Open Access in India: Q&A with Subbiah Arunachalam
Richard Poynder, Open, Shut?, June 10, 2014
Credit where credit is due. "Today the world is awash with OA advocates," writes Ricahrd Poynder, "But it was not always thus." One of those early open access (OA) advocates in India was Chennai-based information scientist Subbiah Arunachalam. More...

Three Makes a Movement: Branson creates youth panel for student voice in ed tech
Phil Hill, e-Literate, June 10, 2014
While I am all in favour of student participation – including panels – at conferences, I really don’t think the more recent two events constitute the "start” of such a movement, as claimed by Phil Hill. A simple Google search on “student panel” (in quotes) yields 199,000 results. More...

Is a 400k salary too much for a university president? Four academics apply to share one lucrative U of Alberta position
As It Happens, CBC News, June 10, 2014

A remarkable protest is being made at the University of Alberta. As the University searches for a new university president at a minimum $400K salary, at least 56 academics and staff have applied, all in groups of four. More...

MOOC Research Initiative: Reports Released
George Siemens, elearnspace, June 10, 2014
George Siemens posts that the reports from the MOOC Research Initiative are now available. There's a disclaimer on the page saying "reports have not been peer reviewed and are provided without comment or assessment regarding research method and outcome" but I read through a dozen of so of them and find the work would be generally acceptable in academic journals. More...

Communal Constructivism and Dual Layer MOOCs
Matt Crosslin, EduGeek Journal, June 10, 2014

There's a lot of interesting work being done on open online learning these days (I can barely comprehend it all). This is an example: a project designed to combine the best of an xMOOC and a cMOOC. It sounds simple in practice, but the execution is something different - how do you combine groups and networks (collectives and connectives) in a single environment, especially when the one pushes you toward conformity and the other toward diversity. More...

New Data Suggests the High Costs of Education is Hurting Families
Jonathan Champagne, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, June 9, 2014

According to this survey from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, "The high cost of tuition and housing is not only straining  students’ budgets, but it is also requiring major sacrifices on the part of families." This is consistent with a steady stream of reports on the impact of the cost of education. More...

German ‘NSA-proof’ private server raises $1mn crowdfunding in 89 minutes
Russia Today, June 9, 2014
This reflects the increasing trend toward personal privacy as well as suggests the possibility of people hosting internet services in their own homes (something that is not practical with ADSL and earlier internet services, or wireless devices, but becomes feasible with cable and especially fibre-optic connections). More...

The Learning Curve: Education and Skills for Life
Paul Kielstra, Pearson, June 9, 2014
This is a fairly basic-level report on some trends in education and skills development, focused mostly on lifelong learning. The full 28-page PDF is available here. While nothing in the report is particularly controversial, the language and emphasis is clearly slanted toward a particular perspective. More...

Enclosing the public domain: The restriction of public domain books in a digital environment
Alex Clark, Brenda Chawner, First Monday, June 9, 2014

Picking up a longstanding discussion I've had with people about enclosure, here's a report from First Monday on how commercial publishers make you pay for resources even through they're free and in the public domain. More...

Emailed in Error, UVa Law School’s Student GPA Spreadsheet Spreads Fast
Lawrence Biemiller, The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog, June 7, 2014
This item is disturbing on a couple of levels. The first is the now-normal disclosure of student personal information and records. But even more disturbing is the information being collected and distributed to potential employers: grades, class rankings, political affiliation, work experience, recommenders, even information about where their girlfriends live. More...