In the creative sector, "music technology" refers to a wide range of musical practices, tools and devices enabled or facilitated by computers. Yet the music technology curriculum in New Zealand, as in other parts of the world, is dominated by two specific tools: commercial Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and notation software. In this…

Enthusiasts and evangelists of open educational resources (OER) see these resources as a panacea for all of the problems of education. However, despite its promises, their adoption in educational institutions is slow. There are many barriers to the adoption of OER, and many are from within the community of OER advocates. This commentary calls for…

The paradigm of openness that emerged in online education at the turn of the millennium was articulated in line with academic culture while also incorporating technical innovations to enable change in teaching and learning. This indicates, echoing a claim made in chapter 4 [see ED613117], that technology need not represent a total transformation…

Badges have garnered great interest among scholars of digital media and learning. In addition, widespread initiatives such as Mozilla's Open Badge Framework expand the potential of badging into the realm of open education. In this paper, we explicate the concept of open badges. We highlight some of the ways that researchers have examined…

The essay presents the incorporation process in the reconstruction of distance education in Italy. The paper tries to highlight the transition from modern to postmodern society, focusing both on this extraordinary change in the landscape of cultural and communication processes, and outcomes for the education system and educational and pedagogical…

Higher education institutions face a number of opportunities and challenges as the result of the digital revolution. The institutions perform a number of scholarship functions which can be affected by new technologies, and the desire is to retain these functions where appropriate, whilst the form they take may change. Much of the reaction to…

In order to meet the needs of today's knowledge economy, education needs to move beyond the industrial age approach of treating all learners as if they are the same and adopt a learner-centered model of education suitable for the information age. To support this model, a new and transformative technology is needed that focuses on mastery and…

This article examines changes in curriculum policy in secondary education in England. It is concerned with recent curriculum policy and reform, and the proliferation of non-government actors in curriculum policy creation. It examines the emergence of a loose alliance of third sector organisations and their involvement in a series of alternative…

Despite the recent increases of interest in open education, notably in massive open online courses (MOOCs) (Fini, 2009), it has been continuously asserted that this form of social knowledge production lacks a philosophical or theoretical foundation (Vandenberg, 1975). Similar accusations have been made with respect to distance education, such as…

Recent developments in OER and MOOCs (Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses) have raised questions as to how learners engaging with these courses and components might be assessed or credentialed. This descriptive and exploratory paper examines PLAR (Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition) as a possible answer to these…

The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has funded a five years program to encourage the use, creation and sharing of Open Educational Resources (OER) by teachers from various types of education. This program is known as Wikiwijs. Ultimo 2013, the program has come to an end. As some of the assumptions at the start of Wikiwijs proved…

Technological innovation is driving fundamental changes in all aspects of our lives. This is especially true of digital content, as our use of e-books, downloadable music, streaming television and movies, and online social networks has exploded. However, the explosive growth in our use of digital content seems so far to have eluded many of the 50…