide functionality to incorporate other platforms as specialized modules within their own system, a powerful integrative feature with the potential to consolidate the many different platforms in existence under one roof without sacrificing local adaptability or flexibility. Education policymakers should continue encouraging the consolidation of redundant platforms. While teachers often use ICT resources such as Youtube in the classroom, these freelance solutions do not provide the opportunities for beneficial synergies inherent in a platform. Additionally, implementers and end-users of education platforms should be more fully trained in the capabilities of these tools, with continuing support provided to increase familiarity and comfort level. Significant infrastructure investment is required to provide electricity to many schools, let alone digital connectivity, and opportunities exist for involving India’s major industries in content production. Finally, the definition of a digital school must be clarified to incentivize and prioritize investments in ICT integration

Digital Educational Modules Development For The Career and Technical Cybersecurity Pathways During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Virtual learning has been used now for several decades, but it has never had a bigger impact on student learning than in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities and schools faced shutdowns all around the world, and teachers had to adapt rapidly to online mode of instruction. Many educators were faced with a triage approach with no previous experience in distance learning, a lack of resources for professional development, and already existing shortages of current educational modules that could assist them in their day-to-day jobs. This gap was especially evident in areas such as career and technical education (CTE) in which there was a gap in the training and educational materials available for K-12 teachers in emerging technology fields such as computer science and cybersecurity. These problems are related to various issues, such as the lack of teacher preparation, constant changes in technology, curriculum and educational framework developments led by the various institutions dictating the nature of education, and moreover, the vast growth in the demand for such instruction, which presents challenges in meeting those growing demands. In this paper, the authors present one curriculum development effort for CTE high school programs focused on computer science and cybersecurity via a grant by the Perkins Innovation Project funded by the U.S. Department of Education and supported by engineering technology, electrical engineering, and industrial technology educators

Google Glass App for Displaying ASL Videos for Deaf Children – The Preliminary Race

Glass Vision 3D is a grant-funded project focused on the goal of developing and researching the feasibility & usability of a Google Glass app that will allow young Deaf children to look at an object in the classroom and see an augmented reality projection that displays an American Sign Language (ASL) related video. Session will show the system (Glass app) that was developed and summarize feedback gathered during focus-group testing of the prototype