Just a quick note to let you know that our friends at the National Center for Learning Disabilities and Teachers Without Borders have launched a new course - A Primer for Educators on Learning Disabilities.

You can find the course here: http://nixty.com/course/LD-Primer

Course Overview:

The aim of this self-paced tutorial is to provide educators with introductory knowledge about learning disabilities and to offer practical, high-quality information and resources  to enhance professional development in this area that will facilitate improved student achievement. The tutorial is offered in an accessible, online format and includes audio, transcript and self-check components that can be personalized for a wide variety of professional development activities and settings.

This tutorial has been developed as part of a partnership between the National Center for Learning Disabilities and Teachers Without Borders, and was made possible by a grant from the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust.

What a whirlwind these last two weeks have been! We’ve been busy thinking about and reflecting upon Pearson’s announcement of OpenClass. Our post immediately below raised a few eyebrows. @KateMfD called it “important and feisty”, @Audrey Watters called it “spot on” and others cautioned us that perhaps it was a bit too defensive. I think it is fair to say we experienced the full spectrum of emotions. A few of the early feelings:

• Surprise - “Pearson - OpenClass - What!?”
• Fear - “Pearson is how BIG? They do how much a year in revenue!?”
• Despair - “How can we possibly beat Goliath?”

Adrian of OpenClass responds to our questions. See our responses below:

Adrian writes:
@Nixty, a competitor to OpenClass, asks:

What happens when readily available free courses/texts help students learn better than Pearson’s closed expensive courses/texts?
What happens when we have clear research support that shows how students taking the open and free course learn more than students taking Pearson’s closed and expensive course?
Pearson’s stated aim is to make the LMS a commodity so they can sell more of their closed content and course tools. What happens when Pearson isn’t selling enough of their closed content and course tools?

Adrian’s Answer: Is this a trick question? Doesn’t this boil down to the more general question — What happens when a free product is better than one you pay for? There’s only one conclusion I can come to - free wins that round. And ‘for pay’ has to come up with something worth paying for, which is the essence of competition, the arms race that drives economics to produce improvement. I believe Pearson has proven it is up to that challenge for the long haul.

NIXTY Response: No, this isn’t a trick question. Our understanding of the OpenClass platform is that you will be hosting Pearson’s closed content and open education content. Pearson’s OpenClass business model is based on selling access to closed content and tools. It is clear to me that Pearson is betting the company’s future on the ability to beat open education. Pearson’s future is built on closed education. I agree with your analysis that competition is good and it will spur innovation in both closed and open education. The only problem with this argument is that Pearson is not a neutral player. Clearly, you have to beat open education in order to continue as a company. Therefore, your suggestion that you are “open” is a clear contradiction. You cannot have it both ways. You can’t say we are open and support open education, but base your business on your ability to beat open education.

Multiple sources (e.g., Michael Feldstein) have compared your OpenClass ecosystem to Apple’s iTunes. The problem with this metaphor is that it really isn’t accurate. Apple is a computer company. They sell computers. They provide iTunes as a neutral ecosystem where OTHER parties can sell content. Apple doesn’t sell their own content. A more accurate metaphor would be if Apple were to give up their computer business to start selling their own content in iTunes. That is what Pearson is doing. They are primarily a content company creating a system to sell their own closed content and tools. They are trying to suggest that it will be open and neutral for other parties to provide open content and sell closed content, but that simply cannot happen. Pearson is inherently biased to promote Pearson content. They cannot really create a neutral marketplace, because their future is tied to their ability to sell their closed content.

Adrian responds again:

Q: Later in the same post @nixty also asked:

[Pearson's] business model assumes (and this is a fundamentally flawed assumption) that they will be able to sell closed content and tools to support OpenClass. What happens when their assumption proves to be wrong?

Adrian’s Answer: Again, do I have to be careful of a trap? I can only see one answer. Pearson content will always have to continue to be worth money if we expect people to pay for it. Which is why we work so hard to ensure we find new and better ways of ensuring student success. The competition between pay and free will lead both modalities to innovations we haven’t yet imagined.
Let the games begin!! And may the best product win!

NIXTY response: We agree with your basic analysis that competition is good and that it will lead to innovations. What we disagree with is your suggestion that OpenClass is a neutral playing field. I’m suggesting that faculty and institutions should not put their classes and content in a system that has the ultimate aim of selling more of Pearson’s closed content. If faculty and institutions believe that the future of education is indeed open, then they should not put their courses in a system that has the ultimate goal of beating open content.  It is impossible for you to be neutral here. The company’s future is based on your ability to beat open education.

