Historical Context of Open Learning (Quest 1)

I feel giddy to know that individuals, institutions of higher learning, and corporations are making a move toward opening up access to knowledge to everyone. I have seen the lives of people who have no real hope for improving their lives and no hope for breaking the cycle of poverty they are in. Having an equal opportunity for education and learning creates an environment where individuals are no longer divided into classes based on their opportunity for gaining riches and education (3 Nephi 6:12).

The Open Education Resources movement really began about ten years ago with the Open Source movement where software distributors began distributing open code for others to share and in turn modify and share. Seeing the success of the Open Source, OER began with the idea of sharing content, tools, and implementation resources. The Hewlett Foundation has been a major funder for many of the OER projects, funding MIT's OCW, Rice University's Connexions project, Utah State University's Center for Open and Sustainable Learning, Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative, and many others.

These projects have required a commitment and investment of time and energy as well as a commitment to educating the world and sharing knowledge with every individual who has a desire to learn.

Some of the difficulties that accompany open education are the sustainability with funding. Another of the largest difficulties is copyright. Because of the difficulty of locating copyright holders and the compatibility of copyright licenses. The licenses have evolved through time through the creative commons license.

The field of open education has a bright future with a great deal of work that needs to be done. This field will open up the world of knowledge to the world. This is just a small summary of a few thoughts gathered while reading for this week. I look forward to gaining a deeper understanding in each of these areas.