content is not enough

Brian wrote a great post about the focus on content creation in the open education movement. There were some great comments on that post - some arguing (correctly, IMO) that there isn't enough great content available.

But even that misses the point, I fear.

Content is the least important part of education. What is far more important is what takes place between and among the students. The activities of the community of learners. What they actually DO with the content and with each other.

Great content IS important, but only if there is also a functioning and active community working together to learn, create and share. Otherwise, all that takes place is content dissemination. And that's not education, open or otherwise.

Content Dissemination

or active community of learners