Adrian’s last response: PS - Nixty has the wrong idea about Pearson’s stated aim for OpenClass. OpenClass is open…to all forms of content, both Open and published. We are so committed to open, it’s in the name.

NIXTY response: Adrian, you guys are doing a bang-up job in the marketing department. Phenomenal (err…Orwellian?) really, but for the reasons listed above you honestly cannot really consider yourself to be “open” in the sense of what most people think of when they say “open education.” The Pearson business model has to beat open education in order to survive. Therefore, even if you put it in your name, you cannot really consider yourselves “open.” In fact, a cynic might think that you put “open” in your name to deliberately confuse people. Kind of like the joint Google / Pearson LMS impression ; ).

I’ve had more time to think about Pearson’s OpenClass. Clearly I’m biased, but the more I think about this the less sustainable I think it is for Pearson and the broader education community. Pearson’s stated aim is to make the LMS a commodity so they can sell more of their closed content and course tools.

What happens when Pearson isn’t selling enough of their closed content and course tools?

Pearson and OpenClass have received an amazing amount of publicity. They have framed this as a disruptive move and it is to the commercial LMS world. However, that is only one part of what is transforming education. Open content is the other big disruptor that is shaping education.

Joshua Kim at Inside Higher Ed asked Andrian Sannier a number of thoughtful questions. I have a couple to add to the list:

1. What happens when readily available free courses/texts help students learn better than Pearson’s closed expensive courses/texts? What happens when we have clear research support that shows how students taking the open and free course learn more than students taking Pearson’s closed and expensive course?

2. What happens when readily available free learning tools help students learn better than Pearson’s closed expensive learning tools? For example, what happens when our free intelligent tutor (in development) works as well as or better than Pearson’s closed and expensive tutoring system?

Pearson’s OpenClass team hasn’t thought through to the logical end of what happens when open and free content and technology transform education. Their business model assumes (and this is a fundamentally flawed assumption) that they will be able to sell closed content and tools to support OpenClass. What happens when their assumption proves to be wrong? Will Pearson continue to support OpenClass even when the trend is clearly towards free and open content and tools? What happens when institution after institution drops Pearson’s closed texts and start using open texts?  Will Pearson continue to support the platform, even when they are losing more and more money? I don’t think so. Consequently, institutions and educators should seriously consider platforms that are sustainable and inline with educational transformation. Pearson’s OpenClass only gets us half-way for a time, but will ultimately unravel because their business model is not sustainable.

Pearson has jumped into the NIXTY space - basically doing something very similar to what we are doing - with their coming release of OpenClass. There are a couple of great articles here and here. There is ONE big difference. Pearson’s main focus is on Pearson’s content. They are trying to make the LMS a commodity, so they can sell more of their content. NIXTY, of course, is focused on open education content.

Pearson’s OpenClass = Selling more of Pearson’s Closed Content/Courses

NIXTY = Supporting/Promoting Open Content/Courses

Pearson has the name ‘open’ in the title, but the real goal is to sell more closed content. Will it work? We don’t think so. Why?

1. Open Content is transforming education. It is free. Pearson will marginalize open content and focus on their own content. This will ultimately prove to be the undoing of OpenClass.

2. As the Inside Higher Ed article discussed, other publishing companies will not put their content in Pearson’s OpenClass ecosystem. We are hoping that they’ll look for a neutral alternative. Yes, Cengage, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley and Houghton Mifflin we are talking to you! Pearson - you can put your content/courses in NIXTY as well ; ).

3.  Pearson hasn’t exactly been awesome in the LMS space. eCollege is not what we’d call a market leader. I’m not sure, but It seems like eCollege folks might be in charge of the OpenClass product. Do they have the chutzpah to blow up eCollege to help OpenClass. Will the revenue streams from eCollege (tho likely decreasing) be sacrificed to help them grow OpenClass? Doubtful. They’ll likely try to keep both systems working and consequently end up doing a half-way job with OpenClass.

4. The comments around this from most folks in the articles and on Downes’ Google + post have been less than positive, suggesting that folks don’t necessarily have a lot of trust in Pearson.

Now, to at least try to be fair, let’s consider what Pearson has going for it.

