First of all a confession – I can get quite emotional about copyright and licensing :’} So emotional in fact that Jane Secker’s ALT Conference keynote Copyright and e-learning: understanding our privileges and freedoms actually brought a wee tear to my eye. You might think I’m making this up but it’s true, and the reason why is that […]
Read moreAlthough I’m not attending the Open Education Conference in Virginia this week I’ve made a small contribution to a panel session with the intriguing title FutuOER: Designing the Next Generation of Open Education. The panel, which is being run by Brandon Muramatsu of MIT and Norman Bier of Carnegie Mellon, will explore “possible visions of open education in 2036, […]
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Still woefully behind…I should be on Thing 18 by now and I’ve only reached Thing 10 :} Never mind though because Thing 10 is a wonderful Thing. Thing 10 is Wikimedia! It’s a bit of an understatement to say that I am a huge fan of all the Wikimedia projects, whether it’s Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, […]
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Open Access Week seems like a good time to write my first blog post about two new projects I’m going to be working on over the coming months. One is to facilitate a University of Edinburgh Open Knowledge Network and the other is to create a MOOC for small to medium enterprises on how to access open […]
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Last week in Stornoway, as part of the Royal National Mòd, Mr John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, presented the Angus Macleod Lecture on The Place of Gaelic in Modern Scotland. Mr Swinney assumed ministerial responsibility for the Gaelic language after the last election. In a thought provoking speech Mr Swinney […]
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Earlier this month the National Library of Scotland and Wikimedia UK announced they are recruiting a Gaelic Wikimedian funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig to help promote the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia, Uicipeid. The Gaelic Wikipedian will be responsible for designing and delivering a range of activities that will encourage young Gaels to improve their language skills through editing Uicipedia. They […]
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In order to mark the 5th anniversary of the World OER Congress, which resulted in the Paris OER Declaration, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in partnership with UNESCO and the Government of Slovenia are undertaking a survey of world governments and key stakeholders focused on OER for Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education: From Commitment to Action. This survey […]
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This week we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day at the University of Edinburgh with a fabulously eclectic and fun range of activities and a Wikipedia Editathon to enhance to coverage of women in STEM. Here’s a few few highlights from the day 🙂 I got to meet the real live Lego Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage <3 Thank […]
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The National Library of Scotland and Wikimedia UK yesterday announce that they are recruiting a Gaelic Wikimedian to promote the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia, Uicipeid. The Gaelic Wikimedian will work throughout Scotland to promote the Gaelic language by training people to improve or create resources on Uicipeid. This will include deliver training and events in the Western Isles, Highlands […]
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Back in the days of Web 2.0 we used to describe things as ‘perpetualy beta‘. For me this perfectly describes Wikipedia. It’ll never be finished: we must add to, and improve it, early and often. Users are co-developers and it’s developed under open source principles of collective intelligence. Wikipedia/Wikimedia are Thing 10 in our ‘23 …
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