| For well over 10-15 years, the battles between 'open' vs. 'closed' solutions have raged. It started with free and 'open source' software (FOSS) solutions, then moved on to 'open standards', 'open access', 'open data', 'open architecture', ... It started in the technology sector, then spread into education, healthcare, manufacturing, government and just about every other component of the public and private sector. It became more than just about technology, it became a broad, global movement that supports the adoption of 'open culture' and 'open societies' around the world. Many individuals, corporations, and countries will continue to battle and fight against the 'open movement' for years to come, not recognizing that the war is over - all 'closed' systems will succumb to 'open solutions' as we move into the future. - Peter Groen |
Monday, March 9, 2015
Last COSI 'Open' Education & Training Blog
After 5 years, this is the last COSI 'Open' Education & Training
blog. We will, however, continue to maintain the associated COSI 'Open'
Education & Training Technology web site. We thank the thousands of visitors that took the
time to visit the site and read our blogs over the years.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Machine Learning: Who's Teaching Whom?
Ever
heard of Robo
Brain, a system that scours the Internet and teaches other
robots
how to think. It
exists!
Back
in 1959, Arthur
Samuel defined machine
learning
as a "field of study that gives computers the ability to learn
without being explicitly programmed". Today, machine learning
has become a reality. In fact, machines are now teaching machines.
It's no longer science fiction. In fact, machines are now teaching humans.
Machine
learning is
currently
considered a subfield of computer science and
has strong
ties to Artificial
Intelligence
(AI).
Hopefully
you read the recent
article we posted in which the world renowned
theoretical physicist Professor Stephen
Hawking warning that artificial intelligence could end mankind as we
know it. Pay attention!
Machine
Learning
Machine
learning tasks are typically classified into three broad categories -
Supervised
learning, Unsupervised
learning, and
Reinforcement
learning.
In
reinforcement learning,
a computerized
machine
interacts with a dynamic environment without a human
teacher
explicitly telling it what
to do, e.g. driving a car or playing a game.
In
the early days of AI as an academic discipline, some researchers were
interested in having machines learn from data and their focus shifted
from AI to building neural
networks. In the 1990s, as the field of machine learning started
to flourish, the field began narrowing in on solving problems of a more
practical nature - especially with the rapid evolution of robotics
and their use in a growing number of industries.
Machines
Teaching Machines
Twenty
years ago
humans were teaching machines how to 'think'. Today, machine
learning has advanced to the stage where robots are now capable of
teaching themselves how to think - without
human input.
Ever
heard of Robo
Brain, a system that scours the Internet and teaches other robots
how to think. It
already exists!
Machines Now Teaching Humans
If you look around today, you can see machines starting to teach humans how to think and act. Is this good or bad? Should we be concerned? Maybe we should be taking Stephen Hawking's warning to heart and not let scientists and corporations run amuck in this arena.
If you are concerned, maybe you should start to check out some of the latest articles about machines learning and robots.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) for the Creative Arts
Today,
Art and Technology often go hand-in-hand. The following are links to
selected 'open source' software & tools for use in the Creative
Arts. If you have an interest in this area, you might want to try
some of them out.
- Art of Illusion - A free and open source 3D modelling and rendering studio.
- Artful.ly - An open source business tool for art organizations or businesses that includes modules for ticketing, fundraising, constituent management, and more.
- Audacity - A free and open source, cross-platform software tool used for recording and editing sounds.
- Avidemux - Free and open source software designed for multi-purpose video editing that can be used with almost all known computer operating systems.
- Blender - A free and open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems.
- Booktype - An open source platform to help you write, publish, and/or print books.
- Calligra Flow - An easy to use free & open source diagramming and flowcharting application.
- DarkTable - An open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers.
- GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) - A multi-platform photo & image manipulation tool. It is an open source alternative to Photoshop.
- Inkscape - An open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator or CorelDraw.
- Kaltura - A community developed free and open source video management platform and applications.
- KdenLive - A free and open source multi-track video editing tool.
- Krita - A full-featured, open source sketching and painting application for digital artists
- Mixxx - One of the most popular free and open source DJ software packages in the world.
- MuseScore - Free and open source music composition and notation software.
- MyPaint - An open source graphics application for digital painters.