1. They’ve got one BILLION dollars (said in my best Dr. Evil voice). Seriously, they’ve got A LOT of money.

2. They’ve got a lot of strategic relationships with other organizations and institutions. They seem to have done a nice job of rolling this out with their 9 design schools. Nicely done!

3. They’ve got great content!

4. They are good at marketing! You’d think Google co-designed this thing from the get-go; really, however, OpenClass is just another app just like learnboost or any other number of education apps in the Google ecosystem.

In sum, Pearson’s OpenClass is an innovative approach to help Pearson sell more of their closed content. We believe that they’ll be forced to marginalize open content and competing closed content. Consequently, they’ll end up doing students, educators, and colleges a disservice. NIXTY offers the same functionality, same price (free!), has been around for over a year, and doesn’t have any content to hawk. Consequently, we can provide a better service to students, educators, and schools.

The OPAL team at UNESCO asked us to participate in the upcoming E-Oxford Debate with the above title. We are honored to be leading the ‘pro’ team. We’ll be arguing that mainstreaming open education is transformative because it solves 3 key problems governments, schools, and individuals face. Please join us by posting your thoughts throughout the debate. It starts on October 12 and runs through October 24. You can sign up and participate here: http://www.wsis-community.org/pg/debates/group:14358/phase/400536/4005

(Virginia Beach, VA) NIXTY, LLC, una organización que busca potenciar la educación para todos, se ha asociado con Maestros sin Fronteras para ofrecer la versión completa, en español, de su innovadora plataforma de gestión del aprendizaje. Educadores de habla hispana, así como instituciones formadoras de docentes ahora pueden aprovechar el conjunto de herramientas de los cursos, que incluyen:

Lecciones: Con elementos como presentaciones de Power Point, documentos Word, archivos PDF y videos; también pueden agregar exámenes y organizar los elementos de las lecciones con una sencilla herramienta.

Area de Exámenes: Los educadores pueden crear fácilmente cuestionarios para evaluar el aprendizaje y establecer parámetros de aprobación al finalizar el curso, pueden aportar retroalimentación a sus estudiantes y permitirles tomar nuevamente las pruebas.

Certificados: Crear certificados personalizados, imprimibles, que verifican la finalización del curso.
Canal Institucional: Promover su organización, presentar a los instructores y los cursos utilizando su logotipo e imagen corporativa.

Maestros sin Fronteras (MSF) utilizará la versión en español de la Plataforma de Gestión de Aprendizaje NIXTY para apoyar a sus miembros de habla hispana en todo el mundo, fortaleciendo los programas de desarrollo profesional y asociaciones existentes en México, y expandiendo sus programas en español a nivel mundial.

“Esta plataforma en español presenta una oportunidad única para Maestros sin Fronteras”, dijo el Dr. Konrad Glogowski, Director Ejecutivo de MSF. “En estos momentos estamos ampliando nuestros programas y asociaciones en países de habla hispana, con un énfasis particular en México. La plataforma NIXTY en español ayudará a acelerar el crecimiento y a ampliar nuestro alcance, además de ofrecer un mayor apoyo a los socios actuales y futuros. “

Durante los próximos meses, MSF y NIXTY lanzarán versiones de la plataforma en otros idiomas, incluyendo Francés y Portugués.

NIXTY combina una poderosa tecnología con la educación abierta para lograr el objetivo de potenciar la educación para todos! NIXTY proporciona una plataforma educativa que los estudiantes, educadores, e instituciones pueden aprovechar para cumplir sus metas de aprendizaje. Los elementos principales incluyen ePortfolios, Cursos, WikiCursos y Cursos de Educación Contínua. Visite www.nixty.com para más información.

Maestros sin Fronteras es una organización sin fines de lucro, líder en el campo de la educación internacional y el desarrollo profesional docente. Nuestro trabajo conecta a los profesores con información y con sus pares para crear un cambio local a escala global. Por favor, visite nuestro sitio web, www.twb.org para más información.

(Virginia Beach, VA) NIXTY, LLC, an organization with the goal of empowering education for everyone, has partnered with Teachers Without Borders to provide a full Spanish-language version of their next generation learning platform. Spanish-speaking educators and teacher education institutions can now leverage the full suite of course tools, including:

Lessons: Upload PowerPoints, Word documents, PDFs and videos; Add a quiz; Reorder items with the drag-and-drop tool.

Quiz Center: Easily create quizzes to assess learning and set pass rates for course completion; Provide feedback and enable retakes.

Certificates: Create customized, printable certificates that verify course completion.

