OER: Philosophical Background
Posted by stewjean on March 22, 2008
This post satisfies the assignment for this the 3rd week of a course on creating free online educational resources given by Wikiversity. Last week, Course participants had the opportunity to try creatimg an open educational resource; this week we are charged with reviewing scholarly material discussing the philosophical underpinnings of the open course movement and writing a blog post describing that experience.
Summary Conclusion
The required readings for this week came at the right time for me in that a number of issues related to free online educational resources were placed into perspective – just as the reading by Ilkka Tuomi did in the first week. I finally understand the importance and need for Unix OS X and Linux and why all the free materials I found were almost always run on non-proprietary operating systems. Regarding substance, the assignment breaks down the free education movement into distinct historical periods, however a closer reading suggests that the Present, pehaps exemplified by the free software movement, is really a seamless connection of each period building upon the previous one to culminate into the ever-changing here and now. Finally, in terms of free, online educational resources, the Enlightenment Age thinkers’ goal of delivering learning material to the “third class” may soon be accomplished, however the question remains whether the “third class” has knowledge about or access to those resources.
Analysis
The most important thread that tied the readings together for me was the evolution of the democratizing ideals popularized during the Age of Enlightenment (also known as the “Age of Reason“) to such extent that today, the words liberty, fraternity and equality contemplate the broadest range of daily life situations and affairs over which man should retain control.
The Present age is similar to the Age of Reason in that the inhabitants of both periods engaged an intense critical analysis of the question of the nature of man, his problems and the institutions that govern him. Poeple during the Age of Enlightenment, similar to most today, believed that man is a rational being who would function most effectively if he were free from needless restraints. As man needed education in order to exercise his reason, Age of Reason thinkers passionately believed in and called for human progress through education; however they were also inclined to disdain the past and were eager to discard traditional institutions, such as the Church, which was considered the greatest hindrance to man’s freedom.
That increased insistence on access to education flourished as a priority in succeeding democratic societies is a logical consequence of Enlightenment era’s belief in man’s power to reason and thefore to construct learning institutions to further man’s education. Costs then, as at present, was a factor, resulting in the Poor then, as now, having the least access to educational resources. But note: one interesting statistic gleaned from the reading on “Origins of the public library as a social institution” was the fact that middle and upper-class families took more advandage of public library resources than those families from a lower economic background. This finding raises the substantial issue whether advocacy is a necessary component of open learning programs in order to educate targeted groups about the availability of free edecational resourses.
The Free Software Movement represents an outright expansion of certain of ideas espoused during the Age of Enlightenment. Its aim is to protect the rights of users to access and modify software, a subject of quite some debate – leaving me to ponder the question whether software was an intended beneficiary of the elaborate political and other freedoms crystalized by the French and other revolutionery upheaval? Be that as it may, the vehemence in the divide between the adherents of “free sofware” and those involved with the ”Open Source” initiative is very real, although the practical significance of the debate, as such relates to the end-user, is not very clear.
The success of free computer operating systems and free software will be evaluated based upon user preferences, not socratic distinctions between between the “socio-ethical” versus the “superior” model. While studying the lesson, I decided to try one very highly touted “free software”, OpenOffice (a competitor of Microsoft Office Suite). Result? The most non-user friendly software I have ever tried to use. There were no icons to click on my Desktop. I opened My Documents and was confronted with four cabinets and what appeared to be hundreds of files – I had no idea which to select, so I tried each. Really! The “help” returned me online to openoffice.org. I was overwhelmed by the monumental documentation or knowledge base. I was sure I would find the answer after wading through it all, but I refused. I simply could not afford to invest so much time into learning how to open an application. I de-installed the free software – it was too difficult. This may be one disadvantage that affects the wider use of what may be an excellent product.
Initiatives such as Richard Stallman’s GNU Project and others whose goal is to replace proprietary software and restrictive licensing with the free equivalent will likely deliver necessary tools without which open learning initiatives would be a high cost failure. Yet there is still an open question: Is there anything new under the Sun? In my view, Science and ”standing on the shoulder of giants“, a study of the metaphor’s origin and meaning, accurately describes the acquisition and transmission of knowledge as a ladder type process of development, achievement and learning as well. The cumulative nature of the process is reflected in an apt image of a Dwarf that seized the most effective vantage point by attaching himself to the shoulder of a giant. Arguably, this bodes well for the future of the Teaching profession.
