Open Content Conference Proposal

From Open, Connected, and Social

1 Very Rough Proposal
- 1.1 Out of Print: Building a Digital Environment for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship
2 Open Content Conference 2007 Proposal

Very Rough Proposal

Out of Print: Building a Digital Environment for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship

What does it mean to localize content on the web? How do we understand the importance of localizing resources in the midst of an historical moment that is constantly re-articulating a vision of globalization? What are some possible implications for localizing educational resources during a moment wherein the vast majority of thought is concentrated on the much broader (literally and figuratively) ideal of effectively ’globalizing’ intellectual property?

What is both refreshing and appealing about such a theme is that it presents an alternative focus for the historical moment in which we teach, learn and live. The common framework for thinking about open online resources (scholarly and otherwise) is often implicitly understood as a global phenomenon. The idea of localizing resources offers an important opportunity to think through a more focused framework for the creation of open online educational environments wherein learning, teaching and scholarship can effectively converge.

Our presentation will demonstrate how to use freely available online tools to create an Open Content authoring and delivery platform.

Definitions for localize I found:

place: identify the location or place of; "We localized the source of the infection"
concentrate on a particular place or spot; "The infection has localized in the left eye"
restrict something to a particular area
set: locate; "The film is set in Africa"

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Determination of the original position (locus) of a gene or other marker on a chromosome.

http://www.bioinformatics.buffalo.edu/current_buffalo/glossary.html

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Open Content Conference 2007 Proposal

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Overview

While many individuals and groups are actively creating Open Content resources, little documentation is available on the strategies and techniques used to create effective Open Content using available open source and free utilities and services. It is proposed to create both an effective open content resource, specifically for use in Higher Education as part of a History/Literature course, and a separate website to document the process, decisions and strategies used while authoring.

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Learning

It is hoped that we will be able to demonstrate learning on two separate levels. First, while framing a History/Literature course on North American captivity narratives that will be actively incorporating, utilizing, and providing reusable archival resources from the early colonial period (all of which is in the public domain). The class will not only trace the students' enagagement with the open content within a virtual learning environment, but also a structured series of assignments, reading notes, reactions and individualized research. Moreover, the design and framework used to create this virtual learning environment will be available alongside the open course content for others to learn about the process, and to use as a reference while developing their own open content resources.

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Localizing

Localization will be approached in multiple ways.

Strategies for managing multilingual versions of the resources will be outlined, if not implemented. A recipe for multilingual open content authoring will be provided.
Cultural localization will be encouraged through the re-use and integration of the components of the open content resource. Each part/page of the resource will be individually addressable, and strategies for remixing the website and adding new, culturally localized and relevant, resources will be described.

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Potential Impact

The proposed set of open content resources will potentially have positive effects on two separate levels. At the base level, the History/Literature resource will be freely available for use, adding to the available curricular resources.

At a higher level, the documentation resource will be available, providing information on the open content authoring and publishing process. It is hoped that this resource becomes useful enough to help others to author and publish other open content resources using the strategies and techniques that will be described.

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