Bill Enabling Community Colleges to Establish OER Pilot Program is signed into law

Jane Park, October 6th, 2008

Last week, a bill enabling the California Community Colleges to integrate open educational resources (OER) into its core curriculum was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger. AB 2261 authorizes the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges “to establish a pilot program to provide faculty and staff from community college districts around the state with the information, methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resources centers.” The program would provide a structure by which community college faculty and staff could vet and repurpose OER in order to create high quality course materials and textbooks for college students. The resulting materials would themselves be openly licensed or available in the public domain so that they could be further adapted and repurposed for future and individual contexts. High quality OER would also set a new and much needed economic standard for publishers, who currently charge exorbitant prices for college textbooks. According to the LA times, textbook prices accounted for almost 60% of a community college student’s educational costs last year.

This legislation is spearheaded by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin and Hal Plotkin, President of the Foothill and De Anza Community College District’s Governing Board of Trustees. Hal writes,

“This is the first legislation that puts the state of California squarely behind those of us who are working to create free, high-quality, vetted public domain — or “open” — educational resources for community college students, who stand to save literally hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decade as a result. 

The scholar David Wiley has observed that introducing Open Educational Resources into the public education system is the most significant development since the establishment of Land Grant colleges and universities in the mid 1800’s.

What’s also wonderful is the knowledge that, even in these difficult days when our system seems so very broken, an ordinary citizen like me can still offer up a useful idea and see it enacted into law.”

See the news article on this here, and the latest version of the bill here. The Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Silicon Valley is a leading institution in the open education movement; they established the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) last year, which exists “to identify, create and/or repurpose existing OER as Open Textbooks and make them available for use by community college students and faculty.”

Phlow Magazine Releases “Nivel del Mar”, Free CC-Licensed Netlabel Compilation

Cameron Parkins, October 3rd, 2008

Phlow Magazine, a weblog about netlabel music culture, recently celebrated their one year anniversary by releasing Nivel del Mar, a free compilation of CC BY-NC-ND licensed tracks from various netlabels. Clocking in at one hour, 22 minutes, and 55 seconds (epic), Nivel del Mar is described as a ‘chill out compilation’ that aims to feature the the best sounds of netlabel culture. You can download it here for free.

Outside of reporting on netlabel culture, Phlow Magazine produces a podcast and has a huge archive of CC-licensed tunes available on their site.

CC Salon NYC Followup

Fred Benenson, October 2nd, 2008

Dean Jansen of the Miro Project

Thanks to everyone who came out to September’s CC Salon NYC, and to the wonderful TOPP for hosting us again. We had an even bigger turn out this time (perhaps because Time Out New York wrote us up), but just as much fun. Keep an eye out for December’s event!

International OER Community Update

Jane Park, October 1st, 2008

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is a global movement. Education is an issue that crosses borders and spans continents; open education—the creation and distribution of OER—empowers people in a global dialogue. However, the mere promotion of OER is not sufficient for the success of this international effort, as many issues and barriers to open education are country- and culture-specific. In this sense, the international OER community has some significant differences to bridge, and we must somehow synthesize the diverse range of projects and perspectives into clear and tangible objectives.

The UNESCO OER Community exemplifies progress made on this front, with currently 700+ members from 105 countries. Although North America and Western Europe account for about half of the participants, the community is still represented by 72 developing countries. One of the most compelling components of the community is its case studies project, “stories - of how institutions and individuals have developed or used OER,” based in various countries. These case studies—including those from Canada, Rwanda, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, the Netherlands and more—explore OER against the background of their heterogeneous contexts. What works? What doesn’t work? What did the organization or persons involved do or must they now do in order to overcome obstacles—either due to institutional bureaucracy, lack of resources, or otherwise? These stories are windows of insight into different ways of progressing globally.

In addition to case studies, the international community is developing an OER toolkit, templates for ease of sharing more stories (from community members, academics creating and using OER, and learners using OER), and discussion surrounding such issues as access to technology, copyright, best practices, learning psychology of OER, and more. The OER toolkit will prove especially useful in addressing the issues raised by case studies, as it targets any persons interested in becoming involved with OER, either as creators or users, and those wishing to integrate OER into their institutions or organizations.

eLearning Papers, a journal that “promotes the use of ICT for lifelong learning in Europe,” recently examined similar issues surrounding OER and the international community in its September installment, “Open Educational Resources.” From the editorial,

“This issue of eLearning Papers is dedicated to the thriving work around Open Educational Resources (OER) by committed individuals, institutions and user communities. Five selected papers by the guest editors investigate the organisational, social, cultural, pedagogical and technical aspects of implementing OER…

We have two papers that investigate how higher education institutions work OER into their policies and practices. “Open Educational Resources for Management Education: Lessons from experience” elaborates on a French faculty which created a digital distribution place to share and disseminate university courses. The initial resistance of the faculty members evaporated as they started receiving positive feedback on their courses, as well as international interest in their French content. On the other hand, “Reflections on sustaining Open Educational Resources: an institutional case study” shows how first gaining high level policy support within the institution for the initiative of OER was turned into a sustainable institutional practice.”

The journal is licensed CC BY-NC-ND, while the UNESCO OER Community site is open for re-use and adaptation under CC BY-SA. It is also hosted on a wiki which means anyone is free to contribute to the OER case studies and OER toolkit. The UNESCO OER Community has been funded by one of our avid supporters, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, since its inception in 2005.

9th Annual Media That Matters Film Festival: Call For Entries

Cameron Parkins, October 1st, 2008

Arts Engine, a non-profit that creates social-issue documentaries, just released a call for entries for their 9th Annual Media That Matters Film Festival. The films produced for the MTMFF are short form, focus on social issues, and made mostly by young filmmakers. 

Following a New York City Premiere, Awards Ceremony and industry networking event in June 2009, films submitted will take part in the Media That Matters international, multi-platform campaign with “DVD distribution, broadcasts, streaming and hundreds of screenings across the globe.” After the festival has been completed, the films will be released under a CC BY-NC-ND license. From MTMFF:

The Media That Matters Film Festival is the premier showcase for short films on the most important topics of the day. Local and global, online and in communities around the world, Media That Matters engages diverse audiences and inspires them to take action.

From gay rights to global warming, the jury-selected collection represents the work of a diverse group of independent filmmakers, many of whom are under 21. The films are equally diverse in style and content, with documentaries, music videos, animations, experimental work and everything else in between. What all the films have in common is that they spark debate and action in 12 minutes or less.

You can check out entries from previous MTMFF here, here, and here. Details on how to enter below:

Short Films: Keep it short! Under 12 minutes is good, but under 8 is even better.

All Genres: Documentary, animation, PSA, narrative, music videos - be creative! 

Social Issues: Any and all. This year we are looking for films on Media Literacy, Human Rights, Elections & Democracy, Sustainability, Sexual Identity—but all social issues are accepted. Youth produced projects are encouraged.

Cash Prize: $1,000 per film.

Submission Fee: $25 for general submissions; $10 for students over 18 (with valid student ID); free for youth 18 and under (with valid ID).

Deadline: All submission materials must be postmarked by January 9th, 2009.

Check website for more details: submit.

Arts Engine also sells region-free unencrypted CC licensed DVDs of all the films that can be shown in any non-commercial setting.