- Open Movie Editor - A free and open source video editing program, designed for basic movie making capabilities.
- PhotoPrint - A free utility designed to assist in the process of printing digital photographs and posters.
- Scribus - An open source desktop publishing system with and extensive graphics tools.
- Shape Collage - An open source tool that allows you to create picture collages in any imaginable shape or form.
- Synfig Studio - Free and open-source 2D animation software solution for creating film-quality animation using vector and bitmap artwork.
- TuxPaint - A free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12.
- VLC - A popular free and open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most CD, DVD, and many other files & streaming protocols.
- Xournal - A free and open source application for notetaking, sketching, and keeping a journal using a stylus on Tablet PCs and other platforms.
There
are also a lot of other links
to selected web sites with free, but
not
open
source,
online creative art tools: e.g.
Flockdraw
; Phoenix;
Pixlr;
Frinika;
Kristal ;Splashup.
If you know of some other great free and open source software and tools for use in the Creative Arts, please` share them with us.
If you know of some other great free and open source software and tools for use in the Creative Arts, please` share them with us.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Understanding 'Open' Terminology
Having
heard so many people using the terms “open systems”, “open computing”,
and “open source” interchangeably, believing they all mean the same
thing, it seemed appropriate to write a short blog defining some of
these terms and soliciting input on other ‘open’ terminology.
In general, the term “Open” often refers to initiatives whose inner workings are exposed to the public and are capable of being further modified or improved by any qualified individual or organization. “Open” is the opposite of “proprietary” or “closed” environments. In the case of software, this would mean that the “source code” is either open for all to access such as the Linux operating system or closed systems such as Windows where only Microsoft programmers are able to change the source code.
Other ‘open’ terminology often loosely bandied about include:
Have you heard some other ‘open’ terminology being used that you can take a shot at defining and share with us?
In general, the term “Open” often refers to initiatives whose inner workings are exposed to the public and are capable of being further modified or improved by any qualified individual or organization. “Open” is the opposite of “proprietary” or “closed” environments. In the case of software, this would mean that the “source code” is either open for all to access such as the Linux operating system or closed systems such as Windows where only Microsoft programmers are able to change the source code.
Other ‘open’ terminology often loosely bandied about include:
- Open Source Software (OSS) - OSS refers to a software program in which the source code is available to anyone for use. It can be modified by anyone from its original design free of up-front license fees. The source code is available for review, modification, and sharing by the at-large community.
- Open Standards - The set of specifications developed to define interoperability between diverse systems. The standards are owned and maintained by a vendor-neutral organization rather than by a specific commercial developer.
- Open Systems - Hardware and/or software systems that use or adhere to open architecture and standards that support interoperable to some degree. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_systems
- Open Architecture - An Information Technology (IT) architecture whose specifications are open and available to the public and that provide a platform that enables continued evolution and interoperability. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_architecture
- Open Access - Providing free and unrestricted access to journal articles, research findings, books, and other literature. See http://www.soros.org/openaccess
- Open Data – Data that anyone is free to use, reuse and redistribute without restriction. For more detail, see http://opendefinition.org.
- Open Data Format - A standard way for describing data formats, per the “Open Data Format Initiative (ODFI)”, and a program to validate that a data file is “ODFI compliant”. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
- Open Community - An environment in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is loosely coordinated into large, meaningful collaborative projects and generally avoids the traditional closed organization structure many are used to seeing in the private sector.
- Open Computing - This is a general term used to describe an “open” philosophy in building information technology (IT) systems. It represents the principle that includes architecture and technology procurement policies and practices that align IT with the goals of an open interoperable computer systems environment.
- Open Knowledge - An open system of knowledge transfer using the Internet and other information technologies to share best practices, emerging practices, knowledge and innovations within one or more “Community of Practice (CoP)” or across organizational boundaries. Visit http://okfn.org
- Open Publication License (OPL) - This is a license used for creating free and open publications created by the Open Content Project. Other alternatives include the Creative Commons licenses, the GNU Free Documentation License and the Free Art License. See http://opencontent.org/openpub/
- Open Source Hardware - Hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the hardware based on that ‘open’ design. See http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW
Have you heard some other ‘open’ terminology being used that you can take a shot at defining and share with us?
