I’ve established that I am a fan of open educational resources (OER) and think that K-12 educators and policymakers would benefit from thinking more deeply about the ownership of instructional materials. I’ve even offered up ideas on issues the K-12 OER movement needs to confront and work through in the coming years as it struggles with the success of greater adoption.
At the same time, I get that there are those that disagree with me and oppose granting educators the freedom to use OER, most especially the lobbyists and trade associations representing commercial publishers of content. Some who disagree have even suggested that “there’s some debate about just what we mean by ‘open’ in the context of education.” It’s almost as if they are confused about the definition of the term. To what degree this confusion is genuine or something less savory (inconceivable!), I’ll let others judge (but I’d recommend reading David Wiley’s take – and I paraphrase here – “you keep using that word ‘open.’ I do not think it means what you think it means”).
Tags: #GoOpen • Blog • edsurge • OER • U.S. Department of Education