Archive for October, 2009

Identity rap from Norwegian-Egyptian

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

As I was walking home tonight, I listened to Migrapolis on my iPod. It’s a Norwegian radio show about multiculture, identity and immigrants. Last week they interviewed the daughter of the “king of the gypsies” in Norway, who never went to school, and grew up to become a drug addict. Finally, she decided to kick [...]

The ethical review process for social science research

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

I just finished reading “My freshman year”, an ethnographic book about a professor enrolling as a student at her own university, and spending a year living in the dormitory, to try to understand why she feels so disconnected from the contemporary student culture. The book was published under the pseudonym Rebekah Nathan, but a journalist [...]

Combining OERs with Wikipedia – a winning combination

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

I love when different “open” movements can come together and mutually enhance each other, whether it’s using open source software for the production of open educational materials, or using CC-licensed music when creating a CC-licensed documentary. John Willinsky, who recently gave a talk at OISE as part of OA week 2009, has written an article [...]

Korean teachers make $10 million/year by producing online resources

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

I just came across a newsreport on the Swedish television site (in Swedish) about “top teachers” in Korea. This teachers work at the different cram schools, and their lessons are also filmed and made available online for a subscription fee. Some of these teachers have become virtual superstars, making more than $10 million per year, [...]

Stories of peace, from China and Ukraine

Monday, October 19th, 2009

I think it is funny how people often laugh at Youtube and other video sharing sites — sure, you can spend many minutes watching lightsaber-wielding nerds or college students barfing, but you can also find incredible clips that you would have never seen otherwise. These two days, I came across two amazing performances that I [...]