27th August 2006

Open Content and Open Source Tools

posted in open source |

It is fair to say that although I still recognize great value in many commercial curriculum and digital resources, I am increasingly becoming an “open content” sort of educator. Exactly what do I mean by “open content?” Well, my ideas along these lines are closely tied to the values which belie both the Creative Commons and The Science Commons initiatives.

Why are we in this education business in the first place? Did anyone become a teacher to get rich? Probably not. There are significant differences in the reasons why most college business majors choose their jobs, and why many teachers choose theirs. Certainly everyone likes money, and everyone would like to have more of it, but making a LOT money is typically not the main life priority of most teachers. I know the teaching profession is not all about altruism, and many in the teaching cadre today may not share my idealism– but I think my basic premise here is sound. If teachers are not in the profession to primarily make money, then why don’t we have more folks embracing “open content” ethics like those of Science Commons? The answer may have to do more with textbook companies than what teachers believe and want to support.

I was glad to stumble upon the “Open Educator” website this evening, thanks to a saved website by Chris Walsh. The site’s about page includes the following description:

Open Educator is inspired by the powerful tools and ecology of open source software development communities such as Linux, Apache, Wikimedia, Mozilla, Drupal, Moodle, and Elgg, among thousands of other applications built and continuously revised by ad-hoc groups of users, hobbyists, and professional programmers. Some of these programs have risen in a relatively short time to become industry leaders and innovative contributors in a world shared with proprietary giants such as Microsoft.

Such examples tell a story of a dramatically changing dynamic of information flow and exchange that is still just dawning on our society. The production and feedback cycle of “knowlege products” has ceased to be dictated by the relatively fixed, hierarchical boundaries of intellectual property and high barriers to entry (i.e. few individuals can own a book publishing company or television station..). While the printing press and television both liberated information, in a sense, from critical restrictions of the previous age, each led to new concentrations of power and information failures. With the advent of webpage-driven text editing tools, users and producers of public knowledge and information can now easily be one and the same person! Open Educator was founded on the belief that such a radical shift in the way information can be shared has radical implications for teachers.

I think we need more “open educators” in K-20 education, and supporters of the ethics behind this movement. Count me in as an “open educator.” :-)

On this day..

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 10:18 pm and is filed under open source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 5 responses to “Open Content and Open Source Tools”

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  1. 1 On August 28th, 2006, Graham Wegner said:

    I totally agree with you, Wes. Educators in general should be willling to share their ideas, practices and resources - much like we do in the edublogosphere! We have many, many role models to follow like Stephen Downes, Doug Johnson and Leigh Blackall who create loads of reusable free content for others to utilise. It kind of makes me wonder if the TeachersPayTeachers website is going to gain any traction at all. I mean people are free to use that service but I think that if all “open educators” continue to operate on the principles of sharing, then we can get away from that closed minded IP model. After all, whose idea is truly original? It’s all based on someone else’s work in the past to some degree.

  2. 2 On August 28th, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

    I agree. The Creative Commons flash movie “Get Creative” talks about “standing on the shoulders of giants”– those who have come before, and I think we all do this all the time. I think that as the quantity and quality of information available free online continues to increase, the irrelevancy of many old media / old school publishing schemes will become more apparent. :-)

  3. 3 On September 4th, 2006, Alexander Hayes said:

    As Graham pointed out for me this seems to have co-incided at a similar time on a similar musing. Andre Aagsi said today in his farewell speech that he has stood on the shoulders of giants to reach his goals and that nothing he did is complete without the memory of the interaction he had with his fans and supporters.

    What a phreekin legend. And he got emotional. And he honoured the crowd.

    We need to do the same. Blog with passion. Feel tears welling. Commit to sharing with purpose and fortitude. Your blog inspires me Graham and Wesley yours brings me to think of great things.

    I appreciate you being in my life.

  4. 4 On September 15th, 2006, Moving at the Speed of Creativity » 2006 » September » 15 said:

    […] This really caught my attention tonight because I was quoting Negroponte in a new article I am finishing for School Library Journal on “The Ethic of Open Digital Content.” I wrote a bit about these ideas in the post, “Open Content and Open Source Tools” a couple of weeks ago. The quotation I’m using is: The information superhighway is about the global movement of weightless bits at the speed of light. As one industry after another looks at itself in the mirror and asks about its future in a digital world, that future is driven almost 100 percent by the ability of that company’s product or services to be rendered in digital form. […]

  5. 5 On January 6th, 2007, Andrew Stillman said:

    Your evangelism inspires! As the author of the text you cited, I must say your borrowing it gives me nothing but joy. Open-content practices can actually feed the spirit…seeing another get use from one’s own work is a rush;)

    In the time since your post, Open Educator has formed a non-profit board and spawned Open Planner (www.openplanner.org), a team-based collaborative planning community for K-12 teachers. Come visit, we’d love your support!