Open Source Certification and Educational Process

This paper discusses possibilities to benefit software engineering and computer sciences educational process from involving students in open source software certification activities. On the other hand the open source certification community can take advantages of this involvement if it cooperates with educational one. The situation is considered in the context of Russian higher institutes of education but the conclusions can be applicable to other institutes as well

Gateways to the Principalship: State Power to Improve the Quality of School Leaders

Examines weaknesses in state policies with respect to principal preparation program approval and licensure requirements and highlights leading states and lagging states in efforts to raise preparation and certification standards. Makes recommendations

Open educational resources - new directions for technology-enhanced distance learning in the third millennium

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are an innovation giving new opportunities for learning and distance education. OERs are typically provided as courses but also include smaller units of learning and their components of audio, text or image files made available on the internet free of charge; usually under a Creative Commons License (Creative Commons, 2007). This license takes the approach of 'some rights reserved' for the materials replacing the 'all rights reserved' attitude of standard copyright (Lessig, 2004). Distance education based in OERs removes limits and offers the possibility of widening participation in education. This can include hard-to-reach groups which have little or no access to education or, for example small businesses and individuals who feel they could benefit from professional development and access to current knowledge about a topic of interest. The release of OERs can be a 'public good' for educational inclusion purposes, but they also could mark the first steps towards a revolution on the way people learn. So far, access to knowledge as taught at university level has been restricted to academic institutions. These institutions not only 'create the knowledge' but also have regulated the ways in which it can be accessed. A pattern is in place of establishing course registration procedures, charging fees, conferring grants, assessing performance and awarding degrees, These mechanisms form part of a traditional system of education that can be found all over the world

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

Communicating, learning and the in-between: a study of the impact of open-access, informal online learning environments

1. The broad aim of this project has been to contribute understandings of the uses of computer-mediated communication in 'informal' (not leading to certification) yet institutionally-hosted online spaces. The project consisted of an investigation into engagement with communication and discussion tools provided by OpenLearn, the Open University's Open Content Initiative (http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn). 2. The research focused on a selection of examples of asynchronous and synchronous communication situations within OpenLearn, including a selection of forums from the LearningSpace (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk) and various instances of synchronous communication using FM (FlashMeeting) that took place within the context of two pilot studies organised by the researcher in coordination with discipline-based colleagues. 3. Whilst the research was based on an action research orientation, the approach was predominantly exploratory and ethnographic methods (observation and participant observation) were used, complemented with semi-structured interviews, as appropriate. Thematic analysis was used within a grounded theory approach. 4. The study suggests 5 themes as core elements of engagement in CMC within an OER context: 'validation�; 'privacy�; 'trust�; 'purposefulness�; 'leadership'. The themes are mutually-dependent and each warrants more detailed investigation, and relevant topics are discussed. 5. In short, the study provides a contribution to enquiries on the impact of OERs in that it brings to light, from within a sample of learning situations across the 'informal�/�formal' space, a number of boundary issues concerning curriculum and, in particular, pedagogy. It suggests that a major aspect of the impact of OERs is that their availability is not only creating new challenges but also uncovering previously veiled tensions and questions regarding identity and boundaries. 6. A number of outputs have been generated, including two new projects that capitalise on understandings facilitated during the pilots carried out within the remit of this study

Perspective study: governance for C2C

This perspective study will serve as frame of reference for follow-up activities and exchanges both within and outside the Cradle to Cradle Network (C2CN) and it aims to reflect the current challenges and opportunities associated with implementing a Cradle to Cradle approach. In total, four perspective studies have been written, in the areas on industry, area spatial development, governance and on the build theme

Open educational resources and teaching in the 21st century: questions concerning authority

As a source of materials for education the Web is, to a large extent, shifting ground. Open Educational Resources (OER) provided by Higher Education Institutions constitute, at least in principle, a reliable category of Web-based resources given their association with traditional forms of expert authority. Nevertheless, OER embody different aspects of academic thinking and practice, competing, in an unlevelled field, with other sources that may provide a much more immediate appeal in that they afford quick and easy consumption of information delivered in a piecemeal, often uncritical, fashion. This paper draws upon a piece of research in the area of ‘online informal learning’ to illustrate issues arising from the availability of open content and, in particular, OER. This research suggests a number of aspects related to the impact of open content on assumed boundaries between teacher/learner, formal/informal learning, training/education, content/presentation and, crucially, in how the blurring of these boundaries may have an impact on the location of ‘value’ within views of education in which marketing and business discourses predominate. The paper argues that, despite the need for critical debate on issues regarding validation, current arguments focusing on ‘expertise’ risk diluting its significance in subtle yet fundamental ways

A Study of The Feasibility of Establishing a Legal and Court Interpretation Service in Cook County, Illinois

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of establishing a Legal and Court Interpreting Service, modeled upon Heartland Alliance's successful Medical Interpreting Services program. As conceptualized, the Legal and Court Interpreting Service would benefit Chicago's immigrant and refugee population in two ways: providing needed language interpretation services in the legal and court system of Cook County and offering employment opportunities for immigrants and refugees