Text mining: removing the red flag
"It's a complete no-brainer," said Sir Mark Walport. The director of the Wellcome Trust was responding to Jisc's Digital Infrastructure Directions report into the value and benefits of text and data mining, which recommends that the UK should create a copyright exception for text and data mining for non-commercial research. "It is critical that we enable researchers to maximise the... >>
Why “open education” matters
The first thing that has struck me about Open Education Week is how genuinely global it is. Scroll through the list of events and webinars and you’ll spot Brazil, Mexico, China, Korea, Africa, Spain, Europe. The big brand US universities might get more press coverage but they are certainly not the only innovators or the only approach. Look to OERu... >>
Open Education: becoming mainstream?
Writing in Simulacra and Simulation in 1981, Jean Baudrillard could scarcely have predicted the way in which the growth of a global network of computer systems would accelerate and manage the growth of information and meaning. The “information revolution” has led to the co-creation of a massive library of human knowledge made accessible to everyone, and the tools needed to... >>
St David's Day: Researching Wales or Welsh history?/ Dydd Gŵyl Dewi: Ymchwilio i Gymru neu hanes Cymru?
One of the most enduring miracles attributed to St David is that while he was preaching, he caused the ground to rise under him so that his audience could see and hear him, according to the Museum of Wales . There is in Wales a strong oral tradition, rich artistic and literary threads, historic and modern folk music, and ongoing... >>
How important are open ebook standards to universities?
Ebook standards may lack the glamour that the technology attracts, but the arrival of ePub3 has the potential to transform how the academy creates and delivers its content to students and researchers. Just weeks into the New Year and already there is a new ebooks revelation that colleges and universities need to digest. January saw the launch of Apple’s new... >>
Apple's new iBooks: a force for good?
Jisc has long been associated with licensing and exploring ebooks for education, and research by Jisc Collections has shown increasing numbers of students enthusiastic about such resources as publishers and librarians seek to find suitable business models in a changing environment. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise to me to hear that now Apple’s released their own... >>
The digital humanities surrounds you
Stanley Fish recently published a blog post in the NY Times with the grandiose title, The Digital Humanities and the Transcending of Mortality . The article is engaging; it seems to sharpen the knife for the Digital Humanities but then decides not to stick it in (although that might be to follow). What strikes me about the post is that... >>
Are you leading the way?
Is your institution adapting and responding to the fast changing marketplace as quickly as it might? Changing demographics, government policies and shifts in economic pressure are all taking their toll on education organisations and now, as the UK seeks to strengthen its world-class reputation in teaching, learning and research, leaders in our universities and colleges need to ensure they maintain... >>
What is activity data and why is it useful?
Activity data is big business. We see it in the recommendations we get every time we look at something on Amazon, we see its importance every time we get asked if we have a club/nectar/loyalty card when we buy something and we see it in the fascinating story of the Netflix million dollar prize to improve film recommendations for their... >>
Remembrance Day: an opportunity to revisit our cultural heritage around WW1
To mark this event in international history is therefore a key priority for custodians of heritage and educators alike. We’ve already made considerable efforts to preserve online the memories and writings of those active during the First World War. The popular Great War Poetry Archive was funded by Jisc to digitise precious documents relating to the poetry of the Great... >>
