Open-source or Open-ness?

Michael Feldstein analyses a Blackbord response to the pilot study by the University of North Carolina for Sakai, which will lead to a further investigation of Sakai as a replacement for Blackboard. While it’s a long post (and it should be, for it is an excellent analysis), one thing that caught my attention was about Support Risks (quoted below)

Blackboard’s Response to Open Source: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt: “If Blackboard can’t help you fix your problems, you’re out of luck, because nobody else understands their code or has the right to look at it. If your Moodle vendor can’t help you, you can go to another vendor, or find another adopting school that knows how to fix the problem. You can also fix it yourself. You don’t have to, but unlike with Blackboard, you can. Likewise, if Blackboard were to go out of business (ask WebCT or ANGEL customers if this sort of thing ever happens), you would’t be able to find somebody else to support and continue to develop your platform. Not true with open source support vendors.”

(Via e-Literate.)

This is a very interesting situation to be in, for almost all product companies, in a way, against their open-source alternatives. And I keep coming back to the iTunes App Store model for the iPhone (and therefore the proposed Google Wave/Android App Store). So, it may still work if the product company retains the core platform (Apple in this case), but does open up the platform — to an extent — to allow extensions to the core platform.

I suppose it’s really the confidence of the customer that is at play and at risk here than anything else. It is not necessarily open-source and the cost of free that is in play, but the experience of being locked to an obscure roadmap that’s making more folks consider open-source.

Your take?

Filed under: Business, Education, Open-Source, eLearning , Blackboard, Marketplace, North Carolina, Open-Source

The Reluctant Entrepreneur

I recently finished listening to the Audio Podcast: Inside the Mind of a Reluctant Entrepreneur [iTunes], by Jeff Hawkins in two trips to my office. This 57-minute podcast starts with Jeff’s talk on how he found his passion, how, just reading an article has consumed him and helped define his passion.

After I heard the podcast, I was a bit amused by the title. Jeff makes a good case for his reluctance – primarily from the point of view of how he wanted to really, really spend time on his passion – neuroscience, and how he was apparently sucked into running companies.

Towards the end of the podcast, he summarises what he has learnt over the years, and it is then, that I felt it was not so much reluctance as it was his unconventional way of being an entrepreneur. Today’s entrepreneur is fairly stereotype and is fairly recognisable. Jeff has chosen to do things differently – mostly on how he has guided and has been guided by his passion.

This is a very interesting podcast, and wherever and whenever you do have about an hour to spare, it is worth plugging into. It’s funny, straight and simple.

What are your thoughts of being an entrepreneur?

Filed under: Business , Convention, Entrepreneurship, Jeff Hawkins, Leadership Thinking, Numenta, Palm

Creative Use of “Boring” Tools

Michele Martin, in her Bamboo Project blog, links to a great post from Sarah Horrigan and laments how instructors use learning systems, specifically VLEs.

It's Not the Tool That's Boring. It's You.: “That’s the thing about technology and learning. People are quick to blame the tool, rather than looking first at their own behavior with it. It’s PowerPoint that’s the problem, rather than how it’s used. Or they hate web conferencing because it’s ‘dull.’ And don’t even start with social media–blogs, social networks, Twitter et. al are just a ‘waste of time.’”

(Via The Bamboo Project Blog.)

It may be a worthwhile debate to discover if most VLEs out there have somehow contributed to the boring aspect of online learning. Sarah talks of how we look at a box vs. how we would have looked at it when we were younger. There may be more to enabling engaging learning through VLEs — these systems (and the people who made these systems) will need to first engage with the instructors with a “map” of how interactive and engaging learning can be made possible — beyond PowerPoint and Lecture Notes. What were they (those who built the systems) thinking when they built the systems? What vision of online learning did they have? How would they like the instructors to make best use of the systems?

The onus, to create interesting learning online, I believe, is not just on the instructors.

Filed under: Content, Education, eLearning , Engaging, Instructors, LMS, Online Education, VLE

Founder Liquidity

A very interesting article by Fred Wilson, “Founder Liquidity“ further refers to an article by Mark Suster, “Should Founders Be Allowed To Take Money Off The Table?”

