I read Our Missing Hearts when it first came out and really enjoyed the novel. The book is about resistance, struggling for freedom, and the dangers of autocracy. It reads…
Roy Tennant sits down with Valerie Aurora of the Ada Initiative during Code4Lib14 for a discussion on technology, feminism, and libraries.
"What if we do, in fact, know best?: A Response to the OCLC Report on DH and Research Libraries" written by Dot Porter (@leoba) and published by DH+LIB.
The tagline for Google Helpouts is "real help from real people in real time." Doesn't that sound awfully similar to a librarian? Learn how libraries may face a new threat.
Besides transitioning to the Twitter account @dpla, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced it will provide copies of 1.2 million digital objects to the DPLA. If you’re interested in learning more about the non-profit, there’s a brief Q&A with the new DPLA Executive Director, Dan Cohen. The launch will take place April 18-19, 2013 at the Boston Public Library.
As reported in the New York Times and Inside Higher Ed, a new bill to be filed by California Senate President Darrell Steinberg “aims to create a ‘statewide system of faculty-approved, online college courses.'” [1] (more…)
For a wonderful blog post that details one writer's experience navigating the world of scholarly publishing, please read "Proof" by Micah Vandegrift. You can also read open-access versions of the…
South by Southwest Edu (SXSWedu) is in full swing. Expect a spate of blogposts with the words “launch,” “game-changer,” “dynamic,” “app,” “tablet,” and “future” to burst forth on the web. You can follow along on Twitter and play bingo on your own.
As libraries continue to digitize special collections, ARL and Ithaka S+R have released a report Appraising our Digital Investment: Sustainability of Digitized Special Collections in ARL Libraries (PDF) that offers a snapshot of research libraries digitization efforts.
Stakeholders in educational technology drafted a Bill of Rights for online learners, which then drew criticism from other stakeholders as published in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. That criticism prompted a thoughtful rebuttal from Cathy Davidson. As MOOC companies become more entwined with higher education, expect greater calls for transparency and unease regarding student data and revenue streams.
Speaking of MOOC’s, ironically, Coursera’s class “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application” was cancelled due to difficulties with design and technology. A student from the class blogged about feeling cheated because of the course’s failure. It raises questions about the relationship between students and MOOC’s. What is the commitment from an institution to non-paying students? Are MOOC’s all just a grand experiment? What does it mean to be cheated out of something that is free? For those of you interested in teaching a MOOC, read Tucker Balch’s post “Teaching a MOOC: Lessons Learned & Best Balch Practices.”
(more…)