Category: Education
Help Design the OER Research Network
- by Cathy Casserly
The Open University and Carnegie Mellon are working on a proposal to develop infrastructure, community and activity to help share research findings on the design and use of OERs. The draft proposal is available on an open wiki at http://iet-public-wiki.open.ac.uk/index.php/OPLRN_proposal with a discussion area available at http://iet-public-wiki.open.ac.uk/index.php/Talk:OPLRN_proposal
Deadline Approaching: 2008 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration
- by Cathy Casserly
The deadline for nominations for the 2008 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC Awards) is April 14, 2008. The MATC Awards consist of up to ten $50,000 or $100,000 prizes, which a receiving institution can use in a variety of ways to continue its technology leadership. The awards honor not-for-profit institutions that have demonstrated exemplary leadership in the development of open source software for one or more of the constituencies served by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: the arts and humanities in higher education; research libraries, museums; performing arts organizations; and conservation biology.
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Awardees are selected by a distinguished committee of technology leaders, including Mitchell Baker, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, John Seely Brown, Vint Cerf, John Gage, and Tim OâReilly. Previous winners include higher education institutions, libraries, and museums  from North America, Europe, and Asia.Â
An online nomination form and more information may be found at http://matc.mellon.org. The nominations are public: the community is invited to visit the site and comment.Hewlett Board approves over $10 million in OER grants!
- by Cathy Casserly
On March 17, 2008 Trustees of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation approved $10,075,000 in Open Educational Resources grants to the following organizations:
Creative Commons (
Foothill-De Anza Community College District(
Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) (
Ithaka Harbors, Inc. (
Long Now Foundation (
Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) (
Rice University (
Silicon Valley Educational Fund (San Jose, CA) for a planning grant to explore the use of OER in the San Jose School District ($180,000 over one year)
University of
University of
Full proposals will be availble on the Hewlett Fuondation website in a few weeks.
Visions of Students Today
- by johndehlin
The Original
A Revision
K-12 Version
Open Education Resources
- by Marshall
Over the next few weeks we will post comments about a lot of interesting OER.  Keep an eye on this page. Go to this link.
A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement
- by Cathy Casserly
Hewlett Foundation Open Educational Resources ReportÃÂ - pdf version.
For Hewlett OER Report – doc version, click here.
ÃÂ A comprehensive review and facing forward look of the OER field from:
- Dan Atkins, Director of Cyberinfrastructure at NSF;
- John Seely Brown, former Chief Scientist of Xerox, Director ofÃÂ PARC, and
- Allen Hammond, World Resources Institute.
Just released, A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievement, Challenges and New Opportunities. Please distribute, read, digest and discuss here at OERderves. This report examines The William and Flora Hewlett Foundationââ¬â¢s past investments in Open Educational Resources, the emerging impact and explores future opportunities.
Central to the report is the idea of ââ¬ÅTheàBrewing Perfect Stormââ¬Âàand the creation of an Open Participatory Learning Infrastructure.
We welcome your thoughts, creativity and expertise!
Community portal
- by Phoenix
Educators in over 23 developing countries are using the WikiEducator to create and share open educational resources. Apparently the content created on the site flows directly into any learning management system to encourage localization. According to Paul West at the Commonwealth of Learning, we should leave the monumental task of indexing open educational resources to search engines like Google and nurture community portals like this one that focus on offering tools for collaboration. What do you think?
Vietnam
- by Marshall
Today we met with some folks from Intel and talked about school reform in Vietnam. Intel is building a plant just outside of Saigon and is very involved with Viet Nam’s Ministry of Education. They are interested in exploring the possibilities of open education resources.