May 2011

The book publishing industry, just like the news industry, has struggled to find an identity over the past couple decades with large box stores taking over small corner bookstores only to soon be replaced by online retailers. Now, just as it looked like the pastime of reading was experiencing a complete decline, technologies and innovations look to revive and transform the industry. ebook readers are making books cool again, independent publishing is making it irresistibly affordable and new formats— falling somewhere between a short book or a long magazine article— offer something for everyone.

Now, technology writer and educator Jeff Howe is attempting to use the art or reading a book to achieve the much loftier goal of “creating community across geographical, cultural, ethnic, economic and social boundaries.” And to get more people reading, more people talking about and appreciating the written word. Howe is doing so through his virtual book club hosted on Twitter. It’s building on the momentum of a similar endeavor launched last summer, which had 12,000 people from around the world reading and avidly discussing the same book. The 2011 book, voted on by participants, is The Blind Assassin, a historical novel by Margaret Atwood.

While it may not be the next Oprah’s Book Club— just over 5,000 people have signed up so far— it should achieve Howe’s other goal: good fun with a good book. It may also offer an interesting twist, with the participation of the author of the chosen book, 71-year old Canadian author Atwood, who is already very active on Twitter. Discussions start on June 1^st, so it’s time for potential participants to start reading!

A UK Study of Intellectual Property and Growth resulted in a recently published report making recommendations for improving the UK’s copyright system. The report is the result of an intensive 6 month independent review commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron on the basis of a ministerial concern that in a digital age the country’s intellectual property framework was not keeping pace with new innovation and growth models. The results substanciated this theory, finding that the UK’s intellectual property framework, especially with regard to copyright, is falling behind what is needed. The report made 10 key recommendations, which are summed up here.

1. Evidence. Government should ensure that development of the IP System is driven as far as possible by objective evidence. Read the rest of this entry »

Social media and public crowdsourcing of ideas has become the norm for tasks from deciding if you’re ready to have children, to making decisions on business strategies. We’re not only used to asking input from others but also to being able to give our opinion on just about anything. Given this shift, it’s interesting to ask what the impact will be on future generations and the education system.

This year, a UK newspaper solicited input from primary school children around the country, asking for they vision of the perfect school, a project called “School I Like”. One of the interesting findings of they project was a look at how modern education has changed since the last School I Like was completed 10 years ago. 

“It’s clear that schoolchildren are increasingly being listened to”, said the article. “Many let us know about their school councils… and there were examples of young people’s real influence. “‘They do ask what we’d like sometimes’, said one student, who continued with an example. ‘When we were getting a new teacher, we had a lesson from three teachers and we were asked which one we liked the best. They did choose her, so they listened to us.’”

 Students now declare that they have rights, which wasn’t heard in 2001. “The children of the modern day are getting more and more rights such as having the right to say their opinion,” said one student who continued to provide his opinion that “you should be allowed to say what you think to the teacher without being criticised or given a detention”.

 “Children would be equal to the teachers and opinions would be listened to by everyone,” wrote a student, who expressed the opinion of many others who felt they shouldn’t have to call their teachers Miss, Mrs. and Mr. if they get called by their first names.

A college professor, in a blog for the World Bank, commented on the challenge educators have in keeping up with the advance of social media and crowdsourcing. The writer noticed that ‘innovative’ practices he witnessed over the course of a school year fell under the heading of what he (and the school) considered ‘cheating’.

It’s becoming a difficult line to draw when, in the corporate world, the initiative and management skills required to successfully “outsource” business tasks are lauded. Given that, how do modern teachers explain that copying an answer or having someone else do an assignment is not acceptable student behavior?