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A key change at iCommons
If you're not part of the iCommons mailing list, take a look at the letter that Heather Ford, Executive Director of iCommons, sent to the list yesterday:
Dear friends,
At the 2 August iCommons Board Meeting, the board decided to make some difficult but necessary changes at iCommons. It has become clear over the past months that our vision for iCommons is different from the... more
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Is there a future in Open Educational Resources
Neeru · Oakland, Cambridge, Fremont (United States) · Jun 18th, 2007 11:42 pm · 31 votes · no comments made
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| Graduation day doesn't come cheap..., by by Andrew Schwegler, flickr.com |
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Will Open Educational Resources revolutionize education? That is a question that was addressed in yesterday's education track at the iSummit.
Open Educational Resources (OER) were defined by the UN to primarily be openly licensed educational materials and software. Clearly, the potential is huge. Consider that in the coming years, there will be 30 million people who will be qualified for university, but will have no space. Also consider, that education is expensive! I live in Boston and ride the T to school everyday and there are advertisements posted all throughout the train promising a better life if only this degree in dentistry, or that degree in social work is attained. Often, these degrees come at a hefty price, including debt ranging in the the tens of thousands of dollars. I can't speak for other nations, but I imagine access to education puts aspiring people in a quandary around the world.
Can OER be the answer? A healthy (and active) discussion in the opening session of the OER track at the iSummit in Croatia yesterday. Those who were hopeful optimists, were countered by those who were grounded in the realities of the political, social, and economic realities of education today. What emerged was a balanced perspective, one that we can all benefit from. True, many social movements fly in the face of great opposition, but a few, for whatever reason do succeed. The right thing to do is to continue to try and build free and open access to education for all.
tags: boston united states education overview opinion oer summit07
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