Developing a Culture of Sharing and Receiving:

Open Educational Resources

Cable GreeneLearning DirectorWA State Board for

Community & Technical Colleges

Shared on Jen’s Blog & SlideShare.

“We are in the midst of a technological, economic, and

organizational transformation that allows us to negotiate the terms of freedom, justice, and productivity in

the information society”Yochai Benkler

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonewolf23/1570632701/

you either become an efficient and honest contributor, or people will go around your traditional business models.

RIAA vs. PTP file sharing

Eventually, the masses will win politically, economically, and educationally.

In a Long Tail World…

Because when we cooperate and share, we all win – exponentially.

Reedʼs Law: Networks grow [in value] exponentially by the number of nodes.

It’s a social justice issue: everyone has the right to access global knowledge.

Why is “Open” Important?

Institute for the Future whitepaper: Technologies of Cooperation

Cape Town Open Education Declaration

We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all

human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners

create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.

http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration

(one) Definition of OER

Digitized materials, offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners, to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research. OER includes open access to both the content and the technology such as: Open Software, Open Standards and Open Licenses to distribute the material.

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/openeducation

- JSB

CC Common Content

OpenCourseWare Consortium

OCW – MIT (MIT HS) China Open Resources for Education has translated 109

MIT OCW courses into Simplified Chinese.

Rice Connexions

MERLOT

OpenLearn (UK)

OCW Finder Wikiversity / OER Commons / Open Course

(a few) Open Content Repositories

All research funded by the US National Institutes of Health, an agency with a $29 billion research budget, will now be required to be published online, free to the public,

within 12 months after publication in any scientific journal.

What are Open Textbooks?

“Open textbooks” are free, online, open-access textbooks. The content of open textbooks is licensed to allow anyone to use, download, customize, or print without expressed permission from the author.

http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org

Examples of Free, Open Textbooks

Campaign Coordinator:Nicole Allen

Why do we Need Open Textbooks? According to a 2005 GAO report, College textbook

prices have risen at twice the rate of annual inflation over the last two decades

At 2-year public institutions, the average cost of books and supplies per first-time, full-time student (’03-’04) was $886 = almost 75% of the cost of tuition and fees $898 at 4-year public institutions, about 26% of the cost

of tuition and fees

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf

New Textbook Report: May 2007

http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/turnthepage.pdf

“The resulting groundswell of criticism against colleges, bookstores, and publishers has translated into action across the nation to do something about it. The political imperative to turn the page and restrain increases in the price of textbooks – indeed, to lower them if possible – cannot be overstated.”

(p. iii)

What about Copyright / IP?CC Video

We must get rid of our “not invented here” attitude regarding others’ content move to: "proudly borrowed from there"

Content is not a strategic advantage

Nor can we (or our students) afford it: Students want open, free textbooks Students want access to the global courses

Hey Higher Ed!

“As uncomfortable a proposition as this new openness may be for some, I believe it is the future of higher education.”

In web 2.0, everything is public & higher education needs to

get used to it.

Future of Openness in Education

David Wiley 2006. Open source, openness, and higher education.

George Siemens

“Open content is an important start. But it is a foundation on which a new structure of education can be built. We need to start having that discussion.”

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/003232.html January 24, 2008

Less Talking More Sharing

How do we educate all stakeholders about open educational resources (software, content, standards, publishing) and why they are an important part of our system’s future?

Question #1

How do we make it easy to share learning materials, courses and degrees?

Question #2

How can we develop open textbooks?

What is stopping us?

Question #3

What are the policy implications of sharing content?

Who isn’t going to like it?How do we work with those

folks?Who will we need to go around?

Question #4

Under what circumstances will faculty “receive” what has been built by others?

How do we collectively get past the issue of “I need to build it myself?”

Question #5

Q&ADr. Cable Green

cgreen@sbctc.edu(360) 704-4334www.sbctc.edu