Comments on: Open Education Course: week 1 reading

By: elearning

elearning — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:42:12 +0000

I think that a combination of two forms of learning are important:
- the old style
- the new style

Old style of learning is important for the informal way to directly train students on material important for their development. The new style of learning is important to better fit the new requirements of information processing in both private as business life.

By: Ronald Scheer

Ronald Scheer — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:39:09 +0000

”On distance learning as a non-solution, Wiley makes a good point – typical online classes are merely digital and mobile versions of dysfunctional traditional classrooms. Sage-on-stage, but online, without the social supports of face-to-face classrooms. Not the way to go.
Open courseware will become more important and relevant if teachers and students are able to separate content from teaching.”
In my country, The Netherlands, we are trying to educate people from 30 to 50 years of age about law. A non-popular topic. Three years ago we started with online distance learning, with topics like home-ownership, marriage etc. It didn’t get the attention that we expected. We recently launched Open Courseware covering a wide variety of interests in different resources like lecture notes and exams. And it really works.
Now that I have read the above articles about Open Education Course, I am even more convinced that we are going in the right direction.

By: dnorman

dnorman — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:08:43 +0000

It does lower the barrier for entry – as long as the available materials are culturally appropriate. Otherwise, the lower cost hides a much higher long term cost, in terms of cultural imperialism.

A not-directly-education-related parallel example: Any kid growing up in Canada has access to all Canadian and US TV networks. They are all provided as part of the basic TV package, so the cost/barrier to access either nation’s culture is essentially the same. As a result, Canadian kids are well versed in American culture, history, politics, etc… often at the expense of their exposure to Canadian culture. Canadian kids of my generation grew up with Schoolhouse Rock, teaching us about the US legislative process. With no counterpart available for the Canadian process, kids grew up knowing how a bill becomes law, according to the US system. They are also likely to be able to name most (or even all) of the US states, list the last several Presidents, and know at least the names of the major US political parties. Many Canadian kids struggle to do the same for Canadian politics, and most American kids have little or no understanding of Canada, nevermind the political parties and their leaders.

Although this isn’t directly education-related, it does demonstrate how “free” materials bring cultural bias with them, intentional or otherwise. And may displace local culture and context to the detriment of that local culture.

If truly unbiased educational materials were available, there would be no risk of this effect. The irony is that culturally neutral materials are meaningless and irrelevant, and are less useful for education…

By: David

David — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:05:55 +0000

“Given that the main obstacle to globally universal access to education isn’t education, but rather political, social, economic and cultural pressures, I am not sure what the initial impact of open education will have. The problem largely isn’t access to content, it’s the role of basic education. If education isn’t valued in a country or region, all the free educational resources in the world aren’t going to make a difference.”

I understand where you’re coming from. However, if educational resources are free and easily localized, doesn’t that significantly lower the barrier to entry for reformers and radicals within country who want to try to change things?