Conference/Workshop: Legal Aspects of Online Learning Environments
06-May-2005
1-2 June 2005, University of Warwick
________________________________
Legal issues in education are a growing concern. If it's not an
aggrieved student seeking damages and raising negative publicity, it's
the quality inspection declaring no confidence due to non-compliance.
Yet VLEs and MLEs are often developed on a technology-first,
pedagogy-second, anything-else-is-afterthought model.
Soon, you may be faced with:
* a raft of non-accessible content pages developed by eager and
under-aware tutors.
* Or perhaps with a student submitting a s.10 notice under the Data
Protection Act 1998 to request non-processing of his data on the MLE.
* Or the discovery that an enthusiastic tutor has scanned in hundreds of
pages of journal articles, and the CLA want to know how such a breach of
copyright happened.
* And nothing said of the tutor who has just spent vast amounts of her
time writing materials from scratch, when other people's materials could
have been copyright cleared.
The Legal Aspects of Online Learning Environments Conference/Workshop
will deal with these issues head on, giving you:
* informed, practical information from expert speakers knowledgeable
about law and practice in the tertiary education sectors
* practical tools to allow you avoid legal issues and to comply with
regulation regarding the development of a VLE or MLE
* the opportunity to work through case study examples of good practice
on the one hand and pitfalls on the other in relation to the legal
issues involved in VLE and MLE development and use
* the chance to quiz lawyers on any particular queries you may have in
relation to the legal aspects of online learning environments
* the ability to send JISC Legal any questions you want answered at the
Conference/Workshop
* a valuable opportunity to network with colleagues facing similar
challenges, to share ideas and experience
AND
* an up-to-the-minute briefing on the CLA HE Digitisation Licence
agreement in principle, from Professor Sol Picciotto, a member of the
UUK/SCOP negotiating committee
We're pleased to have as keynote speakers Dr Anne Wright CBE (DfES
E-Learning Strategy Unit) and a Partner from Pinsent Masons Solicitors,
experts in technology and tertiary education law.
For further details, visit
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/events/06_OLE_Warwick.htm
New editor for Learning Design
06-May-2005
From the UNFOLD team:
At the recent UNFOLD CoP meeting in Barcelona the workshop by Gilbert
Paquetteand Michel Leonard of the MOT+ Editor created a great deal of
interest. It enableslearning designers to use a graphical interface to
define Units of Learning compliant with Level A IMS LD.
Those of you who missed the meeting can now download a
fully functioning version of MOT+ from the UNFOLD site, together with user
documentation. MOT+ is available in French and English at:
https://www.unfoldproject.net:8082/UNFOLD/general_resources_folder/tools/mot
Open Source mainstreams in education in the UK
10-May-2005
The findings could undermine Microsoft’s hold on the education market, but they raise the prospect of millions of pounds of savings for British schools and colleges which spend around £1 billion a year on ICT.
Teaching Ideas & Resources - TES - The Times Educational Supplement 2:
The UK Times Educational Supplement (TES) ran this as their lead story this week. TES is the leading educational weekly publication in the UK. This story is going to run for some time to come. I always thought OSS would take off but never imagined we would see the venerable TES printing something like "Find out how much open source software could save your school in this week's TES".
It is clear OSS has mainstreamed in education. Now all we have to do is improve the software and get the pedagogy right!
The Empire Strikes Back
10-May-2005
Microsoft is ready to fight competitors entering the IT education market, it said on Monday, after a leaked government report highlighted the benefits of open source software for schools.
Gates heads back to school in open source spat - silicon.com:
Gloves are off for FLOSS playground challenge...
Microsoft is ready to fight competitors entering the IT education market, it said on Monday, after a leaked government report highlighted the benefits of open source software for schools.
In an email to ZDNet UK, the software company said that competition was welcome but that it offered more supported applications than rival open source providers.
Stephen Uden, group manager of education relations for Microsoft, wrote: "Competition in the software market is good for customers because it ensures that they get a good deal as it drives choice and innovation.
"There are some 5,000 third party applications available to run on Microsoft Windows operating system but only a handful of applications supported by the open source community. We offer free support and training materials to help teachers and students make the most of their technology."
Labour party to tighten copyright laws?
10-May-2005
I have a horrible fear this means the UK government is going to try to revive the long contested EU copyright proposal during their EU presidency.
Ominous little bit on page 99 of the UK Labour Party election manifesto. Didn't hear anything about it in the election campaign - but then again its not exactly a bedtime read. Presented on their web site in a horrible Flash electronic book format. I have a nasty fear this means the UK government is going to try to revive the long contested EU copyright proposal during their EU presidency. (For quick summary of labour party manifesto ICT policy commitments see Catherine Howell's excellent and niftily named blog "Ida takes tea".
"We will modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.We will use our presidency of the EU to look at how to ensure content creators can protect their innovations in a digital age. Piracy is a growing threat and we will work with industry to protect against it.
