Learning Reflection on Session 5

Learning Reflection on Session 5 #OCL4Ed

The fifth and final session of the workshop focused on aspects of freedom in relation to free cultural works approved licenses. The idea is to provide information to assist educators and educational institutions to make informed decisions when choosing open content licenses.

The video by Frances Ferreira was very informative. She talks about choosing the right license to provide for free education for the millions of out of school children with the focus on policy makers. She raised an important issue on reluctance in adoption and mainstreaming of OER attributing it to the lack of enabling policy environment.

Ahrash Bissell in his video recommended that "When sharing, simple is best. Use CC-BY."  This is however debatable depending on the context. A CC BY license is by far the most accommodating license available and it provides for a range of other licenses to be mixed together. On the contrary we have the CC BY-SA license which ensures that the works is shared in the same way as the original work. This ensures that we build up a collection of content to be shared.

The latter section was based on Free Cultural Works and technology issues. Free Cultural Works is defined as works or expressions which can be freely studied, applied, copied and/or modified, by anyone, for any purpose. It was interesting to note that out of the Open Education Resource (OER) projects Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) OpenCourseWare initiative, Connexions hosted by Rice University and OER Commons; only Connexions met the minimum requirement of the definition with exceptions.

The session on technology was also very informative. At times, we as educators tend to forget that while we are creating teaching materials we need to be mindful of the format the resource is available in. This could be problematic when we are intending to make our work available under Free Cultural Works License as we might restrict the reuse/editing of the work.

Summary of the mOOC

This mOOC for me personally has been a great learning experience. I had limited knowledge about OERs, Free and Open Content going into this mOOC but I must say that has significantly changed. The content that was delivered over the 5 sessions was well organized and designed. To learn about the different types of Creative Commons license available was fun together with the e-activities. My personal favourite from the E-Activities was that of Remix and Relicense as it taught me a lot on how different licenses are compatible with each other.

Overall, the facilitators have done a marvelous job setting up this mOOC. The materials were very informative especially the videos. In my opinion, it has definitely achieved its purpose in creating awareness on Open Content Licensing for Educators.

Session 4: E-Learning Activity

Session 4: E-Activity - Remix and reflection #OCL4Ed

What is Cloud Computing?

In order to understand the core principles of an open cloud, we need to first agree on some basic definitions and concepts of cloud computing itself. First, what is “the cloud”? The architecture and terminology of cloud computing is as clearly and precisely defined as, well, a cloud. Since cloud computing is really a culmination of many technologies such as grid computing, utility computing, SOA, Web 2.0, and other technologies, a precise definition is often debated.

The key characteristics of the cloud are the ability to scale and provision computing power dynamically in a cost efficient way and the ability of the consumer (end user, organization or IT staff) to make the most of that power without having to manage the underlying complexity of the technology. The cloud architecture itself can be private (hosted within an organization’s firewall) or public (hosted on the Internet).

Reference:
http://www.opencloudmanifesto.org/Open%20Cloud%20Manifesto.pdf

(Retrieved on 18^th September 2013)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

 Reference:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACloud_computing.svg

(Retrieved on 18^th September 2013)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Attribution: By Sam Johnston [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Origin of the term

The origin of the term cloud computing is unclear. The expression cloud is commonly used in science to describe a large agglomeration of objects that visually appear from a distance as a cloud and describes any set of things whose details are not inspected further in a given context.

• Meteorology: a weather cloud is an agglomeration.
• Mathematics: a large number of points in a coordinate system in mathematics is seen as a point cloud;
• Astronomy: stars that appear crowded together in the sky are known as nebula (Latin for mist or cloud), e.g. the Milky Way;
• Physics: The indeterminate position of electrons around an atomic kernel appears like a cloud to a distant observer

Reference:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

(Retrieved on 18^th September 2013)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

Cloud Computing Architecture

When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system.

The front end includes the client's computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-based e-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients.

On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud" of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server.

Reference:

Strickland, Jonathan.  "How Cloud Computing Works"  08 April 2008.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://www.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm> 18 September 2013.

All rights reserved license

I have decided to apply the CC BY-SA license to this posting. The reason being that the materials I have used are using the CC BY-SA license. As for the copyright of the blog post, I think I own the copyright as the work was done outside my employment hours and as such the employer may not have ownership of the work. At the same time, the license does meet the requirements for a free cultural works approved license.

Reflection on Remixing

This has been an amazing and challenging task. It is essential that we understand the different type of Creative Commons licenses available and how effectively we can use each one of them. Also, it was interesting to note how these different licenses could be remixed to attain a new license. The onus is pretty much on the creator to choose the appropriate type of licensing for their work. Even if the creator is confused, the Creative Commons website has a simple and effective process to help determine which license would be most appropriate based upon some feedback.

Most of the work that I used for this blog post had a CC BY-SA license attached to it. The Wikipedia article had a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; the image and the article from opencloudmanifesto.org used the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The last article had an all rights reserved license and when it came to citing the work; the website provided as to how we could cite the work.