This post constitutes the second assignment for week 1 of the OER course. My post related to the first assignment may be viewed here. In this assignment, participants are asked to write a commentary on “Open Educational Resources: What they are and why do they matter” (the “Article”), written by Ilkka Tuomi. Mr. Tuomi is the Chief Scientist at Meaning Processing Ltd, an independent research center located in Helsinki, Finland. He has written articles, book chapters and books on computer networks, organizational knowledge management, open source software, and new innovation models.
I found the Article very well-researched in all respects. It is my opinion that it could serve as a primer for those at the entry of their careers in open source initiatives. Prior to reading the Article I knew nothing about open learning creation or the philosophical bases therefor; I now feel I will be able to explain to others, in a general sense, what this means. The facilitators of this OER course did not specify the debth of the requested review. I opt to focus on the main points of the Article as they relate to free and open online educational resources.
The main theme of the Article is that open access to educational resources will radically change the ways in which we learn and create knowledge. It is suggested that open educational resources have the potential to transform institutions of learning, teaching practices and the processes of learning and knowledge creation. Early on, Mr. Tuomi makes it very clear that a distinction must be made among the several different types of resources, and that resources that generate the most social benefits must be kept open. For example, different criteria are at play in openness in the social domain as opposed to the educational domain and the technical domain, the latter being the subject of heated debate regarding intellectual property rights.
With respect to learning, educators are interested in openness for a number of reasons, the most important being (1) where money is a scarce resource; (2) because it can produce high-quality systems; (3) because learners can modify the system to his/her specific needs; and (4) because openness appears to be a very effective learning model. Mr. Tuomi suggests that open educational resources display 5 basic characteristics: they (a) enable development of individual or social capabilities for understanding and acting; (b) can be enjoyed without restricting the possibilities of others to enjoy them; (c) provide non-discriminatory access to information and knowledge about the resource; (d) generate services that can be enjoyed by anyone with sufficient non-discriminatory capabilities; and (e) can be contributed to by anyone, without restrictions that exceed the norms of open science. These 5 characteristics support the posited theory that openness demands the freedom to use, the freedom to contribute, and the freedom to share.
In terms of the future, Mr. Tuomi believes that advances in open learning creation will have significant consequences: the costs of distributing high-quality learning materials will decline radically; access to knowledge will increase, learners will be asked to create and innovate and educational systems will have to be redesigned to reflect the new business of open learning.
My personal opinion of Mr. Tuomi’s learned piece is that open learning will accomplish its stated goals provided all persons have access to the platforms where open learning is delivered. If that delivery is via the web and the Internet, then everyone needs to have a computer or other device that will permit access to open learning education. Many persons currently do not have access to computers. However most people do or soon will have a cell phone or other mobile communication device. Perhaps the creators of open learning content will structure their material so that same is available on such consumer oriented platforms.
