Open Learning – Sharing and Openness
Sharing and openness is really important for education. With all these new technologies it's becoming easier and easier to share the knowledge, but a lot of barriers exist as well. During Topic 2 I've learned that openness and sharing is essential elements for educations.
But somehow watching the recommended videos and participating in online seminars I've got the feeling that strict copyright rules and charging money for online courses is something immoral. I could not say that I completely agree with this concept. In my opinion if somebody invests one's time and knowledge to create a valuable online course or a MOOC then this person has a full right to charge for it, and to make his living as an author.
However not everything is so simple and maybe there is no good answer how we can encourage openness and accessibility. Important question is: can a quality course be created without a funding or investment of someones time? Probably not. So in my opinion it is naive to expect that a professional of any field or private organization would create good educational product without charging for using it.
But it doesn't mean that I am against openness and sharing. I like this idea and think that the humanity should seek to implement this in wider scope than ever before. It gives people the opportunity to learn and participate in education that otherwise they wouldn't get.
So I think that public educational institutions and NGO's are the one who should encourage openness in education. They could share more of their resources and make it publicly open for whoever is interested to learn.
Governments and various funds could reimburse money for people who are interested in MOOC's and online courses in private platforms like Coursera nad get a certificate or badge. That would encourage the spread of education.
References:
1. Creative Commons guide. Nice short overview to CC-licensing by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.
2. Open education and the future, Short TED-talk by David Wiley.
3. Topic 2 webinar with Kay Oddone. Openness and Sharing.
But somehow watching the recommended videos and participating in online seminars I've got the feeling that strict copyright rules and charging money for online courses is something immoral. I could not say that I completely agree with this concept. In my opinion if somebody invests one's time and knowledge to create a valuable online course or a MOOC then this person has a full right to charge for it, and to make his living as an author.
However not everything is so simple and maybe there is no good answer how we can encourage openness and accessibility. Important question is: can a quality course be created without a funding or investment of someones time? Probably not. So in my opinion it is naive to expect that a professional of any field or private organization would create good educational product without charging for using it.
But it doesn't mean that I am against openness and sharing. I like this idea and think that the humanity should seek to implement this in wider scope than ever before. It gives people the opportunity to learn and participate in education that otherwise they wouldn't get.
So I think that public educational institutions and NGO's are the one who should encourage openness in education. They could share more of their resources and make it publicly open for whoever is interested to learn.
Governments and various funds could reimburse money for people who are interested in MOOC's and online courses in private platforms like Coursera nad get a certificate or badge. That would encourage the spread of education.
References:
1. Creative Commons guide. Nice short overview to CC-licensing by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.
2. Open education and the future, Short TED-talk by David Wiley.
3. Topic 2 webinar with Kay Oddone. Openness and Sharing.
Yep, it's all about the money....the world would be better place without them, but how would we function - topic for other discussion. Let's hope that the products of FOCUS project (the courses) will somehow contribute to the open dissemination of knowledge. Anayway, of course good quality, credible materials require a lot of work. But, for example if we are preparing them during Project, often we extra paid....shoudl we be paid each time somebody use our materialas? I guess, homeostasis is the key, but it's s hard to establish ;)
AtsakytiPanaikintiI agree with you. Money money money. But I think a good quality course quality can be created with a help of very professional team. I believe in our FOCUS team we have it ;)
AtsakytiPanaikinti