Inside Higher Ed reports today (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/29/ccplan) that the Obama administration may support the creation of career-oriented free, online college courses. Watch for a formal announcement in a few weeks.
Archive for June, 2009
Kanter Confirmed as USDE Under Sec
June 24, 2009Dr. Martha Kanter was confirmed as the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education by the U.S. Senate on Friday, June 19, 2009. Kanter will report to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and oversee policies, programs and activities related to post-secondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid.
Dr. Kanter spearheaded the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources and the Community College Open Textbook Project. She has long been an advocate for making higher education more available and affordable for all. Currently, Kanter is the chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District.
She will give a talk on education issues Friday, June 26th at Hewlett Packard headquarters in Palo Alto. Kanter will be speaking about the state of education, particularly higher education, during a lunchtime event sponsored by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. The event is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Friday at HP headquarters, 3000 Hanover St.
Break Free – Use Open Content
June 10, 2009Join us for an Online Teaching Conference (@ONE) presentation titled “Break Free Use Open Content” on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 2:15pm at Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA. For Conference details, visit http://onlineteachingconference.org/index.html
Break free from expensive, bland, and static traditional textbooks. Reclaim your curriculum with free and open learning content that you can customize for the unique needs of your students and teaching style. Learn about reliable sources of open content as well as the tools and strategies to use them effectively. Join a community of educators who have already embraced the freedom and challenges of open educational resources. Leave this session with learning content that you have discovered and can use.
Low Cost Textbook Bill
June 6, 2009Keep track of a bill in Congress, H.R. 1464, to require Federal agencies to collaborate in the development of freely-available open source educational materials in college-level physics, chemistry, and math, and for other purposes. The title of the bill is “Learning Opportunities With Creation of Open Source Textbooks (LOW COST) Act of 2009″ and it is sponsored by Rep. Bill Foster [D-IL].
Digital Repositories for Learning
June 3, 2009Open Textbooks will be highlighted at the upcoming FIPSE conference – Digital Repositories for Learning: moving from why to how.
The conference will focus on strategies to ensure success and on addressing challenges faced in creating and sustaining educational repositories. One strategy we will be highlighting is using open textbooks as a means to promote repository use and generate support.
The conference format is a full-day series of sessions on August 11, 2009, with an evening welcome event on Monday, August 10. Any individuals or groups that are interested in a repository would have the opportunity to benefit from the experiences of other successful repository creators, and to interact with the repository community. Details are on the website at: (http://www.oncoreblueprint.org/conference.htm)http://openedconference.org/).
The conference immediately precedes the Open Ed 2009 Conference, August 12-14, also offered in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the University of British Columbia, Robson Square (http://openedconference.org/).
