Friday, June 25, 2010

Free webinar - Finding the Value-Proposition for Digital Content

LEVERAGE: Finding the Value-Proposition for Digital Content



Please share this on your lists and social networks if useful… all are welcome at this FREE webinar!



As the cost of instructional resources continues to raise issues for schools, colleges, students and parents, the impact of sharable digital resources on the overall cost of education is supposed to be significant.



Join the SREB Educational Technology Cooperative online at 11:00 am (PDT) on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, for a live webinar that looks at models and policies to leverage state, system, college and school investments in digital curricula and content. The one-hour session will explore three perspectives that illuminate the issues and opportunities presented by "free" content.



To register for this webinar (it is free) click this link (http://leverage062910.eventbrite.com). You will receive a link to the webinar approximately one week prior to the webinar.



Direct link to: Elluminate room. (I think … but you should still register..)



We look forward to informing and improving your LEVERAGE!



AGENDA:



LEVERAGING: Online curriculum resources to support 1:1 learning initiatives.



Dr. Craig Witherspoon, Superintendent of Birmingham Public Schools, will speak on the merits, successes, and challenges of implementing a district wide 1:1 learning initiative. Drawing primarily from his work as superintendent of the Edgecombe County Public School System (ECPS), a rural school district with approximately 7,300 students, Dr. Witherspoon will talk about how the district brought together powerful student laptops, sophisticated online lessons using SAS® Curriculum Pathways® online curriculum resources, and comprehensive professional development and training to reinvigorate its curriculum, meeting the needs of the latest sophisticated generation of students.



LEVERAGING: Open textbooks through state and international partnerships



Dr. Cable Green, Director of eLearning & Open Education for the Washington Community and Technical Colleges will discuss how the Open Course Library initiative is designing 81 high enrollment, gatekeeper and pre-college courses for face-to-face, hybrid and/or online delivery, to lower textbook costs for students and provide new resources for faculty to use in their courses. He will also talk about the International Open Course Library Project that aims to scale the Washington model internationally by inviting individual states, provinces and countries to list their highest enrolled 50 courses, map these to existing open textbooks and open courseware, identify gaps and potential for remix among similar in-country or in-state initiatives.



LEVERAGING: State investments in digital content



Investment in developing resources has been significant across SREB states — but not so much the investment in the policies that ensure those resources can be shared. Myk Garn, Director of the Cooperative, will present on the recent SREB publication: An Expectation of Sharing: Guidelines for Effective Policies to Respect, Protect and Increase the Use of Digital Educational Resources. In this publication the SCORE Working Group on Digital Content Rights proposes eight guidelines outline solutions that will help state-level administrators and policymakers, as funders of digital educational resource development, to establish policies, practices, statutes and regulations, if needed, that increase sharing of — and maximize returns on — their state’s investments in digital educational resources.





Myk Garn

Director, Educational Technology

Southern Regional Education Board

404-879-5587

Twitter: SREB_EdTech





Cable Green

Director of eLearning and Open Education

SBCTC

360-704-4334

Twitter: cgreen