Information Policy

Google Summer of Code

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google will be working with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,500 students with over 130 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its fourth year. If you are feeling nostalgic or are interested in learning more about the projects we have worked with in the past, check out the 2006 and 2007 program pages. While the majority of past student participants were enrolled in university Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs, GSoCers come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, from computational biology to mining engineering. Many of our past participants had never participated in an open source project before GSoC; others used the GSoC stipend as an opportunity to concentrate fully on their existing open source coding activities over the summer. Many of our "graduates" have later become program mentors.

http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html

E-Learning Trends 2008

Learning Circuits and E-Learning News recently polled their readers on how they’re using e-learning in their organizations. Please visit their web site to review the results they gathered from 293 respondents.

http://www.learningcircuits.org/0308_trends.html

United Nations University joins UNESCO's Open Training Platform

The United Nations University (UNU) is the ninth UN agency to join the Open Training Platform (OTP). This UNESCO-powered hub offers free training resources on 21 development topics, fostering cooperation to provide free and open content for development.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26427&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

US: NACOL National Standards for Quality Online Teaching

The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) released National Standards for Quality Online Teaching, a publication designed to provide states, districts, online programs, and other organizations with a set of quality guidelines for online teaching in February 2008.

As a result of the research review, NACOL fully endorses the work of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Standards for Quality Online Teaching and Online Teaching Evaluation for State Virtual Schools as a comprehensive set of criteria. The standards as identified by SREB, already in use by sixteen SREB states, proved to be the most comprehensive and included guidelines set forth in the other criteria from the literature review. A full cross-reference of standards was conducted.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=sa&id=1236

The Virtual Institute

The International Institute of Educational Pl anning (IIEP) Virtual Institute (VI) offers training through the use of information and communication technologies. Created in 1994, the VI was developed to contribute to the capacity building of Ministries of Education and institutions of Member States through the offer of distance education on topics related to educational planning. The VI’s distance education offer consists of distance courses and discussion forums. Since its creation, VI has organized 44 courses and forums for more than 100 member states in the world.

http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/focus/VI/VI_1.htm

Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources

The report offers a comprehensive overview of the rapidly changing phenomenon of Open Educational Resources and the challenges it poses for higher education. It examines reasons for individuals and institutions to share resources for free, and looks at copyright issues, sustainability and business models as well as policy implications. It will be of particular interest to those involved in e-learning or strategic decision making within higher education.

http://www.oecd.org/document/41/0,3343,en_2649_39263238_38659497_1_1_1_1,00.html

DE: Virtual Academy for eGovernment

A Virtual Academy in the German state of Lower Saxony will promote eLearning initiatives within the administration.

The new academy will group eLearning programmes within Lower Saxony’s state services, Interior Minister Uwe Schünemann explained. He announced the initiative at the CeBIT trade fair, during the ceremony for the European eLearning Award. An imminent decision by the Lower Saxony cabinet will move eLearning beyond the pilot phase, he said. “It is to become a regular, normal and generally accepted method, complementing our current further education offer.”

Experiences with eLearning in Lower Saxony’s administrations have been very positive so far, Schünemann emphasised. Its expansion will mean considerable initial investment, but in the medium term, eLearning must pay its way by helping to cut costs. This will be achieved mainly through reductions in the amount of working time taken up by continuing education and training for administrative staff. He pointed to the example of Lower Saxony’s police force. eLearning techniques cut its officers’ study times by 40 %, freeing them up for other tasks. However, their education and training success rates remained the same, as did the quality of the curriculum.

The Virtual Academy is designed as a portal. Amongst other things, it will provide teaching media and technical support. Resources will include authoring tools and virtual classrooms.

http://www.epractice.eu/document/4509

Building the field of Digital Media and Learning

The MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth.

http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029199/k.BFC9/Home.htm

elearningeuropa.info - Newsletter February 2008

This web site contains lots of useful E-learning info, events, reference materials, etc. To read their latest newsletter, please visit the elearningeuropa web site by clicking the link provided here.

http://www.elearningeuropa.info/newsletter/index.php?page=home&nws=51

Introduction to E-learning 2008 slide show

Slideshare has numerous slide shows on E-learning that can be informative, fun, and fast. Please link to this slideshow, the search "e-learning, e learning, elearning" etc. You will be amazed at how many slide shows there are on this site. Granted, a lot of the slides may need further explanation, there is still quite a lot of useful conent.

http://www.slideshare.net/markchilds/introduction-to-elearning-2008