Sunday, May 25, 2014
It's Easy! It's Time! Go ahead and install Linux on your old XP PC
I finally started broke down and bought
a new laptop to replace my old one at home that still runs Microsoft XP. I
started using Windows 8.1 and was not pleased. So many unwanted
features that keep disrupting my use of the computer. I guess it will
just take time to adjust, but...
As a result, I decided to install Linux
Mint on my old XP laptop. I looked on the web and found an article
entitled “How
to install Linux Mint on your XP PC” published by ZDNet. Great
article! I followed the instructions and within an hour had installed
Linux on my old PC.
Fantastic, easy to do, and so much more
user friendly. Oh! Also at no cost. I avoided this for years. Silly
me. I had tried Linux about 6-7 years ago and was not pleased. I went
back to my trusty Microsoft XP system. But times have changed. I am
really impressed with Linux Mint.
As a result, my new PC running Windows
8.1 has become my backup system and my old PC running Linux Mint has
become my primary system. BTW – it came with Firefox, LibreOffice,
GIMP, Thunderbird eMail, and many other of the best free and open
source software (FOSS) products.
I highly recommend that anyone that has
an old PC running XP should install Linux Mint before they think
about buying a new PC with Windows 8.1 Share this with your colleagues and students.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Investing in Top 'Open Source' Companies
I just looked over the "Top 50 Open Source Companies Ranked
by Momentum Index" posted at http://momentumindex.com/50-open-source-momentum-index/ These are businesses built on top of
open source technologies. The list of successful companies is growing and investors
have been pouring money into them.
The following are selected mid-size open source companies to watch
and possibly invest in as they grow and go public over time. Many of
these were simply open source projects just 5 years ago. They're now thriving
startup companies that continue to innovate, expand, and position themselves to
become some of the top companies in the future as we move further into the 21st
century 'Information Age' where collaboration, open solutions, and innovation (COSI) are king.
Company
& Website
|
What other companies do you think ought to be added to the list? Companies in the 'Open' Education space?
Thursday, April 3, 2014
8th Annual Future of Open Source Survey - 2014
Black Duck Software and North Bridge Venture Partners just announced the results of
their annual Future of Open Source Survey for 2014. A record-breaking 1,240
industry influencers took part in this year’s survey.
This year’s
results point toward the increased strategic role that open source software (OSS)
has in today’s enterprises, the crucial function OSS plays in developing new
technologies, the growth of first-time developers within the OSS community, and
the impact it has on daily life.
According to
Lou Shipley, President and CEO, Black Duck. “Open source has proven its quality
and security, and reached a point of widespread democratization and
proliferation.
In
particular, the survey revealed the three industries expected to be impacted
most by OSS are Education (76%), Government (67%), and Healthcare (45%).
Survey respondents
further reported that the top ten areas where OSS will impact our everyday
lives include:
Education
Mobility Web privacy/security Home appliance Wearable devices |
Robotics
Entertainment Automotive Gaming Monetary exchange/payments |
When asked
what OSS technologies were leading in industry, 63% cited cloud computing &
virtualization, 57% said content management, 52% selected mobile technology,
and 51% answered security.
Also, 56% of
corporations expect to contribute to more open source projects in 2014,
signaling a change in the way enterprises view open source. When asked why they
engaged with OSS communities, cost reduction was still the top response (61%),
but many corporations (45%) responded that they also did so to gain a competitive
advantage.
The survey
shows enterprises now organizing to contribute back more actively; as they
realize the importance of open source innovation to jumpstart careers and
kickstart projects,” said Michael Skok, general partner at North Bridge Venture
Partners. "Further, more new areas like the Internet of Things (IoT),
which requires interoperability and extensibility, can only be met by open
source initiatives, hence the emergence of new communities such as the AllSeen
Alliance."
Additional
Findings
- 72 percent of respondents chose to use OSS because it provides stronger security than proprietary solutions.
- Building upon this, 80 percent of respondents reported choosing open source because of its quality over proprietary alternatives.
- 68 percent of respondents said that OSS helped improve efficiency and lower costs
- 55 percent also indicated that OSS helped create new products and services
- 50 percent of enterprises report openly contributing to and adopting open source.
