OER week 8

This week we were asked to find a video and show it in our blog. I found quite an interresting video on TeacherTube named Pay Attention. I did´nt find possibilities for cc on TeacherTube. However, there was information about copyright tips and notices. It made me wonder if I can show this video in my blog?



Here is my own video clip - still not edited. I´m planning to add voice in sweedish and text in english..

OER week 7

This weeks assignment was to create and upload an audio file.

Well – this was not the easiest assignment for someone not familiar in the audio-world. Also a lot of downloading – it took a while, but with some help from google and Jasmine Frances helpful tips I got the work done.
Still, I had problems uploading my audio file to ODEO and it nearly drove me mad… Is this the easiest way to distribute audio files? I did not find the upload audio link AND the help-file was no help at all :( after a while my husband found the explanation - It seem like the upload function had been discontinued for new users…
so I changed to switchpod instead. After registering it was really easy to upload the audio file. Here is a picture from my window.

OER week 6

This week we were supposed to take some pictures from our home town. In my case, this is Helsinki, Finland. I took some pictures on a building, former prison, now hotel - Hotelli Katajanokka. tried to get a dramatic angle because of the former use of the building... and also the now open gates.. I actually found many pictures from this part of Helsinki. In summer there are quite many old sailingboats sailing around in the archipelago and there is a big harbour next to Katajanokka where they dock.

OER week 5

This week we read about how Wikipedia works and about other Wiki projects.
It was very interesting to read about what happens “behind the scene”. I´ve wondered about this part – who controls the texts, checks for misinformation, controls vandalism and so on. I had no idea that it was so organized and structured “behind the scene”. It´s interesting to know that there are lots of people rely wanting to contribute and it also puts mental pressure to others to contribute – especially those working in fields of common interest and those with the knowledge to ad to prior information. It was also interesting that different countries have a bit different ways of operating. The process of deleting pages was quite interesting to! So reading the text and the article changed my view of the reliability of Wikipedia in a positive way.
About the Wikimedia projects:
Wikipedia is probably the only Wiki project I´ve heard about before. Interesting how structured and vast it has become in seven years. It is interesting that the content can be different according to language. I´ve used the English, Finnish and Swedish Wikipedia, often comparing content. The language list is very impressive. Wikibooks is something that seemed very interesting as well as the other Wiki projects. I like the way they are separated to different areas, and the projects seem very usable for school and school projects. Most kids are familiar with Wikipedia, but the rest is probably quite unfamiliar. As the knowledge of the projects spread and when schools (TEACHERS) rely get in to using OER, and overcome the fear of using information from these sites, they will play an important part in education in the future. The problem as I see it is that many teachers still lack experience in using computers and internet even if the students don´t – the teachers rely on their textbooks and traditional ways of teaching…

OER week 4

Our assignment for this week was to take a closer look at copyright and alternatives.

The reason for stipulating a copyright law was of course to protect something that had been created and could produce profit. If the material wasn’t protected – then there was no change of profiting from it. This brought limits to production and also probably led to the loss of many pieces of work. In retrospect one wonders if people would have chosen not to protect their material by law in order to know it would survive and spread through time. Also the benefit was greater for the publisher than the author, so the profits actually were / are smaller for the creator of the work as stated in.

Lessings presentation on relay opend my eyes for how complex the copyright system is, and how artificially it has been manifested to its present form. . How copy right effects society is another question. The law going from publishing to copying and from 14 years to life + 70 rely affects how creativity can be used. Also the restrictions on sound books seen in a perspective of the first copyright is absurd, and it feels like no ordinary person knows or cares about the copyright – so why have it? Because of money – and power.

I think that the creativity aspect is one of the central issues in the copyright law, and one of the most interesting points that is stated by Lessing. How the law hinders creativity and innovation by not letting a “natural” creativity process take place. In this aspect the law certainly suppresses creativity in school where pupils have a limited source of material and are not allowed to watch films or listen to music because of the law restrictions.

In the article Towards a Global Learning Commons: ccLearn there is a good metaphor that pictures the problem with protected learning sites as Black Board or Moodle that they are “walled gardens rather than public parks” - this is quite true, but it is still a difficult issue. If one provides education for a certain group, should everybody have access to this information? I´m studying for my masters degree mostly through Moodle and I don’t know if I would like the thought of every one reading my assignments and taking part in our discussions, but I still think it would be ok for anyone to go in and read the course material. But how about the teacher who has spent time and effort to write the material – how does she/he feel about this issue. On the other hand, the teachers have made links to materials and information that others have created and published on the internet. In a way were all dependent on each other – some will gain more economically but in a wider social context everyone will gain by setting information free.