[Open-education] [The OER Digest] State Goes Open, White House too

[Ethan Senack]

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 9 | March 17th, 2016
/With the help of Nicole Allen, Doug Levin, Cable Green, and Nicole 
Finkbeiner/


*THE OER DIGEST*
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders
*

STATE GOES OPEN:* As part of Open Education Week, the U.S. State 
Department posted a blog 
<https://blogs.state.gov/stories/2016/03/11/celebrating-open-education-week-open-educational-resources> 
on OER by Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational 
and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan, a high ranking official. The post 
includes a clear affirmation that “open” is more than just “free,” 
discusses the steps that the administration has taken to support OER, 
and what's coming up next.

  * GREAT QUOTE: "Making more resources available is only the beginning."
  * TO RETWEET: https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/708435436897759233


*SOURCING SOFTWARE:* White House Chief Information Office Tony Scott 
published a blog 
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/03/09/leveraging-american-ingenuity-through-reusable-and-open-source-software> 
last week on open source software, announcing a Federal Source Code 
Policy that they're opening for public comment. As part of the Second 
Open Government Partnership National Action Plan, the WH policy would 
"require new software developed specifically for or by the Federal 
Government to be made available for sharing and re-use across Federal 
agencies."

  * SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: https://sourcecode.cio.gov/


**TO BE CLEAR: **From Doug Levin at EdTech Strategies, "Many of us have 
observed that recent media coverage of the U.S. Department of 
Education's GoOpen initiative has included some unfortunate inaccuracies 
in characterizing what it means for a resource to be 'open' as opposed 
to being free or digital." In response, a group of organizations have 
developed a basic fact sheet/FAQ on OER for K-12 educators. The FAQ 
(licensed CC BY) can be re-distributed to help clarify OER for 
educators, policymakers, members of the media, and other stakeholders. 
See it here. 
<http://form.openeducationweek.org/resource/oer-for-k12-educators-faq/>
*
CUSTOM STAX:* OpenStax, the open textbook publisher, announced a 
partnership with NACSCORP and Dover Publications to allow faculty 
members to customize OpenStax books. The platform will show faculty the 
print cost of the book in real-time as they add or remove pages and make 
additional changes. Students will then be able to purchase print 
versions of the book their their campus store. Read the press release. 
<http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/555439.html> And, if that weren't 
enough, OpenStax also just released a new Calculus textbook and a host 
of supplementary materials.*

SHARING IS CARING:* The American Federation of Teachers just relauched 
their lesson plan and teaching material sharing site sharemylesson.com 
<https://sharemylesson.com/>. The site has more than 900,000 registered 
users, and all submissions are either licensed as CC BY-NC-SA or CC 
BY-NC-ND. Originally launched by AFT and TES Global back in 2012, the 
site just got a big, shiny, new update.

*SPEAKING OF:* TES Global, the UK-based education company recently 
released a report <http://www.tesglobal.com/teachertech2> saying that 3 
in 4 faculty report using OER more than textbooks in their classrooms. 
Without seeing the questions or the methodology, it's tough to interpret 
the extent to which 'open' was differentiated with 'free and online,' 
but in any case, the report shows significant growth of technology use 
in the classroom.
*
IOL:* The Open Policy Network's newest class of fellows in the Institute 
for Open Leadership are meeting in South Africa right now. For severe 
scenic jealousy, check out some of the photos with #IOL2. 
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/iol2>


*** Want your colleagues or friends to get the Digest? Send them this 
link: http://bit.ly/get-the-oer-digest*****
*

It's Thursday, March 17th*. It's officially March Madness, and as a 
UConn alum, I'm contractually obligated to mention that we've won 2 
Men's and 3 Women's tournaments in the past 5 years. Tweet me any 
bracket tips @HigherEdPIRG. Don't forget to send tips, updates, 
opportunities, and feedback to esenack at pirg.org.


*OPEN CONNECTIONS*
Conference, job, and other OER-related opportunities

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS: BCCAMPUS* is hosting The Festival of Learning in 
the Vancouver area this coming June, and is looking for workshop 
proposals on open education and other edtech subjects. Proposals are due 
March 21st. See the call> <https://festival.bccampus.ca/call-for-proposals/>

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS: iNACOL* is hosting their Blended and Online 
Learning Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, this October. Proposals are 
due March 23rd. See the call> 
<http://www.inacol.org/symposium/program-presenters/presentation-opportunities/>

*FELLOWSHIP:**CCSSO* is looking for an OER Fellow to conduct research, 
identify resources, and write original content for CCSSO’s OER Portal 
website. See the job description> <https://www.dcjobs.com/j/16775080>

*JOBS: CREATIVE COMMONS* is looking to fill three positions; Director of 
Engineering, Communications Manager, and Development Manager. See the 
job descriptions> 
<https://blog.creativecommons.org/2016/03/08/new-job-opportunities-at-creative-commons/>

Have an opportunity you want featured? Email it to esenack at pirg.org.


*STORIES FROM THE FIELD*:
Brief snapshots from the ground level

*VIDEO BREAK:* Affordable Learning Georgia is out with a new video, 
called /I Am Affordable Learning Georgia/. The 2-minute video features 
interviews with grantees about their work with OER. Here's a great 
quote: "They do contribute to building a greater sense of community 
between students and each other, as well as students and the professor, 
by showing students that professors actually care about them." Watch the 
video> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2XwneeAaw>

*FROM ACROSS THE POND:* From the Open Scotland 
<http://openscot.net/higher-education/university-of-edinburgh-approves-new-oer-policy/> 
blog - "As part of its ongoing commitment to open education, the 
University of Edinburgh has recently approved a new *Open Educational 
Resources Policy*, that encourages staff and students to use, create and 
publish OERs to enhance the quality of the student experience. The 
University is committed to supporting open and sustainable learning and 
teaching practices by encouraging engagement with OER within the 
curriculum, and supporting the development of digital literacies for 
both staff and students in their use of OERs. Read the Policy> 
<http://open.ed.ac.uk/about/>


*SYLLABUS:*
Interesting Reads on Education and Open
*
***
** *Who Owns Digital Learning Resources Funded by Taxpayers?* | Hal Plotkin
https://medium.com/@hplotkin/who-owns-digital-learning-resources-funded-by-taxpayers-543160cbf1f4#.71aiz0r6t

*How to Go Textbook Free (the UMUC story) *| Campus Technology
https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2016/03/09/Textbook-Free.aspx?Page=1

*The Textbook Challenge: Two Sides of the Debate* | The Pierce Pioneer
http://piercepioneernews.com/10113/campus/the-textbook-challenge-two-sides-of-a-debate/

*Print is NOT dead* | The Fullerton College Hornet
http://hornet.fullcoll.edu/print-is-not-dead/



Find archived volumes at http://studentpirgs.org/sp/oer-digest.


-- 
Ethan Senack
Higher Education Advocate
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
www.uspirg.org
@HigherEdPIRG
(202) 546-9707 x321


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