To see the
full results from the 8th Annual Open Source Survey conducted by North Bridge and Black Duck, go to Slideshare and view their presentation on
The
Future of Open Source .
Overall, the
future looks bright not just for open source software (OSS), but for all things
'open'. Share your thoughts.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Time to make the jump from Microsoft XP to Linux?
If you're running Microsoft XP on your personal computer (PC), after
April 8, 2014 you are apparently on your own. Actually you and 1/3 of
all the PC owners in the world still running XP are on your own. So you
have a lot of company. See Infographic.
It is reasonable to speculate that soon after support is withdrawn, many new hacker attacks and distribution of malware will start to occur. It appears that any XP machine connected to the internet or other source of infection may not only be a danger to itself but to the other machines connected to the same local network.
Removal of Microsoft XP from your older model PC is becoming essential for many. If you're wondering what to do, you can purchase and install a more up-to-date version of Microsoft, buy a new PC – or this may finally be the time to go ahead and switch to Linux.
If you agree that its finally time to make the jump to Linux on your PC, you're going to need some help. I know I do. So a quick search on the Internet for instructions on how to get started and go about doing surfaced the following guidance from various sources:
Total newbie...how can I change windows XP to Linux
An interesting thread on LinuxForums.org on switching from Windows XP to Linux. The discussion starts as follows – "Hi! I am so newbie I don't even know where to begin. One thing I know is that I want to get rid of Windows XP on my PC and run Linux instead."
Converting a Windows XP Laptop to Ubuntu - Linux? - Yahoo Answers
Jun 11, 2013 - I have an old Win XP laptop. I want to install Ubuntu Linux on it. ... If you already have an Ubuntu install disk then follow from instruction 8. You will ...
How do I install a Linux os on a dell with a corrupted XP ...
An interesting discussion thread on Linux.com with lots of straight forward, helpful advice. For example – "No need to do anything special to remove Windows, just allow the Linux installer to wipe out any existing partitions and reformat the drive. Just about any distro will provide this option, just pay attention to the questions in the installer about partitioning - it will be pretty obvious."
The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 15 (Olivia) | HowtoForge
This tutorial shows how you can set up a Linux Mint 15 (Olivia) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. All software comes free of charge.
Installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
A free tutorial on Softpedia that will teach users how to install the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system.
Uninstall Win XP and install Ubuntu (latest version)
This discussion thread on the C/NET Linux Forum also provides some useful suggestions and tips on uninstalling Windows XP and installing Ubuntu Linux.
Germans Give Out Linux to Windows XP Die-Hards - Tom's Guide
Windows XP's time is running out, but the city government of Munich, Germany, knows one way to mitigate the dying system's security risk: Switch the entire city over to the Ubuntu Linux operating system…
For many schools and their students who don't have the resources to go out and buy new computers or software licenses, or just don't want to litter the landscape with old machines, making the jump to Linux and use of other free and open source software may be a good thing to do.
Let other readers know what you chose to do with your PC running XP. Did you make the jump to Linux? If so, do you have any helpful observations or advice to pass on?
It is reasonable to speculate that soon after support is withdrawn, many new hacker attacks and distribution of malware will start to occur. It appears that any XP machine connected to the internet or other source of infection may not only be a danger to itself but to the other machines connected to the same local network.
Removal of Microsoft XP from your older model PC is becoming essential for many. If you're wondering what to do, you can purchase and install a more up-to-date version of Microsoft, buy a new PC – or this may finally be the time to go ahead and switch to Linux.
If you agree that its finally time to make the jump to Linux on your PC, you're going to need some help. I know I do. So a quick search on the Internet for instructions on how to get started and go about doing surfaced the following guidance from various sources:
Total newbie...how can I change windows XP to Linux
An interesting thread on LinuxForums.org on switching from Windows XP to Linux. The discussion starts as follows – "Hi! I am so newbie I don't even know where to begin. One thing I know is that I want to get rid of Windows XP on my PC and run Linux instead."
Converting a Windows XP Laptop to Ubuntu - Linux? - Yahoo Answers
Jun 11, 2013 - I have an old Win XP laptop. I want to install Ubuntu Linux on it. ... If you already have an Ubuntu install disk then follow from instruction 8. You will ...
How do I install a Linux os on a dell with a corrupted XP ...
