OpenEd-Week 4 discussion-Part 2

And the final question: “Based on where the field is now, and these initial ideas about where it might go, what part of the open education movement is most interesting to you? Why? ”

In Week 1, we debated the merits of education as a human right. While we disagreed about many points, such as whether it should be compulsory and what comprises “quality education,” we all agreed that basic education should be universal for those who want it. In today’s world, though, there is a huge gap in reaching that ideal. There are 130 million children who don’t attend school. There are about 1 billion people in the world who are illiterate. There are almost that many who are “food insecure”. (1)

Most of the work in OER to date has been at the higher ed level. Most of that has taken place in “developed” countries with highly-educated learners and teachers. However, to me, the most sweeping need for the benefits that OER offers is in primary education in the less-developed parts of the world. That is where my personal interests lie.

Reading all of these reports about the potential of OER reinforces that even more. Thinking about the current state of OER makes me know that we have a lot of work to do and the time to start is now.

(1) United Nations, http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2002/12280-en.html