At ISKME’s headquarters in Half Moon Bay, California, four Professional Fellows on a U.S. Department of State Open Educational Resources (OER) Exchange Program– education leaders forging new open education initiatives and policies in their home countries of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Lebanon as well as across the Middle East and North African (MENA) region – spent the week with us as part of the Open Book Project, an initiative of the U.S. (more…)
The capture and use of video was a rare activity for most of us until recently. Shooting video was reserved for momentous events, and was not widely considered a tool for everyday life and learning. Enter new tools like the GoPro Hero 4, the iPhone, and the Flip camera. Combined with easy-to-use editing software and resources, such as ISKME’s OER Commons, for posting and sharing video, we can use video anywhere and anytime to document and share our lives with the world.
We’ve seen how hot news stories and video links can go viral through social media channels. Imagine if that same fast pace could propel ideas through higher education to benefit productivity and efficiency in those systems. After returning home to Maryland from Big Ideas Fest—an annual nexus for some of the top innovators in education—Erin Knepler, P-20 Program Director at the University System of Maryland, began to imagine education innovation gone viral.
Eagerly awaited at Big Ideas Fest 2012 was an update from our three Big Ideas in Beta 2012 teams, whose projects originated at Big Ideas Fest 2011, and who had spent the year meeting regularly to develop their kernel of an idea to the next stages. The three teams below received financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, facilitation from ISKME, and advice from experts in education, technology, and business development:
I did not land at ISKME by accident. My interest in our mission to transform education, and particularly my passion for research that bridges theory and practice, can be traced to one key influence: my father, Dr. Daniel Detzner. Since before I was born, my dad has focused his career on making higher education more accessible, on improving teaching and learning in his own classroom, and on mentoring and collaborating with colleagues.
