Come in, We're Open

Dear Mr. President, honorable federal and state Legislators, and Parents:

As schools put their open signs back on and millions of children return to the classroom for more science experiments, mock trials, literature circles and other endeavors that will foster their development as young contributing members of society, this is an opportune time to think about our own personal learning goals for the year and to position ourselves onto a path of action.

In the after hours, or time between coffee and the opening of your Sunday morning paper, why not take a few moments to further explore your lifelong interest in subjects like architecture or art? MIT OpenCourseWare has an excellent collection of free courses that will help you build knowledge of topics such as urban planning and sustainable design. Have a love of music? Relax and watch these free Listen for Life videos about music from Senegal, Bulgaria and more on Curriki. Or, if the social sciences are more your thing, Connexions has a wealth of free interesting resources for you!

Do you sense a trend in these examples? (Take a moment to reread the last paragraph if you need to.) Each of the aforementioned educational resources are free, free and yes FREE. Isn’t it wonderful that the Internet has provided us a medium by which universities, educators and people across the globe can easily share resources, exchange ideas and learn from one another? Quite an empowering tool indeed!

Now, why is it that exploring our personal passions is as easy and free as a click of a mouse, yet when you enter the halls of public school America, you rarely find a teacher that knows what open education resources (OERs) are, or has heard of sites like OER Commons and Curriki (organized collections of free and open education resources that teacher and students can easily use, customize and share)?

In a time when schools across the country are largely wired, yet budgets are in severe shortfall, it seems like a no-brainer that teachers and students start using OERs as a serious content alternative to the static and increasingly expensive textbook.

“Why?” you ask… Let me explain…

The use of OERs in education should be supported because they:

•  Are cost-effective—After an initial investment in platform and seed content, OERs are continually shared, refined and updated by users across the globe. This has certainly been the case with Curriki as the vast majority of our 30,000+ resources have been contributed and continually refined by our community members as volunteers on an ongoing basis.
• Serve underserved populations—Anyone, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, can access and use OERs free of charge. To read stories about how educators and students across the globe are using OERs today, click here.
•  Address and improve teacher and student performance—Studies have shown that when educators engage in the production and refinement of curricula, measurable gains are seen in both teacher and student performance (Penuel et al., 2001).

So, given these benefits, what can you do to help schools become aware of the wealth of high quality OERs currently freely available for use in the classroom? Here are a few ideas to start and I welcome you to add your thoughts as comments… 

What the Federal Government and Congress can do…

• Build awareness of OERs at the national and state level—educate states on what OERs are and encourage state legislators to put federal dollars towards the adoption of OERs within school districts.
• Encourage state policymakers to see OERs as an essential component of any and all efforts at creating a common core of state standards.
• Create incentives for states to start using the wealth of OERs currently available online.
• Visit the International Association for K-12 Online Learning and read What Can Congress and The Federal Government Do To Promote Quality Online Learning Opportunity For All Students? Then do what they recommend!

What state legislators can do...

• Educate yourself on what OERs are so that their value in the classroom becomes abundantly clear and stay on top of trends in OER by reading Open Education News (or at least having your staff do so!).
• Revise your instructional material adoption processes to support the adoption of digital and free and open content. I commend California and Florida for taking first steps down this path!
• Support pre-service and in-service teacher training on how to access, utilize and contribute to existing and new OER repositories. It is amazing to see the curricula that classroom teachers create when they are passionate about their subject matter.

What parents can do…  

• Speak and write to your children’s teachers and principals and encourage them to use and explore the myriad of interactive and engaging OERs currently available on the Web for free.
• Contact your local legislators and demand that they get with the times by encouraging the adoption of free and open multimedia content in additional to the traditional textbook.

Modest federal and state investments into OER awareness-building, OER repository expansion and maintenance, and training of teachers on how to use multimedia OERs will in the long run improve educational outcomes and save valuable tax dollars. In the U.S. alone, with just 10% of teachers cutting their use of proprietary content by 50%, we would save $700 million per year. A modest initial investment could fund a true game-changer in global education!

The time to act is now—Support OERs!

Sincerely,

Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan

Executive Director

Curriki

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Follow Dr. Barbara Kurshan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bkurshan

Comments

[MirandaSunshine]

Such an interesting topic... The other day, I went on to iTunes and downloaded several lectures from colleges around the world -- all free. Was my subject area part of "Common Core Curriculum?" No, but I would still argue that any and all academic pursuit is valid.

I wonder if part of the issue (besides the fact that "free" means that big education companies would lose revenue) is that those are college resources -- content for adults -- and our K-12 students need material that is more regulated, protective and controlled (all of which costs money)?

I would hate to get into a discussion that lectures from Yale are somehow substandard because they're given away! :o)

[rundhc]

For more open education, I would recommend OpenCulture.com. In particular, they have a helpful page where you can download free courses from major universities.

http://www.openculture.com/

http://www.openculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html

[tompoe]

Thanks for sharing this info. Great post!