But lately I begin to feel that the Ed Techie and others have taken their advocacy for the use of open educational materials to, and then beyond, a logical conclusion. They seem to advocate sharing everything you produce, while simultaneously using others' shared materials to avoid producing much, if anything. So who produces the content?[1]

Sometimes Ed Techie seems to feel that you should use others' materials enough to avoid re-inventing the wheel, then create your own material to span the fissure to a course that fulfills your learning aims. As I just did with the cliche 're-inventing the wheel' and the coined 'span the fissure', which semantically equals 'bridge the gap'. And there lie the first difficulties - the content that everyone re- and re-uses becomes cliched; the content you 'create' is a marginally better re-hash of stuff you could have used, because you've been steered down a certain path by the bulk of the material you've borrowed.

There's a counter argument which says that fresh learning aims generate fresh content. The strong-willed academic has a defined learning objective in mind and will create a course accordingly, creating lots of fresh content if there's a need to. I don't buy that. Academics creating courses aren't answerable enough to anyone else, and they have lots of interesting book chapters and articles to be working on. Human nature will lead them to mutate the original learning aims if lots of quality, open material is available on a similar topic. After all, why re-invent the wheel?

At other times Ed Techie seems to want students to define their own learning aims, use open materials and create their own courses. I get the impression he feels they should assess their own work, too. Do we need HE for this? I did it for years before becoming a student, by using a library.

[1]Before some smarty points it out, I know that these paradoxes are explored in The Cathedral and the Bazaar and a host of other articles about open source software, but what applies to open source software doesn't necessarily apply to open educational materials. The creator of a piece of software usually has a far more narrowly-defined aim than the academic creating a course. She can rarely modify her aims based on what's already out there. "Hey, accounting! Let's not identify large transactions in a rolling twenty-four hours. Let's find large prime numbers, because there's a module for that."

Speaking about his impression of the event, he said:

I spoke to a group of perhaps 25 librarians and professors, trying to give a 'whirlwind' tour of the field of open research and open learning, both in general but also in terms of its usefulness for developing countries. It seemed to be well received, and I had several requests afterward for more information.

His closing remark on the presentation:

By making India's research and teaching available, you benefit the world- and India itself!

Segundo, a ausência do governo possibilita a iniciativa privada ou mesmo a popular de produzir e conduzir a educação por ela  mesmas. E isso sempre numa perspectiva aberta e colaborativa.

Funciona mas precisamos de gente para que aconteça. Meus miolos estão fervendo para começar um projeto nessa área. Dê-me um tempo, tenho planos...

The OpenLearn website of the Open University, UK, is the unanimous winner for this category based on its educational value and learning for development value. The OpenLearn website is one of the most significant contributions to the evolving world of Open Education Resources - the project is a benchmark for the design of asynchronous learning materials.

The breadth and scope of the collection of OpenLearn materials is impressive and The Open University has successfully implemented a number of robust and scalable technological innovations. Deserving particular mention is the excellent and creative support of RSS syndication, which puts this project at the forefront of work in this field. Above all, the OpenLearn website is not just a repository of materials but a platform for collaborative content development and recontextualisation, thus widening access to high quality learning resources around the world.

The PCF5 set out to explore the contribution of open and distance learning in realizing international development goals and education for all. Particular emphasis was given to children and young people, health, livelihoods, governance, conflict and social justice.

The 300 full papers presented at the conference, as well as the over 60 session reports can be viewed and downloaded through the PCF5 WikiEducator.

What’s the most popular podcast in the Higher Education section of iTunes? Read how an History Teacher Becomes Podcast Celebrity

Many technologies have been discussed: NING, Wet Paint, Edupunk, OU iTunesU, YouTube, Twitter and list goes on and on.  TEL is suggesting these are used for working and teaching purposes. Essentially, in a group discussion we enquired how these tools can be useful for teaching and what advantage they bring to the students.

Then, Martin Weller gave a presentation on SocialLearn:Use whatever tool you like, bring all your learn together in one place! A market place to sell and share learning and content. Play, Learn, Share. SocialLearn: You only learn by doing it.

Some of the tools in SocialLearn are: MicroLearner, Camtasia, 2Learner, Cohere, Twittearth, Cloudworks, Facebook, OpenLearn, 43 things, Remember the milk. Other applications to write to teh API: YouTUbe, GoogleDocs, etc.

An Ecosystem of Learning!

Looking forward to it! Release date: July 2008 for Beta version

I am currently working as Distance Education Adviser on a project at Francistown College of Technical & Vocational Education (FCTVE). There are 6 of us working with staff to introduce distance and elearning into the Government Botswana Technical Education Programme (BTEP).

Why do I want to join this course on composing OERs? Well, for 14 years I've worked in a branch of education that has called itself open and distance learning for a long time.  Except there has been very little that is open about it. I see the OER movement as a move towards helping ODL to become truly open ... indeed all branches of education.

I recently carried out a small survey of the availability of OERs for secondary teacher training in Africa and discovered that there are vast quantities of educational resources on the internet - some OER, many not. Having spent so many years producing materials which are jealously guarded and covered in (c) symbols, I really would like to know more about how we can make education truly open.

Open Learning is a compository website. It has been extended by an ethos of usability, relevance, and discovery. It is clear that Internet provides immense opportunity to reshape the organization and availability of information of all types. This is, of course, a double-edged sword, I do not endorse uncritical utopian optimism.

The expansion of knowledge (and not just information) through digital media implies at least one major difference with tradition [analog] forms: multiplicity. Although tacitly obvious, it is important to bear in mind that digital information requires nothing, or virtually nothing, to duplicate itself. And is, save a black hole maybe, indestructible.

This isn't a trait that is unique to digital information. All information is essentially non-zero sum. This is to say, I can easily tell you how to get to the bank without any cost to myself (I don't lose the knowledge of how to get to a bank by telling you). In terms of ownership, information is different than physical objects. Once I give you my guitar, I no longer have one (zero sum; your win is my loss). The difference between traditional forms of information and digital information is the media by which they are disseminated. So, in changing the form of media we can move from (more or less) zero sum interactions, to non-zero sum.

The role and opportunity of education in this scheme of affairs is fascinating. How will this unparallel access to information affect ourselves and future generations? Can our system of education address todays' needs? I have posted some very interesting videos that discuss just this.

In bringing you concise and useful tools to take advantage of the new knowledge economies of the net, it is my great pleasure to present some other websites that share this goal and harnesses this extension of mind.

• MIT OpenCourseWare
• LearnersTV.com
• freevideosonline.com
• Online Education Lists
• TED Talks
• UChannel
• openculture

And of course there's always iTunes U.