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P2PU is going strong. We're getting ready to launch our third cycle of courses, but before we do that we need you to propose them! Join in on the fun, all the cool kids are doing it.

From the P2PU Blog:

The Peer 2 Peer University is gearing up to launch its third cycle of courses this coming September, and we’re looking for new faces to join the community. Do you have an idea for a six week course? Whether it’s Physics 101 or Poker and Strategic Thinking, all ideas are welcome. You can propose a course at http://wiki.p2pu.org/Create-a-Course (deadline is August 6, 2010).

If you’ve never designed or run a course before, that’s okay, too. P2PU is running a Course Organizers Orientation for newbies to introduce organizers to the practice of online facilitation and provide support while they build a new course. The orientation will be three weeks long and will enable future course organizers to:

• Experience open social learning first-hand
• Distinguish peer-2-peer learning from formal online teaching
• Navigate the different features of the P2PU site
• Design a course on a topic of their choice on the P2PU site
• Learn how to use different synchronous/asynchronous platforms effectively
• Review and provide feedback for others; revise and refine syllabi for their course

Weekly video conferences will be held to discuss important aspects of community building, course design, finding and creating course content, open educational resources (OER), and troubleshooting. Conferences will be recorded and posted for those unable to attend. The orientation leader will also post office hours to provide additional support.

Building on the feedback from participants and organizers in the last two cycles of courses, the P2PU community realised that many potential course organizers had reservations about some of the technological and pedagogical aspects of running courses online. This orientation aims to address these concerns, as well as help organizers become an active part of the P2PU community.

The P2PU community consists of a diverse group of people. They are writers, teachers, designers, doctoral and alternative grad students, artists, copyright specialists, scientists, and blues guitar players. Above all, they are learners–peers working together to learn from each other.

More information, including how and where to sign up, can be found on the P2PU wiki: http://wiki.p2pu.org/orientation

You can submit course proposals until August 6, 2010.

It's been a busy couple of months working with Creative Commons. Back in March, Jane Park and I organized ccSalon New York and exactly one month later I was lucky enough to attend ccSalon San Francisco.

CC Salons are global, informal events focused on building a community of artists, developers, and creators of all kinds around Creative Commons licenses, standards, and technology. The first event took place in San Francisco in 2006 with the idea to replicate in other locations internationally. Since then salons have sprung up in cities around the world. Whether you're familiar with Creative Commons or are brand new to the concepts behind it, we encourage you to check out a salon near you.

The format for each event varies based on the location, but the overall concept is simple. CC Salons are open forums for people who are interested in the issues surrounding Creative Commons and global participatory culture. If you're interested in attending - check out the upcoming salons. If your city doesn't have one - feel free to start your own. Check out the resources for starting your salon for extra info.

Both salons were focused on Open Education, an area that I am very passionate about. I've spent the last two years focused on the intersection of technology and open education. Here are some of the highlights from each of the events:

New York - 4/3/2010
ccSalon New York Announcement & Video

Flat World Knowledge

Eric Frank, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer spoke about the company's freemium business model for open college textbooks.

Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU)

Neeru Paharia spoke about P2PU and I gave a short talk on my course 'Mashing Up the Open Web'.

K-12 Educator Panel

Dave Bill, Arvind Grover, and Kerri Richardson Redding discussed integrating CC licensed content into the classroom and teaching students about copyright.

San Francisco - 5/3/2010
ccSalon San Francisco Announcement & Video

California Learning Resource Network (CLRN)

Brian Bridges talked about CLRN and the review of a number of open textbooks that meet California standards.

CK-12 Foundation

Murugan Pal shared an update on the CK-12 foundation and the non-profits "FlexBooks"

OER Brazil & P2PU

Carolina Rossini brought us up to speed on the state of OER and P2PU in Brazil. (There are number of P2PU classes in Brazilian Portuguese with enrollment in the 100s!)

Panel Discussion

Brian Bridges, Amee Godwin, Murugan Pal, and Carolina Rossini discussed open education, specifically with reference to adoption of open textbooks and the future of the textbook.

Both of these ccSalons were great venues to meet newcomers and reconnect with people I've met in the past. I was especially excited P2PU and Flat World Knowledge represented by multiple parties at both events. I even got to meet Tanushree, one of the Peers from 'Mashing Up the Open Web'. Organize a ccSalon in your city!

Are you interested in learning more about the Open Web? Then sign up for my course, Mashing Up the Open Web at P2PU. Sign-ups close on 3 March officially, but if you're really keen on taking the course, contact me.

Course Description

An introduction to open web standards. HTML, CSS, JavaScript (and more?) through project based learning. This course is not for complete novices, some web experience is required. Participants will work on a self defined project that leverages open datasets and web services to create a mashup that is useful to their target audience. The participants will engage in weekly real time meetings (irc, voice, or other) as well as ongoing asynchronous communication. The role of the organizer will be to guide participants in selecting a feasible project and assisting the 'just in time' learning experience associated with technology discovery.

The course will include discussions on the Open Web and help participants understand the importance of keeping the web open. Aside from practical web skills like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript participants will be introduced to a number of free and open data visualization tools. Participants will learn how to find open data and use those resources in creating a web mashup.

What are you waiting for? Sign-up Now!

If you've got ten minutes to spare, I suggest you check out the presentation that I just gave about the soon to be 'Open Web Career Track' at the Peer 2 Peer University. The Open Web Career Track is one of the first few Drumbeat projects being kickstarted in collaboration with Mozilla.

The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.

P2PU is entirely volunteer driven, open, and free of charge. Anyone can lead a course about anything, and starting on 12 February we'll be accepting applications to participate in each of the 15 courses slated to start in March. Keep a lookout on http://www.p2pu.org for more information on how to participate.

Courses proposed for March 2010 Cycle at P2PU

• Behavioral Economics
• Copyright for Educators
• Cyberpunk Literature
• Non Ficton Writing v2.0
• Mashing Up the Open Web
• Solve Anything! Building Ideas Through Design
• Transformational Art
• Running a Campaign
• Green Action: Creating Sustainable Communitites
• Urban Disaster Risk Management
• Intro to Economics & Finance
• Introdução ao pensamento de Paulo Freire
• Cidadania Hacker – Novas Formas de Ação na Esfera Pública Interconectada
• Cidadania e as Redes Digitas
• Music Theory