An interesting discussion thread on Linux.com with lots of straight forward, helpful advice. For example – "No need to do anything special to remove Windows, just allow the Linux installer to wipe out any existing partitions and reformat the drive. Just about any distro will provide this option, just pay attention to the questions in the installer about partitioning - it will be pretty obvious."
The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 15 (Olivia) | HowtoForge
This tutorial shows how you can set up a Linux Mint 15 (Olivia) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. All software comes free of charge.
Installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
A free tutorial on Softpedia that will teach users how to install the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system.
Uninstall Win XP and install Ubuntu (latest version)
This discussion thread on the C/NET Linux Forum also provides some useful suggestions and tips on uninstalling Windows XP and installing Ubuntu Linux.
Germans Give Out Linux to Windows XP Die-Hards - Tom's Guide
Windows XP's time is running out, but the city government of Munich, Germany, knows one way to mitigate the dying system's security risk: Switch the entire city over to the Ubuntu Linux operating system…
For many schools and their students who don't have the resources to go out and buy new computers or software licenses, or just don't want to litter the landscape with old machines, making the jump to Linux and use of other free and open source software may be a good thing to do.
Let other readers know what you chose to do with your PC running XP. Did you make the jump to Linux? If so, do you have any helpful observations or advice to pass on?
Friday, November 29, 2013
The 'Open' Education & Training Revolution Continues
First came free and 'open' source software. Then along came 'Open
Access', 'Open' Data, 'Open' Standards, 'Open' IT Architecture, 'Open'
Hardware, 'Open' Communities, 'Open' Government, 'Open' Education, and
… The 'Open' Movement continues to spread disrupting almost every
industry. The 'Open' Revolution is a rapidly spreading 21st century global phenomenon.
This article focuses on some of the major disruptive changes occurring related to the field of 'Open Education & Training, in both the public and private sector. These include everything from 'open access' journals and textbooks to 'open source' education and training software - and the latest phenomena, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).
Background
The number and quality of free and 'open source' education and training software products out there continues to grow. Have you checked some of them out? They are aimed at students, teachers, and public and private sector education and training organizations. Have you heard of Sakai, Kuali, Kaltura, Moodle, or Zotero? Check out some of the better products now available – go to the COSI Open Education web site.
You might also want to check out some of the many sources of high quality, free and 'open access' journals and textbooks available on the web. Do you know about Bentham Open Access, OER Commons, Versita Open, or the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)? Check out these and many of the other 'Open Access' Education resources.
Then there are Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) web sites that offer low cost, online courses aimed at nearly unlimited levels of participation by students or trainees around the globe. In addition to using traditional course materials (e.g. textbooks, videos), MOOCs also provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and instructors. MOOCs are a relatively recent development in distance education.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. The term MOOC was first coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island and Senior Research Fellow Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education in Canada. You can read a lot more about the history of MOOCs on Wikipedia.
While MOOCs initially emerged and were used in academic settings, many private corporations around the world have begun to embrace them as a new, cost effective alternative for providing training to their employees.
Major Examples of 'Open' Education & Training Solutions
The following are brief profiles of some of the more notable Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms that are currently available:
edX is a non-profit collaborative organization and web portal offering interactive Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in subjects such as law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and more. Their decision to release their source code to the community was made to further accelerate enhancements to the platform.
Coursera is an education company that has partnered with top universities and organizations around the world to offer free courses online for anyone to take. Coursera enables its partners to offer their courses to millions of students. It has emerged as the current leader of the pack, with over 10 million enrollments in Coursera from approximately 195 countries.
Udacity is a for-profit education and training organization offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Their mission is to help reinvent education for the 21st century by bridging the gap between real-world skills, relevant education, and employment.
Udemy is another for-profit education and raining company helping its students make career moves – whether it be getting a promotion, breaking into a new industry, starting a company, or furthering a passion.
Other MOOC platforms to check out include Academic Earth, FutureLearn, OER University, OpenCurriculum, and YouTube EDU.
Corporate Training & MOOCs
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) are starting to impact corporate education and training programs. One of the most obvious benefits of making world-class academic and corporate educational experiences available online is the opportunity to lower training costs.
