[IAEP] OERs and collaboration

[Walter Bender]

On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Valerie Taylor <vtaylor at gmail.com> wrote:
> How to generate the best collaborative environment to provide
> educators with effective access and adaption of resources across a
> broad spectrum of curriculum areas and age-appropriate activities? Oh,
> yes - it must allow for casual contributions without the need for
> labor intensive moderation and editing and dispute resolution.
>
> "Everyone" talks about OERs - collaboration, adoption. adaption but
> there isn't really as much activity as there "ought" to be given the
> interest, time and money that have gone into discussion these
> education revolutionizing ideas.
>
> This is something that has been needed for many years and still hasn't
> materialized. Perhaps the Replacing Textbooks program can address some
> of the functionality. A wiki-based solution could work. Although
> people are willing to contribute and collaborate, there is a
> reluctance to change the work of others without some explicit
> "authority" to do so. This has been a frustration with WikiEducator -
> even with notations that collaboration is invited, there are no
> contributions. There is a frustration with Wikipedia contributions
> that are promptly removed by the "editor".
>
> Perhaps there is some middle ground. The idea of comments on a blog
> post works out pretty well. The commenter augments the information in
> the post, without modifying the original text. In the Sugar Labs wiki,
> there are entries for all the Activities which could serve as the
> basis for the collaborative framework. How about a forms/template
> based contribution function that will add sections to a wiki entry?
> For example, I came up with a sixth grade math activity based on
> Turtle Art and I would like to share it. It would be nice to add this
> to an inventory of middle school math activities connected to Turtle
> Art. Others could then find my activity and others based on a search
> for "middle school," "math" and/or "Activity:Turtle Art."

I would love to see what you have been doing. I assume you have seen
Tony Forster's blog and the pages we have made in the wiki regarding
different TA projects around STEM?

regards.

-walter

>
> Just thinking... Would something like this overcome potential
> contributors' resistance and get the ball rolling? ;o) Other ideas?
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-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org