<< Chapter < Page
  The impact of open source software     Page 4 / 19
Chapter >> Page >

Interesting stuff… and I’m particularly interested in the fourth of your ‘keys to 3.0′ the accreditation of learning. If I understood your post correctly, the accreditation universities will focus more on accrediting the ‘process of learning’ and, if the extension works, ‘the process of knowledge construction’ and not simply attempt verify the existence of that knowledge in the gray matter of one particular student. This, to me, is the critical need… at least in this transitional period between a potential open knowledge society and one that still operates on a pre-knowledge abundance mentality.

I’ll just post (External Link)&id=550&action=article here in lieu of typing out the rest of the article.

Looking forward to reading the rest of it. dave cormier

(External Link)

5. wayne mackintosh - june 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Hey Derek, Great to see your post @ Terra Incognita.

The University of the Western Cape is a leader in progressing FLOSS for education and FORE. I was particularly pleased to read your comment about many of the “free” content licenses being anything but free . Especially those CC licenses incorporating NC and ND restrictions.

Fortunately the free knowledge movement has made some progress in this regard, largely due to the interventions of the Wikimedia Foundation and support from the Free Software Foundation. Recently the Creative Commons have included a Free Cultural Works approved logo on the two CC licenses that meet these requirements . See for example:

CC-BY and

CC-BY-SA .

Increasingly, education institutions are now signing the Cape Town Open Education Declaration — which I think is a good thing. At last we are seeing a return to the true values of education — namely to share knowledge freely. However, these commitments need to be followed up with appropriate reward and incentive mechanisms at the institutional level within the academy. One example is the implementation of progressive and supportive IP policies.

I know that UWC has a progressive IP policy and has been a pioneer in this area. What advice can you give institutions who have signed the Cape Town Declaration in taking the next steps in supporting their commitments? How did UWC go about changing and implementing its IP policy? What lessons have you learned from the process?

It seems to me that once an institution commits through a supportive IP policy — the growth in FORE is impressive. A good example is Otago Polytechnic in new Zealand. They have implemented a new IP policy where all resources default to a CC-BY license. Since the implementation of this policy — free content development at the Otago Polytechnic has been prolific and inspiring.

Great post Derek — thanks. Wayne

6. leigh blackall - june 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm

I’d be interested to hear more about the things to be concerned about in:

Of course, it is not all good. There is a deeply disturbing and absurd movement to try to accredit the so-called “open educational resources,” with UNESCO seeming to wish to do this for reasons that are of dubious benefit. Any attempt to accredit content will only serve to slow down the rate of production, and is as sensible as accrediting books on library shelves. Instead, what should be accredited is an institution’s alignment to a framework of Freedom and Openness.

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, The impact of open source software on education. OpenStax CNX. Mar 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10431/1.7
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'The impact of open source software on education' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask