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Controversy Mapper

Research Assistant at the MIT Center for Civic Media in partnership with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, studying how a major media controversy changes over time and through the involvement of different actors in its media ecosystem, December 2009 – March 2012.

Website

Controversy Mapper at civic.mit.edu

Details of Work

  • Lead authored a case study of Trayvon Martin controversy from spring 2012
  • Advanced controversy mapper network research methodology using HITS algorithm to score the authority of media sources
  • Normalized and visualized multiple, disparate sources of media content along a time series to chart ebb and flow of story
  • Presented findings in multiple venues
  • Prepared slides for presentation of findings by PI on multiple occasions

A Brief Overview of U.S. Public Policy on OER

Link

http://publius.cc/brief_overview_us_public_policy_oer_californias _community_colleges_obama_ad

Excerpt

“Criticism of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s initiative often takes issue with his money saving logic for deficit-laden California. Arguably, digital materials require a personal computer available to every student, an e-Book reader like Amazon’s Kindle, or mass printing of each reading assignment by the schools themselves. In a recent NY Times article, Tim Ward, an assistant superintendent in California, says his school district cannot afford any of those options.

“Additionally, what Schwarzenegger seems to not have captured is that OER is a reaction to the move of proprietary, analog educational materials management onto the network. OER encourages and enables the open production, sharing of, and access to educational content and resources. This alone is a valuable societal good, increasing the value of investments made in education. But OER creates the opportunity for a more fundamental and transformative change: the move from passive consumption of educational resources to the formal engagement of educators and learners in the creative process of education content development itself. Thus, the core benefits of OER should probably not be conflated with cutting the costs of materials.”

Industrial Cooperation Project

Research Assistant on the Ford Foundation-funded Cooperation Project at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard studying the educational materials industry, March 2009 – December 2009.

Website

Industrial Case Studies at cyber.law.harvard.edu

Details of Work

  • Performed market research on the textbook industry using business databases and market reports
  • Conducted phone interviews with industry experts in open educational resources (OER)
  • Mapped educational materials industry according to positions on copyright and business practices
  • Co-authored an essay on US public policy regarding OER, and contributed a research summary to the Cooperation Project’s annual report to the Ford Foundation
  • Documented all research on a public wiki

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