For example, a one day training program for 100 employees at a remote site could easily cost an organization well over $100,000 to hold. Use of MOOCs allow the costs of developing course content and delivery of training to be amortized over thousands of company employees taking self-paced training sessions – with no major travel, facility, or equipment expenses required.
Many of today's knowledge workers are 'always on', expecting to access information and training anywhere, anytime – as needed. MOOCs are ideally suited to these workers of the future. There is an excellent article posted on Wired.com entitled MOOCs On The Move From Colleges To Companies that is well worth reading and goes into the topic of MOOCs in much more detail.
The article notes that major corporations around the world are adding online courses to their new 'blended learning' training programs with increasing success. It also states that "Online access to company training courses is making it possible for corporate employees outside of headquarters to have the same opportunity for management training and promotion as their HQ peers; for foreign contractors to perform at the same level as their local peers; and for small companies to provide the same level and frequency of training to their employees as their larger competitors. "
An increasing number of corporate Human Resource (HR) management officials are giving MOOCs a closer look as a new, more cost effective way to deliver training to employees. After trying it out, many early adopters have warming to the idea and are sharing their 'lessons learned' from their pilot initiatives with others.
Major Issues & Challenges
MOOCs are a relatively new phenomena. As they continue to catch on and gather momentum, resistance to them is increasing. There are numerous obstacles to overcome in the coming years before MOOCs find their place, as the field of education and training rapidly changes to meet the challenges of the 21st century 'Information Age'.
Some of the many challenges and issues that must be addressed include:
• Helping people overcome their fear of change and adjust to the new technologies and solutions – whether they be faculty, students, management, employees, young, or old.
• Helping facilitate radical change in how academic institutions and corporations currently offer education and training
• Changing outdated legislation or policies that favor the status quo – traditional classroom training offered by 'brick and mortar' institutions
• Continue to recognize and facilitate the move towards lifelong learning – offered to anyone, anywhere, anytime
• Continue the move towards the privatization of education and training at all levels – high school, college, on-the-job, etc.
• Continue to enhance the technologies and processes needed to provide high quality, online distance learning solutions
• Continue to make changes to current education and training programs and practices – college degrees programs vs. certification programs; obtaining accreditation for online courses; …
• Address the many privacy and security issues raised as we move towards use of many new technologies and more online education & training programs
• Explore and create new revenue opportunities for academic institutions, faculty, and private corporations providing education and training to people around the world.
Conclusions
Bottom Line - Traditional educational institutions are going to change dramatically over the coming years – investing more heavily in new technologies; increasingly going online; going after corporate customers; thinking global; offering certificates in addition to degrees; using open access textbooks; cutting costs while simultaneously offering more services; reducing academic staff; learning to be more flexible and 'open' minded…
Corporate training program will continue to evolve and outsource much of their training – the difference being that they will increasing make use of low cost, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offerings by public and private sector organizations. Some of the larger corporations will stand up their own MOOC systems – using some of the many high quality 'open source' software tools now available, as well as using 'open access' textbooks and raining materials. They may even generate revenue by offering training to others outside their own organization.
Globalization, international competitiveness, and the growth of the knowledge-based industries of the 21st century will drive the growth of MOOCs. India has already grabbed the #2 spot in use of MOOCs, after the U.S. Expect Europe, China, and a growing number of other countries to quickly take advantage of MOOCs as they compete in the global marketplace.
Have you used a MOOC? What was the experience like? How can they be improved? Do you think the use of MOOCs will continue to spread? Share your constructive impressions and ideas with us.
Key Massive 'Open' Online Courses (MOOC) Links
This article focuses on some of the major disruptive changes occurring related to the field of 'Open Education & Training, in both the public and private sector. These include everything from 'open access' journals and textbooks to 'open source' education and training software - and the latest phenomena, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).
Background
The number and quality of free and 'open source' education and training software products out there continues to grow. Have you checked some of them out? They are aimed at students, teachers, and public and private sector education and training organizations. Have you heard of Sakai, Kuali, Kaltura, Moodle, or Zotero? Check out some of the better products now available – go to the COSI Open Education web site.
You might also want to check out some of the many sources of high quality, free and 'open access' journals and textbooks available on the web. Do you know about Bentham Open Access, OER Commons, Versita Open, or the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)? Check out these and many of the other 'Open Access' Education resources.