Branded Channel: Promote your organization, feature courses and instructors; Use your logo and colors.

Teachers Without Borders (TWB) will use the Spanish version of the NIXTY Learning Management Platform to support its Spanish-speaking members from around the world, strengthen existing teacher development programs and partnerships in Mexico, and scale its Spanish-language programs globally.

“This Spanish-language platform presents a unique opportunity for Teachers Without Borders,” says Dr. Konrad Glogowski, Executive Director of TWB. “We are currently scaling our programs and partnerships in Spanish-speaking countries, with a particular emphasis on Mexico. The NIXTY platform in Spanish will help accelerate our growth, extend our reach, and provide stronger support for existing and new partners.”

Over the next few months, TWB and NIXTY will launch additional language versions of the platform, starting with French and Portuguese.

NIXTY combines powerful technology with open education to meet the audacious goal of empowering education for everyone! NIXTY provides an educational platform that students, educators, and institutions harness to meet their learning goals. Primary products include ePortfolios, Courses, WikiCourses, and Continuing Education Courses. Visit www.nixty.com for more information.

Teachers Without Borders is a leading non-profit organization in the field of international education and teacher professional development. Our work connects teachers to information and each other to create local change on a global scale. Please visit our website, www.twb.org for more information.

I read Sarah Lacy’s new book Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos, several weeks ago. It has been simmering in the back of my mind; my attention turning back to it again and again in light of recent events and the role of social media in unseating societal structures throughout the Middle East.

Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky is an excellent book. She takes you around the world in her travels to emerging countries. You feel like you are in the room (…or village hut) with her as she interviews these brave and risk-loving entrepreneurs. You get a real feel for the struggles their countries face, the real hardships the people encounter, AND, more importantly, how these key people are revolutionizing their corners of the world by solving real problems. Paul Carr has done an excellent job of highlighting a few of these personal stories here.

The key idea is that entrepreneurs in emerging economies are, and will increasingly be, huge forces in revolutionizing our global economy. Lacy starts off by illustrating how the Valley has lost its way by becoming too risk averse. She then shifts, through several poignant narratives, to highlight how entrepreneurs around the world are strikingly different in their ambition, heart, and risk. They experience the world fundamentally differently. They have lived with little, survived in war zones, and escaped genocide. They know what it feels like to struggle and are not afraid to return or to continue to struggle. Consequently, they can take big risks. They have little fear.

Global entrepreneurship is hugely powerful. Lacy writes, “High-impact entrepreneurship can do what aid, military intervention, traditional diplomacy, and revolutions can’t. Every country knows they want it…” It isn’t about the developed world vs. the emerging world. It isn’t about taking sides. It is about taking a meaningful, collaborative stance. It is about companies and investors moving beyond their comfort zones to help these ventures grow and expand. It is not an either/or situation (either we win or they win); rather, it is a both/and situation. We both win. Lacy, ever the business reporter and information synthesizer cannot resist coming to this conclusion. Interestingly, it is almost like the data forced her to see it. In her epilogue she writes:

“This book began as a study in one thing: greed-based entrepreneurship in places emerging out of chaos and giving rise to enormous Greenfield opportunities the Western world no longer has. The last thing I wanted to write was another book about global politics or feel-good social entrepreneurship. But over the course of my reporting, the topic of emerging market entrepreneurship became too big to be just about greed and fear. It was also about the wonder of technology and making the world a better place. It was about the ambition and ego and vision of a class of founders who wanted to topple the status quo for fun, for money, and for the little guy.”

Michael Horn and I agree that Sarah is one of the brightest people out there. She clearly sees and gets things way ahead of the curve. I think her take in this book is spot on. I fear, however, that most people will not realize it until it is too late. They’ll miss investing their time, energy, and money in collaborating with these folks. I don’t want that to happen to us. I hope we are smart enough to take what she has said to heart. After all, big risk, big ambition, and big heart sound like the same ingredients needed to transform education.

We are excited to announce that TWB recently launched their Certificate of Teaching Mastery Program on NIXTY. it is comprised of several courses and provides the student with a certificate highlighting their teaching competencies. TWB’s initial cohort is truly global with representatives from Nigeria, USA, Guatemala, Canada, Italy, Seychelles, Argentina, Kenya, Tunisia, Senegal, Thailand, Mexico, India, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Dominican Republic, Oman, and Cameroon. We are particularly excited about working with TWB, b/c they share our emphasis on open and empowering education for all.

You can view their press release here.