Tag Archives: online

Do Now Round Up: Open Access vs. Copyright

February 11, 2013, 7:19 pm • Posted by Matthew Williams
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DoNow61 RoundUphacking

Last week's Do Now asked students to consider whether knowledge on the Internet should be open to everyone or protected by copyright law? This was based on the work by Aaron Swartz whose Internet activism was all about open and unlimited access to knowledge and the wealth of material available on the Internet. He built technology for the open licensing project Creative Commons and sought access to academic and research work which he felt should be freely available to further learning for the greater good.

The arguments about open access in relation to academia are these: JSORT articles are scholarly funded through research grants to academics for the purpose of advancing learning for all. As government funded assets, they should be publicly available. But does this argument apply to other types of information and data? Below are student responses.

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Do Now #60: Online Learning

January 26, 2013, 8:39 am • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Online Learning

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow

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Do Now

What are the advantages or disadvantages of taking courses online? Would you prefer that classes be given online or in person? Please explain your thoughts.

Introduction

The virtual classroom is really catching on in the U.S. with more than two million K-12 students taking classes online as an alternative and flexible way of learning.

In California, Governor Jerry Brown strongly supports this move away from the traditional classroom. He sees online college courses as a way to deal with the problem of overcrowded classrooms and hopes that through providing low-cost online classes, education will become more affordable for students. With this in mind, he is fostering partnerships between online learning programs and higher education, such as the partnership between San Jose State University and the startup Udacity. In his budget, he has allocated $17 million for community colleges and $10 million each for the UC and Cal State systems to expand online learning.

But as KQED’s MindShift points out in Where is Technology Leading Higher Education?, these dramatic changes in teaching and learning practices are traumatic for colleges. They are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. “Terms like historic, seismic and revolutionary now pop up in descriptions of the challenges that higher education faces in the coming years.”

Reuter's post Online schools face backlash as states question results claims that in many states, Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina, there has been a backlash with educators and officials questioning and challenging standards in the new cyber-schools.

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Do Now #25: Every Move You Make - Who is Watching You?

March 23, 2012, 4:20 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

Do Now

Is your digital footprint important? Does it matter what you reveal online? Why or why not?

Introduction

Very little remains private in the digital age. In this age of social media, students need to take care what they reveal online and remember that their online social identity is easy to access and hard to delete. Employers and hiring agents are increasingly checking potential employees’ online presence by looking at Facebook, Twitter and Google so that as young people enter the workforce, they need to be conscious of protecting themselves and setting boundaries between their social and professional lives.

Forty-five percent of employers reported in a CareerBuilder survey in 2009 that they use social networking sites to research job candidates. Job seekers need to be mindful of this when they post online and take care when sharing confidential information, especially about former employers. Employers reported that they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate.

As referenced on MindShift, KQED’s educational technology blog, in 2012 instead of asking for résumés, Union Square Ventures, the New York venture-capital firm—which has invested in Twitter, Foursquare, Zynga and other technology companies—asked applicants to send links representing their "Web presence," such as a Twitter account or Tumblr blog. And it seems this is going further. Employers Ask Job Seekers For Facebook Passwords (NPR, March 21, 2012).

So, is there anything on your Facebook page that you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see?

Resource

The Educator's PLN segment on Digital Footprints - Your New First Impression - Nov. 9, 2009
Steve Johnson created this video after seeing a Harris Interactive poll showing how employers are increasingly using social networking sites to screen job candidates.


Find more videos like this on The Educator's PLN

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

More Resources

PBS Digital Nation segment Facebook Fiasco - July 29, 2009
Videos of a rowdy train ride Cam Skinner and friends took to a rock concert ended up online ... and the PTA got involved.

Check out how you appear online? Try Googling yourself. And then check out privacy settings.
Have you posted inappropriate photographs or information, references to drinking or using drugs, anything that reflects negatively on you e.g. made discriminatory comments and demonstrated poor judgment, or lies about qualifications?

Filed under: Do Now, Do Now: Government and Civics
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