Then there are Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) web sites that offer low cost, online courses aimed at nearly unlimited levels of participation by students or trainees around the globe. In addition to using traditional course materials (e.g. textbooks, videos), MOOCs also provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and instructors. MOOCs are a relatively recent development in distance education.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. The term MOOC was first coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island and Senior Research Fellow Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education in Canada. You can read a lot more about the history of MOOCs on Wikipedia.
While MOOCs initially emerged and were used in academic settings, many private corporations around the world have begun to embrace them as a new, cost effective alternative for providing training to their employees.
Major Examples of 'Open' Education & Training Solutions
The following are brief profiles of some of the more notable Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms that are currently available:
edX is a non-profit collaborative organization and web portal offering interactive Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in subjects such as law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and more. Their decision to release their source code to the community was made to further accelerate enhancements to the platform.
Coursera is an education company that has partnered with top universities and organizations around the world to offer free courses online for anyone to take. Coursera enables its partners to offer their courses to millions of students. It has emerged as the current leader of the pack, with over 10 million enrollments in Coursera from approximately 195 countries.
Udacity is a for-profit education and training organization offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Their mission is to help reinvent education for the 21st century by bridging the gap between real-world skills, relevant education, and employment.
Udemy is another for-profit education and raining company helping its students make career moves – whether it be getting a promotion, breaking into a new industry, starting a company, or furthering a passion.
Other MOOC platforms to check out include Academic Earth, FutureLearn, OER University, OpenCurriculum, and YouTube EDU.
Corporate Training & MOOCs
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) are starting to impact corporate education and training programs. One of the most obvious benefits of making world-class academic and corporate educational experiences available online is the opportunity to lower training costs.
For example, a one day training program for 100 employees at a remote site could easily cost an organization well over $100,000 to hold. Use of MOOCs allow the costs of developing course content and delivery of training to be amortized over thousands of company employees taking self-paced training sessions – with no major travel, facility, or equipment expenses required.
Many of today's knowledge workers are 'always on', expecting to access information and training anywhere, anytime – as needed. MOOCs are ideally suited to these workers of the future. There is an excellent article posted on Wired.com entitled MOOCs On The Move From Colleges To Companies that is well worth reading and goes into the topic of MOOCs in much more detail.
The article notes that major corporations around the world are adding online courses to their new 'blended learning' training programs with increasing success. It also states that "Online access to company training courses is making it possible for corporate employees outside of headquarters to have the same opportunity for management training and promotion as their HQ peers; for foreign contractors to perform at the same level as their local peers; and for small companies to provide the same level and frequency of training to their employees as their larger competitors. "
An increasing number of corporate Human Resource (HR) management officials are giving MOOCs a closer look as a new, more cost effective way to deliver training to employees. After trying it out, many early adopters have warming to the idea and are sharing their 'lessons learned' from their pilot initiatives with others.
Major Issues & Challenges
MOOCs are a relatively new phenomena. As they continue to catch on and gather momentum, resistance to them is increasing. There are numerous obstacles to overcome in the coming years before MOOCs find their place, as the field of education and training rapidly changes to meet the challenges of the 21st century 'Information Age'.
Some of the many challenges and issues that must be addressed include:
• Helping people overcome their fear of change and adjust to the new technologies and solutions – whether they be faculty, students, management, employees, young, or old.
• Helping facilitate radical change in how academic institutions and corporations currently offer education and training
• Changing outdated legislation or policies that favor the status quo – traditional classroom training offered by 'brick and mortar' institutions
• Continue to recognize and facilitate the move towards lifelong learning – offered to anyone, anywhere, anytime
• Continue the move towards the privatization of education and training at all levels – high school, college, on-the-job, etc.
• Continue to enhance the technologies and processes needed to provide high quality, online distance learning solutions
• Continue to make changes to current education and training programs and practices – college degrees programs vs. certification programs; obtaining accreditation for online courses; …
• Address the many privacy and security issues raised as we move towards use of many new technologies and more online education & training programs
• Explore and create new revenue opportunities for academic institutions, faculty, and private corporations providing education and training to people around the world.
