Category: Education

Investing in Innovation

Op-Ed Columnist – A Word From the Wise – NYTimes.com

This opinion piece by Thomas Friedman is a few days old, but it hits right on a topic that I’ve thought about quite a bit lately. He quotes the Chief Executive of Intel.

Otellini noted that a 2009 study done by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and cited recently in Democracy Journal “ranked the U.S. sixth among the top 40 industrialized nations in innovative competitiveness — not great, but not bad. Yet that same study also measured what they call ‘the rate of change in innovation capacity’ over the last decade — in effect, how much countries were doing to make themselves more innovative for the future. The study relied on 16 different metrics of human capital — I.T. infrastructure, economic performance and so on. On this scale, the U.S. ranked dead last out of the same 40 nations. … When you take a hard look at the things that make any country competitive. … we are slipping.”

We live pretty comfortably here in the States. I would argue that much of that comfort is built on an investment in a number of commons networks like the interstate, postal service. Other social policies like education (which Friedman focuses on) and intellectual property also have played a part in our ability to innovate, which ultimately helps business and our standard of living.

While he doesn’t come right out and say it, I think Friedman’s argument could be extended to say that the relentless focus on short term profit (immediate gratification) is harming our long term ability to compete globally. This unfortunately is no easy mindset to change, as it appears to pervade politics and business.

I can’t think of any reasonable way to respond, but it’s good to know that I’m not the only one feeling this way.

A response from Educause re course video streaming

Educause, the nationwide organization of educational technologists, has penned a response regarding the Association for Information and Media Equipment complaint to UCLA regarding streaming course videos. I’m glad to see that they are not recommending any change in course because of this.  In fact, they are taking a bit of a defensive tone by quoting blogs/comments that are quite critical of this action. Seems they are not going to take this lying down.

Password protected course videos – fair use?

A recent dispute between the Association for Information and Media Equipment and UCLA highlights the tenuous nature of online copyright in education. The article linked below summarizes:

Copyright law does include exemptions for professors who wish to use audiovisual media “in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction” — so long as the professor is not showing media that he or she knows has been made illegally. The university said streaming the video on a password-protected Web site, where only students who are registered members of the class can access it, satisfies these criteria.

But the trade group is arguing that a password-protected space on the Web is not a classroom. “The face-to-face teaching exemption allows a video to be played in class, not streamed to the classroom from a remote location,” Dohra said in an e-mail. “As to the fair use claim, when videos are streamed to students outside the classroom, password protection may limit access to some degree. However, requiring a password doesn’t make an infringement fair use.”

It’s my understanding that most of us who work in higher-ed technology support believe password protecting copyrighted materials to ensure that only students enrolled in a course brings them into compliance with the TEACH Act. This could be a signal of a big departure from that understanding.

via News: Hitting Pause on Class Videos – Inside Higher Ed.

Open sourcing homework

Academic source code dust-up symptom of CS education ills – Ars Technica

Short story–student puts Comp Sci class homework online under an open source license after the class is over; instructor is annoyed.

My quick take on this is that it sounds much like paranoia over sharing of test questions. I think, as academics, we should approach teaching just like research. The way that we teach should evolve over time to be constantly improving. This includes revising test questions and assignments every time a subject is taught. It’s more work, but it has the added benefit of eliminating the exact problem that this professor thought he saw.