This is a definite read, no matter what side of the table you sit. Such thoughts from what I call new-age VCs, make you think differently about the world of Venture Capitalism.

Filed under: Business , Founders, Liquidity, Venture Capital

About the Online Revolution

In an interesting article by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn, the authors make a strong case for schools to get their classrooms online and refers to the “Race to the Top Fund” that:

[...] provides competitive grants to encourage and reward States that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform; implementing ambitious plans in the four education reform areas described in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) [...]

As part of the conclusion, in the article, the authors say:

“Currently, student achievement data is represented by test scores—a limited prism through which to evaluate teachers. But online learning, coupled with robust data systems, could change this, as it would allow states to gain insight into the interactions between students, teachers, and the curriculum. It would also provide a robust and diverse array of measures by which to understand what is and is not working at a much deeper level—and in what circumstances.” Revolution in the Classroom – The Atlantic (August 12, 2009)

This is probably the most significant value in an education process that online learning brings to the table.

Filed under: Education, eLearning

iNACOL Releases Report on Policy and Funding Frameworks for Online Learning – iNACOL

iNACOL Releases Report on Policy and Funding Frameworks for Online Learning – iNACOL: “The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) announces the release of a new report, Policy and Funding Frameworks for Online Learning. Susan Patrick, President of iNACOL, stated, ‘There is a tremendous need for policy leaders to understand policy and legislative frameworks that enhance and support online learning in their states, to expand access to high-quality online schools and courses for every child. This report decodes policy and practices to help state leaders understand how to be more effective in supporting online and blended school programs that offer more engaging, personalized learning with today’s students.’”

(Via Online Learning Update.)

Filed under: Education, eLearning , k12, NACOL, Policy, Reports, Research, US-Education

The Pull of the Push

What was really the lack of creativity, was well converted to an experiment.

For a few days, I did not update my status on Facebook. Part of it was also sheer laziness. I was expecting that a few friends, who seem to be tracking all the status updates, good bad and some downright useless, would take note and prod me into updating. In fact, I did not do anything on Facebook during this period, save a couple of comments on a some other status messages. I had a feed that used to update some photos on Flickr and my posts from my personal blog.

No one asked me about the update for about 20 days.

Made me wonder (I started calling this an experiment after I had cleared my status after five days) if anyone really takes notice of what they want to read. The ubiquitous “River of Streams” from Facebook to Twitter to Friendfeed throws up interesting questions.

Push technology has been the mainstay of how we live our lives today; how we consume information and how it comes to us is changing. I read with great interest, a tweet from PersonaNonData. In the linked article, Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of US technology and culture magazine Wired discusses the Internet’s challenge to the traditional press, new business models on the Web and why he would rather read Twitter than a daily newspaper.

Here’s a small bit from the article:

SPIEGEL: So how do you stay informed?

Anderson: It comes to me in many ways: via Twitter, it shows up in my inbox, it shows up in my RSS feed, through conversations. I don’t go out looking for it.

SPIEGEL: You just don’t care.

Anderson: No, I do care. You know, I pick my sources, and I trust my sources.

I know of quite a few friends in various social networks, who accumulate many a feed in their readers, which interestingly also becomes a bit stressful as time goes by and the unread count increases.

Back to the the “Facebook Experiment”, it seems to me that once you have accumulated a large number of friends on Facebook, the updates become pretty useless. For one, Facebook has evolved into much more than a simple social network. It is an appstore of sorts. (Frankly, sometimes it makes you wish you didn’t have so many friends exploring what colour they are or what villain they were in past life). In reviewing the river of friends’ activities, how does one look for something that they really want to read about? (Tweetdeck did something useful, by allowing you to categorise Twitterers based on your own method.)

The one problem that access to Internet solves is that of breaking the limits of geography. And with this solution, it has brought a problem of its own. Unlimited access to everybody who is wired, into this world. Which means that our social network becomes broader (grows horizontally) by the day. You make friends online and connect to them (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Effectively you have access to a whole host of information that is being sent to you. How you make sense of that information, however, is left entirely to you.