Conclusions
Bottom Line - Traditional educational institutions are going to change dramatically over the coming years – investing more heavily in new technologies; increasingly going online; going after corporate customers; thinking global; offering certificates in addition to degrees; using open access textbooks; cutting costs while simultaneously offering more services; reducing academic staff; learning to be more flexible and 'open' minded…
Corporate training program will continue to evolve and outsource much of their training – the difference being that they will increasing make use of low cost, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offerings by public and private sector organizations. Some of the larger corporations will stand up their own MOOC systems – using some of the many high quality 'open source' software tools now available, as well as using 'open access' textbooks and raining materials. They may even generate revenue by offering training to others outside their own organization.
Globalization, international competitiveness, and the growth of the knowledge-based industries of the 21st century will drive the growth of MOOCs. India has already grabbed the #2 spot in use of MOOCs, after the U.S. Expect Europe, China, and a growing number of other countries to quickly take advantage of MOOCs as they compete in the global marketplace.
Have you used a MOOC? What was the experience like? How can they be improved? Do you think the use of MOOCs will continue to spread? Share your constructive impressions and ideas with us.
Key Massive 'Open' Online Courses (MOOC) Links
| • Academic Earth • Coursera • edX • FutureLearn • Khan Academy • LearnZillion • MOOC.org | • OER University (OERu) • OpenCurriculum • Peer to Peer University (P2PU) • Udacity • Udemy • YouTube EDU |
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Refined Definition of 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software
The
battle continues over the correct definitions of 'Free' and/or 'Open Source'
Software (FOSS). For many readers who don't follow this issue closely, it's
time to take another look at the subject.
According to the GNU organization and the Free Software
Foundation (FSF), 'Free' Software
is not about price – it's about liberty and freedom.
'Free' Software means
that the software's users have certain freedoms - the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the
software. With these freedoms, the users control
the software programs and what they do for them.
While a lot
of 'Free' Software is often acquired and shared at no cost - it can also be made available for commercial
use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. But regardless of how
people acquire copies of the software, they always have the freedom to copy, change,
and share the software -
they can even sell copies of the software, if they so choose.
Another camp
within the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) movement has focused on the
use of the term 'open source' in contrast to the emphasis GNU and FSF organizations
have placed on the term 'free software'. Read "A
Brief History of Open Source Software in Modern Times".
No
matter which camp you're in, think carefully about the difference between 'closed'
proprietary software programs and 'free' and open source solutions and which best
fits you or your organization's needs.
'Free' Software
means program users have the following four essential freedoms:
·
The freedom to run the program, for
any purpose.
·
The freedom to study how the program
works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the
source code is a precondition for this.
·
The freedom to redistribute copies so
you can help your neighbor.
·
The freedom to distribute copies of
your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole
community a chance to benefit from your changes. Again, access to the source
code is a precondition for this.
|
they can even sell copies of the software, if they so choose.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Open Source Space Satellites Launched
This news story in NewScientist by Lisa
Grossman caught the attention of a lot of people this week – "Space
station poised to launch open-source satellites". Known as CubeSats, these
open source mini -satellites were launched into space this week aboard a
Japanese resupply vehicle heading to the International Space Station (ISS). This
citizen-science project was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign.
Paying customers will be able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for three days for $125, or for $250 per week. The open source CubeSats run Arduino, an open source computer hardware and software platform popular with science hobbyists. Five years out, the project team expects to see hundreds of these satellites deployed in space.
Paying customers will be able to program controls on the satellites and run experiments for three days for $125, or for $250 per week. The open source CubeSats run Arduino, an open source computer hardware and software platform popular with science hobbyists. Five years out, the project team expects to see hundreds of these satellites deployed in space.
Students
of Sara Seager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) helped design and build CubeSats for planetary science. "This definitely is helping open up space both to all people and all
nations," Seager says of the Ardusat launch.
This
is all kind of amazing to me – and to the rapidly growing open source global community.
What's next? Open source space vehicles heading around the moon and off to
Mars?
BTW - how much would a large commercial company have charged for a similar solution? $50 million? $100 million? Interesting to speculate about.
BTW - how much would a large commercial company have charged for a similar solution? $50 million? $100 million? Interesting to speculate about.
Open
source has come a long way over the past decade. What other spectacular new innovative uses of
open source platforms do you see coming down the road? Especially in Education.
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