Ed Beck Avatar

Follow me

With an account on Mastodon or other ActivityPub enabled sites, you can follow me to receive my posts in your home feed.

Copy and paste this page’s URL into the search field of your favorite Fediverse app such as Mastodon or Friendica.

  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Tips for creating with WordPress

    1. Get to know the new block editor WordPress went through it’s largest change in years with the creation of Gutenberg Block Editor. With blocks, you can create your website one chunk at a time. Some themes are showing how they constructed their demos, breaking down their sites block by block. The Morden theme by…

    Read more

    Tips for creating with WordPress
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    What can the OER movement learn from Open Source Software?

    For the second year in a row, there was passionate debate at the SUNY OER Champions day over the role of a for-profit company serving as SUNY’s partner. Last year, in response to the debate, I published a piece called “Selling Open: The Conundrum of for-profit companies in the OER Space.” In that piece I tried…

    Read more

    What can the OER movement learn from Open Source Software?
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Thoughts on Mass Media, Rembrandt, and Open Pedagogy.

    Last month I had the opportunity to visit Denver, Colorado for the Educause Conference. While I was in Denver, I visited an interesting exhibition in the Denver Art Musuem. Called “Rembrandt: Painter as Printmaker,” the exhibition showcased 100 prints Rembrandt created between 1625 and 1665. While known for his paintings, Rembrandt wanted to appeal to…

    Read more

    Thoughts on Mass Media, Rembrandt, and Open Pedagogy.
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Getting the Rights Back: The First Step for Reproductive Physiology of Mammals

    Keith Schillo wrote Reproductive Physiology of Mammals: From Farm to Field and Beyond, working with Publisher Del Mar Thomson. With the acquisition and recent changes at Cengage Learning, Schillo’s book was discontinued from print, a fact that he didn’t even realize until he went to order the book for his Fall 2018 class. Keith and…

    Read more

    Getting the Rights Back: The First Step for Reproductive Physiology of Mammals
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Adjusting Moodle for Accessibility

    SUNY Delhi is a 4 year, residential college. It’s programs and course offerings are reflective of its history as a two year college of technology, with 40 associate degree programs, however it also offers 16 baccalaureate programs and several masters degree programs. These programs range from Automotive, Culinary Arts, Nursing, and Architecture and Design. As…

    Read more

    Adjusting Moodle for Accessibility
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Working with Faculty as They Develop Open Educational Resources: The OER Journey of Programming for Problem Solving

    For the past year, I have had the opportunity to work with SUNY Albany’s OER fellows. One of those faculty members is Lenore Horowitz, a professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. She has put together an original open textbook Programming for Problem Solving. Horowitz’ book focuses on teaching computer programming using the Python…

    Read more

    Working with Faculty as They Develop Open Educational Resources: The OER Journey of Programming for Problem Solving
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Selling open: The conundrum of for profit companies in the OER space.

    Michael Feldstein posted a reflection on his controversial keynote address at the Northeast OER Summit. Billed as a conversation between Don Kilburn, Michael Feldstein, and facilitated by Marilyn Billings instead both speakers gave semi-prepared speeches, they didn’t address each other. The reaction from the attendees on twitter bordered on outrage. In his reflection, Michael was able to…

    Read more

    Selling open: The conundrum of for profit companies in the OER space.
  • Ed Beck Avatar

    @beckej@ed-beck.com

    Bringing Moodle to Wells College

    Wells College is a very traditional, small liberal arts college in Central New York. With a student population just over 500, and under 40 full-time tenure-track faculty, we affectionately call ourselves a micro college. Before the summer of 2015, there was no campus wide Learning Management System available to the faculty. My first major project…

    Read more

    Bringing Moodle to Wells College