The reason I quote Spiegel and Chris Anderson above, is what I feel I have learnt from this little Facebook experiment of mine. It is not just enough to pick trustworthy news sources. It is important to have a way and means of moving relevant information to the top of the stack.

I had written about RSSing Comment Conversations a while ago. And it seems now, that RSS will have to evolve much more than just riding on the one advantage of pushing and aggregating. Relevance, prioritisation, and contextualisation has to be built into RSS (readers). Else, we are spending a considerable time in deciding what we would like to consume.

Filed under: Content, Social Media , Facebook, Relevancy, Social Interaction

Consulting, in Education

Education consultancy: In the know?: asks Gillian Evans. (Via Guardian Unlimited: Mortarboard.)

The remarks on the state of consulting in education are fairly on target. She is obviously an authority on the subject.

Management consultants are generally geared to solving problems in corporations, at times in government. This is not to say that they cannot help or work with educational institutions. There are obvious parallels and opportunities for idea cross-pollination. Education, however, has hardly been a focus of consulting. The traditional model of education has been fiercely independent and authoritative to need or request consulting.

But it is obvious that the education industry is changing – significantly. More so because how students learn, is changing. And that has changed because of the environment in which they live today.

Coming back to Gillian’s article, it is not surprising that no one asks for credentials or expertise in the education domain when engaging consulting organisations. No consulting organisation ever positions itself as such. In fact, even PA Consulting (the consultants linked to, in her article, do not list education as an industry that they have expertise in). Yet they have come up with a paper for the Higher Education Industry (which the article links to).

There is an obvious gap here and it will be a significant opportunity to address by whoever chooses to take it up. And Gillian’s article lists all the key skills that will be required by such a consulting organisation.

One extra skill I will add to the list of this hitherto unknown education consulting organisation is: technology. Not just technology, but the relevant application and sane implementation of educational technology in institutions; one that manages learning for students, resources for teachers and administration for the management of the institute.

Filed under: Business, Education , Consulting

Destabilising Establishments

While the news in itself isn’t something that is new or unique, it certainly is one in line for establishing a trend that labels will have to rethink their strategy.

Prince Gives The Finger To The Labels—Again: “[...] So it’s fitting that LotusFlow3r.com, his latest project, aims to offer fans a smorgasbord of digital content with little to no label interference. [...] Since die-hard fans will only be able to legitimately access this content through the site, it’s a nod to my colleague Rory’s suggestion that labels (but also artists) set up their own digital-distribution platforms instead of relying on third-parties like iTunes and Amazon.”

(Via paidContent.org.)

Music, somehow has always set an example for other content to follow. Will authors publish themselves? And while the Artist formerly called Prince probably has the wherewithal to set up a platform to distribute music, what of the individual author?

Filed under: Content, Publishing , Amazon, Distribution, iTunes, Music, Prince

Free Content’s Responsibility

The tag line reads, “education can be…affordable”.

Using a collaborative and web-based compilation model that can manifest open resource content as an adaptive textbook, termed the “FlexBook”, CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality, locally and temporally relevant, educational web texts.

Enter flexbooks from cK-12.org. Enter, potentially, the ultimate in prosumer content creation for education. And it is licensed under Creative Commons, which gives it the edge; most academics support free content.

A few articles on the site talk of how various states across the United States are adopting online resources — the advantages are many: affordability, children do not have to carry heavy textbooks, dependency on publishers, content currency, choice of providers, and not in the least, a green classroom.

Content is still King, however, the King is now more accessible to its subjects. There is just that added responsibility that the King has — educate the users how best to make good use of this content. And while the obvious benefits of online (and free) content are many, the advantage of free content for teaching and learning needs to be harnessed well.

Traditional content came with traditional ideas on how to employ content for teaching and learning. It may not work very well, if the content is online, structured very differently from the standard-print, and the users employ online content for teaching and learning in the same way as standard-print. Users need to have resources to help them understand how best they can use online content to ensure teaching and learning. New method has to meet new medium.

PS: Twenty minutes since this post was published, I stumble upon the “Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning” by Peter Tittenberger and George Siemens. Talk of instant gratification!

Filed under: Content, Education , Content, free, medium, online, textbooks