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In an open letter to the Faculty, Harvard Faculty Advisory Council warn that:

Many large journal publishers have made the scholarly communication environment fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive. This situation is exacerbated by efforts of certain publishers (called “providers”) to acquire, bundle, and increase the pricing on journals.

To deal with situation the advisory council recommends that faculty:

  • Use DASH Harvard’s own open access repository.
  • Move prestige to open access by using open access journals.
  • Apply pressure to existing journals to move to open access or reasonable alternatives.
  • Encourage debate and discussion on the open access topic.
If Harvard, one of the worlds most financially secure Universities, can no longer afford to pay the excessive subscription fees to publishers then how can all other Universities afford to do the same? Perhaps with Harvard’s leadership in this area we may see some changes. 

The switch to Gmail will save the city of Edmonton $6 million during the initial five-year contract, it gives city staff much more access and mobility, and employees will be able to use their own smartphones and laptops.

Chris Moore the Chief Information Officer suggests that switching to Google Docs is a good move for the city:

because it’s web-based, we can get access to it anywhere, at any time, with any device

The commercial contract with Google for the city Google Docs system means that the city’s data is private and:

there won’t be any greater chance of the American government using its powers under the Patriot Act to read emails from city staff than there is under the current system.

It is good to see the city of Edmonton moving into the 21st Century with is email and communication system.

Read the full article…

Ann Kirschner Dean of William E. Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York argues that College leaders need to move beyond talking about transformation to actually transforming Higher Education before it’s too late. After reading this article several times I have come to the conclusion any form of summary will not do it justice and suggest that this is an article everyone should read. Therefore, I am sharing the following quotes from the piece to provide a provocative motivation to read the full article:

…when observed from the 20,000-foot level, the basic building blocks of higher education—its priorities, governance, instructional design, and cost structure—have hardly budged.

Although e-learning has been around for nearly 20 years, technology in and out of the classroom is at the discretion of the professor, with rare institutional support or enthusiasm. Online learning has about as much credibility on some campuses as global warming at a Tea Party rally. About the only thing within academe that has moved rapidly is tuition.

…makes it crucially important to consider new approaches—like streamlining pathways to degrees, redesigning models of instruction, competency-based programs, better advising, shutting down or consolidating underperforming programs, and more comprehensive and efficient support services focused solely on getting students to graduation.

Widespread adoption of online courses is, however, just the most obvious next step. We should be agreeing on what standards of data collection make sense for advising our students and tracking their progress, and then moving rapidly at all levels of the university to adopt new technologies that demonstrate improved outcomes (e.g., mobile apps, tablet-based e-textbooks, and game-based learning).

Here again, an openness to change is an essential prerequisite to change. The next step is a consistent and broad-minded strategy that embraces technology and learning at all levels, beginning with faculty who teach with digital gusto, and who are themselves qualified to direct technology-rich projects that will characterize an exciting new generation of scholars and teachers.

Change only happens on the ground. Despite all the reasons to be gloomy, however, there is room for optimism. The American university, the place where new ideas are born and lives are transformed, will eventually focus that lens of innovation upon itself. It’s just a matter of time.

The above quotes have been taken out of context and on their own may seem much more provocative than necessary. This was my intent–to provoke the reader to read the full article…

Read the full article…

The Encyclopedia is offering free access to their digital content for next week. It will be interesting to see if they can compete with Wikipedia. I know I won’t be paying for access to their resources. Will anyone else be willing to pay?