There is little doubt today that the internet and its associated digital technologies have transformed the way in which education and learning is presented. Academic resources are far widely available than ever before which means everyone, from teachers to students, now has the ability to globally exchange knowledge.
The inception of the Creative Commons License has allowed the necessary infrastructure, both legally and technically, to provide this knowledge exchange via materials known as Open Educational Resources (OER) and OpenCourseWare (OCW). Both of these have become invaluable to providers of educational resources in that it allows greater accessibility, adaptability and in allowing users to inter-operate. In essence creative commons licenses have allowed tutors and academics the ability to increase the availability of their educational resources and to utilize those of others to suit their own needs and those of their students. It has also allowed for faster searching and finding of relevant OER and OCW resources.
Continuing the success of OER and OCW will depend upon the collaboration of educational providers to continue providing resources, both legally and technically, through Creative Commons Licenses. This in itself will require all institutions, tutors, educational providers and policymakers to continue using and recommending the use of Commercial Commons for the purpose of educational resources.
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ReplyDeleteI know that you probably don't use too many of these in your line of work, but I feel these are the future of education. With so many free resources and so many great minds to make them even better, it's a no brainer for me. I have been working on implementing some more OERs into my classrom, especially considering I do not use a textbook, but find it is easier said than done in a K-5 classroom. Most resources are for 6-12.
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